Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
CONDENSITY — CONFIDER
CONDENSITY, n. The state of being condensed; denseness; density. [The latter are generally used.]
CONDER, n. [L. See Cond.]
1. A person who stands upon a cliff, or elevated part of the sea-coast, in the time of the herring fishery, to point out to the fishermen by signs, the source of the shoals of fish.
2. One who gives directions to a helmsman how to steer the ship.
CONDESCEND, v.i. [L. See Descend.]
1. To descend from the privileges of superior rank or dignity, to do some act to an inferior, which strict justice or the ordinary rules of civility do not require. Hence, to submit or yield, as to an inferior, implying an occasional relinquishment of distinction.
Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Romans 12:16.
2. To recede from ones rights in negotiation, or common intercourse, to do some act, which strict justice does not require.
Spains mighty monarch, in gracious clemency does condescend, on these conditions, to become your friend.
3. To stoop or descend; to yield; to submit; implying a relinquishment of rank, or dignity of character, and sometimes a sinking into debasement.
Can they think me so broken, so debased, with corporal servitude, that my mind ever will condescend to such absurd commands?
CONDESCENDENCE, n. A voluntary yielding or submission to an inferior.
You will observe [in the Turks] an insulting condescendence which bespeaks their contempt of you.
CONDESCENDING, ppr.
1. Descending from rank or distinction in the intercourse of life; receding from rights or claims; yielding.
2. Yielding to inferiors; courteous; obliging.
CONDESCENDINGLY, adv. By way of yielding to inferiors; with voluntary submission; by way of kind concession; courteously.
CONDESCENSION, n. Voluntary descent from rank, dignity or just claims; relinquishment of strict right; submission to inferiors in granting requests or performing acts which strict justice does not require. Hence, courtesy.
It forbids pride and commands humility, modesty and condescension to others.
Raphael, amidst his tenderness, shows such a dignity and condescension in all his behavior, as are suitable to a superior nature.
CONDESCENSIVE, a. Condescending; courteous.
CONDESCENT, n. Condescension. [Not used.]
CONDIGN, a. [L., worthy. See Dignity.]
1. Deserved; merited; suitable; applied usually to punishment; as, the malefactor has suffered condign punishment.
2. Worthy; merited; as condign praise.
[In the latter sense, seldom used.]
CONDIGNITY, n. Merit; desert. In school divinity, the merit of human actions which claims reward, on the score of justice.
CONDIGNLY, adv. According to merit.
CONDIGNNESS, n. Agreeableness to deserts; suitableness.
CONDIMENT, n. [L., to season, pickle or preserve.] Seasoning; sauce; that which is used to give relish to meat or other food, and to gratify the taste.
As for radish and the like, they are for condiments, and not for nourishment.
CONDISCIPLE, n. [L. See Disciple.] A school fellow; a learner in the same school, or under the same instructor.
CONDITE, v.t. [L.] To prepare and preserve with sugar, salt, spices, or the like; to pickle; as, to condite peras, plums, quinces, mushrooms, etc. [Little used.]
CONDITEMENT, n. A composition of conserves, powders, and spices, in the form of an electuary. [Little used.]
CONDITING, ppr. Preserving. [Little used.]
CONDITION, n. [L., to build or make, to ordain; properly, to set or fix, or to set together or in order; con and do, to give; properly, to send.]
1. State; a particular mode of being; applied to external circumstances, to the body, to the mind, and to things. We speak of a good condition or a bad condition, in reference to wealth and poverty; in reference to health and sickness; in reference to a cheerful or depressed disposition of mind; and with reference to a sound or broken, perishing state of things. The word signifies a setting or fixing, and has a very general and indefinite application, coinciding nearly with state, from sto, to stand, and denotes that particular frame, form, mode or disposition, in which a thing exists, at any given time. A man is in a good condition, when he is thriving. A nation, with an exhausted treasury and burthened with taxes, is not in a condition to make war. A poor man is in a humble condition. Religion affords consolation to man in every condition of life. Exhortations should be adapted to the condition of the mind.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; bliss is the same in subject or in king.
2. Quality; property; attribute.
It seemed to us a condition and property of divine powers and belongs to be hidden and unseen to others.
