Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

SENSITIVE-PLANT — SERGEANTRY

SENSITIVE-PLANT, n. A plant of the genus Mimosa [mimic,] so called from the sensibility of its leaves and footstalks, which shrink, contract and fall on being slightly touched.

SENSORIAL, a. Pertaining to the sensory or sensorium; as sensorial faculties; sensorial motion or powers.

SENSORIUM, n. [from L. senus, sentio.]

SENSORY, a.

1. The seat of sense; Darwin uses sensorium to express not only the medullary part of the brain, spinal marrow, nerves, organs of sense and the muscles, but also that living principle or spirit of animation which resides throughout the body, without being cognizable to our senses, except by its effects. The canges which occasionally take place in the sensorium, as during exertions of volition, or the sensations of pleasure and pain, he terms sensorial motions.

2. Organ of sense; as double sensories; two eyes, two ears, etc.

SENSUAL, a. [from L. sensus.]

Pertaining to the senses, as distinct from the mind or soul.

Far as creation’s ample range extends.

The scale of sensual, mental pow’rs ascends. Pope.

2. Consisting in sense, or depending on it; as sensual appetites, hunger, lust, etc.

3. Affecting the senses, or derived from them; as sensual pleasure or gratification. Hence,

4. In theology, carnal; pertaining to the flesh or body, in opposition to the spirit; not spiritual or holy; evil.

5. Devoted to the gratification of sense; given to the indulgence of the appetites; sewd; luxurious.

No small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that on wich sensual men place their felicity. Atterbury.

SENSUALIST, n. Aperson given to the indulgence of the appetites or senses; one who places his chief happiness in carnal pleasures.

SENSUALITY, n. Devotedness o the gratification of the bodily appetites; free indulgence in carnal or sensual pleasures.

Those pamper’d animals

That rage in savage sensuality. Shak.

They avoid dress, lest they should have affections tainted by any sensuality. Addison.

SENSUALIZE, v.t. To make sensual; to subject to the love of sensual pleasure; to debase by carnal gratifications; as sensualized by pleasure.

By the neglect of prayer, the thoughts are sensualized.

SENSUALLY, adv. In a sensual manner.

SENSUOUS, a. [from sense.] Tender; pathetic. [Not in use.]

SENT, pret. and pp. of send.

SENTENCE, n. [from L. sententia, from sentio, to think.]

1. In law, a judgement pronounced by a court or judge upon a criminal; a jdicial decision publicly and officially declared in a criminal prosecution. In technical language, sentence is used only for the declaration of judgement against the convicted of a crime. In civil cases, the decision of the court is called a judgement. In criminal cases, sentence is a judgement pronounced; doom.

2. In language not technical, a determination or decision given, particularly a decision that condemns, ar an unfavorable determination.

Let him be sent out lome of Luther’s works, that by them we may pass sentence upon his doctrines. Atterbury.

3. An opinion; judgement concerning a controverted point.

4. A maxim; an axiom; a short saying containing moral instruction.

5. Vindication of one’s innocence.

6. In grammar, a period; a number of words containing a complete sense or sentiment, and followed by a full pause. Sentences are simple or compound. A simple sentence consists of one subject and one finite verb; as, “the Lord reigns.” A compound sentence two or more subjects and finite verbs, as in this verse,

He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all. Pope.

A dark sentence, a saying not easily explained.

SENTENCE, v.t.

1. To pass or pronounce the judgement of a court on; to doom; as, to sentence a convict to death, to transportation, or to imprisonment.

2. To condenm; to doom to punisment.

Nature herself is sentenc’d in your doom. Dryden.

SENTENTIAL, a.

1. Comprising sentences.

2. Pertaining to a sentence or full period; as a sentential pause.

SENTENTIOUS, a.

1. Abounding with sentences, axioms and maxims; short and energetic; as a sententious style or discourse; sententious truth.

How he apes his sire,

Ambitiously sententious. Addison.

2. Comprising sentences; as sententious marks.

[This should be sentential.]

SENTENTIOUSLY, adv. In short expressive periods; with striking brevity.

Nausicca delivers her judgement sententiously, to give it more weight. Broome.

SENTENTIOUSNESS, n. Pithiness of sentences; brevity with strength.

The Medea I esteem for its gravity and sententiousness. Dryden.

Sentery, and sentry are corrupted from sentinel.

