Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
NOTWITHSTANDING — NUN
NOTWITHSTANDING, the participle of withstand, with not prefixed, and signifying not opposing; nevertheless. It retains in all cases its participial signification. For example, “I will surely rend the knigdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant; notwithstanding, in thy days I will not do it, for david thy father’s sake.” 1 Kings 11:11-12. In this passage there is an ellipsis of that, after notwithstanding. That refers to the former part of the sentence, I will rend the kingdom from thee; notwithstanding that (declaration or determination,) in thy days I will not do it. in this and in all cases, notwithstanding, either with or without that or this, constitutes the case absolute or independent.
“It is a rainy day, but notwithstanding that, the troops must be reviewed;” that is, the rainy day not opposing or preventing. That, in this case, is a substitute for the whole first clause of the sentence. It is to that clause what a relative is to an antecedent noun, and which may be used in the place of it; notwithstanding which, that is, the rainy day.
“Christ enjoined on his followers not to publish the cures he wrought; but notwithstanding his injunctions, they proclaimed them.” Here, notwithstanding his injunctions, is the case independent or absolute; the injunctions of Christ not opposing or preventing.
This word answers precisely to the latin non obstante, and both are used with nouns or with substitutes for nouns, for sentences or for clauses of sentences. So in the Latin phrase, hoc non obstante, hoc may refer to a single word, to a sentence or to a series of sentences.
NOUGHT. See Naught.
NOUL, n. The top of the head. [Not in use.]
NOULD, ne would, would not.
NOUN, n. [altered from L. name.] In grammar, a name; that sound or combination of sounds by which a thing is called, whether material or immaterial. [See Name.]
NOURISH, v.t. [G. to nourish, cannot be the same word unless they have lost a dental, which may perhaps be the fact.]
1. To feed and cause to grow; to supply a living or organized body, animal or vegetable, with matter which increases its bulk or supplies the waste occasioned by any of its functions; to supply with nutriment.
2. To support; to maintain by feeding. Genesis 47:12.
Whilst I in Ireland nourish a mighty band, I will stir up in England some black storm.
3. To supply the means of support and increase; to encourage; as, to nourish rebellion; to nourish the virtues.
What madness was ti, with such proofs, to nourish their contentions!
4. To cherish; to comfort. James 5:5.
5. To educate; to instruct; to promote growth in attainments. 1 Timothy 4:6.
NOURISH, v.i.
1. To promote growth.
Grains and roots nourish more then leaves. [Elliptical.]
2. To gain nourishment. [Unusual.]
NOURISHABLE, a. Susceptible of nourishment; as the nourishable parts of the body.
NOURISHED, pp. Fed; supplied with nutriment; caused to grow.
NOURISHER, n. The person or thing that nourishes.
NOURISHING, ppr.
1. Feeding; supplying with aliment; supporting with food.
2. Promoting growth; nutritious; as a nourishing diet.
NOURISHMENT, n.
1. That which serves to promote the growth of animals or plants, or to repair the waste of animal bodies; food; sustenance; nutriment.
2. Nutrition; support of animal or vegetable bodies.
3. Instruction, or that which promotes growth in attainments; as nourishment and growth in grace.
So they may learn to seek the nourishment of their souls.
NOURITURE. [See Nurture.]
NOURSLING. [See Nursling.]
NOVACULITE, n. [L. a razor.] Razor-stone; Turkey-hone; coticular shist; whet-slate, a variety of argillaceous slate.
NOVATIAN, n. In church history, one of the sect of Novatus or Novatianus, who held that the lapsed might not be received again into communion with the church, and that second marriages are unlawful.
NOVATIANISM, n. The opinions of the Novations.
One Hypolitus, a Roman presbyter, had been seduced into Novatianism.
NOVATION. [See Innovation.]
NOVATOR. [See Innovator.]
NOVEL, a.
1. New; of recent origin or intorduction; not ancient; hence, unusual; as a novel heresy; novel opinions. The proceedings of the court were novel.