3. State of mind; temper; temperament; complexion. [See No. 1.]
4. Moral quality; virtue or vice.
[These senses however fall within the first definition.]
5. Rank, that is, state with respect to the orders or grades of society, or to property; as, persons of the best condition.
6. Terms of a contract or covenant; stipulation; that is, that which is set, fixed, established or proposed. What are the conditions of the treaty?
Make our conditions with yon captive king.
He sendeth and desireth conditions of peace. Luke 14:32.
7. A clause in a bond, or other contract containing terms or a stipulation that it is to be performed, and in case of failure, the penalty of the bond is to be incurred.
8. Terms given, or provided, as the ground of something else; that which is established, or to be done, or to happen, as requisite to another act; as, I will pay a sum of money, on condition you will engage to refund it.
A condition is a clause of contingency, on the happening of which the estate granted may be defeated.
CONDITION, v.i. To make terms; to stipulate.
It is one thing to condition for a good office, and another to execute it.
CONDITION, v.t. To contract; to stipulate.
It was conditioned between Saturn and Titan, that Saturn should put to death all his male children.
CONDITIONAL, a.
1. Containing or depending on a condition or conditions; made with limitations; not absolute; made or granted on certain terms. A conditional promise is one which is to be performed, when something else stipulated is done or has taken place. A conditional fee, in law, is one which is granted upon condition, that if the donee shall die without such particular heirs as are specified, the estate shall revert to the donor. Hence it is a fee restrained to particular heirs, to the exclusion of others.
2. In grammar and logic, expressing a condition or supposition; as a conditional word, mode, or tense; a conditional syllogism.
CONDITIONAL, n. A limitation.
CONDITIONALITY, n. The quality of being conditional, or limited; limitation by certain terms.
CONDITIONALLY, adv. With certain limitations; on particular terms or stipulations; not absolutely or positively.
We see large preferments tendered to him, but conditionally, upon his doing wicked offices.
CONDITIONARY, a. Conditional; Stipulated. [Not used.]
CONDITIONATE, a. Conditional; established on certain terms. [Not used.]
CONDITIONATE, v.t. To qualify; to regulate. [Not in use.]
CONDITIONED, pp.
1. Stipulated; containing terms to be performed.
2. a. Having a certain state or qualities. This word is usually preceded by some qualifying term; as good-conditioned; ill-conditioned; best-conditioned.
CONDITIONLY, adv. On certain terms. [Not used.]
CONDOLE, v.i. [L., to ache, or to grieve.] To feel pain, or to grieve, at the distress or misfortunes of another.
Your friends would have cause to rejoice, rather than condole with you.
It is followed by with before the person for whom we feel grief.
CONDOLE, v.t. To lament or bewail with another, or on account of anothers misfortune. [Unusual.]
Why should our poet petition Isis for her safe delivery, and afterwards condole her miscarriage?
CONDOLEMENT, n. Grief; pain of mid, at anothers loss or misfortune; sorrow; mourning.
CONDOLENE, n. Pain of mind, or grief excited by the distress, or misfortune of another.
CONDOLER, n. One who condoles.
CONDOLING, ppr. Grieving at anothers distress.
CONDOLING, n. Expression of grief for anothers loss.
CONDOMA, n. An animal of the goat kind, as large as a stag, and of a gray color.
It is a species of Antelope, the A. Strepsiceros.
CONDONATION, n. [L.] The act of pardoning. [Little used.]
CONDOR, n. The largest species of fowl hitherto discovered; a native of South America. Some naturalists class it with the vulture; others, with the eagle. The wings of the largest, when expanded, are said to extend 15 or 18 feet; and the fowl has strength to bear off a calf or a deer.
The size of the Condor has been greatly exaggerated. It is about the size of the Lammer-geyer or vulture of the Alps, which it resembles in its habits. It is properly a vulture.
CONDUCE, v.i. [L., to lead.] To lead or tend; to contribute; followed by to.
They may conduce to farther discoveries for completing the theory of light.
To conduce to includes the sense of aiding, tending to produce, or furnishing the means; hence it is sometimes equivalent to promote, advance, or further. Virtue conduces to the welfare of society. Religion conduces to temporal happiness. Temperance conduces to health and long life.
