Word Meanings - STATE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

standing, position, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See Stand, and cf. 1. The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any given time. State is a term nearly synonymous with "mode," but of a meaning more extensive, and is not exclusively

Additional info about word: STATE

standing, position, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See Stand, and cf. 1. The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any given time. State is a term nearly synonymous with "mode," but of a meaning more extensive, and is not exclusively limited to the mutable and contingent. Sir W. Hamilton. Declare the past and present state of things. Dryden. Keep the state of the question in your eye. Boyle. 2. Rank; condition; quality; as, the state of honor. Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me. Shak. 3. Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance. She instructed him how he should keep state, and yet with a modest sense of his misfortunes. Bacon. Can this imperious lord forget to reign, Quit all his state, descend, and serve again Pope. 4. Appearance of grandeur or dignity; pomp. Where least og state there most of love is shown. Dryden. 5. A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself. His high throne, . . . under state Of richest texture spread. Milton. When he went to court, he used to kick away the state, and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl. Swift. 6. Estate, possession. Daniel. Your state, my lord, again in yours. Massinger. 7. A person of high rank. Latimer. 8. Any body of men united by profession, or constituting a community of a particular character; as, the civil and ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf. Estate, n., 6. 9. The principal persons in a government. The bold design Pleased highly those infernal states. Milton. 10. The bodies that constitute the legislature of a country; as, the States-general of Holland. 11. A form of government which is not monarchial, as a republic. Well monarchies may own religion's name, But states are atheists in their very fame. Dryden. 12. A political body, or body politic; the whole body of people who are united one government, whatever may be the form of the government; a nation. Municipal law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state. Blackstone. The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they found a state without a king, and a church without a bishop. R. Choate. 13. In the United States, one of the commonwealth, or bodies politic, the people of which make up the body of the nation, and which, under the national constitution, stands in certain specified relations with the national government, and are invested, as commonwealth, with full power in their several spheres over all matters not expressly inhibited. Note: The term State, in its technical sense, is used in distinction from the federal system, i. e., the government of the United States. 14. Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme. Note: When state is joined with another word, or used adjectively, it denotes public, or what belongs to the community or body politic, or to the government; also, what belongs to the States severally in the American Union; as, state affairs; state policy; State laws of Iowa. Nascent state. See under Nascent. -- Secretary of state. See Secretary, n., 3. -- State bargea royal barge, or a barge belonging to a government. -- State bed, an elaborately carved or decorated bed. -- State carriage, a highly decorated carriage for officials going in state, or taking part in public processions. -- State paper, an official paper relating to the interests or government of a state. Jay. -- State prison, a public prison or penitentiary; -- called also State's prison. -- State prisoner, one is confinement, or under arrest, for a political offense. -- State rights, or States' rights, the rights of the several independent States, as distinguished from the rights of the Federal government. It has been a question as to what rights have been vested in the general government. -- State's evidence. See Probator, 2, and under Evidence. -- State sword, a sword used on state occasions, being borne before a sovereign by an attendant of high rank. -- State trial, a trial of a person for a political offense. -- States of the Church. See under Ecclesiastical. Syn. -- State, Situation, Condition. State is the generic term, and denotes in general the mode in which a thing stands or exists. The situation of a thing is its state in reference to external objects and influences; its condition is its internal state, or what it is in itself considered. Our situation is good or bad as outward things bear favorably or unfavorably upon us; our condition is good or bad according to the state we are actually in as respects our persons, families, property, and other things which comprise our sources of enjoyment. I do not, brother, Infer as if I thought my sister's state Secure without all doubt or controversy. Milton. We hoped to enjoy with ease what, in our situation, might be called the luxuries of life. Cock. And, O, what man's condition can be worse Than his whom plenty starves and blessings curse Cowley.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of STATE)