2. In the civil law, the novel consititutions are those which are supplemental to the code, and posterior in time to the other books. These contained new decrees of successive emperors.
3. In the common law, the assize of novel disseizin is an action in which the demandant recits a complaint of the disseizin in terms of direct averment, whereupon the sheriff is commanded to reseize the land and chattels thereon, and keep the same in custody till the arrival of the justices of assize.
NOVEL, n.
1. A new or supplemental constitution or decree. [See the Adjective.]
2. A fictitious tale or narrative in prose, intended to exhibit the operation of the passions, and particularly of love.
The coxcomb’s novel and the drunkard’s toast.
NOVELISM, n. Innovation. [Little used.]
NOVELIST, n.
1. An innovator; an asserter of novelty.
2. A writer of a novel or of novels.
3. A writer of news.
NOVELIZE, v.i. To innovate. [Not in use.]
NOVELTY, n. Newness; recentness of origin or introduction.
Novelty is the great parent of pleasure.
NOVEMBER, n. [L. from nine; the ninth month, according to the ancient Roman year, beginning in March.] The eleventh month of the year.
NOVENARY, n. [nine.] The number nine; nine collectively.
NOVENARY, a. Pertaining to the number nine.
NOVENNIAL, a. Done every ninth year.
NOVERCAL, a. [L. a step-mother.] Pertaining to a step-mother; suitable to a step-mother; in the manner of a step-mother.
NOVICE, n. [L. from new.]
1. One who is new in any business; one unacquainted or unskilled; one in the rudiments; a beginner.
I am young, a novice in the trade.
2. One that has entered a religious house but has not taken the vow; a probationer.
3. One newly planted in the church, or one newly converted to the Christian faith. 1 Timothy 3:6.
NOVITIATE, n.
1. The state or time or learning rudiments.
2. In religious houses, a year or other time of probation for the trial of a noveice, to determine whether he has the necessary qualities for living up to the rule to which his vow is to bind him.
NOVITIOUS, a. Newly invented. [Not used.]
NOVITY, n. Newness. [Not used.]
NOW, adv.
1. At the present time.
I have a patient now living at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago.
2. A little while ago; very lately.
They that but now for honor and for plate, made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate.
3. At one time; at another time.
Now high, now low, now master up, now miss.
4. Now sometimes expresses or implies a connection between the subsequent and preceding proposition; often it introduces an inference or an explanation of what precedes.
Not this man, but Barabbas; now Barabbas was a robber. John 18:40.
Then said Mich, now I know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite for my priest. Judges 17:13.
The other great mischief which befalls men, is by their being misrepresented. Now by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander--
5. After this; things being so.
How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor?
6. In supplication, it appears to be somewhat emphatical.
I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart. 2 Kings 20:3.
7. Now sometimes refers to a particular time past specified or understood, and may be defined, at that time. He was now sensible of his mistake.
Now and then, at one time and another, indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals.
They now and then appear in offices of religion.
If there were any such thing as spontaneous generation, a new species would now and then appear.
2. Applied to places which appear at intervals or in succession.
A mead here, ther a heath, and now and then a wood.
Now, now, repeated, is used to excite attention to something immediately to happen.
NOW, n. The present time or moment.
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, but an eternal now does ever last.
Now a days, adv. In this age.
What men of spirit now a days, come to give sober judgment a new plays?
[This is a common colloquial phrase, but not elegant in writing, unless of the more familiar kinds.]
NOWAY, adv. [no and way.] In no manner or degree. [These can hardly be considered as compound words.]
NOWAYS, adv. [no and way.] In no manner or degree. [These can hardly be considered as compound words.]
NOWED, a. Knotted; tied in a knot; used in heraldry.
NOWEL, n. A shout of joy or christmas song.
NOWES, n. The marriage knot.
NOWHERE, adv. Not in any place or state. Happiness is nowhere to be found but in the practice of virtue.
But it is better to write no and where as separate words.
