Page images
PDF
EPUB

Consuls of mod rate power in calms were made; When the Gauls came, one sole dictator sway'd. Dryden. 1. An officer commissioned in foreign parts to judge between the merchants of his nation, and protect their com

merce.

COʻNSULAR. adj. [consularis, Lat.] 1. Relating to the consul.

The consular power had only the ornaments, without the force, of the royal authority. Spect. 2. CONSULAR Man. One who had been consul.

Rose not the consular men, and left their places So soon as thou sat'st down? Ben Jonson. CO'NSULATE. n. s. [consulatus, Latin.] The office of consul.

His name and consulate were effaced out of all publick registers and inscriptions. Addison. CONSULSHIP. n. 5. [from consul.] The

office of consul.

The patricians should do very ill, To let the consulship be so defil'd. Ben Jonson. The lovely boy with his auspicious face, Shall Pollio's consulship and triumph grace. Dryd. To CONSULT. v. n. [consulto, Latin.]

To take counsel together; to deliberate in common: it has with before the person admitted to consultation.

[blocks in formation]

He sent for his bosom friends, with whom he

[blocks in formation]

Consultatio is a writ, whereby a cause, being formerly removed by prohibition from the ecclesiastical court, or court christian, to the king's court, is returned thither again: for the judges of the king's court, if, upon comparing the libel with the suggestion of the party, they do find the suggestion false, or not proved, and therefore the cause to be wrongfully called from the court christian; then, upon this consultation or deliberation, decree it to be returned again. Cowell.

CONSUʼLTER. n. s. [from consult.] One that consults, or asks counsel or intelligence.

There shall not be found among you a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard. Deuteronomy. CONSUMABLE. adj. [from consume.] Susceptible of destruction; possible to be wasted, spent, or destroyed.

Asbestos does truly agree in this common quality ascribed unto both, of being incombusti ble, and not consumable by fire; but it doth contract so much fuliginous matter from the earthy parts of the oil, though it was tried with some of the purest oil, that in a very few days it did choak and extinguish the flame. Wilkins. Our growing rich or poor depends only on, which is greater or less, our importation or er portation of consumable commodities.

Lockt.

most confidently consulted, and shewed the paper To CONSUME. v. a. [consumo, Latin.]

to them, the contents whereof he could not conceive.

To CONSULT. V. a.

Clarendon.

1. To ask advice of: as, he consulted his friends; to consult an author.

2. To regard; to act with view or respect

[blocks in formation]

Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, by cutting off many people. Habbakuk.

Clar.

Manythings were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved. CO'NSULT. n. s. [from the verb. It is variously accented.]

1. The act of consulting.

Yourself in person head one chosen half, And march t' oppress the faction in consult With dying Dorax. Dryd. Don Sebastian. 2. The effect of consulting; determination.

He said, and rose the first: the council broke; And all their grave consults dissolv'd in smoke. Dryden's Fables.

3. A council; a number of persons assembled in deliberation.

Divers meetings and consults of our whole number, to consider of the former labours. Bacon.

To waste; to spend; to destroy.
Where two raging fires meet together,
They do consume the thing that feeds their fury.
Shakspeare.

Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locusts shall consume it. Deuteronomy

[ocr errors]

Thus in soft anguish she consumes the day, Nor quits her deep retirement. To CONSU'ME. v. n. To waste away; to be exhausted.

These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die; like fire and powder, Which, as they meet, consume. Shaksp. CONSUMER. n. s. [from consume.] that spends, wastes, or destroys any thing.

One

Money may be considered as in the hands of the consumer, or of the merchant who buys the commodity, when made to export. . Lake. To CONSUMMATE. v. a. [consommer, Fr. consummare, Lat.] To complete; to perfect; to finish; to end. Anciently accented on the first syllable.

Yourself, myself, and other lords, will pass To consummate this business happily. Shaksp. There shall we consummate our spousal rights. Shakspeart.

The person was cunning enough to begin the deceit in the weaker, and the weaker sufficient to consummate the fraud in the stronger. Bros. He had a mind to consummate the happiness of the day. Tatler.

[blocks in formation]

CONSUMMATION. n. s. [from consum mate.]

1. Completion; perfection; end.

That just and regular process, which it must be supposed to take from its original to its consummation. Addison's Spectator. 2. The end of the present system of things; the end of the world.

