3. An off cer who draws up lists of the numbers of an army, and regulates the procuration and conveyance of provi sion or ammunition. But is it thus you English bards compose? With Runick lays thus tag insipid prose? And when you should your heroes deeds rehearse, Give us a commissary's list in verse? .Prior. COMMISSION. n. s. [commissio, low *Lat.] 1. The act of entrusting any thing. 2. A trust; a warrant by which any trust is held, or authority exercised. Commission is the warrant, or letters patent, that all men exercising jurisdiction, either ordinary or extraordinary, have for their power. Corvell. Omission to do what is necessary, ·Seals a commission to a blank of danger. Shaksp. The subjects grief Comes through commissions, which compel from Bore the commission of my place and person; The which immediacy may well stand up, And call itself your brother. Shak's. He would have them fully acquainted with the 'nature and extent of their office, and so he joins commission with instruction: by one he conveys South. power, by the other knowledge. 3. A warrant by which a military officer is constituted. Solyman, filled with the vain hope of the conquest of Persia, gave out his commissions into all parts of his empire, for the raising of a mighty Knolles' History of the Turks. I was made a colonel; though gained my commission by the horse's virtues, having leapt over a six-bar gate. Addison's Freeholder. army. He for his son a gay commission buys, Who drinks, whores, tights, and in a duel dies. Pope. Charge; mandate; office; employ ment. 1. To empower; to appoint. Dryden's Encid To COMMISSIONATE. v. a. [from com mission.] To commission; to em power. Not in use. As he was thus sent by his father, so also were the apostles solemnly commissionated by him to preach to the Gentile world, who, with indefa tigable industry and resolute sufferings, pursued the charge; and sure this is competent evidence, that the design was of the most weighty impor Decay of Piety. COMMISSIONER. n. s. [from commission.] One included in a warrant of authority. A commissioner is one who hath commission, as letters patent, or other lawful warrant, to execute any publick office. tance. Corcell. One article they stood upon, which I with your commissioners have agreed upon. Sidney These commissioners came into England, with whom covenants were concluded. Hayward. The archbishop was made one of the commis sioners of the treasury. Clarendon, Suppose itinerary commissioners to inspect, throughout the kingdom, into the conduct of men in office, with respect to morals and religion as well as abilities. Swift. Like are their merits, like rewards they share; That shines a consul, this commissioner. Pope COMMI'SSURE. n. s. [commissura, Latin.j Joint; a place where one part is joined to another. All these inducements cannot countervail the inconvenience of disjointing the commissures with so many strokes of the chissel. Watton. This animal is covered with a strong shell, jointed like armour by four transverse commis sures in the middle of the body, connected by tough membranes. Ray on the Creation, To COMMIT. v. a. [committe, Latin.] 1. To entrust; to give in trust; to put into the hands of another. It is not for your health, thus to commit Your weak condition to the raw cold morning. Shakspeare 2. To put in any place to be kept safe. They who are desirous to commit to memory, might have ease. 2 Mau, Is my muse controul'd By servile awe? Born free, and not be bold! At least I'll.dig a hole within the ground, And to the trusty earth commit the sound. Dryden's Persis 3. 4. A To send to prison; to imprison. Here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph. Shakspeare's Henry 1. They two were committed, at least restraied of their liberty. Clarend So, though my ankle she has quitted, My heart continues still committed; And, like a bail'd and main-priz'd lover, Although at large, I am bound over. Hudibras. To perpetrate; to do ja fault; to be guilty of a crime. Keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse. Shakspeare Letters out of Ulster gave him notice of the inhumane murders committed there upon a mul titude of the protestants. Glarendon A creeping young fellow committed matrimony with a brisk gamesome lass L'Estrang ! "T is policy For son and father to take different sides; Dryden. 5. To put together for a contest: a latinism. How becomingly does Phitopolis exercise his office, and seasonably commit the opponent with the respondent, like a long practised moderator. More's Divine Dial. 6. To place in a state of hostility or incongruity: a latinism. Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd song First taught our English musick how to span Words with just note and accent; not to scan With Midas ears, committing short and long. Milton. COMMITMENT. n. s. [from commit.] 1. Act of sending to prison; imprison ment. It did not appear by any new examinations or commitments, that any other person was discovered or appeached. Bacon. They were glad to compound for his bare com mitment to the Tower, whence he was within Clarendon. few days enlarged. I have been considering, ever since my commitment, what it might be proper to deliver Swift. upon this occasion. 