SENTIENT, a. sen’shent. [L. sentiens, sentio.] That perceives; having the faculty of perception. Man is a sentient being; he possesses a sentient principle.

SENTIENT, n.

1. A being or person that has the faculty of perception.

2. He that perceives.

SENTIMENT, n. [from L. sentio, to feel, perceive or think.]

1. Properly. a thought prompted by passion or feeling.

2. In a popular sense, Thought; opinion; notion; judgement; the decilion of the mind formed by deliberation or reasoning. Thus in deliberative bodies, every man has the privilege of delivering his sentiments upon questions, motions and bills.

3. The sense, thought or opinion contained in words, but considered as distinct from them. We may like the sentiment, when we dislike the language.

4. Sensibility; feeling.

SENTIMENTAL, a.

1. Abounding with sentiment, or just opinions or reflections; as a sentimental discourse.

2. Expressing quick intellectual feeling.

3. Affecting sensibility; in a contemptuous sense.

SENTIMENTALIST, n. One that affects sentiment, fine feeling or exquisite sensibility.

SENTIMENTALITY, n. Affectation of fine feeling or exqisite sensibility.

SENTINEL, n. [from L. sentio, to perceive.] In military affairs, a soildier sent to watch or guard an army, camp or other place from surprise, to observe the approach of danger and give notice of it. In popular sense, the word is contracted into sentry.

SENTRY, n.

1. [See Sentinel.]

2. Guard; watch; the duty of a sentines.

O’er my slumbers sentry keep. Brown.

SENTRY-BOX, n. A box to cover a sentinel at his post, and shelter him from the weather.

SEPAL, n. [from L. sepio.] In botany, the small leaf or part of a calyx.

SEPARABILITY, n. [from separable.] The quality of being separable, or of admitting separation or disunion.

Separability is the greatest argument of real distinction. Glanville.

SEPARABLE, a. That may be separated, disjoined, disunited or rent; as the separable parts of plants; qualities not separable from the substance in which they exsist.

SEPARABLENESS, n. The quality of being capable of separation or disunion.

Trials permit me not to doubt of the separablenessof a yellow tincture from gold. Boyle.

SEPARATE, v.t. [L. separo.]

1. To disunite; to divide; to sever; to part, in almost any manner, either things naturally or casually joined. The parts of a solid substance may be separated by breaking, cutting or splitting, or by fusion, decomposition or natural dissolution. A compound body may be separated into its constituent parts. Friends may be separated by necessity, and must be separated by death. The prism separates the several kinds of colored rays. A riddle separates the chaff from the grain.

2. To set apart from a number for a particular service.

Separate me Barnabas and Saul. Acts 13:2.

3. To dilconnect; as, to separate man and wife by divorce.

4. To make space between. The Atlantic separates Europe from America. A narrow strait separates Europe from Africa.

To separate one’s self, to withdraw; to depart.

Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. Genesis 13:9.

SEPARATE, v.i.

1. To part; to be disunited; to be disconnected; to withdraw from each other. The parties separated, and each retired.

2. To cleave; to open; as, the parts of a substance separate by drying or freezing.

SEPARATE, a. [L. separatus.]

1. Divided from the rest; being parted from another; disjoined; disconnected; used of things that have been united or connected.

2. Unconnected; not united; distinct; used of things that have not been connected.

Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Hebrews 7:26.

3. Disunited from the body; as a separate spirit; the separate state of souls.

SEPARATED, pp. Divided; parted; disunited; disconnected.

SEPARATELY, adv. In a separate or unconnected state; apart; distinctly; singly. The opinions of the council were separately taken.

SEPARATENESS, n. The state of being separate.

SEPATATING, ppr. Dividing; disjoining; putting or driving asunder; disconecting; decompsing.

SEPARATION, n. [L. separatio.]

1. The act of separating, severing or disconnecting; disjunction; as the separation of the soul from the body.

2. The state of being separate; disunion; disconection.

All the days of his separation he is holy to the lord. Numbers 6:8.

3. The operation of disuniting or decomposing substances; chimical analysis.

4. Divorce; disunion of married persons.

SEPARATIST, n. One that withdraws from an established church, to which he has belonged; a dissenter; a seceder; a schismatic; a sectary.

SEPARATOR, n. One that divides or disjoins; a divider.

SEPARATORY, a. That separates; as separatory ducts. [Little used.]

SEPARATORY, n. A chimical vessel for separating liquors; and a surgical instrument for separating the pericranium from the cranium.