From the first beginning of the world unto the last consummation thereof, it neither hath been, nor can be, otherwise, 3. Death; end of life.

Hooker.

Shaks.

Ghost, unlaid, forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have, Unremoved be thy grave! CONSUMPTION. n. s. [consumptio, Lat.] 1. The act of consuming; waste; destruction.

In commodities, the value rises as its quantity is less and vent greater; which depends upon its being preferred in its consumption. Locke. 2. The state of wasting or perishing.

Etna and Vesuvius have sent forth flames for this two or three thousand years: yet the mountains themselves have not suffered any considerable diminution or consumption; but are, at this day, the highest mountains in those countries.

Woodward.

3. [In physick. A waste of muscular
flesh. It is frequently attended with a
hectick fever, and is divided by physi-
cians into several kinds, according to
the variety of its causes.
Quincy.
Consumptions sow

In hollow bones of men.
Shaksp. Timon.
The stoppage of women's courses, if not looked
to, sets them into a consumption, dropsy, or other
disease.
Harvey.

The essential and distinguishing character of a
confirmed consumption is a wasting of the body
by reason of an ulcerated state of the lungs, at-
tended with a cough, a discharge of purulent
Blackmore.
matter, and a hectick fever.
CONSUMPTIVE. adj. [from consume.]
1. Destructive; wasting; exhausting;
having the quality of consuming.

A long consumptive war is more likely to break this grand alliance than disable France. Addison. 2. Diseased with a consumption.

Nothing taints sound lungs sooner than inspiring the breath of consumptive lungs. Harvey. The lean, consumptive wench, with coughs decay'd,

Is call'd a pretty, tight, and slender maid. Dryd. By an exact regimen a consumptive person may hold out for years. Arbuthnot on Diet. CONSUMPTIVENESS. n.s. [from consump tive.] A tendency to a consumption. CONSU'TILE. adj. [consutilis, Lat.] That is sewed or stitched together.

To CONTABULATE. v. a. [contabulo,
Latin.] To floor with boards.
CONTABULA'TION. n. s. [contabulatio,
Lat.] A joining of boards together;
a boarding a floor
CONTACT. n. s. [contactus, Latin.]
Touch; close union; juncture of one
body to another.

The Platonists hold, that the spirit of the
lover doth passinto the spirits of the person loved,
which causeth the desire of return into the body;
whereupon followeth that appetite of contact and
conjunction.
Bacon's Natural History.

When the light fell so obliquely on the air, which in other places was between them, as to be all reflected, it seemed in that place of contact to be wholly transmitted. Newton's Opticks. The air, by its immediate contact, may coagulate the blood which flows along the air-bladders. Arbuthnot on Dict.

CONTACTION. n. s. [contactus, Latin.] The act of touching; a joining one body to another.

That deleterious it may be at some distance, and destructive without corporal contaction, there is no high improbability. Brown. CONTA’GION. n. s. [contagio, Lat.] 1. The emission from body to body by which diseases are communicated. If we two be one, and thou play false, I do digest the poison of thy flesh, Being strumpeted by thy contagion. Shakspeare. In infection and contagion from body to body, as the plague and the like, the infection is received many times by the body passive; but yet is, by the strength and good disposition thereof, repulsed. Bacos. 2. Infection; propagation of mischief, or disease.

Nor will the goodness of intention excuse the scandal and contagion of example. King Charles. Down they fell,

And the dire hiss renew'd, and the dire form Catch'd by contagion. Milton's Paradise Lost. 3. Pestilence; venomous emanations.

Will he steal out of his wholesome bed,
To dare the vile contagion of the night? Shaks.
CONTAGIOUS. adj. [from contagio, Lat.]
Infectious; caught by approach; poi-
sonous; pestilential.
The jades

That drag the tragick melancholy night,
From their misty jaws

Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air.
Shakspeare's Henry VI.
We sicken soon from her contagious care,
Grieve for her sorrows, groan for her despair.
Prior.

CONTAGIOUSNESS.n.s.[from contagious.]
The quality of being contagious.
To CONTAIN. v. a. [contineo, Lat.]
1. To hold as a vessel.

[blocks in formation]

There are many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. John. Gently instructed I shall hence depart, Greatly in peace of thought, and have my fill Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain.

Milton.

[blocks in formation]

Dict.