In the transitive sense, to conduct, it is not authorized.
CONDUCEMENT, n. A leading or tending to; tendency.
CONDUCENT, a. Tending or contributing to.
CONDUCIBLE, a. [L.] Leading or tending to; having the power of conducing; having a tendency to promote or forward.
Our Savior hath enjoined us a reasonable service; all his laws are in themselves conducible to the temporal interest of them that observe them.
[This word is less used than conducive.]
CONDUCIBLENESS, n. The quality of leading or contributing to any end.
CONDUCIVE, a. That may conduce or contribute; having a tendency to promote.
An action, however conducive to the good of our country, will be represented as prejudicial to it.
CONDUCIVENESS, n. The quality of conducing or tending to promote.
CONDUCT, n. [L., to lead. See Duke.]
1. Literally, the act of leading; guidance; command. So Waller has used it.
Conduct of armies is a princes art.
2. The act of convoying, or guarding; guidance or brining along under protection.
3. Guard on the way; convoy; escort.
[These senses are now unusual, though not improper.]
4. In a general sense, personal behavior; course of actions; deportment; applicable equally to a good or a bad course of actions; as laudable conduct; detestable conduct. The word seems originally to have been followed with life, actions, affairs, or other term; as the conduct of life; the conduct of actions; that is, the leading along of life or actions.
Young men in the conduct and manage of actions embrace more than they can hold.
What in the conduct of our life appears.
But by custom, conduct alone is now used to express the idea of behavior or course of life and manners.
5. Exact behavior; regular life. [Unusual.]
6. Management; mode of carrying on.
Christianity has humanized the conduct of war.
7. The title of two clergymen appointed to read prayers at Eton College in England.
CONDUCT, v.t.
1. To lead; to bring along; to guide; to accompany and show the way.
And Judah came to Gilgal--to conduct the king over Jordan. 2 Samuel 19:15.
2. To lead; to direct or point out the way.
The precepts of Christ will conduct us to happiness.
3. To lead; to usher in; to introduce; to attend in civility.
Pray receive them nobly, and conduct them into our presence.
4. To give a direction to; to manage; applied to things; as, the farmer conducts his affairs with prudence.
5. To lead, as a commander; to direct; to govern; to command; as, to conduct an army or a division of troops.
6. With the reciprocal pronoun, to conduct ones self, is to behave. Hence, by a customary omission of the pronoun, to conduct, in an intransitive sense, is to behave; to direct personal actions. [See the noun.]
7. To escort; to accompany and protect on the way.
CONDUCTED, pp. Led; guided; directed; introduced; commanded; managed.
CONDUCTING, ppr. Leading; escorting; introducing; commanding; behaving; managing.
CONDUCTION, n.
1. The act of training up. [Not in use.]
2. Transmission through or by means of a conductor.
CONDUCTITIOUS, a. [L., to hire.] Hired; employed for wages.
CONDUCTOR, n.
1. A leader; a guide; one who goes before or accompanies, and shows the way.
2. A chief; a commander; one who leads an army or a people.
3. A director; a manager.
4. In surgery, an instrument which serves to direct the knife in cutting for the stone, and in laying up sinuses and fistulas; also, a machine to secure a fractured limb.
5. In electrical experiments, any body that receives and communicates electricity; such as metals and moist substances. Bodies which repel it, or into which it will not pass, are called non-conductors. Hence,
6. A metallic rod erected by buildings or in ships, to conduct lightning to the earth or water, and protect the building from its effects.
CONDUCTRESS, n. A female who leads or directs; a directress.
CONDUIT, n. [L., to conduct.]
1. A canal or pipe for the conveyance of water; an aqueduct. Conduits are made of lead, stone, cast iron, wood, etc., above or below the surface of the earth.
2. A vessel that conveys the blood or other fluid.
The conduits of my blood.
3. A conductor.
These organs are the nerves which are the conduits to convey them from without to their audience in the brain.
4. A pipe or cock for drawing off liquor.
5. Any channel that conveys water or fluids; a sink, sewer or drain.
CONDUPLICATE, a. [L., to double or fold. See Double.] Doubled or folded over or together; as the leaves of a bud.
