| 释义 |
▪ I. sense, n.|sɛns|
Forms: 6 cense, sens, 5–8 sence, 7 Sc. senss, 5– sense.
[a. F. sens or ad. L. sensus (u stem), perception, feeling, faculty of perception, meaning, f. sentīre to feel. Cf. Pr. sens, sentz, Sp. seso, Pg. siso, It. senso.]
I. Faculty of perception or sensation.
1. a. Each of the special faculties, connected with a bodily organ, by which man and other animals perceive external objects and changes in the condition of their own bodies. Usually reckoned as five—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Also called outward sense or external sense (cf. 8).
Earlier called the five wits: see wit.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 127 Eyther within or withoutforth, that is to saye eyther in the conscyence, or in the outwarde censes. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 112 The common sense..is therefore so called, because it geueth iudgement, of al the fiue outwarde senses. 1647Cowley Mistr., Not Fair 21 My Reason strait did to my Senses shew, That they might be mistaken too. 1669Holder Elem. Speech 1 Of the Five Senses, Two are usually and most properly called the Senses of Learning..; And these are Hearing and Seeing. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. xix. §10 How is he prepared easily to swallow, not only against all Probability, but even the clear Evidence of his Senses, the Doctrine of Transubstantiation? 1698Farquhar Love & Bottle i. i, I must have the evidence of more senses than one to confirm me of its truth. 1739Hume Hum. Nature ii. i. (1874) I. 336 A, The only defect of our senses is, that they give us disproportion'd images of things. 1753J. Collier Art Torment. Concl. (1811) 221 With various inventions of disagreeableness for offending some or all of the senses! 1835Beckford Alcobaça & Batalha 111 My sense of hearing is painfully acute. 1841T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (1871) 860 The sense of touch in Mammalia is diffused over the whole surface of the body.
†b. Used for: An organ of sense. Obs.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 7 Wyssheth that he neuer had had eyes to se..neyther eares to here..ne other senses to haue knowen [etc.]. 1538Starkey England 48 To the hede, wyth the yes, yerys, and other sensys therin. 1604Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 154 Mine Eyes, mine Eares, or any Sence.
c. pl. The faculties of physical perception or sensation as opposed to the higher faculties of intellect, spirit, etc.
1841Emerson Ess. vii. Prudence ⁋2 Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. Ibid. ⁋3 The world of the senses is a world of shows. 1865M. Arnold Ess. in Crit. Ser. i. vi. (1886) 215 The life of the senses has its deep poetry.
d. Applied to similar faculties of perception, not scientifically delimited, or only conjectured to exist.
muscular sense: see muscular a. 1. sixth sense: see quot. 1829; also, the feelings connected with sexual pleasure.
1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. ii. §3 Had Mankind been made with but four Senses, the Qualities then, which are the Object of the Fifth Sense, had been as far from our notice, Imagination, and Conception, as now any belonging to a Sixth, Seventh, or Eighth Sense, can possibly be. 1699Maundrell Acc. Turks in Journ. Jerus. (1721) T 2 b, They know hardly any Pleasure but that of the sixth Sense. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 405 We may possibly be capable of twenty senses, but being provided with inlets only for five, have no more conception of the others than a blind man has of light. 1822–9Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) IV. 22 The bat appears to be sensible of the presence of external objects..that are neither seen, smelt, heard, touched, or tasted... And hence many naturalists have ascribed a sixth sense to this animal. Ibid. 23 In Germany it has of late been attempted to be shown that every man is possessed of a sixth sense [viz. a bodily feeling of health and elasticity, or of lassitude and fatigue]. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871) II. 121 Certainly it was in God's power to create beings who should communicate with nature by innumerable other senses than those few which we possess.
e. That one of the senses which is indicated by the context. Now rare or Obs.
1607Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 120 When by and by the dinne of Warre gan pierce His readie sence. 1626B. Jonson Staple of N. iii. iv, Ha? I am somewhat short In my sense too... My hearing is very dead, you must speake quicker. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xi. ⁋23 The process of making Inck being..noysom and ungrateful to the Sence. 1733Pope Ep. Cobham 53 So Darkness strikes the sense no less than Light. a1774Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 319 Salts, metals, plants, ordures of every kind..make one mass of corruption, equally displeasing to the sense, and injurious to the health. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xliv, As he gazed, he perceived the countenance of the knight change and begin to fade, till his whole form gradually vanished from his astonished sense! 1819Scott Ivanhoe xliii, The fearful picture of a vision, which appals my sense with hideous fantasies, but convinces not my reason. 1833Tennyson Two Voices 285 That heat of inward evidence, By which he doubts against the sense.
f. With defining word: the intuitive knowledge or appreciation of what action or judgement is appropriate to a given situation or sphere of activity. (Closely related to sense 1 d.)
1879,1880[see colour-sense s.v. colour, color n. 19]. 1923G. Atherton Black Oxen vii. 23 The reportorial news-sense died painlessly. 1926, etc. [see dress sense s.v. dress n. 4 a]. 1932, etc. [see clothes-sense s.v. clothes n. pl. 4]. 1932E. V. Lucas Reading, Writing & Remembering i. 29 Had he [sc. Dickens] been possessed of more prudence or money-sense..his last years would have been more leisurely and peaceful. 1957H. Read Tenth Muse xxii. 182 The producer, and the actor, are firmly convinced that there is some sixth sense, a feeling for what is possible in the theatre, a ‘stage-sense’.