2. An order for sending to prison. COMMITTEE. n. s. [from commit.] Those to whom the consideration or ordering of any matter is referred, either by some court to whom it belongs, or by consent of parties. In parliament, after a bill is read, it is either agreed to and passed, or not agreed to; or neither of these, but referred to the consideration of some appointed by the house to examine it farther, who thereupon are called a committee. Corvell. Manchester had orders to march thither, having a committee of the parliament with him, as there was another committee of the Scottish parliament always in that army; there being also now a committee of both kingdoms residing at London, for the carrying on the war. Clarendon. All corners were filled with covenanters, confusion, committee men, and soldiers, serving each other to their ends of revenge, or power, or profit; and these committee men and soldiers were Walton. possest with this covenant. COMMITTER. n. s. [from commit.] Perpetrator; he that commits. Such an one makes a man not only a partaker of other men's sins, but a deriver of the whole guilt to himself; yet so as to leave the committer as full of guilt as before. COMMITTIBLE. adj. [from commit.] Liable to be committed. South. Besides the mistakes committible in the solary compute, the difference of chronology disturbs Brown. his computes. To COMMIX. v. a. [commisceo, Lat.] To mingle; to blend; to mix; to unite with things in one mass. A dram of gold dissolved in aqua regia, with a dram of copper in aqua fortis commixed, gave Bacon. a great colour. I have written against the spontaneous generation of frogs in the clouds; or, on the earth, out of dust and rain water commixed. Ray. It is manifest, by this experiment, that the commixed impressions of all the colours do stir up and beget a sensation of white; that is, that whiteness is compounded of all the colours. Newton's Opticks. COMMIXION. n. s. [from commix.] COMMIXTION. ( Mixture; incorporation of different ingredients. \ Were thy commixion Greek and Trojan, so That thou could'st say, This hand is Grecian all, And this is Trojan. Shaksp. Troil, and Cressida. Some species there be of middle and participating natures, that is, of birds and beasts, as batts, and some few others, so confirmed and set together, that we cannot define the beginning of end of either; there being a commixtion of both in the whole, rather than adaptation or cement of the one unto the other. Broton's Ful. Err. COMMIXTURE. n. s. [from comnix.] 1. The act of mingling; the state of being mingled; incorporation; union in one mass. In the commixture of any thing that is more, oily or sweet, such bodies are least apt to putref, Bacon. the air working little upon them. 2. The mass formed by mingling different things; composition; compound. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in the bud, Or angels veil'd in clouds; are roses blown, Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixtureshewn. Shakspeare. My love and fear glew'd many friends to thee; And now I fall, thy tough commixtures melt, Impairing Henry, strength'ning misproud York. Shakspeare. There is scarcely any rising but by a commixture of good and evil arts. Bacon. All the circumstances and respect of religion and state intermixed together, in their commixture will better become a royal history, or a Wotton. council-table than a single life. COMMODE. n. s. [French.] The headdress of women. Let them reflect how they would be affected, should they meet with a man on horseback, in his breeches and jack-boots, dressed up in a commede and a nightrail. Spectator. She has contrived to shew her principles by the setting of her commode; so that it will be impossible for any woman that is disaffected to be in the fashion. Addison's Freeholder. She, like some pensive statesman, walks demure, And smiles, and hugs, to make destruction sure; Or under high commodes, with looks erect, Barefac'd devours, in gaudy colours deck'd. Granville. COMMO'DIOUS. adj. [commodus, Lat.] 1. Convenient; suitable; accommodate to any purpose; fit; proper; free from hindrance or uneasine-s. Such a place cannot be commedious to live in ; for, being so near the moon, it had been too near the sun. Raleigh's History To that recess, commodious for surprize, When purple light shall next suffuse the skies, With me repair. Pope's Odyssey 2. Useful; suited to wants or necessities. If they think we ought to prove the ceremo nies commodious, they do greatly deceive themselves. Hooker. Bacchus had found out the making of wire, Maro's muse, Thrice sacred muse, commodious precepts gives, Instructive to the swains. Philips. COMMODIOUSLY. adv. [from commodious.] 1. Conveniently. To pass commodiously this life, sustain'd Wisdom may have framed one and the same thing to serve commodiously for divers ends. Hooker. Galen, upon the consideration of the body, challenges any one to find how the least fibre might be more commodiously placed for use or comeliness, South's Sermons. COMMO'DIOUSNESS. n. s. [from commodious.] Convenience; advantage. The place requireth many circumstances; as the situation near the sea, for the commodiousness of an intercourse with England. Bacon. Of cities, the greatness and riches increase according to the commodiousness of their situation in fertile countries, or upon rivers and havens. Temple. COMMODITY. n. s. [commoditas, Latin.] 