DEFINING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Defining

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dɪfˈaɪnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Define v. t. (past & past part. defined; pres. part. defining)

To fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end. "To define controversies."

To determine or clearly exhibit the boundaries of; to mark the limits of; as, to define the extent of a kingdom or country.

To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly; as, the defining power of an optical instrument. "Rings... very distinct and well defined."

To determine the precise signification of; to fix the meaning of; to describe accurately; to explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term. "They define virtue to be life ordered according to nature."

Define v. i. To determine; to decide. (Obs.)

See images of 'Defining'

Etymology of 'Defining'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Defining" Quotes from Famous Books

... clash of freedoms that may otherwise arise. The Utopian State will effectually interfere with and prescribe conditions for all sorts of contract, and for this sort of contract in particular it will be in agreement with almost every earthly State, in defining in the completest fashion what things a man or woman may be bound to do, and what they cannot be bound to do. From the point of view of a statesman, marriage is the union of a man and woman in a manner so ...

— A Modern Utopia • H. G. Wells

... to our little rods — defined as unit lengths — the marble slab is no longer a Euclidean continuum, and we are also no longer in the position of defining Cartesian co-ordinates directly with their aid, since the above construction can no longer be carried out. But since there are other things which are not influenced in a similar manner to the little rods (or perhaps not at all) by the temperature ...

— Relativity: The Special and General Theory • Albert Einstein

... complicating influence is the current emphasis on the lay ministry. The general stress on the priesthood of all believers had made both clergy and laity less sure about the role of the clergy, even to the point, figuratively speaking, of seeming to unordain the ordained, and without clearly defining the ministry of the ...

— Herein is Love • Reuel L. Howe

... themselves wrong, cannot lead to anything but evil."[7] Thus he defines the absolute pacifist as one who accepts the ends and means argument of Huxley, which is really an argument based upon expediency, rather than defining him correctly as one who insists that violence and the taking of human life are the greatest evils, under any conditions, and therefore cannot be justified, even if they could be used for the ...

— Introduction to Non-Violence • Theodore Paullin

... Socrates, that you and Laches are not defining courage in the right way; for you have forgotten an excellent saying which I have heard from ...

— Laches • Plato

More quotes...