NOWISE, adv. [no and wise; often by mistake written noways.] Not in any manner or degree.
NOXIOUS, a. [L. from hurt.]
1. Hurtful; harmful; baneful; pernicious; destructive; unwholesome; insalubrious; as noxious air, food, climate; pernicious; corrupting to morals; as noxious practices or examples; noxious haunts of vice.
2. Guilty; criminal.
Those who are noxious in the eye of the law. [Little used.]
3. Unfavorable; injurious.
Too frequent appearance in places of public resort is noxious to spiritual promotion.
NOXIOUSLY, adv. Hurtfully; perniciously.
NOXIOUSNESS, n.
1. Hurtfulness; the quality that injures, impairs or destroys; insalubrity; as the noxiousness of foul air.
2. The quality that corrupts or perverts; as the noxiousness of doctrines.
Noy, noyance, noyer, noyful, noyous, noysance. [See Annoy and Nuisance.]
NOYAU, n. A rich cordial.
NOZLE, n. [from nose.] The nose; the extremity of any thing; the snout.
NOZZLE, n. [from nose.] The nose; the extremity of any thing; the snout.
NUBBLE, v.t. [for knubble, from knob, the fist.] To beat or bruise with the fist. [Not used.]
NUBIFEROUS, a. [L. a cloud or fog, and to produce.] Brining or producing clouds.
NUBILE, a. [L. to marry.] Marriageable; of an age suitable for marriage.
NUBILOUS, a. Cloudy.
NUCIFEROUS, a. [L. nut and to bear.] Bearing or producing nuts.
NUCLEUS, n. [L. a nut.]
1. Properly, the kernel of a nut; but in usage, any body about which matter is collected.
2. The body of a comet, called also its head, which appears to be surrounded with light.
NUDATION, n. [L. to make bare.] The act of stripping or making bare or naked.
NUDE, a.
1. Bare.
2. In law, void; of no force.
NUDITY, n.
1. Nakedness.
2. Nudities, in the plural, naked parts which decency requires to be concealed.
3. In painting and sculpture, the naked parts of the human figure, or parts not covered with drapery.
Nudum Pactum, [L.] in law, an agreement that is void or not valid according to the laws of the land.
NUGACITY, n. [L. trifles.] Futility; trifling talk or behavior.
NUGATION, n. [L. to trifle.] The act or practice of trifling. [Little used.]
NUGATORY, a.
1. Trifling; vain; futile; insignificant.
2. Of no force; inoperative; ineffectual. The laws are sometimes rendered nugatory by inexecution. Any agreement may be rendered nugatory by something which contravenes its execution.
NUISANCE, NUSANCE, n. [L. to annoy. Blackstone writes nusance, and it is desirable that his example may be followed.]
1. That which annoys or gives trouble and vexation; that which is offensive or noxious. A liar is a nusance to society.
2. In law, that which incommodes or annoys; something that produces inconvenience or damage. Nusances are public or private; public, when they annoy citizens in general, as obstructions of the highway; private, when they affect individuals only, as when one man erects a house so near his neighbor’s as to throw the water off the roof upon his neighbor’s land or house, or to intercept the light that his neighbor before enjoyed.
NUL, in law, signifies no, not any; as nul diseizin; nul tiel record; nul tort.
NULL, v.t. [L. not any.] To annul; to deprive of validity; to destroy. [Not much used.] [See Annul.]
NULL, a. Void; of no legal or binding force or validity; of no efficacy; invalid. The contract of a minor is null in law, except for necessaries.
NULL, n. Something that has no force or meaning. A cipher is called a null. [Not used.]
NULLIFIDIAN, a. [L. none, and faith.] Of no faith; of no religion or honesty. [Not used.]
NULLIFIED, pp. Made void.
NULLIFY, v.t. [L. none, and to make.] To annul; to make void; to render invalid; to deprive of legal force or efficacy.
NULLITY, n.
1. Nothingness; want of existence.
2. Want of legal force, validity or efficacy.
NUMB, a.