CONDUPLICATE, v.t. To double; to fold together.
CONDUPLICATED, a. Doubled; folded together.
CONDUPLICATION, n. [L.] A doubling; a duplicate.
CONDYL, n. [L., Gr.] A protuberance on the end of a bone; a knot, or foint; a knuckle.
CONDYLOID, a. [Gr., and form.] The condyloid process is the posterior protuberance at the extremities of the under jaw; an oblong rounded head, which is received into the fossa of the temporal bone, forming a movable articulation. The anterior is called the coronoid process.
CONDYLOID, n. The apophysis of a bone; the projecting soft end, or process of a bone.
CONE, n. [It coincides in radical sense with the root of can and begin.]
1. A solid body or figure having a circle for its base, and its top terminated in a point or vertex, like a sugar loaf.
2. In botany, the conical fruit of several evergreen trees, as of the pine, fir, cedar, and cypress. It is composed of woody scales, usually opening, and has a seed at the base of each scale.
A cone of rays, in optics, includes all the rays of light which proceed from a radiant point and fall upon the surface of a glass.
A right cone, is when its axis is perpendicular to its base, and its sides equal. It is formed by the revolution of a right-angle plane triangle about one of its sides.
A scalene cone, is when its axis is inclined to its base and its sides unequal.
CONEPATE, CONEPATL, n. An animal of the weasel kind in America, resembling the pole-cat in form and size, and its fetid stench.
CONEY. [See Cony.]
CONFABULATE, v.i. [L., to tell. See Fable.] To talk familiarly together; to chat; to prattle.
If birds confabulate or no. [Little used.]
CONFABULATION, n. [L.] Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation. [Not an elegant word, and little used.]
CONFABULATORY, a. Belonging to familiar talk. [Little used.]
CONFAMILIAR, a. Very familiar. [Not in use.]
CONFARREATION, n. [L., to join in marriage with a cake, corn or meal.] The solemnization of marriage among the Romans, by a ceremony in which the bridegroom and bride tasted a cake made of flour with salt and water, called far or panis farreus, in presence of the high priest and at least ten witnesses.
CONFATED, a. Fated together. [Not in use.]
CONFECT, v.t. To make sweetmeats. [Not used. See Comfit.]
CONFECT, n. [L., See Comfit.] Something prepared with sugar or honey, as fruit, hergs, roots and the like; a sweet-meat.
CONFECTION, n. [L., to make.]
1. Any thing prepared with sugar, as fruit; a sweetmeat; something preserved.
2. A composition or mixture.
3. A soft electuary.
CONFECTIONARY, CONFECTIONER, n. One whose occupation is to make, or to sell sweetmeats, etc. [The latter word is most generally used.]
CONFECTIONARY, n.
1. A place for sweetmeats; a place where sweetmeats and similar things are made of sold.
2. Sweetmeats in general; things prepared or sold by a confectioner.
CONFECTOR, n. [L.] An officer in the Roman games, whose business was to kill any beast that was dangerous.
CONFECTORY, a. Pertaining to the art of making sweetmeats.
CONFEDERACY, n. [L., a league. See Federal and Wed.]
1. A league, or covenant; a contract between two or more persons, bodies of men or states, combined in support of each other, in some act or enterprise; mutual engagement; federal compact.
The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice. A confederacy of princes to check innovation.
2. The persons, states or nations united by a league.
Virgil has a whole confederacy against him.
3. In law, a combination of two or more persons to commit an unlawful act.
CONFEDERATE, a. [L.] United in a league; allied by treaty; engaged in a confederacy.
These were confederate with Abram. Genesis 14:13.
Syria is confederate with Ephraim. Isaiah 7:2.
CONFEDERATE, n. One who is united with others in a league; a person or nation engaged in a confederacy; an ally.
CONFEDERATE, v.i. [L.] To unite in a league; to join in a mutual contract or covenant.
By words men come to know one another’s minds; by these they covenant and confederate.
The colonies of America confederated in 1775.
Several States of Europe have sometimes confederated for mutual safety.
CONFEDERATE, v.t. To unite in a league; to ally.
