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ite or ceremony performed with religious reverence; religious or ritual ceremony; as, the solemnity of a funeral, a sacrament. Great was the cause; our old solemnities From no blind zeal or fond tradition rise, But saved from death, our Argives yearly pay These grateful honors to the god of day. Pope.…

To renounce or reject with solemnity; to recant; to abandon forever; to reject; repudiate; as, to abjure errors. "Magic I here abjure." Shak.

A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed. [They] denounce anathemas against unbelievers. Priestley.

To affirm or aver positively, or with solemnity.

esp. the burning of a heretic. It was usually held on Sunday, and was made a great public solemnity by impressive forms and ceremonies.

The quality of striking with awe, or with reverence; dreadfulness; solemnity; as, the awfulness of this sacred place. The awfulness of grandeur. Johnson.

A chariot of war or of triumph; a vehicle of splendor, dignity, or solemnity. [Poetic]. The gilded car of day. Milton. The towering car, the sable steeds. Tennyson.

ting from the chair of office, as of a pope or bishop; official; authoritative. Now, what solemnity can be more required for the pope to make a cathedral determination of an article! Jer. Taylor.

To call to remembrance by a special act or observance; to celebrate with honor and solemnity; to honor, as a person or event, by some act of respect of affection, intended to preserve the remembrance of the person or event; as, to commemorate the sufferings and dying love of our Savior by the sacrament of the Lord's Su…

The act or solemnity of crowning a sovereign; the act of investing a prince with the insignia of royalty, on his succeeding to the sovereignty.

to deride; to sneer; to mock; to gibe; as, to fleer and flout. To fleer and scorn at our solemnity. Shak.

Done is due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. His obscure funeral . . . No noble rite nor formal ostentation. Shak.

The act of inuagurating, or inducting into office with solemnity; investiture by appropriate ceremonies. At his regal inauguration, his old father resigned the kingdom to him. Sir T. Browne.

erminate. [Obs.] Come, let us go; we will include all jars With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity. Shak.

A church solemnity or ceremony celebrated at Rome, at stated intervals, originally of one hundred years, but latterly of twenty- five; a plenary and extraordinary indulgence grated by the sovereign pontiff to the universal church. One invariable condition of granting this indulgence is the confession of sins and receiv…

Indulging in, or inclined to, levity; wanting dignity or solemnity; trifling; gay; frivolous; airy; unsubstantial. Seneca can not be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. Shak. Specimens of New England humor laboriously light and lamentably mirthful. Hawthorne.

A funeral solemnity or office; obsequies.

Resembling an oracle in some way, as in solemnity, wisdom, authority, obscurity, ambiguity, dogmatism. They have something venerable and oracular in that unadorned gravity and shortness in the expression. Pope. -- O*rac"u*lar*ly, adv. -- O*rac"u*lar*ness, n.

to be driven or forced backward; to return. Evil on itself shall back recoil. Milton. The solemnity of her demeanor made it impossible . . . that we should recoil into our ordinary spirits. De Quincey.

Sacredness; solemnity; inviolability; religious binding force; as, the sanctity of an oath.