2. transf. An instinctive or acquired faculty of perception or accurate estimation. Now chiefly const. of (locality, distance, etc.).
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 82 b, There is saith Tullie, in the Dogge a merueylous perceiuerance and sharpe sense to know who doth him good. a1586Sidney Arcadia i. (Sommer) 84 b, This Basilius (hauing the quicke sense of a louer) tooke, as though his Mistres had giuen a secret reprehension. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. Introd. iv, Ne let him then admire, But yield his sence to be too blunt and bace, That no'te without an hound fine footing trace. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 308 Take from them now The sence of reckning. 1606― Tr. & Cr. iv. v. 54 A woman of quick sence. 1888,1889[see locality 8].
3. In generalized use: The senses viewed as forming a single faculty in contradistinction to intellect, will, etc.; the exercise or function of this faculty, sensation.
1538Starkey England 48 Al wyt, reson, and sens, felyng, lyfe, and al other natural powar, spryngyth out of the hart. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 9 Nothinge is in vnderstandinge, but the same was fyrst in sense. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §15. 180 Thus wee adore vertue, though to the eyes of sense shee bee invisible. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. xi. §6 Though mathematical demonstrations depend not upon sense. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 226 What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide. 1794Paley Evid. (1825) II. 324 A body is a real thing, an object of sense. 1794S. Williams Vermont (1809) I. 208 The only objects, on which the Indian had employed his reason, were those of external sense. 1827Wordsw. Eccl. Sonn. ii. xxx. 2 The Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense, And to her God restored by evidence Of things not seen. 1877E. Caird Philos. Kant Introd. v. 91 The doctrine that sense is confused thought.
4. a. pl. The faculties of corporeal sensation considered as channels for gratifying the desire for pleasure and the lusts of the flesh. Also sing., any one of such faculties so regarded.
1597Pilgr. Parnassus iv. 480 Ile bringe you to sweet wantoninge yonge maides Wheare you shall all youre hungrie sences feaste. 1608Yorkshire Trag. iv. 69 That heauen should say we must not sin, and yet made women! giues our sences waie to finde pleasure, which being found confounds vs. a1657Mure Sonn. vi. 5 Thy beutyes did my sensses suire suppryse, Or eir thy sight my ravischt eyes did blesse. 1720Mrs. Manley Power of Love (1741) 239 To take in whole Nature,..and have her every Sense gratify'd with the agreeable Feast of Variety! 1819Shelley Cenci i. i. 69 Seeing I please my senses as I list. 1820Byron Juan iv. xxvii, Love was born with them, in them, so intense, It was their very spirit—not a sense.
b. collect. sing.
a1586Sidney Arcadia i. (Sommer) 52 b, This bastard Loue..vtterly subuerts the course of nature, in making reason giue place to sense. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. ii. 169 Can it be, That Modesty may more betray our Sence Then womans lightnesse? 1657–83Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) I. 230 She [the soul]..oft has..escaped the inescations of sense. 1738Wesley Hymn, ‘Infinite Power, Eternal Lord’ v, But Flesh and Sense, enslav'd to Sin Drawing best Thoughts away. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 123 But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, And sensual bliss is all the nation knows. 1852M. Arnold Empedocles ii. 374 Some bondage of the flesh.., Some slough of sense. 1871J. R. Macduff Mem. Patmos xviii. 249 The life of sense—the life of selfish and sensuous pleasure.
†5. Capability of feeling, as a quality of the body and its parts; liability to feel pain, irritation, etc. to the sense, to the quick. Obs.
1563–83Foxe A. & M. 2083/1 He did lye..with his heeles so hye, yt by meanes the bloud was fallen from his feete, his feet wer almost without sense for a long time. 1604Shakes. Oth. v. i. 11, I haue rub'd this yong Quat almost to the sense, And he growes angry. 1612Bacon Ess., Death (Arb.) 384 For the most vitall parts are not the quickest of sence. 1672Wiseman Wounds ii. x. 69 The wound..extinguished both Sence and Motion of the Member. 1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 150 A..nervous Ligament..apt to stretch and shrink again as need requires, and void of sence. 1759T. Wallis Farrier's Dict. s.v. Teeth, But all within the sockets of the jaws is..covered with a thin membrane of exquisite sense. 1771J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (ed. 4) 313 He was without Sense, and cold all over his Body.
6. a. pl. A general term for the faculties of perception (including the ‘five senses’: see 1), which are in abeyance when their owner is asleep or otherwise unconscious. Also sing., any one of these faculties. Cf. 10.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 8 O Sleepe..how haue I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids downe, And steepe my Sences in Forgetfulnesse? 1700Dryden Sigism. & Guisc. 749 The creeping Death Benum'd her Senses first, then stopp'd her Breath. c1742Gray Ignorance 18 Dost thou..dews Lethean through the land dispense To steep in slumbers each benighted sense? 1762Lloyd Poems 115 And gently lull my senses all the while With placid poems in the sinking stile! 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 439 Before ten his senses were gone. 1892Bierce In Midst of Life 109 He seated himself on a log, and, with senses all alert, began his vigil.
b. collect. sing. The perceptive faculty of a conscious animate being.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xx. 57 Pictures..are but dead things, & in whom there is no sence or feeling. 1635Laud Diary 26 Oct., I found him past sense, and giving up the ghost. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 289 There gentle sleep..with soft oppression seis'd My droused sense. a1699A. Halkett Autobiog. (1875) 8 With that hee fell downe in a chaire..as one without all sence. 1768Pennant Brit. Zool. I. Pref. 10 Through every species of animal life,..to that point where sense is almost extinct, and vegetation commences. 1805–6Cary Dante, Inf. vi. 1 My sense reviving, that erewhile had droop'd With pity for the kindred shades.
