Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
CENSURABLE — CESAREAN
CENSURABLE, a. [See Censure.] Worthy of censure; blamable; culpable; reprehensibly; faulty; as a censurable person, or censurable conduct or writings.
CENSURABLENESS, n. Blamableness; fitness to be censured.
CENSURABLEY, adv. In a manner worthy of blame.
CENSURE, n.
1. The act of blaming or finding fault and condemning as wrong; applicable to the moral conduct, or to the works of men. When applied to persons, it is nearly equivalent to blame, reproof, reprehension, reprimand. It is an expression of disapprobation, which often implies reproof.
2. Judicial sentence; judgment that condemns. An ecclesiastical censure is a sentence of condemnation, or penalty inflicted on a member of a church for mal-conduct, by which he is deprived of the communion of the church, or prohibited from executing the sacerdotal office.
CENSURE, v.t.
1. To find fault with and condemn as wrong; to blame; to express disapprobation of; as, to censure a man, or his manners, or his writings.
We laugh at vanity, oftener than we censure pride.
2. To condemn by a judicial sentence, as in ecclesiastical affairs.
3. To estimate.
CENSURE, v.i. To judge.
CENSURED, pp. Blaming; finding fault with; condemning.
CENSUS, n.
1. In ancient Rome, an authentic declaration made before the censors, by the citizens, of their names and places of abode. This declaration was registered, and contained an enumeration of all their lands and estates, their quantity and quality, with the wives, children, domestics, tenants, and slaves of each citizen. Hence the word signifies this enumeration or register, a man’s whole substance, and the tax imposed according to each man’s property.
2. In the United States of America, an-enumeration of the inhabitants of all the States, taken by order of the Congress, to furnish the rule of apportioning the representation among the States, and the number of representatives to which each State is entitled in the Congress; also, an enumeration of the inhabitants of a State, taken by order of its legislature.
CENT, n.
1. A hundred. In commerce, per cent, denotes a certain rate by the hundred; as, ten per cent. Is ten in the hundred, whether profit or loss. This rate is called percentage.
2. In the United States of America, a copper coin whose value is the hundredth part of a dollar.
CENTAGE, n. Rate by the cent or hundred.
CENTAUR, n.
1. In mythology, a fabulous being, supposed to be half man and half horse. It has been supposed that this fancied monster originated among the Lapithae, a tribe in Thessaly, who first invented the art of breaking horses. But the origin of the fable and of the name is doubtful.
2. Part of a southern constellation, in form of a centaur, usually joined with the wolf, containing thirty-five stars; the archer.
CENTAURLIKE, a. Having the appearance of a centaur.
CENTAURY, n. The name of a plant, and a genus of plants, of numerous species. The lesser centaury is a species of Gentiana. Centaury bears the popular names of knapweed, bluebottle, sultan, and star-thistle.
CENTENARY, n. The number of a hundred; as a centenary of years.
CENTENARY, a. Relating to a hundred; consisting of a hundred.
CENTENNIAL, a.
1. Consisting of a hundred yeas, or completing that term.
2. Pertaining to a hundred years.
3. Happening every hundred years.
CENTER, n.
1. A point equally distant from the extremities of a line, figure or body; the middle point or place.
2. The middle or central object. In an army, the body of troops occupying the place in the line between the wings. In a fleet, the division between the van and rear of the line of battle, and between the weather division and lee, in the order of sailing.
3. A single body or house.
These institutions collected all authority into one center, kings, nobles and people.
Center of gravity, in mechanics, the point about which all the parts of a body exactly balance each other.
Center o motion, the point which remains at rest, while all the other parts of a body move round it.
CENTER, v.t.
1. To place on a center; to fix on a central point.
2. To collect to a point.
Thy joys are centered all in me alone.
CENTER, v.i.
1. To be collected to a point.
Our hopes must center on ourselves alone.
2. To be collected to a point; to rest on.
3. To be placed in the middle.
CENTERED, pp. Collected to a point or center; fixed on a central point.
CENTERING, ppr. Placing on the center; collecting to a point.
CENTESIMAL, a. The hundredth. As a noun, the next step of progression after decimal in the arithmetic of fractions.
CENTESIMATION, n. A military punishment, for desertion, mutiny or the like, where one person in a hundred is selected for execution.
CENTESM, n. The hundredth part of an integer or thing.