1. Interest; advantage; profit. They knew, that howsoever men may seek their own commodity, yet, if this were done with injury unto others, it was not to be suffered. Hooker. Commodity, the bias of the world: 2. Convenience; particular advantage. There came into her head certain verses, which, if she had had present commodity, she would have To the reports of common men commit. Devia 4. Publick, general; serving the use of all. He was advised by a parliament-man not to be strict in reading all the common prayer, but make some variation. Walter. I need not mention the old common shore of Rome, which ran from all parts of the town with the current and violence of an ordinary river. Addison on Italy. 5. Of no rank; mean; without birth of descent. 6. adjoined as a retraction to the other. Sidney. 7. Travellers turn out of the highway, drawn ei- All my fortunes are at sea; Of money, in the commerce and traffick of mankind, the principal use is that of saving the commutation of more bulky commodities. Arbuthnot on Coins. COMMODORE. n. s. [probably corrupted from the Spanish commandador.] The captain who commands a squadron of ships; a temporary admiral. COMMON. adj. [communis, Latin.] 1. Belonging equally to more than one. Though life and sense be common to man and brutes, and their operations in many things alike; yer by this form he lives the life of a man, and not of a brute; and hath the sense of a man, and not of a brute. Hale's Origin of Mankind. He who hath received damage, has, besides the Look, as I blow this feather from my face, To execute his rage, appear too slow; There is an evil which I have seen commen among men. Eccles. The papists were the most common place, and the butt against whom all the arrows were diClarendon rected. Neither is it strange that there should be mysteries in divinity, as well as in the comment operations in naturę. Swift. Prostitute. was common. 'T is a strange thing, the impudence of some women! was the word of a dame who herself L'Estrange. Hipparchus was going to marry a common wo man, but consulted Philander upon the occasion. Spectator 8. [In grammar.] Such verbs as signify both action and passion are called com mon; as, aspernor, I despise, or am de spised and also such nouns as are both masculine and feminine, as parens. COMMON, n. s. [from the adjective.] Aṇ open ground equally used by many persons. Then take we down his load, and turn him off Is not the separate property of a thing the great cause of its endearment? Does any one respect a common as much as he does his garden? South COMMON. adv. [from the adjective.] Commonly; ordinarily. Shakspeare. I am more than common tall. In COMMON. 1. Equally to be participated by a certain number. By making an explicit consent of every com moner necessary to any one's appropriating to himself any part of what is given in comman, children or servants could not sut the meat which their father or master had provided for them is without assigning to every one his pecu comman, Locke. liar part. 2. Equally with another; indiscriminately. In a work of this nature it is impossible to avoid puerilities; it having that in common with dictionaries, and books of antiquities. Arbutb. To COMMON. v. n. [from the noun.] To have a joint right with others in some common ground. COMMON LAW contains those customs and usages which have, by long prescription, obtained in this nation the force of laws. It is distinguished from the statute law, which owe its authority to acts of parliament. COMMON PLEAS. The king's court now held in Westminster Hall, but anciently moveable. Gwyn observes, that till Henry III. granted the magna charta, there were but two courts, the exchequer, and the king's bench, so called because it followed the king; but, upon the grant of that charter, the court of common pleas was erected, and settled at Westminster. All civil causes, both real and personal, are, or were formerly, tried in this court, according to the strict laws of the realm; and Fortescue represents it as the only court for real causes. The chief judge called the lord chief justice of the common pleas, and he is assisted by three or four associates, created by letters patent from the king. Corvell CO'MMONABLE. adj. [from common.] What is held in common. Much good land might be gained from forests and chases, and from other commonable places, so as there be care taken that the poor commoners have no injury. Bacon to Villiars. COMMONAGE. n. s. [from common.] The right of feeding on a common; the joint right of using any thing in common with others. COMMONALTY. n. s. [communauté, Fr.] 1. The common people; the people of the lower rank. Bid him strive 6. A prostitute. Behold this ring, Whose high respect and rich validity Did lack a parallel: yet, for all that, He gave it to a commoner o' th' camp. Shak COMMONITION. n. s. [commonitio, Lat.] Advice; warning; instruction. COMMONLY. adv. [from common.] Frequently; usually; ordinarily; for the most part. This hand of yours requires Much castigation, exercise devout; For here's a strong and sweating devil here, That commonly rebels. Shakspeare's Othelle. A great disease may change the frame of a body, though, if it lives to recover strength, it commonly returns to its natural constitution. Templa COMMONNESS. n. s. [from common.] 