1. Torpid; destitute of the power of sensation and motion; as, the fingers or limbs are numb with cold.
2. Producing numbness; benumbing; as the numb cold night. [Not used nor proper.]
NUMB, v.t. To make torpid; to deprive of the power of sensation or motion; to deaden; to benumb; to stupefy.
For lazy winter numbs the laboring hand.
And numbing coldness has embraced the ear.
NUMBED, pp. Rendered torpid.
NUMBER, n. [Probably the radical sense is to speak, name or tell, as our word tell, in the other dialects, is to number. Number may be allied to name, as the Spaniards use nombre for name, and the French word written with the same letters, is number.]
1. The designation of a unit reference to other units, or in reckoning, counting, enumerating; as, one is the first number; a simple number.
2. An assemblage of two or more units. Two is a number composed of one and one added. Five and three added make the number eight. Number may be applied to any collection or multitude of units or individuals, and therefore is indefinite, unless defined by other words or by figures or signs of definite signification. Hence,
3. More than one; many.
Ladies are always of great use to the party they espouse, and never fail to win over numbers.
4. Multitude.
Number itself importeth not much in armies, where the men are of weak courage.
5. In poetry, measure; the order and quantity of syllables constituting feet, which render verse musical to the ear. The harmony of verse consists in the proper distribution of the long and short syllables, with suitable pauses. In oratory, a judicious disposition of words, syllables and cadences constitutes a kind of measure resembling poetic numbers.
6. Poetry; verse.
I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.
Here the first word numbers may be taken for poetry or verse, and the second for measure.
Yet shoud the Muses bid my numbers roll.
7. In grammar, the difference of termination or form of a word, to express unity or plurality. The termination which denotes one or an individual, is the singular number; the termination that denotes two or more individuals or units, constitues the plural number. Hence we say, a noun, an adjective, a pronoun or a verb is in the singular or the plural number.
8. In mathematics, number is variously distinguished. Cardinal numbers are those which express the amount of units; as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ordinal numbers are those which express order; as first, second, third, fourth, etc.
Determinate number, is that referred to a given unit, as a ternary or three; an indeterminate number, is referred to unity in general, and called quantity.
Homogeneal numbers, are those referred to the same units; those referred to different units are termed heterogeneal.
Whole numbers, are called integers.
A rational number, is one commensurable with unity. A number incommensurable with unity, is termed irrational or surd.
A prime or primitive number, is divisible only by unity; as three, five, seven, etc.
A perfect number, is that whose aliquot parts added together, make the whole number, as 28, whose aliquot parts, 14. 7. 4. 2. 1. make the number 28.
An imperfect number, is that whose aliquot parts added together, make more or less than the number. This is abundant or defedtive; abundant, as 12, whose aliquot parts, 6. 4. 3. 2. 1. make 16; or defective, as 16 whose aliquot parts, 8. 4. 2. 1. make 15 only.
A square number, is the product of a number multiplied by itself; as, 16 is the square number of four.
A cubic number, is the product of a square number by its root; as, 27 is the product of the square number 9 by its root 3.
Golden number, the cycle of the moon, or revolution of 19 years, in which time the conjunctions, oppositions and other aspects of the moon are nearly the same as they were on the same days of the month 19 years before.
NUMBER, v.t.
1. To count; to reckon; to ascertain the units of any sum, collection or multitude.
If a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Genesis 13:16.
2. To reckon as one of a collection or multitude.
He was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12.
NUMBERED, pp. Counted; enumerated.
NUMBERER, n. One that counts numbers.
NUMBERING, ppr. Counting; ascertaining the units of a multitutde or collection.
NUMBERLESS, a. That cannot be counted; innumerable.
NUMBERS, n. The title of the fourth book of the Pentateuch.
NUMBING, ppr. Making torpid.
NUMBLES, n. The entrails of a deer.
NUMBNESS, n. Torpor; that state of a living body in which it has not the power of feeling or motion, as when paralytc or chilled by cold.