CENTIFOLIOUS, a. Having a hundred leaves.
CENTIGRADE, a. Consisting of a hundred degrees; graduated into a hundred divisions or equal parts; as a centigrade thermometer.
CENTIGRAM, n. In French Measure, the hundredth part of a gram. [see Gram.]
CENTILITER, n. The hundredth part of a liter, a little more than 6-10 of a cubic inch.
CENTIMETER, n. In French measure, the hundredth part of a meter, rather more than 39-100 of an inch. English measure.
CENTINODY, n. Knotgrass.
CENTIPED, n. An insect having a hundred feet, but the term is applied to insects that have many feet, though not a hundred. Insects of this kind are called generically Scolopendra. In warm climates, some of them grow to the length of six inches or more, and their bite is poisonous.
CENTIPEE, for centiped.
CENTNER, n. In metallurgy and assaying, a docimastic hundred; a weight divisible first into a hundred parts, and then into smaller parts. The metallurgists use a weight divided into a hundred equal parts, each one pound; the whole they call a centner; the pound is divided into thirty-two parts or half ounces; the half ounce into two quarters, and each of these into two drams. But the assayers use different weights. With them a centner is one dram, to which the other parts are proportioned.
CENTO, n. A composition formed by verses or passages from other authors, disposed in a new order.
CENTRAL, a. Relating to the center; placed in the center or middle; containing the center, or pertaining to the parts near the center.
Central forces, in mechanics, the powers which cause a moving body to tend towards or recede from the center of motion.
CENTRALITY, n. The state of being central.
CENTRALLY, adv. With regard to the center; in a central manner.
CENTRIC, a. Placed in the center or middle.
CENTRICALLY, adv. In a central position.
CENTRICALNESS, n. Situation in the center.
CENTRIFUGAL, a. Tending to recede from the center. The centrifugal force of a body, is that force by which all bodies moving round another body in a curve, tend to fly off from the axis of their motion, in a tangent to the periphery of the curve.
CENTRIPETAL, a. Tending towards the center. Centripetal force is that force which draws or impels a body towards some point as a center; as in case of a planet revolving round the sun, the center of the system. [Note: The common accentuation of centrifugal and centripetal is artificial and harsh. The accent on the first and third syllables, as in circumpolar, would be natural and easy.]
CENTUMVIR, n. One of a hundred and five judges, in ancient Rome, appointed to decide common causes among the people.
CENTUMVIRAL, a. Pertaining to the centumvirs.
CENTUPLE, a. A hundred fold.
CENTUPLE, v.t. To multiply a hundred fold.
CENTUPLICATE, v.t. To make a hundred fold.
CENTURIAL, a. Relating to a century, or a hundred years; as a chanterelle sermon.
When the third chanterelle jubilee of New-England shall come, who of us will then be living to participate he general joy?
CENTURIATE, v.t. To divide into hundreds.
CENTURIATORS, CENTURIST, n. A historian who distinguishes time into centuries; as in the Universal Church History of Magdeburg.
CENTURION, n. Among the Romans, a military officer who commanded a hundred men, a century or company of infantry, answering to the captain in modern armies.
CENTURY, n.
1. In a general sense, a hundred; any thing consisting of a hundred parts.
2. A division of the Roman people for the purpose of electing magistrates and enacting laws, the people voting by centuries; also, a company consisting of a hundred men.
3. A period of a hundred years. This is the most common signification of the word; and as we begin our modern computation of time from the incarnation of Christ, the word is generally applied to some term of a hundred years subsequent to that event; as the fist or second century, or the tenth century. If we intend to apply the word to a different era, we use an explanatory adjunct; as the third century before the Christian era, or after the reign of Cyrus.
4. The Centuries of Magdeburg, a title given to an ecclesiastical history, arranged in 13 centuries, compiled by a great number of Protestants at Magdeburg.
CONTZONTLI, n. The Mexican name of the Turdus Polyglottus, or mocking thrush.
CEOL, Sax. A ship. This word is sometimes found prefixed to names.
CEPHALALGIC, n. A medicine good for the headache.
CEPHALALGY, n. The headache.
CEPHALIC, a. Pertaining to the head; as cephalic medicines, remedies for disorders in the head. The cephalic vein, which runs along the arm, was so named because the ancients used to open it for disorders of the head.