SEPAWN, n. A species of food consisting of mial of maiz boiled in water. It is in New York

SEPIN, and Pennsylvania what hasty-pudding is in New England.

SEPIMENT, n. [L. sepimentum, from sepio, to inclose.] A hedge; a fence; something that seperates or defends.

SEPOSE, v.t. sepo’ze. [L. sepono, sepositus.] To set apart. [Not in use.]

SEPOSITION, n. The act of setting apart; segregation. [Not in use.]

SEPOY, n. A native of India, employed as a soldier in the service of European powers.

SEPS, n. [L. from Gr. Cuvier.] A species of venomous eft or lizard. A genus of lizards, the efts, closely resembling the serpents, from which they scarcely differ, expect in their short and often indistinct feet, and the marks of an external auditory oriface.

SEPT, n. [L. prosapia; or Heb. See Class Sb. No. 23.] A clan, race or family, proceeding from a common progrnitor; used of the races or families in Ireland.

SEPTANGULAR, a. [L. septem, seven, and angulus, angle.] Having seven angles or sides.

SEPTARIA, n. [L. septa, partitions.] A name given to nodules or spheroidal mass of calcarios marl, whose interior present numerous fissures or seams of some crystalized substance, which divide the mass.

SEPTEMBER, n. [L. septem, seven.] The seventh month from march, which was formerly the first month of the year. September is now the ninth conth of the year.

SEPTEMPARTITE, a. Divided into seven parts.

SEPTENARY, a. [L. septenarius, from septem, seven.] Consisting of seven; as a sepenary number.

SEPTENARY, n. The number seven.

SEPTENNIAL, a. [L. septennis; septem, seven, and annus, year.]

1. Lasting or continuing seven years; as septennial parliaments.

2. Happening or returning once in wvery seven years; as septennial elections in England.

SEPTENTRION, n. [L. septentrio.] The north or northern regions.

SEPTENTRIONAL, a. [L. septentrionalis] Northern; pertaining to the north.

From cold septerion blasts.

SEPTENTRIONALITY, n. Northerliness. [A bad word.]

SEPTENTRIONATE, v.i. To tend northerly. [This word septentrion and its derivatives are hardly anglicized; they are harsh, unnecessary and little used, and may well be suffered to pass into disuse.]

SEPTFOIL, n. [L. septem and folium; seven leaved.] A plant of the genus Tormentilla.

SEPTIC, SEPTICAL, a. [Gr. to putrefy.]

1. Having power to promote putrefacation. Many experiments were made by Sir John Pringle to ascertain the septic and anteseptic virtues of natural bodies.

2. Proceeding from or generated by putrefaction; as septic acid.

SEPTIC, n. A substance that promotes the putrefaction of bodies.

SEPTICITY, n. Tendency to putrefaction.

SEPTILATERAL, a. [L. septem, seven and latus, side.] Having seven sides; as a septilateral figure.

SEPTINSULAR, a. [L. septum, seven, and insula, isle.] Consisting of seven isles; as the septinsular republic of the Ionian isles.

SEPTUAGENARY, a. [L. septuagenarius, from septuaginta, seventy.] Consisting of seventy.

SEPTUAGENARY, n. A person seventy years of age.

SEPTUAGESIMA, n. [L. septuagesimus, seventieth.] THe third Sunday before Lent, or before Quadragesima Sunday, supposed to be called because it is about seventy days before Easter.

SEPTUAGESIMAL, a. [supra.] Cosisting of seventy.

Our abriged and septuagesimal age. Brown.

SEPTUAGINT, n. [L. septuaginta, seventy; septem, seven, and some word signifying ten.] A Greek version of the Old Testament, so call because it was the work of seventy, or rather of seventy-two interpreters. This translation from the Hebrew is supposed have been made in the reign and by the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, about two hundred and seventy or eighty years before the birth of Christ.

SEPTUAGINT, a. Pertaining to the Septuagint; contained in the Greek copy of the Old Testament.

The Septuagint chonology makes fifteen hundred years more from the creation to Abraham, than the present Hebrew copies of the Bible. Encyc.

SEPTUARY, n. [L. septum, seven.] Something composed of seven; a week. [Little used.]

SEPTUPLE, a. [Low L. septuplex; septum, seven. and plico, to fold.] Seven fold; seven times as much.