With these the Piercies them confederate.
CONFEDERATED, pp. United in a league.
CONFEDERATING, ppr. Uniting in a league.
CONFEDERATION, [L.]
1. The act of confederating; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance; particularly of princes, nations or states.
The three princes enter into a strict league and confederation.
2. The United States of America are sometimes called the confederation.
CONFER, v.i. [L., to bear, to bring forth, to show, to declare. See Bear.] To discourse; to converse; to consult together; implying conversation on some serious or important subject, in distinction from mere talk or light familiar conversation; followed by with.
Adonijah conferred with Joab and Abiathar. 1 Kings 1:7.
Festus conferred with the council. Acts 25:12.
CONFER, v.t.
1. To give, or bestow; followed by on.
Coronation confers on the king no royal authority.
This word is particularly used to express the grant of favors, benefits and privileges to be enjoyed, or rights which are to be permanent; as, to confer on one the privileges of a citizen; to confer a title or an honor.
2. To compare; to examine by comparison; literally, to bring together. [See Compare.]
If we confer these observations with others of the like nature.
[This sense, though genuine, is now obsolete.]
3. To contribute; to conduce to; that is, to bring to. The closeness of parts confers much to the strength of the union, or intransitively, confers to the strength of the union.
CONFERENCE, n. [See Confer.]
1. The act of conversing on a serious subject; a discoursing between two or more, for the purpose of instruction, consultation, or deliberation; formal discourse; oral discussion.
For they who seemed to be somewhat, in conference added nothing to me. Galatians 2:6.
The ministers had a conference at Ratisbon.
2. A meeting for consultation, discussion or instruction.
3. Comparison; examination of things by comparison.
The mutual conference of observations. The conference of different passages of scripture.
[This sense is, I believe, now obsolete.]
CONFERRED, pp. Given; imparted; bestowed.
CONFERRER, n. One who confers; one who converses; one who bestows.
CONFERRING, ppr. Conversing together; bestowing.
CONFESS, v.t. [L., to own or acknowledge.]
1. To own, acknowledge or avow, as a crime, a fault, a charge, a debt, or something that is against one’s interest, or reputation.
Human faults with human grief confess.
I confess the argument against me is good and not easily refuted.
Let us frankly confess our sins.
“Confess thee freely of thy sins,” used by Shakespeare, is not legitimate, unless in the sense of Catholics.
2. In the Catholic Church, to acknowledge sins and faults to a priest; to disclose the state of the conscience to a priest, in private, with a view to absolution; sometimes with the reciprocal pronoun.
The beautiful votary confessed herself to this celebrated father.
3. To own, avow or acknowledge; publicly to declare a belief in and adherence to.
Whoever shall confess me before men. Matthew 10:32.
4. To own and acknowledge, as true disciples, friends or children.
Him will I confess before my father who is heaven.
5. To own; to acknowledge; to declare to be true, or to admit or assent to in words; opposed to deny.
Then will I confess to thee, that thine own right hand can save thee. Job 40:14.
These--confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Hebrews 11:13.
6. To show by the effect; to prove; to attest.
Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mold.
7. To hear or receive the confession of another; as, the priest confessed the nuns.
CONFESS, v.i. To make confession; to disclose faults, or the state of the conscience; as, this man went to the priest to confess.
CONFESSANT, n. One who confesses to a priest.
CONFESSARY, n. One who makes a confession. [Not used.]
CONFESSED, pp. Owned; acknowledged; declared to be true; admitted in words; avowed; admitted to disclose to a priest.
CONFESSEDLY, adv.
1. By confession, or acknowledgment; avowedly; undeniably. Demosthenes was confessedly the greatest orator in Greece.
2. With avowed purpose; as, his object was confessedly to secure to himself a benefice.
CONFESSING, ppr. Owning; avowing; declaring to be true or real; granting or admitting by assent; receiving disclosure of sins, or the state of the conscience of another.
CONFESSION, n.
1. The acknowledgment of a crime, fault or something to one’s disadvantage; open declaration of guilt, failure, debt, accusation, etc.
With the mouth confession is made to salvation. Romans 10:10.
2. Avowal; the act of acknowledging; profession.
Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. 1 Timothy 6:13.