CEPHALIC, n. A medicine for headache or other disorder in the head.
CEPHEUS, n. A constellation in the Northern hemisphere.
CEPHUS, n. A fowl of the duck kind; also, a species of monkey, the mona.
CERASEE, n. The male balsam apple.
CERASIN, n. Any gummy substance which swells in cold water, but does not readily dissolve in it.
CERASITE, n. A petrifaction resembling a cherry.
CERASTES, n. In zoology, the name of a serpent, of the genus Coluber, which the ancients supposed to have horns.
CERATE, n. A thick kind of ointment, composed of wax and oil, with other ingredients; applied externally in various diseases.
CERATED, a. Covered with wax.
CERE, n. The naked skin that covers the base of a hawks bill.
CERE, v.t. To wax or cover with wax.
CEREBEL, CEREBELLUM, n. The hinder part of the head, or the little brain.
CEREBRAL, CEREBRINE, a. Pertaining to the cerebrum or brain.
CERECLOTH, n. A cloth smeared with melted wax, or with some gummy or glutinous matter. [But the English word for a cloth used to cover wounds is sear-cloth.]
CEREMENT, n. Cloths dipped in melted wax, with which dead bodies were infolded, when embalmed.
CEREMONIAL, a. [See Ceremony.]
1. Relating to ceremony, or external rite; ritual; according to the forms of established rites; as ceremonial exactness. It is particularly applied to the forms and rites of the Jewish religion; as the ceremonial law or worship, as distinguished from the moral and judicial law.
2. Formal; observant of old forms; exact; precise in manners.
[In this sense, ceremonious is now used.]
CEREMONIAL, n.
1. Outward form; external rite, or established forms or rites, including all the forms prescribed; a system of rules and ceremonies, enjoined by law or established by custom, whether in religious worship, in social intercourse, or in the courts of princes.
2. The order for rites and forms in the Romish church, or the book containing the rules prescribed to be observed on solemn occasions.
CEREMONIALLY, adv. According to rites and ceremonies; as a person ceremonially unclean; an act ceremonially unlawful.
CEREMONIOUS, a.
1. Consisting of outward forms and rites; as the ceremonious part of worship. [In this sense, ceremonial is now used.]
2. Full of ceremony or solemn forms.
3. According to the rules and forms prescribed or customary; civil; formally respectful. Ceremonious phrases.
4. Formal; according to the rules of civility; as, to take a ceremonious leave.
5. Formal; exact; precise; too observant of forms.
CEREMONIOUSLY, adv. In a ceremonious manner; formally; with due forms.
CEREMONIOUSNESS, n. The use of customary forms; the practice of too much ceremony; great formality in manners.
CEREMONY, n.
1. Outward rite; external form in religion.
2. Forms of civility; rules established by custom for regulating social intercourse.
3. Outward forms of state; the forms prescribed or established by order or custom, serving for the purpose of civility or magnificence, as in levees of princes, the reception of ambassadors, etc.
Master of ceremonies, an officer who superintends the reception of ambassadors. A person who regulates the forms to be observed by the company or attendants on a public occasion.
CEREOLITE, n. A substance which in appearance and softness resembles wax; sometimes confounded with steatite.
CEREOUS, a. Waxen; like wax.
CERES, n.
1. In mythology, the inventor or goddess of corn, or rather the name of corn deified.
2. The name of a planet discovered by M. Piozzi, at Palermo in Sicily, in 1801.
CERIN, n.
1. A peculiar substance which precipitates on evaporation, from alcohol, which has been digested on grated cork.
2. The part of common wax which dissolves in alcohol.
3. A variety of the mineral allanite.
CERINTHIANS, n. A set of heretics, so called from Cerinthus, one of the first heresiarchs in the church. They denied the divinity of Christ, but they held that, in his baptism, a celestial virtue descended on him in the form of a dove, by means of which he was consecrated by the Holy Spirit and made Christ.
CERITE, n. [See Cerium.]
1. The siliceous oxyd of Cerium, a rare mineral of a pale rose red color, with a tinge of yellow.
2. A fossil shell.
CERIUM, n. A metal recently discovered in Sweden, in the mineral cerate, and so called rom the planet Ceres. It is of great specific gravity. Its color a grayish white and its texture lamellar.
CEROON, n. [from the Spanish.] A bale or package made of skins.