7. a. Applied to faculties of the mind or soul compared or contrasted with the bodily senses; usually with some defining word, as inner sense, interior sense, internal sense, inward sense. moral sense: see moral a. 1 d.
1566J. Alday tr. Boaistuau's Theat. World T iv, Knowing that he had to exercise his fancie and other interior senses. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. iii. (1636) 102 Not sensibly champing it with their teeth but partaking it by the sence of the soule. 1672Hoole Comenius' Vis. World xlii. 87 The inward Senses are three. The Common-sense... The Phantasie... The Memory. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. i. §4 This Source of Ideas, every Man has wholly in himself: And though it be not Sense, as having nothing to do with external Objects; yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be call'd internal Sense. But as I call the other Sensation, so I call this Reflection. 1732Law Serious C. xiv. (ed. 2) 256 They would soon see that the spirit of devotion was like any other sense or understanding. 1779Mirror No. 48 ⁋3 The truth of perception, in our internal senses, employed in morals and criticism. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (ed. 4) I. 239 note, His sensations, and impressions, whether of his outward senses, or the inner sense of imagination. 1847Helps Friends in C. i. 10 All the senses, if you might so call them, of the soul..that is, the affections and the perceptions. 1870[see illative a. 3].
b. reprobate sense: used to render the Vulgate version of Rom. i. 28 in reprobum sensum (Gr. εἰς ἀδόκιµον νοῦν, A.V. ‘to a reprobate minde’).
1550Crowley Way to Wealth 418 He hath geuen the ouer into a reprobate sence. 1680Burnet Rochester (1692) Pref. 11 It is much to be feared they are given up to a reprobate sense.
†8. Capacity for mental feeling; sensibility. Obs.
1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. i, I should be deade of sense, to viewe defame Blur my bright love. 1608Yorkshire Trag. iv. 42 Sir, you haue much wrought with mee. I feele you in my soule... I neuer had sence til now.
9. Capacity for perception and appreciation of (beauty, humour, some quality, etc.). Rarely const. for. Formerly also without const.: † Feeling or sensibility in matters of artistic taste.
1604Shakes. Oth. ii. i. 71 Tempests themselues, high Seas, and howling windes..As hauing sence of Beautie, do omit Their mortall Natures, letting go safely by The Diuine Desdemona. a1704T. Brown Imit. 1st Sat. Persius Wks. 1730 I. 54 His sense is smothered, and his judgement dies. a1704― Praise of Poverty ibid. 97 They have no taste of wit, and sense of arts and sciences. 1715Pope Let. to J. Craggs 15 July, We talk much of fine Sense, refin'd Sense, and exalted Sense. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 373 The sense of beauty I consider a mixture of the senses of the body and soul. 1875M. Arnold God & Bible v. 244 The sense which English people have for fact and for evidence will tell them that [etc.]. 1878C. Stanford Symb. Christ i. 4 The Bible..delights our sense of the picturesque. 1885J. Payn Talk of Town I. 222 William Henry, who had a strong sense of humour. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio vi. 106 The live broadcast seems to have a greater sense of occasion. 1974R. Adams Shardik lvi. 472 From natural awe and sense of occasion, they did not press forward.
10. a. pl. The mental faculties in their normal condition of sanity; one's ‘reason’ or ‘wits’. (Cf. 6.) in one's (right) senses, in one's right mind. to bring (a person) to his senses: to cure of his folly (one who is behaving ‘madly’). (to frighten, etc.) out of one's (seven) senses: out of one's wits.
1568Grafton Chron. II. 638 His senses were moued, and his wittes disturbed. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xv. 16 As cleane bereft of sences [he] made towardes his enemies. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables lxviii. 67 What Man in his Right Senses..would make himself a Slave for Superfluities! 1694Motteux Rabelais iv. xiii, The Filly was..scar'd out of her seven Senses. 1727Gay Begg. Op. iii. xlii, You shall..mortify yourself into reason, with..a little handsome discipline to bring you to your senses. 1787F. Burney Diary May, I asked him whether he was really in his senses? 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xli, Sometimes he would be in such fits of violence, that we almost thought he had lost his senses. 1835Corrie in Holroyd Mem. (1890) 17, I thought with myself that the dog ought to be flogged out of his seven senses if he were not happy. 1893Dunmore Pamirs I. 187 The public..would think that the artist had taken leave of his senses.
†b. sing. (with the same meaning). Obs.
1590Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) H 2, Ne're was the Queene of Cypresse halfe so glad, As is Angelica to see her Lord, Her dear Orlando, settled in his sense. 1605Shakes. Lear iv. iv. 9 In the restoring his bereaued Sense. 1694Penn Rise & Progr. Quakers v. 99 He had the Comfort of a short Illness, and the Blessing of a clear Sense to the last.
11. a. Natural understanding, intelligence, esp. as bearing on action or behaviour; practical soundness of judgement.
See also common sense 2, 2 b, good sense, horse-sense.