Miltan.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Shall we now

Contaminate our fingers with base bribes? Shak.
A base pander holds the chamber door,
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than a dog,
His fairest daughter is contaminated. Shakspeare.
Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed,
Even in the bed she hath contaminated. Sbak.
I quickly shed

Some of his bastard blood, and in disgrace
Bespoke him thus: contaminated, base,
And misbegotten blood, I spill of thine. Shaks.

Though it be necessitated, by its relation to flesh, to a terrestrial converse; yet 't is, like the sun, without contaminating its beams. Glanv. He that lies with another man's wife propagates children in another's family for him to keep, and contaminates the honour thereof as much as in him lies. Ayliffe's Parergon. CONTAMINATION. n. s. [from contami nate.] Pollution; defilement. CONTE'MERATED. adj. [contemeratus, Latin.] Violated; polluted. Dict. To CONTE'MN. v. a. [contemno, Lat.] To despise; to scorn; to slight; to disregard; to neglect; to defy.

Yet better thus, and known to be contemned, Than still contemned and flattered. Shakspeare. Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems To argue in thee something more sublime And excellent than what thy mind contemns.

Milton.

Pygmalion then the Tyrian sceptre sway'd, One who contemn'd divine and human laws; Then strife ensued. Dryden's Virg. Æneid. CONTEMNER, n. s. [from contemn.] One that contemns; a despiser; a scorner.

He counsels him to prosecute innovators of worship, not only as contemners of the gods, but disturbers of the state. South. To CONTEMPER. v. a. [contempero, Latin.] To moderate; to reduce to a lower degree by mixing something of opposite qualities.

The leaves qualify and contemper the heat, and hinder the evaporation of moisture. Ray.

CONTE'MPERAMENT. n. s. [from contempero, Lat.] The degree of any quality as tempered to others.

There is nearly an equal contemperament of the warmth of our bodies to that of the hottest part of the atmosphere. Derbam. To CONTE'MPERATE. v. a. [from contemper.] To diminish any quality by something contrary; to moderate; to temper.

The mighty Nile and Niger do not only moisten and contemperate the air, but refresh and humectate the earth. Brown. If blood abound, let it out, regulating the patient's diet, and contemperating the humours. Wiseman's Surgery. CONTEMPERAʼTION. N. S. n. s. [from contemperate.]

1. The act of diminishing any quality by admixture of the contrary; the act of moderating or tempering,

The use of air, without which there is no continuation in life, is not nutrition, but the contemperation of fervour in the heart, Braten. 2. Proportionate mixture; proportion.

There is not greater variety in men's faces, and in the contemperations of their natural humours, than there is in their phantasies. Hale. To CONTEMPLATE. v. a. [contemplor, Lat. This seems to have been once accented on the first syltable.] To con sider with continued attention; to study; to meditate.

There is not much difficulty in confining the mind to contemplate what we have a great desire to know. Watts. CONTEMPLATE. v.n. To muse; to think studiously with long attention.

So many hours must I take my rest; So many hours must I contemplate. Shakspeare. Sapor had an heaven of glass, which he trod upon, contemplating over the same as if he had been Jupiter. Peacham,

How can I consider what belongs to myself, when I have been so long contemplating on you? Dryden's Juvenal, Preface CONTEMPLATION. . n. s. [from contemplate.]

1. Meditation; studious thought on any subject; continued attention. How now? what serious contemplation are you in? Shakspeart. Contemplation is keeping the idea, which is brought into the mind, for some time actually in view. Locke.

2. Holy meditation; a holy exercise of the soul, employed in attention to sacred things.

I have breath'd a secret vow To live in prayer and contemplation, Only attended by Nerissa here. Shakspeart. 3. The faculty of study: opposed to the power of action.

There are two functions, contemplation and practice: according to that general division of objects; some of which entertain our speculation, others employ our actions. South. CONTEMPLATIVE. adj. [from contem plate.]

1. Given to thought or study; studious; thoughtful.

Denbam.

Fixt and contemplative their looks, Still turning over nature's books. 2. Employed in study; dedicated to study.

am no courtier, nor versed in state affairs: my life hath rather been contemplative than act ive.

Bacon. Contemplative men may be without the plea sure of discovering the secrets of state, and men of action are commonly without the pleasure of Grew. tracing the secrets of divine art. 3. Having the power of thought or meditation.