CERRIAL, a. Pertaining to the Cerrus, or bitter oak.
CERRUS, n. The bitter oak.
CERTAIN, a.
1. Sure; true; undoubted; unquestionable; that cannot be denied; existing in fact and truth.
The dream is certain and the interpretation sure. Daniel 2:45.
2. Assured in mind; having no doubts; followed by of, before a noun.
However I with thee have fixed my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom of death,
Consort with thee.
To make her certain of the sad event.
3. Unfailing; always producing the intended effect; as, we may have a certain remedy for a disease.
4. Not doubtful or casual; really existing.
Virtue that directs our ways
Through certain dangers to uncertain praise.
5. Stated; fixed; determinate; regular.
Ye shall gather a certain rate every day. Exodus 16:4.
6. Particular.
There came a certain poor widow. Mark 12:42.
In the plural number, a particular part or number; some; an indefinite part, number, or quantity. Hanani came, he and certain men of Judah. I mourned certain days. Nehemiah 1:2, 4.
In the latter sense, it is used as a noun; as, certain also of your own poets have said. Acts 17:28.
CERTAINLY, adv.
1. Without doubt or question; in truth and fact.
Certainly this was a righteous man. Luke 23:47.
2. Without failure.
He said, I will certainly return to thee. Genesis 18:10.
CERTAINNESS, n. Certainty, which see.
CERTAINTY, n.
1. A fixed or real state; truth; fact.
Know for a certainty, that the Lord your God will no more drive out these nations. Joshua 23:13; Luke 1:4.
2. Full assurance of mind; exemption from doubt.
Certainty is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of our ideas.
3. Exemption from failure; as the certainty of an event, or of the success of a medicine.
The certainty of punishment is the truest security against crimes.
4. Regularity; settled state.
CERTES, adv. Certainly; in truth; verily.
CERTIFICATE, n. [See Certify.]
1. In a general sense, a written testimony not sworn to; a declaration in writing, signed by the party, and intended to verify a fact.
2. In a more particular sense, the written declaration, under the hand or seal or both, of some public officer, to be used as evidence in a court, or to substantiate a fact. A certificate of this kind may be considered as given under the oath of office.
3. Trial by certificate, is where the evidence of the person certifying is the only proper criterion of the point in dispute as when the issue is whether a person was absent in the army, this is tried by the certificate of the Mareschall of the army, in writing under his seal.
CERTIFICATE, v.t. or i.
1. To give a certificate; to lodge a certificate with the proper officer, for the purpose of being exempted from the payment of taxes to support the ministry, in a parish or ecclesiastical society.
2. To give a certificate to, acknowledging one to be a parishioner.
But such certificated person can gain no settlement.
CERTIFICATION, n. The act of certifying.
CERTIFIED, pp. [See Certify.] Assured; made certain; informed.
CERTIFIER, n. One who certifies, or assures.
CERTIFY, v.t.
1. To testify to in writing; to make a declaration in writing, under hand, or hand and seal, to make known or establish a fac.
The judges shall certify their opinion to the chancellor, and upon such certificate, the decree is usually founded.
The Judge shall certify under his hand, that the freehold came chiefly in question.
2. To give certain information to; applied to persons.
We have sent and certified the king. Ezra 4:14.
3. To give certain information of; applied to things.
This is designed to certify those things that are confirmed of Gods favor.
It is followed by of, after the person, and before the thing told; as, I certified you of the fact.
CERTIFYING, ppr. Giving a written testimony, or certificate; giving certain notice; making certainly known.
CERTIORARI, n. A writ issuing out of Chancery, Kings Bench or other superior court, to call up the records of an inferior court, or remove a cause there depending, that it may be tried in the superior court. This writ is obtained upon complaint of a party, that he has not received justice, or that he cannot have an impartial trial, in the inferior court.
CERTITUDE, n. Certainty; assurance; freedom from doubt.
CERULEAN, CERULEOUS, a. Sky-colored; blue.
CERULIFIC, a. Producing a blue or sky-color.
CERUMEN, n. The wax or yellow matter secreted by the ear.
CERUSE, n. White-lead; a carbonate of lead, produced by exposing the metal in thin plates to the vapor of vinegar. Lead is sometimes found native in the form of ceruse.
Ceruse of antimony is a white oxyd of antimony, which separates from the water in which diaphoretic antimony has been washed.