1684Roscommon Ess. Tr. Verse 162 Pride..Proceeds from want of Sense or want of Thought. 1690Norris Refl. Cond. Hum. Life (1691) 44 For first, 'tis reckon'd a notable point of Learning to understand variety of Languages. This alone gives a Man a Title to Learning without one Grain of Sense. 1727Arbuthnot John Bull i. viii, The Parson of the Parish preaching one Day with more Zeal than Sense [1712 a little sharply] against Adultery. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Prior Wks. III. 131 If we can suppose him [Dryden] vexed, it would be hard to deny him sense enough to conceal his uneasiness. 1782F. Burney Cecilia vi. i, You speak, ma'am, like a lady of sense. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 169 The facility of Charles was such as has perhaps never been found in any man of equal sense. 1880Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 291 Alvan had a saying, that want of courage is want of sense.
b. to have the sense: to be wise enough to do something. Similarly, to have too much sense to, to have more sense than to do something.
a1701Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 56 Which if they should have the sence to do..they might shake off the Turkish yoak. 1735Pope Donne Sat. ii. 2 As early as I knew This Town, I had the sense to hate it too. 1735― Ep. Lady 87 Flavia's a Wit, has too much sense to Pray. 1800Paget in P. Papers (1896) I. 184 My courier had the good sense to make two men with lanterns precede the carriage. 1826Lamb Juke Judkins, He had slipped away to an eminent fruiterer's, about three doors distant, which I never had the sense to think of. 1847E. Brontë Wuthering Heights iv, They [the children] entirely refused to have it [a foundling] in bed with them,..and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs. Mod. He has more sense than to go where he is not wanted.
II. Actual perception or feeling.
12. A feeling or perception of (something external) through the channels of touch, taste, etc.; the feeling or consciousness of some bodily affection, as pain, fatigue, comfort or discomfort, etc. † Also (rarely) absol. a sensation.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (Sommer) 186 He..beating her with wandes he had in his hande, she crying for sense of payne, or hope of succour. Ibid. iii. 306 b, Fire, burne me quite till sense of burning leaue me. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 289 The Lybian horsses..have no sence of their labors. a1628Preston Breastpl. Faith (1630) 13 Before you will be healed, you must have a sense of your sickness. 1669H. Stubbe in Birch Life Boyle (1744) 192 It creates in the throat such a sense, as remains after drinking pepper-posset. 1675–6Boyle in Phil. Trans. No. 122. 522 The immediate contact of the Ingredients and the skin produc'd a sense of heat. 1709Floyer Cold Bathing i. iv. 98 The way to prepare our Body for Cold Baths..is to wash it all over in warm Water first..and so every Morning use cooler till it can bear the Sense of very Cold Water. 1820Keats Isabella xxxiv, Like a lance, Waking an Indian..With cruel pierce, and bringing him again Sense of the gnawing fire at heart and brain. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxiv. 305 Astringent injections, so weak that when used, they may produce merely a sense of titillation. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such x. 182 An idle craving without sense of flavours.
13. A more or less vague perception or impression of (an outward object, as present or imagined).
1596Spenser F.Q. vi. x. 42 Lightned..with continuall candlelight, which delt A doubtfull sense of things, not so well seene, as felt. 1647C. Harvey Schola Cordis xxxiv. 12 And by Thy light Possesse my sight With sense of an eternall day. 1798Wordsw. Poems Imag., Tintern Abb. 95 A sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused. 1855Bagehot Biogr. Stud. 334 He [Cobden] excited a personal interest; he left what may be called a sense of himself among his professed enemies. 1876Henley Life & D. xxxiv. Bk. Verses (1888) 100 And the darkening air Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night. 1887W. James in Mind XII. 209 Such expressions as the abysmal vault of heaven, the endless expanse of ocean,..give the sense of an enormous horizon.
14. a. A more or less indefinite consciousness or impression of (a fact, state of things, etc.) as present or impending.
1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 338 What sense had I, in [Q. 1, 2 of] her stolne houres of Lust? 1722De Foe Plague (1756) 285 Perhaps it may be thought by some, after the Sense of the Thing was over, an officious canting of religious Things. 1742Gray Eton 53 No sense have they of ills to come. 1759Hurd Moral Dial. iv. 133 Her parliaments were disposed to wave all disputes about the stretch of her prerogative, from a sense of their own and the common danger. 1849Helps Friends in C. ii. i. (1854) I. 266 The keenness of pursuit thus engendered [in reading]..takes away the sense of dulness in details. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 592 In a very few days the confusion..was at an end, and the kingdom wore again its accustomed aspect. There was a general sense of security. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. 67 There are few books..that do not sadden us by a sense of incompleteness. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §2. 466 His words..startled English ears with a sense of coming danger to the national liberty.
b. const. a dependent statement or question.
1683Pennsylv. Arch. I. 83 He gave Me a kind of cold Answer.., and I had a real sence upon Me, that he is not Right to thy Interest. 1698A. Brand Emb. Muscovy into China 22 The Resurrection (which they believe, without the least sense whither they are to go afterwards). 1713Johnson Guardian No. 5 ⁋4 Which gives the Mother an uneasie Sense, that Mrs. Jane really is what her Parent has a mind to continue to be. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede x, Seth, always timid in his behaviour towards his mother, from the sense that he had no influence over her. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. III. lxxxii. 84 The spirit of Puritanism, with..its sense..that there are times when Agag must be hewn in pieces before the Lord.