So many kinds of creatures might be to exercise the contemplative faculty of man. Ray. CONTEMPLATIVELY. adv. [from contemplative.] Thoughtfully; attentively; with deep attention.

CONTEMPLA'TOR. n. s. [Lat.] One employed in study; an enquirer after knowledge; a student.

science.

In the Persian tongue the word magus imports as much as a contemplator of divine and heavenly Raleigh's History. The Platonick contemplators reject both these descriptions, founded upon parts and colours. Brown's Vulgar Errours. CONTEMPORARY. adj. [contemporain, Fr.]

1. Living in the same age; coetaneous.
Albert Durer was contemporary to Lucas.
"Dryden's Dufresnoy.

2. Born at the same time.
A grove born with himself he sees,
And loves his old contemporary trees.
3. Existing at the same point of time.

Corley.

It is impossible to make the ideas of yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow, to be the same; or bring ages past and future together, and make them contemporary. Locke. CONTEMPORARY. n. s. One who lives at the same time with another.

All this in blooming youth you have atchiev'd; Nor are your foil'd contemporaries griev'd. Dryd.

1.

The place was like to come unto contempt.
2 Mar.

CONTE'MPTIBLE. adj. [from contempt.]
Worthy of contempt; deserving scorn.
No man truly knows himself, but he groweth
daily more contemptible in his own eyes. Taylor.
From no one vice exempt,

And most contemptible to shun contempt. Pope. 2. Despised; scorned; neglected.

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal, that does not confound the most enlarged understanding. Locke.

3. Scornful; apt to despise; contemptuous. This is no proper use.

If she should make tender of her love, 'tis very possible he 'll scorn it; for the man hath a contemptible spirit. Shakspeare CONTEMPTIBLENESS. n. s. [from contemptible.] The state of being contemptible; the state of being despised; meanness; vileness; baseness; cheap

ness.

he allures us.

Who, by a steddy practice of virtue, comes to discern the contemptibleness of baits wherewith Decay of Piety. CONTEMPTIBLY. adv. [from contempti ble.] Meanly; in a manner deserving contempt.

Know'st thou not
Their language, and their ways? They also know,
And reason not contemptibly.
Milton.
CONTEMPTUOUS. adj. [from contempt.]
Scornful; apt to despise; using words
or actions of contempt; insolent.

To neglect God all our lives, and know that we neglect him; to offend God voluntarily, and know that we offend him, casting our hopes on the peace which we trust to make at parting; is no other than a rebellious presumption, and even a contemptuous laughing to scorn and deriding of God, his laws, and precepts. Raleigh. Some much averse I found, and wond'rous harsh,

Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite.
Milt. Agon.

As he has been favourable to me, he will hear of his kindness from our contemporaries; for we are fallen into an age illiterate, censorious, and detracting. Dryden's Juvenal, Preface. The active part of mankind, as they do most for the good of their contemporaries, very deservedly gain the greatest share in their applauses. Jews. Addison's Freeholder. To CONTEMPORISE. v. a. [con and tempus, Lat.] To make contemporary; to place in the same age.

The indifferency of their existences, contemporised into our actions, admits a farther consideration, Brown's Vulgar Errours. CONTEMPT. n. s. [contemptus, Lat.] 1. The act of despising others; slight regard; scorn.

It was neither in contempt nor pride that I did not bow.

The shame of being miserable Exposes men to scorn and base contempt, Even from their nearest friends.

Esther.

Denham.

There is no action, in the behaviour of one man towards another, of which human nature is more impatient than of contempt; it being an undervaluing of a man, upon a belief of hisutter uselessness and inability, and a spiteful endeavour to engage the rest of the world in the same slight South. esteem of him.

His friend smil'd scornful, and with proud
contempt

Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt. Dryden.
Nothing, says Longinus, can be great, the con-
tempt of which is great.
Addison.

2. The state of being despised; vileness.

Rome, the proudest part of the heathen world, entertained the most contemptuous opinion of the Atterbury. CONTEMPTUOUSLY. adv. [from contemptuous.] With scorn; with despite ; scornfully; despitefully..

I throw my name against the bruising stone, Trampling contemptuously on thy diadem. Shaks. The apostles and most eminent christians were poor, and used contemptuously. Taylor.