SEPULCHER, n. [from L. sepulchrum, from sepelio, to bury, which seems to be formed with a prefix on the Goth. filhan, to bury.] A grave; atomb; the place in which a dead body of a human being is interred, or a place destined for that purpose. Among the Jews sepulchers were often excavations in rocks.

SEPULCHER, v.t. To bury; to inter; to entomb; as obscurely sepulchered.

SEPULCHRAL, a. [L. sepulchralis, from sepulchrum.] Pertaining to burial, to grave, or to monuments erected to the memory of the dead; as sepulchral stone; a sepulchral statue; a sepulchral inscription.

SEPULTURE, n. Burial; internment; the act of depositing the dead body of a human being in the grave.

Where we may royal sepulture prepare. Dryden.

SEQUACIOUS, a. [L. sequax, from sequor, to follow. See Seek.]

1. Following; attendant.

Trees uprooted left their place,

Sequacious of the lyre. Dryden.

The fond sequacious herd. Thomson.

2. Ductile; pliant.

The forge was easy, and the matter ductile and sequacious. [Little used.] Ray.

SEQUACIOUSNESS, n. State of being sepuacious; disposition to follow.

SEQUACITY, n. [supra.]

1. A following, or disposition to follow.

2. Ductility; pliableness. [Little used.]

SEQUEL, n. [L. sequor, to follow.]

1. That which follows; a succeeding part; as the sequel of a man’s adventures or history.

2. Consequence; event. Lit the sun or moon cease, fail or swerve, and the sequel would be ruin.

3. Consequence inferred; consequentialness. [Little used.]

SEQUENCE, n. [L. sequens, sequor.]

1. A following, or that which follows; aconsequent.

2. Order of succession.

How art thou king But by fair sequence and succession? Shak.

3. Series; arrangement; method.

4. In music, a regular alternate succession of similar chords.

SEQUENT, a. [supra.]

1. Following; succeeding.

2. Consequential. [Little used.]

SEQUENT, n. A follower. [Not in use.]

SEQUESTER, v.t. [L. sequestro, to sever or separate, to put int the hands of and indifferent person, as a deposit; sequester, belonging to mediation or umpirage, and as a noun an umpire, referee, midiator. This word is probably a compound of se and the root of quaestus, quaesitus, sought. See Question.]

1. To separate from the owner for a time; to seize or take possession of some property which belongs to another, and hold it tillthe profits hve paid the demand for which it is taken.

Formerly the goods of a defendant in chancery, were, in the last resort, sequestered and detained to enforce the degrees of the court. and now the profits of a benefice are sequestered to pay the debts of the ecclesiastecs. Blackstone.

2. To take from parties in controversy and put into the possession of an indiffernt person.

3. To put aside; to remove; to separate; frome other things.

I had wholly sequestered my civil affairs. Bacon.

4. To sequester one’s self, to separate one’s self from seciety; to withdraw or retire; to seclude one’s self for the sake of privacy or solitude; as, to sequester one’s self from action.

5. To cause to retire or withdraw into obscurity.

It was his taylor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts which sequestered him. South.

SEQUESTER, v.i. To decline, as a window, any concern with the estate of a husband.

SEQUESTERED, pp. Seized asnd detained for a time, to satisfy a demand; separated; also, being in retirement; secluded; private; as a sequestered situation.

SEQUESTRABLE, a. That may be seqestered or separated; subject or liable to sequestration.

SEQUESTRATE, v.t. To seqester. [It is less used than seqester, but exactly synonymous.]

SEQUESTRATION, n.

1. The act of taking a thing from parties contending for it, and entrusting it to an indifferent person.

2. In the civil law, the act of the ordinary, disposing of the goods and chattels of one deceased, whose estate no will meddle with.

3. The act of taking property from the owner for a time, till the rents, issues and profits satisfy a demand.

4. The act of seizing the estate of a delinquent for the use of the state.

5. Separation; retirement; seclusion from society.

6. State of being separated or set aside.

7. Disunion; disjunction. [Not in use.]

SEQUESTRATOR, n.

1. One that sequesters property, or takes the possession of it for a time, to satilfy a demand out of its rents or profits.

2. One to whom the keeping of sequestered property is committed.

SEQUIN, n. A gold coin of Venice and Turkey, of different value in different places. At Venice, its value is about 9s. 2d. sterling, or $2.04. In other parts of Italy, it is stated to be of the 9s. value, or $2. It is sometimes written chequin and zechin. [See Zechin.]