15. a. Mental apprehension, appreciation, or realization of (some truth, fact, state of things). Also, † comprehension, perception of the meaning of.
a1540Barnes Wks. (1573) 360/2 Chrisostome sayth, Behold I see men that haue no trew sence of holy Scripture: yea they vnderstand nothyng at all therof. 1612Bacon Ess., Praise (Arb.) 350 The common people vnderstand not many excellent vertues:..but of the highest vertues they haue no sense or perceiuing at all. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables ccxlvii. 214 The True Intent of This Fable is to Possess us with a Just Sense of the Vanity and Folly of these Craving Appetites. 1758S. Hayward Serm. xiv. 402 To have a just sense of the worth of a soul. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. II. i. ii. 43 He seemed visited by a sense of the vanity of all things. 1871Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 175 The same sense of the puniness of man in the centre of a cruel and frowning universe.
b. The recognition of (a duty, virtue, etc.) as incumbent upon one, or as a motive or standard for one's own conduct.
1604Shakes. Oth. i. i. 132 Do not beleeue That from the sence of all Ciuilitie, I thus would play and trifle with your Reuerence. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 145 These fellows have no sense of gratitude. 1779Mirror No. 35, I was conscious of an inclination to oblige, and a quick sense of propriety. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. 223 They would suffer no motives to influence them but a sense of truth and justice. 1848J. Mitchel in State Trials VI. 697, I have acted in this business, from the first, under a strong sense of duty. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xiii. (1876) 296 He appealed to their sense of feudal honour.
†c. (one's) sense of things: perception or judgement of what is right, fitting, etc. Obs.
a1715Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 327 He went into the humours of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond his own sense of things. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 98 Whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing, than Deliverance from Affliction.
16. a. Emotional consciousness of something; a glad or sorrowful, grateful or resentful recognition of (another person's conduct, an event, a fact or a condition of things).
1604Shakes. Oth. v. i. 32 O braue Iago, honest, and iust, That hast such Noble sense of thy Friends wrong. 1643Baker Chron., Edw. II 149 The King in a calmer humour, beganne to have a sense of the Earle of Lancasters execution. 1642Lanc. Tracts Civil War (Chetham Soc.) 6 Shewing..our heart-breaking sence, and sorrow, for the unhappy..Distraction in your Majesties Dominions. 1662Bk. Com. Prayer, Gen. Thanksgiving, Give us that due sense of all thy mercies. 1664Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 172 He declared the sence his Master had of the great Expressions of kindness which he had received. 1726Broome Pope's Odyss. xxiv. Notes V. 286 The sense I have of this, and other instances of that friendship. 1821Combe Syntax iii. iv. (Chandos) 343 He spoke at once his grateful sense Of her warm friendship and regard. 1825Scott Betrothed xi, While he expressed his sense of the honour with which she now graced him. 1856Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1870) II. 164 No better way of showing our sense of his hospitality..has occurred to us.
†b. with (great, etc.) sense: with (much) emotion, feelingly. Obs.
1666Bunyan Grace Abound. §276 Now this part of my Work I fulfilled with great sense... I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did feel. 1676Lady A. Fanshawe Mem. (1830) 247 Then I did my duty to the Queen, who with great sense condoled my loss. a1715Burnet Own Time (1823) II. 170 He knew, he had led a bad life; (of which he spoke with some sense).
17. A consciousness or recognition of (some quality, condition, etc.) as attaching to oneself; esp. such as is accompanied by inward feeling or emotion, or acts as a motive for conduct.
1614Earl Stirling Doomsday v. lxxxiv, Who have no sence of sinne, nor care of fame. 1662Bk. Com. Prayer, Visit. Sick, That the sense of his weakness may add strength to his faith. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables lix. 59 The smart brings him to a sense of his Errour. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 97 For now I pray'd with a Sense of my Condition. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. iii. i, Who..has done everything in his power to bring your nephew to a proper sense of his extravagance. 1791Cowper Retired Cat 109 Beware of too sublime a sense Of your own worth and consequence! 1833H. Martineau Three Ages ii. 44 The nation was growing bold under a sense of injury. 1867Ruskin Time & Tide ii. §7 The healthy sense of progress, which is necessary to the strength and happiness of men. 1872Sanford Estim. Eng. Kings, Chas. I, 331 The dignity of bearing in Charles..was sustained by a profound sense of self-importance and superiority. 1888Lowell Heartsease & Rue 178 Giving Eve a due sense of her crime. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert vi. 51 To confess herself mistaken was altogether opposed to her sense of personal dignity.
18. An opinion, view, or judgement held or formed:
†a. by an individual. to speak or give one's sense, to express one's opinion. to abound in one's own sense: see abound v.1 5. Obs.
1552–1775 [see abound v.1 5]. 1620–55I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 24 These Monuments..I have not seen, otherwise I would give my Sense upon them. 1650Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 13 If I may be permitted to speak my sense. 1656Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1687) 171/2 Not engaging himself in publick Affairs;.. because the Athenians were accustomed to Laws different from his sense. a1734North Exam. i. ii. §138 (1740) 107 Under the Banner of &c. comes the Earl of Shaftsbury, and the Lords of his Sense. 1747B. Hoadly Suspicious Husb. i. i, My Lord Coke, in a Case I read this Morning, speaks my Sense. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxiv. 80 The entail of the Crown was drawn according to the sense of the king, and probably in words dictated by him.
b. by an assemblage of persons (or by a majority of their number). Now somewhat arch. to take the sense of, to ascertain the general feeling or opinion of.