NUMERABLE, a. That may be numbered or counted.
NUMERAL, a.
1. Pertaining to number; consisting of number.
The dependence of a long train of numeral progressions.
2. Expressing number; representing number; standing as a substitute for figures; as numeral letters; as X for 10; L for fifty; C for 100; D for 500; M for 1000.
3. Expressing numbers; as numeral characters. The figures we now use to express numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. They are said to be of Arabian origin; but the Arabians might have received them from India. This is a controverted question.
NUMERALLY, adv. According to number; in number.
NUMERARY, a. Belonging to a certain number.
A supernumerary canon, when he obtains a prebend, becomes a numerary canon.
NUMERATE, v.t. To count or reckon in numbers; to calculate. [But enumerate is generally used.]
NUMERATION, n.
1. The act or art of numbering.
Numeration is but still the adding of one unit more, and giving to the whole a new name or sign.
2. In arithmetic, notation; the art of expressing in characters any number proposed in words, or of expressing in words any number proposed in characters; the act or art of writing or reading numbers. Thus we write 1000, for thousand, and 50, we read fifty.
NUMERATOR, n. [L.]
1. One that numbers.
2. In arithmetic, the number in vulgar fractions which shows how many parts of a unit are taken. Thus when a unit is divided into 9 parts, and we take 5, we express it thus, 5/9, that is, five ninths; 5 being the numerator, and 9 the denominator.
NUMERIC, a. [L., number.]
1. Belonging to number; denoting number; consisting in numbers; as numerical algebra; numerical characters.
2. Numerical difference, is that by which one individual is distinguished from another. The same numerical body is identically the same.
NUMERICAL, a. [L., number.]
1. Belonging to number; denoting number; consisting in numbers; as numerical algebra; numerical characters.
2. Numerical difference, is that by which one individual is distinguished from another. The same numerical body is identically the same.
NUMERICALLY, adv.
1. In numbers; as parts of a thing numerically expressed.
2. With respect to number or sameness in number; as, a thing is numerically the same, or numerically different.
NUMERIST, n. One that deals in numbers. [Not used.]
NUMEROSITY, n. The state of being numerous. [Not used.]
NUMEROUS, a. [L.]
1. Being many, or consisting of a great number of individuals; as a numerous army; a numerous body; a numerous people.
2. Consisting of poetic numbers; melodious; musical. In prose, a style becomes numerous by the alternate disposition or intermixture of long and short syllables, or of long and short words; or by a judicious selection and disposition of smooth flowing words, and by closing the periods with important or well sounding words.
NUMEROUSLY, adv. In great numbers.
NUMEROUSNESS, n.
1. The quality of being numerous or many; the quality of consisting of a great number of individuals; as the numerousness of an army or of an assembly.
2. The quality of consisting of poetic numbers; melodiousness; musicalness.
NUMISMATIC, a. [L., money, coin; Gr., to suppose, to sanction, law or custom.] Pertaining money, coin or medals.
NUMISMATICS, n. The science of coins and medals.
NUMISMATOLOGIST, n. One versed in the knowledge of coins and medals.
NUMISMATOLOGY, n. [Gr., coin, and discourse.] The branch of historical science which treats of coins and medals.
NUMMARY, a. [L., a coin.] Pertaining to coin or money.
NUMMULAR, a. [L., a coin.] Pertaining to coin or money.
NUMMULITE, n. [L., money.] Fossil remains of a chambered shell of a flattened form, formerly mistaken for money.
NUMPS, n. A dolt; a blockhead. [Not used.]
NUMSKULL, n. [numb and skull.] A dunce; a dolt; a stupid fellow.
NUMSKULLED, a. Dull in intellect; stupid; doltish.
NUN, n. A woman devoted to a religious life, and who lives in a cloister or nunnery, secluded from the world, under a vow of perpetual chastity.
NUN, n.
1. A web-footed fowl of the size of a duck, with a white head and neck.
2. The blue titmouse.