SERAGLIO, n. seral’yo. The palace of the Grand Seignior or Turkish sultan, or the palace of a prince. The seraglio of the sultan is a long range of buildings inhabited by the Grand Seignior and all the officers and dependents of his court; and in it is transacted all the business of government. In this also are confined the females of the harem.

SERAPH, n. plu. seraphs; but sometimes the Hebrew plural, seraphim, is used. [from Heb. to burn.] An angel of the highest order.

As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns,

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns. Pope.

SERAPHIC, SERAPHICAL, a.

1. Pertaining to a seraph; angelic; sublime; as seraphic purity; seraphic fervor.

2. Pure; refined from sensuality.

3. Burning or inflamed with love or zeal. Thus St. Bonaventure was called the seraphic doctor.

SERAPHIM, n. [the Hebrew plural of seraph.] Angels of the highest order in the celestial hierarchy. [It is sometimes improperly written seraphims.]

SERASKIER, n. A Turkish commander or general of land forces.

SERASS, n. A fowl of the East Indies, of the crane kind.

SERE, a. Dry; withered; usually written sear, which see.

SERE, n. A claw or talon. [Not in use.]

SERENADE, n. [from L. serenus, clear, serene.]

1. Properly, music performed in a clear night; hence, an entertainment of music given in the night by a lover to his mistress under her window. It cosists of generally instrumental music, but that of the voice is sometimes added. The songs composed for these occasions are also called serenades.

2. Music performed in the streets during the stillness of the night; as a midnight serenade.

SERENADE, v.t. To entertain with nocturnal music.

SERENADE, v.i. To perform nocturnal music.

SERENA GUTTA. [See Gutta Serena.]

SERENATA, n. A vocal piece of music on an armorous subject.

SERENE, a. [L. serenus; Heb. Ch. Syr. Ar. to shine. Class Sr. No. 2. 23.47.]

1. Clear or fair, and calm; as a serene sky; serene air; Serene imports great purity.

2. Bright.

The moon, serene in glory, mounts the sky. Pope.

3. Caln; unruffled; undisturbed; as a serene aspect; a serene soul.

4. A title given to several princes and magistrates in Europe; as serene highness; most serene.

SERENE, n. A cold damp evening. [Not in use.]

SERENE, v.t.

1. To make clear and calm; to quiet.

2. To clear; to brighten.

SERENELY, adv.

1. Calmly; quietly.

The setting sun now shown serenely bright. Pope.

2. With unruffled temper; colly.

SERENENESS, n. The state of being serene; serenity.

SERENITUDE, n. Calmness. [Not in use.]

SERENITY, n. [L. serenitas.]

1. Clearness and calmness; as the serenity of the air or sky.

2. Calmness; quietness; stillness; peace.

A general peace and serenity newly succeeded general trouble. Temple.

3. Calmness of mind; evenness of temper; undisturbed state; collness.

I cannot see how any men should transgress those moral rules with confidence and serenity. Locke.

4. A title of respect.

SERF, n. [L. servus.] A servant or slave employed in husbandry, and in some countries, attached to the soil and transferred with it. The serfs in Poland are slaves.

SERGE, n. A wollen quilted stuff manufactured in a loom with four treddles, after the manner of ratteens.

SERGEANT, n. s’arjent. [L. serviens, serving, for so was this word written in Latin.]

1. Formerly, an officer in England, nearly answering to to the more modern bailif of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other effenders. This officer is now called serjeant at arms, or mace. There are at present other officers of an inferior kind, to attend mayors and magistrates to execute their orders.

2. In military affairs, a non-commissioned officer in a company of infantry or troop of dragoons, armed with halbert, whose duty is to see discipline is observed, to order and form the ranks, etc.

3. In England, a lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of the civil law.

4. A title sometimes given to the king’s servants; as sergeant surgeon, servant surgeon.

SERGEANTRY, n. s’arjentry. In england, sergeantry is of two kinds; grand sergeantry and petit sergeantry. Grand sergeantry, is a particular kind of knight service, a tenure by which the tenant was bound to do some special honorary service to the king in person, as to carry his banner, his sword or the like, or to be his butler, his champion or other officer at his coronation, to lead his host, to be his marshal, to blow a horn when an enemy approaches, etc.

Petit sergeantry, was a tenure by which the tenant was bound to render to the king annually some small implement of war, as a bow, a pair of spurs, a sword, a lance, or the like.