1654Goddard in Introd. to Burton's Diary (1828) I. 96 Which had been otherwise declared by this Parliament, and seemed still to be the general sense of us all. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 315 Prynne afterwards was called in again to receive the sense of the House. 1778Warner in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) III. 343 Pray let us take the sense of the University;—not that they are the judges whom I most admire. 1793Burke Observ. Conduct Minority §44 A House of Commons which does not speak the sense of the people. 1817[see take v. 32 a]. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 81 He soon found that he had against him almost the whole sense of Westminster Hall. 1855Ibid. xv. III. 533 He spoke, he told the King, the sense of a great body of honest gentlemen.
†c. in one's sense, in one's opinion, according to one's judgement. Obs.
1604Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 290, I am not sorry neither, Il'd haue thee liue: For in my sense, 'tis happinesse to die. a1628Preston New Covt. (1634) 10 But because in his sence, the object is too narrow, there is something he would have more. 1771Luckombe Hist. Printing 24 Merit, that in the sense of all nations, gives the best Title to True Praise. 1832Greville Mem. 24 Feb. (1874) II. 263 The petition turned out to be one for a moderate Reform, more in their sense than in the Duke's own.
†d. const. of (a person, a matter), and with clause introduced by that. Also, favourable opinion, high estimate of. Obs.
1565T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith 122 b, Let vs see what sence he had of monasticall religion. 1638Strafford Lett. (1739) II. 195 Your Lordship's of the 27th of June expresseth more Sense of me than I am worthy of. c1650Denham Of Old Age 813 Now you, my friends, my sense of Death shall hear. 1687Lond. Gaz. No. 2342/1 It is..Our constant Sense and Opinion..that Conscience ought not to be constrained. 1744Wesley Wks. (1872) VIII. 39, I will now simply tell you my sense of these matters. 1760T. Hutchinson Hist. Col. Mass. Bay i. 64 A letter, wrote from New England, shews the sense they had of him after they had made trial. 1778F. Burney Evelina (1794) I. 148 Pardon the earnestness with which I write my sense of this affair. 1785Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 497 Congress have studiously avoided giving to the public their sense of this institution.
III. Meaning, signification.
19. a. The meaning or signification of a word or phrase; also, any one of the different meanings of a word, or that which it bears in a particular collocation or context.
1530Palsgr. 792 Where re signyfyeth in our tonge agayne, he is very moche used in this sence in the composycion of verbes. 1538Elyot Dict. Pref. A iij, As well for the difficultie in the true expressynge the lyuely sence of the latine wordes. 1581G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 22 We give a large sense and signification to this word (Ciuile). 1611Bible Transl. Pref. ⁋16 There bee some wordes that bee not of the same sense euery where. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. i. 965 Gull'd with a Patriot's name, whose Modern sense Is one that woud by Law supplant his Prince. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 22 Here then are two different senses of the word nature. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. 6 Education, in the enlarged sense of the word. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan 78 Cheating conscience so With words depleted of their natural sense.
b. A meaning recorded in a dictionary, etc.
1755Johnson Dict. Pref., The solution of all difficulties..must be sought in the examples, subjoined to the various senses of each word. 1818Todd, Largeheartedness... See the fourth sense of Largeness. 1887Skeat Gosp. S. Matt. in Ags. Pref. 7 See the fifth sense of the verb bield in Murray's New English Dictionary.
20. a. The meaning of words in connected or continuous speech; the meaning of a passage or context. Also, one of two or more meanings which the words naturally bear or are held to bear.
1513Balade to Author in Bradshaw's St. Werburge (1887) 201 O frutefull histore..With termes exquised and sence retoriall. 1530Palsgr. Introd. 15 Thoughe we shulde gyve worde for worde, yet the sens shulde moche differ betwene our tong and theyrs. 1549Compl. Scot. x. 83 Cayphas..spak treu prophesye; bot ȝit he and the iueis interpret it to the vrang sens. 1560Ovid's Narcissus A iv, Thou speakest words, the sence whereof, myne eares can not deserne. 1611Bible Neh. viii. 8 So they read in the booke, in the Law of God distinctly, and gaue the sense, and caused them to vnderstand the reading. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §79 The King's letter would not bear that sense. 1684Roscommon Ess. Tr. Verse 346 The sound is still a Comment to the Sense. 1699Bentley Phal. 141 We must read προποµπῶν, as the learned Mr. Stanley guess'd from the Sense of the place. 1768Gray in Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 73 In the second letter, he is conscious he had gone too far in his expressions, and tries to give them a sense they will not bear. a1768Secker Serm. (1770) I. iii. 66 And lastly, Abstain from all Appearance of Evil. It might be translated, from every Kind of Evil. But even then, the Sense would be much the same. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. vii, He had barely enough Greek to make out the sense of the epigram. 1885Diary of Actress 87 How I got the words, or the sense of the words, into my head I don't know.
b. The meaning or interpretation of a dream, or of anything cryptic or symbolical.
