Search the Dictionary

, a rite or practice proceeding from excess of sculptures in religion. And the truth With superstitions and traditions taint. Milton.

One addicted to superstition. [Obs.] "Blind superstitionists." Dr. H. More.

Tengmalm's or Richardson's owl (Nyctale Tengmalmi); -- so called from a superstition of the North American Indians that its note presages death.

t depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. Burke.

on; dissemination; circulation; dispersion. A diffusion of knowledge which has undermined superstition. Burke.

f men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves or artifice, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. J. Adams.

f minors; the emancipation of a person from prejudices; the emancipation of the mind from superstition; the emancipation of a nation from tyranny or subjection.

ty, or member must encroach upon or interfere with the duty and office of another. South. Superstition, . . . a creeping and encroaching evil. Hooker. Exclude the encroaching cattle from thy ground. Dryden.

In or of the country. [R.] Epichorial superstitions from every district of Europe. De Quincey.

of demands. "a curb to your exorbitancies." Dryden. The lamentable exorbitances of their superstitions. Bp. Hall.

Excessive devotion to one object or one idea; abject superstition; blind adoration. The real and absolute worship of fire falls into two great divisions, the first belonging rather to fetichism, the second to polytheism proper. Tylor.

. Tales, legends, or superstitions long current among the people. Trench.

Fig.: A misleading influence; a decoy. Scared and guided by the ignis fatuus of popular superstition. Jer. Taylor.

poison vermin that infest his plants. Cowper. These, said the genius, are envy, avarice, superstition, love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life. Addison. And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away. Longfellow.

y. [Obs.] South. Every inordination of religion that is not in defect, is properly called superstition. Jer. Taylor.

t. Addison. He muffled with a cloud his mournful eyes. Dryden. Muffled up in darkness and superstition. Arbuthnot.

Belief in, or the practice of, the obi superstitions and rites.

to the worship or the worshipers of false goods; heathen; idolatrous, as, pagan tribes or superstitions. And all the rites of pagan honor paid. Dryden.

Of or pertaining to superstition; proceeding from, or manifesting, superstition; as, superstitious rites; superstitious observances.

ak. Upon the coming of Christ, very much, though not all, of this idolatrous trumpery and superstition was driven out of the world. South.