1. Equal participation among many. Nor can the commonness of the guilt obviate the censure, there being nothing more frequent than for men to accuse their own faults in other persons. Government of the Tongue 2. Frequent occurrence; frequency. Blot out that maxim, res nolunt diu male administrari: the commonness makes me not know who is the author; but sure he must be some modern. Swift To COMMONPLACE. v. a. To reduce to general heads. I do not apprehend any difficulty in collecting and commonplacing an universal history from the historians. Felton COMMON PLA'CE-BOOK. n. s. A book in which things to be remembered are ranged under general heads. I turned to my commonplace-book, and found his case under the word coquette. Tatler. COMMONS. n. s. 1. The vulgar; the lower people; those who inherit no honours. Little office 2. The hateful commons will perform for us; Except, like curs, to tear us all in pieces. Shak Hathhe not pass'd the nobles and the commons? Shakspeare. These three to kings and chiefs their scenes display, The rest before th' ignoble commons play. Dryd. The gods of greater nations dwell around, And, on the right and left, the palace bound; The commons where they can: the nobler sort, With winding doors wide open, front the court. Dryden. The lower house of parliament, by which the people are represented, and of which the members are chosen by the people. My good lord, " How now for mitigation of this bill Urg'd by the commons Doth his majesty Incline to it, or no? Shakspeare's Henry VI. In the house of commons many gentlemen, unsatisfied of his guilt, durst not condemn him. King Charles. 3. Food; fare; diet: so called from colleges, where it is eaten in common. He painted himself of a dove colour, and took his commons with the pigeons. L'Estrange. Mean while she quench'd her fury at the flood, Andavith a leaten sallad cool'd her blood: Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant; Nor did their minds an equal banquet want. Dryden. The doctor now obeys the summons, Likes both his company and commons. Swift. COMMONWEʼAL. n. s. [from common and seal, or COMMONWEALTH.S qwealth.] 1. A polity; an established form of civil life. Two foundations bear up publick societies: -the one inclination, whereby all men desire sociable life; the other an order agreed upon, touching the manner of their union in living together: the latter is that which we call the law of a commonrveal. Hooker. It was impossible to make a commonreal in Ireland, without settling of all the estates and possessions throughout the kingdom. Davies. A continual parliament would but keep the commonweal in tune, by preserving laws in their vigour. King Charles. There is nobody in the commonwealth of learning who does not profess himself a lover of truth. Locke. 2. The publick; the general body of the people. Such a prince, So kind a father of the commonweal. Shakspeare. Their sons are well tutored by you: you are a good member of the commonwealth. Shaksp. 3. A government in which the supreme power is lodged in the people; a republick. Did he, or do yet any of them, imagine. The gods would sleep to such a Stygian practice, Against that commonwealth which they have founded? Jonson Commonwealths were nothing more in their original, but free cities; though sometimes, by force of order and discipline, they have extended themselves into mighty doininions. Temple. CO'MMORANCE. n. s. [from commoCO'MMORANCY. rant.] Dwelling; habitation; abode; residence. The very quality, carriage, and place of commorance, of witnesses is plainly and evidently set forth. Hale, An archbishop, out of his diocese, becomes subject to the archbishop of the province where he has his abode and commorancy. Ayliffe. CO'MMORANT. adj. [commorans, Lat.] Resident; dwelling; inhabiting. The abbot may demand and recover his monk, that is commorant and residing in another monastery. "Ayliffe's Parergon. COMMO'TION. n. s. [commotio, Latin.] 1. Tumult; disturbance, combustion; sedition publick disorder; insurrection. By flatt'ry he hath won the common hearts; And, when he 'H please to make commotion, 'T is to be fear'd they all will follow him. Shak. 3. Disturbance; restlessness. Sacrifices were offered when an earthquake happened, that he would allay the commotions of the water, and put an end to the earthquake. Woodward's Natural History, COMMO'TIONER. n. s. [from commotion.] One that causes commotions; a disturber of the peace. A word not in use. The people, more regarding commotioners tha commissioners, flocked together, as clouds clus ter against a storm. Hayward. To COMMO'VE. v. a. [commoveo, Latin.] So long as Guyon with her communed, I will commune with you of such things That want no ears but yours. Shakspeare. They would forbear open hostility, and resort unto him peaceably, that they might commun together as friends. Hayward. Then commune, how that day they best may ply Their growing work. Milton's Par. Last. Ideas, as ranked under names, are those that, for the most part, men reason of within themselves, and always those which they comment about with others. |