1584B. R. tr. Herodotus i. 11 It is needful then yt..I lay open vnto you the true meaning and sence of the dreame. 1601B. Jonson Poetaster Prol. 12 'Gainst these, haue we put on this forc't defence: Whereof the allegorie and hid sence Is, that a well erected confidence Can fright their pride, and laugh their folly hence. 1650Fuller Pisgah i. iv. 9 Which passage may serve as a parable, whereof our Saviour himself is the sense.
c. The gist, upshot, or general purport of words spoken or written. † to that sense, to that effect.
1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. II. 268 With lettres to the Gouernour..; Quhairof this was the sence, that thay suld remayne constant and true in thair promise. a1700Evelyn Diary 18 Aug. 1673, Where he read..that he should not long enjoy it, but should die, or expressions to that sense. 1777Sir W. Jones Poems, Ess. i. 166 This is the general sense of his remark. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 575 They proceeded to pass several votes, the sense of which was finally summed up in an address to the King. 1883R. W. Dixon Mano i. iv. 9 Of this epistle Mano made the sense Ampler by various tidings that he brought.
21. Any of the various meanings or interpretations (literal, mystic, anagogic, moral, † ghostly, spiritual, etc.) of which, according to the principles of patristic and mediæval exegesis, a word or passage of Holy Scripture was considered to be susceptible. Hence transf. with reference to similar methods of interpretation as applied to other writings.
c1400Prol. Wyclif Bible xiii. 52–3 And of these iiij. sensis, either vndirstondingis, may be set ensaumple in this word Jerusalem; for bi the literal vndirstonding Jerusalem singnefieth a cyte..; bi moral sense..bi sense allegorik..bi sence anagogik [etc.]. Ibid. xiv. 54 The historial, either literal sense, and the mystik, either goostly sense, is taken vndir the same lettre. 1446Lydg. Nightingale i. 16 Commandyng theym to here wyth tendernesse Of this your nightyngale the gostly sense. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. vii. (Percy Soc.) 28 To moralise thy lytterall censes trewe. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. xiii. 1–3 The gyft of prophecie, wherby I know all the secrete senses of the scriptures. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 232 These Greekes, as in this point, so in all other, follow the literall sense of the Scriptures. 1751Jortin Serm. (1771) I. i. 2 The ancient Christians imitated the Jews in finding out Senses in the Scriptures, which were never intended.
22. in a (specified) sense, according to a particular acceptation or interpretation (of a word, phrase, etc.). Often in phrases, in a sense, in some sense, in any sense, in no sense, in all senses (which sometimes come to mean ‘in some degree’, ‘in no respect’, ‘on every account’, etc.).
1593Shakes. Lucr. 324 He in the worst sence consters their deniall. 1596― Tam. Shr. v. ii. 141 It blots thy beautie... And in no sence is meete or amiable. 1660R. Coke Justice Vind. 22 Resistance is usually taken in an ill sence, as when the subordinate resists his superior. 1664Butler Hud. ii. ii. 82 Not that they really cuff or fence, But in a Spiritual Mistique sence. 1719W. Wood Surv. Trade 317 Tho' we destroyed so many capital Ships of France the two last Wars, yet..in some sence, the Naval Strength of France is rather encreased than diminished. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 97–8 Yet the Island was certainly a Prison to me, and that in the worst Sense in the World; but now I learn'd to take it in another Sense. 1745Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Oxford 1 June (1893) II. 140 This is the first prize that ever came to my share, and that is owing to your ladyship in all senses. 1853Maurice Proph. & Kings ii. 22 All is, in the strictest sense of the word, dramatical. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 228 That one among the Conqueror's children who alone could be looked on as in any sense an Englishman. 1878C. Stanford Symb. Christ i. 10 Abram, whose vocation was so high,..bows to him as one whose vocation was in some sense higher than his own. a1881A. Barratt Phys. Metempiric (1883) 110 The consciousness of the body is of course in a sense its inner nature. 1910J. Sargeaunt Dryden's Poems Introd. 21 If no poet in the highest sense of the word, he was at least a surpassing rhetorician.
†23. The meaning of a speaker or writer; the substance, purport, or intention of what he says.
c1400Prol. Wyclif Bible xv. 59 Austyn seith..that if equiuok wordis be not translatid into the sense, either vndurstonding, of the autour, it is errour. 1540Palsgr. Acolastus Prol. B ij b, Our play..vnder whose couert or darke meanyng, thou haste a secrete sence or hydde intent. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. v. ii. 18 You are verie sencible, and yet you misse my sence: I meane Hortentio is afeard of you. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. viii. §5 (1622) 290 His Expositor, Elias Cretensis, deliuereth his sense in the same hight of words. 1700Dryden Pref. to Fables ⁋3 Where I have been wrongfully accus'd and my Sense wire-drawn into Blasphemy or Bawdry. 1710Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Bp. Salisbury 20 July (1893) II. 2, I endeavoured at no beauty of style, but to keep as literally as I could to the sense of the author [Epictetus]. 1735Pope Donne Sat. ii. 126 Let no Court Sycophant pervert my sense.
24. in a (specified) sense: with a particular aim or purpose (in speaking or writing); to a (given) effect.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. ii. iv, France..is now beginning to speak also; and speaks in that same sense. 1837Moore Diary 8 Aug. in Mem. VII. 196 The Fireworshippers, he told me, had been translated in Poland in a Polish sense. 1883L. Oliphant Altiora Peto II. 118 He had no scruple in writing to the Baroness in the above sense.