• Affection
• Influence
• condition
• state
• inclination
• bent
• mood
• humor
• feeling
• love
• desire
• propensity
• Affirm
• Assert
• swear
• testify
• tell
• aver
• propound
• asseverate
• depose
• declare
• endorse
• maintain
• Category
• State
• kind
• predicament
• nature
• order
• mode
• sort
• class
• Condition
• case
• term
• qualification
• requisite
• stipulation
• proviso
• situation
• circumstances
• plight
• Constitution
• Temperament
• frame
• temper
• character
• habit
• government
• polity
• consistence
• composition
• substance
• organization
• structure
• regulation
• law

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of STATE)

• Suppress
• repress
• suppose
• imply
• deny
• contradict
• retract

Related words: (words related to STATE)

• CLASSIFIC
  Characterizing a class or classes; relating to classification.
• MAINTAIN
  by the hand; main hand + F. tenir to hold . See 1. To hold or keep in any particular state or condition; to support; to sustain; to uphold; to keep up; not to suffer to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace;
• CHARACTERISTIC
  Pertaining to, or serving to constitute, the character; showing the character, or distinctive qualities or traits, of a person or thing; peculiar; distinctive. Characteristic clearness of temper. Macaulay.
• STATESMANLIKE
  Having the manner or wisdom of statesmen; becoming a statesman.
• CLASSIFICATORY
  Pertaining to classification; admitting of classification. "A classificatory system." Earle.
• IMPLY
  1. To infold or involve; to wrap up. "His head in curls implied." Chapman. 2. To involve in substance or essence, or by fair inference, or by construction of law, when not include virtually; as, war implies fighting. Where a mulicious act is
• HUMOR
  A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors." Sir W. Temple. 3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids
• CONTRADICTABLE
  Capable of being contradicting.
• STATEHOOD
  The condition of being a State; as, a territory seeking Statehood.
• CLASSICISM
  A classic idiom or expression; a classicalism. C. Kingsley.
• ENDORSER
  See INDORSER
• CATEGORY
  One of the highest classes to which the objects of knowledge or thought can be reduced, and by which they can be arranged in a system; an ultimate or undecomposable conception; a predicament. The categories or predicaments -- the former a Greek
• CHARACTER
  1. A distinctive mark; a letter, figure, or symbol. It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye. Holder. 2. Style of writing or printing; handwriting;
• AFFIRMATIVELY
  In an affirmative manner; on the affirmative side of a question; in the affirmative; -- opposed to negatively.
• HABITURE
  Habitude.
• QUALIFICATION
  1. The act of qualifying, or the condition of being qualified. 2. That which qualifies; any natural endowment, or any acquirement, which fits a person for a place, office, or employment, or which enables him to sustian any character with success;
• ASSERT
  self, claim, maintain; ad + serere to join or bind together. See 1. To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate. Nothing is more shameful . . . than to assert anything to
• TEMPER SCREW
  1. A screw link, to which is attached the rope of a rope-drilling apparatus, for feeding and slightly turning the drill jar at each stroke. 2. A set screw used for adjusting.
• CLASSIS
  An ecclesiastical body or judicat (more info) 1. A class or order; sort; kind. His opinion of that classis of men. Clarendon.
• RETRACTOR
  One who, or that which, retracts. Specifically: In breech-loading firearms, a device for withdrawing a cartridge shell from the barrel.
• GOOD-HUMORED
  Having a cheerful spirit and demeanor; good-tempered. See Good- natured.
• PREREQUISITE
  Previously required; necessary as a preliminary to any proposed effect or end; as, prerequisite conditions of success.
• CREBRICOSTATE
  Marked with closely set ribs or ridges.
• INHABITATE
  To inhabit.
• SAGEBRUSH STATE
  Nevada; -- a nickname.
• UNFRAME
  To take apart, or destroy the frame of. Dryden.
• OLD LINE STATE
  Maryland; a nickname, alluding to the fact that its northern boundary in Mason and Dixon's line.
• ENSTATE
  See INSTATE
• DISTEMPERATE
  1. Immoderate. Sir W. Raleigh. 2. Diseased; disordered. Wodroephe.