3. The act of disclosing sins or faults to a priest; the disburdening of the conscience privately to a confessor; sometimes called auricular confession.
4. A formulary in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission into a church.
5. The acknowledgment of a debt by a debtor before a justice of the peace, etc., on which judgment is entered and execution issued.
CONFESSIONAL, n. The seat where a priest or confessor sits to hear confessions; a confession-chair.
CONFESSIONARY, n. A confession-chair, as above.
CONFESSIONARY, a. Pertaining to auricular confession.
CONFESSIONIST, n. One who makes a profession of faith.
CONFESSOR, n.
1. One who confesses; one who acknowledges his sins.
2. One who makes a profession of his faith in the Christian religion. The word is appropriately used to denote one who avows his religion in the face of danger, and adheres to it, in defiance of persecution and torture. It was formerly used as synonymous with martyr; afterwards it was applied to those who, having been persecuted and tormented, were permitted to die in peace. It was used also for such Christians as lived a good life, and died with the reputation of sanctity.
3. A priest; one who hears the confessions of others, and has power to grant them absolution.
CONFEST, pp. [for confessed.] Owned; open; acknowledged; apparent; not disputed.
CONFESTLY, adv. [for confessedly.] Avowedly; indisputably. [Little used.]
CONFIDANT, n. [See Confident.]
CONFIDE, v.t. [L., to trust. See Faith.] To trust; to rely on, with a persuasion of faithfulness or veracity in the person trusted or of the reality of a fact; to give credit to; to believe in, with assurance; followed by in. The prince confides in his ministers. The minister confides in the strength and resources of the nation. we confide in the veracity of the sacred historians. We confide in the truth of a report.
CONFIDE, v.t. To entrust; to commit to the charge of, with a belief in the fidelity of the person entrusted; to deliver into possession of another, with assurance of safe keeping, or good management; followed by to. We confide a secret to a friend. The prince confides a negotiation to his envoy. The common interests of the United States are confided to the Congress.
They would take the property out of the hands of those to whom it was confided by the charter.
Congress may, under the constitution, confide to the circuit court, jurisdiction of all offenses against the United States.
CONFIDED, pp. Entrusted; committed to the care of, for preservation, or for performance or exercise.
CONFIDENCE, n. [L. See Confide.]
1. A trusting, or reliance; an assurance of mind or firm belief in the integrity, stability or veracity of another, or in the truth and reality of a fact.
It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Psalm 118:8.
I rejoice that I have confidence in you in all things. 2 Corinthians 7:16.
Mutual confidence is the basis of social happiness.
I place confidence in a statement, or in an official report.
2. Trust; reliance; applied to one’s own abilities, or fortune; belief in one’s own competency.
His times being rather prosperous than calm, had raised his confidence by success.
3. That in which trust is placed; ground of trust; he or that which supports.
Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence. Jeremiah 48:13.
Jehovah shall be thy confidence. Proverbs 3:26.
4. Safety, or assurance of safety; security.
They shall build houses and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence. Ezekiel 28:26.
5. Boldness; courage.
Preaching the kingdom of God with all confidence. Acts 28:31.
6. Excessive boldness; assurance, proceeding forom vanity or a false opinion of one’s own abilities, or excellencies.
Their confidence ariseth from too much credit given to their own wits.
CONFIDENT, a.
1. Having full belief; trusting; relying; fully assured.
I am confident that much may be cone towards the improvement of philosophy.
The troops rush on, confident of success.
2. Positive; dogmatical; as a confident talker.
3. Trusting; without suspicion.
Rome, be as just and gracious unto me, as I am confident and kind to thee.
4. Bold to a vice; having an excess of assurance.
The fool rageth and is confident. Proverbs 14:16.
CONFIDENT, n. One entrusted with secrets; a confidential or bosom friend.
[This word has been usually, but improperly, written confidant. I have followed the regular English orthography, as Coxe and Mitford have done.]
CONFIDENTIAL, a.
1. Enjoying the confidence of another; trusty; that may be safely trusted; as a confidential friend.
2. That is to be treated or kept in confidence; private; as a confidential matter.
3. Admitted to a special confidence.