If he governs tyrannically in youth, he will be treated contemptuously in age; and the baser his enemies, the more intolerable the affront. L'Estrange

A wise man would not speak contemptuously of a prince, though out of his dominions. Tillefson. CONTEMPTUOUSNESS. n. s. [from contemptuous.] Disposition to contempt;

insolence.

Dict.

[blocks in formation]

2. To vie; to act in emulation.

You sit above, and see vain men below Contend for what you only can bestow. Dryden.. 3. It has for before the ground or cause of

contention.

The question which our author would contend for, if he did not forget it, is, what persons have a right to be obeyed. Locke. 4. Sometimes about.

He will find that many things he fiercely contended about were trivial.' Decay of Piety. 3. It has with before the opponent.

This battle fares like to the morning's war, When dying clouds contend with growing light. Shakspeare's Henry VI. If we consider him as our Maker, we cannot contend with him. Temple.

In ambitious strength I did

6. Sometimes against.

Contend against thy valour.

Shakspeare.

To CONTEND. v. a. To dispute any thing; to contest.

Their airy limbs in sports they exercise, And on the green contend the wrestler's prize. Dryden's Æneid. A time of war at length will come, When Carthage shall contend the world with Rome. Dryden.

Thus low we lie,

Shut from this day and that contended sky. Dryd. CONTENDENT. n. s. [from contend.] Antagonist; opponent; champion; combatant. Not used.

In all notable changes and revolutions, the contendents have been still made a prey to the third party. L'Estrange. CONTENDER. n. s. [from contend.] Combatant; champion.

The contenders for it look upon it as undeniable. Locke.

Those disputes often arise in good earnest, where the two contenders do really believe the different propositions which they support. Watts. CONTENT. adj. [contentus, Lat.] 1. Satisfied, so as not to repine; easy, though not highly pleased.

Born to the spacious empire of the Nine, One would have thought she should have been

[blocks in formation]

It doth much content me,

To hear him so inclin'd. Shakspeare's Hamid. If a man so temper his actions, as in some one of them he doth content every faction, the musick of praise will be fuller. Bacon. Wheat is contented with a meaner earth, and contenting with a suitable gain. Care. CONTENT. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Moderate happiness; such satisfaction as, though it does not fill up desire, appeases complaint.

Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content. Shaksp One thought content the good to be enjoy'd; This every little accident destroy'd. Dryden A wise content his even soul secur'd; By want not shaken, nor by wealth allur'd. Smith on Philip.

2. Acquiescence; satisfaction in a thing unexamined.

[ocr errors]

Others for language all their care express, And value books, as women men, for dress: Their praise is still-the stile is excellent; The sense they humbly take upon content. Pope. 3. [from contentus, contained.] That which is contained, or included, in any thing.

[ocr errors][merged small]

Tho' my heart's content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. Shakspeart. Scarcely any thing can be determined of the particular contents of any single mass of ore by mere inspection. Woodward. Experiments are made on the blood of healthy animals: in a weak habit serum might afford other contents.

Arbuthnet. The power of containing; extent; capacity.

This island had then fifteen hundred strong ships, of great content.

Bacon

It were good to know the geometrical content, figure, and situation of all the lands of a kingdom, according to natural bounds. Graunt, 5. That which is comprised in a writing. In this sense the plural only is in use. I have a letter from her, Of such contents as you will wonder at.

Shakspeare.

I shall prove these writings not counterfeits, but authentick; and the contents true, and wor thy of a divine original. Grew's Cosmologia.

The contents of both books come before those of the first book, in the thread of the story. Addison's Spectator. [from context.] Out of use.

CONTENTATION. n. s.
Satisfaction; content.

Sidney

I seek no better warrant than my own conscience, nor no greater pleasure than mine own contentation. Fourteen years space, during the minority of Gordianus, the government was with great ap plause and contentation in the hands of Misitheus, Barn a pedant.

The shield was not long after incrusted with a new rust; and is the same, a cut of which hath been engraved and exhibited, to the great con tentation of the learned. Arbuthnot and Pepe. CONTENTED. participial adj. [from con tent.] Satisfied; at quiet; not repining; not demanding more; easy, though not plenarily happy.

Barbarossa, in hope by sufferance to obtain another kingdom, seemed contented with the anKnolles' History.

swer.

« PreviousContinue »