25. A connected series of ideas expressed in words; the substance of a passage.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 93 Metaphrasis is, to take some notable place out of a good Poete, and turn the same sens into meter, or into other wordes in Prose. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Love lxxxvi. (Arb.) 122 The sense of this Sonnet is for the most part taken out of a letter, which æneas Syluius wrote vnto his friend. 1748Richardson Clarissa VII. 197 She took the pen, and..supported by Mrs. Lovick, wrote the conclusion... You will find the sense surprizingly intire, her weakness considered.
26. A passage, context, or set of sentences, expressed in bare prose, used as material for the composition of Latin or Greek verses. Also allusively. Also attrib., as sense verses.
1693Locke Educ. §171 It is usual in such Cases for the poor Children to go to those of higher Forms with this Petition, Pray give me a little Sense. 1743Chesterfield Lett. xcviii. (1792) I. 275 As you are now got into sense verses, remember, that it is not sufficient to put a little common sense into hexameters and pentameters. 1765G. Williams in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) I. 361 When you write next to me, give me some sense, as the boys say, that I may answer for you as often as you are attacked. 1892W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 564 Write a paper on governesses. I can give you ‘sense’, as the boys say about verses.
27. Discourse that has a satisfactory and intelligible meaning. Phr. to talk sense, speak sense, write (good) sense. to make sense of, to find a meaning in. Of discourse: to give sense, have sense, make sense, to be intelligible. to make sense: also in extended use (freq. in neg. contexts).
1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 129 Beleeue it (Page) he speakes sence. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 296 A third sort doubted all things, though plain sence. 1682Dryden Mac Flecknoe 20 The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Sh[adwell] never deviates into sense. 1685in Verney Mem. (1899) IV. 344 Hot-headed people that can't speak sense, hate to hear it. 1686[Allix] Dissert. iv. in Ratramnus' Body & Bl. (1688) 68, I must needs say, that I cannot make sence of him, if he mean not as the French Translator hath rendered him. 1721A. Malcolm Treat. Mus. 538 This, to make any Sense, must signify that [etc.]. 1746Francis Hor. Epist. ii. ii. 190 Rather..Than write good Sense, and smart severely for't. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art i. §8 That is a wholly barbarous use of the word..for it is not English, it is bad Greek, and it is worse sense. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent 264 In the first authentic edition..the words, I believe, ran, ‘and a table of green fields’, which has no sense. 1910J. Sargeaunt Dryden's Poems Introd. 23 This is the only reading that gives any sense. a1912Mod. Now you are talking sense. 1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah iv. 148 She spoke to me without any introduction, like any improper female... Improper female doesnt make sense. 1936Punch 12 Feb. 170/2 It can't be right, it can't be. Spats and a bowler-hat, but no umbrella—it doesn't make sense.
28. What is wise or reasonable. there is no sense (in doing something): it is unreasonable or useless (to do it). † it is to (good) sense (obs.), it stands to sense (colloq.): it is reasonable, it stands to reason.
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 98 He [Cardinal Allen] was often wont to say, that seeing England was lost and gone from her ancient faith..it was to good sense that we and all their posterity should be punished. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. v. i. 226 As there is sence in truth, and truth in vertue. Ibid. 438 Against all sence you doe importune her. 1639N. N. tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman ii. 73 There is no sense I should leave out this goodly vertue. 1847E. Brontë Wuthering Heights ix, ‘Aw sud more likker look for th' horse’, he replied. ‘It 'ud be tuh more sense’. 1859Habits of Gd. Society 54 The more fashionable..were distinguished for the smartness, not the sense of their conversation. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxi, There's a good deal o' sense in what you say, Mr. Massey. Ibid. xxiii, It stands to sense..as old Mr. Poyser, as is th' oldest man i' the room, should sit at top o' the table. 1897Kipling Capt. Cour. iii. 65 ‘What's the sense o' wastin' canvas?’
29. a. [After F. sens.] A direction in which motion takes place. rare.
1797Sir G. Staunton Acc. Embassy (1798) II. 5 Cords were attached to the canvas, with a contrivance to enable persons underneath to move it in any sense that was necessary. 1900H. C. Jones Theory Electrolytic Dissoc. 61 If the reaction is reversible..then there will exist a force which tends to stop the original reaction, and to set up one in exactly the opposite sense.
b. Chiefly Math. That which distinguishes a pair of entities which differ only in that each is the reverse of the other.
1894H. W. L. Hime Outl. Quaternions i. i. 2 No two vectors are equal unless they have, first, equal lengths, and, secondly, similar directions—the phrase ‘similar directions’ meaning ‘parallel directions with the same sense’. 1947Courant & Robbins What is Math.? (ed. 4) iii. 159 Although inversion preserves the magnitude of angles, it reverses their sense; i.e. if a ray through P sweeps out the angle x. in a counterclockwise direction, its image will sweep out angle y. in a clockwise direction. 1950[see oriented ppl. a. 1]. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 251 The doublet [microphone] can become bi-directional, cardioid or omnidirectional, simply by varying the size and sense of the potential on one of the diaphragms. 1977Holland & Treeby Vectors i. 10 The vector (1/a)a is a unit vector in the direction and sense of a.
IV.
30. attrib. and Comb., as sense-appearance, sense-apprehension, sense-awareness, sense-cell, sense-consciousness, sense-element, sense-feeling, sense-idea, sense-impression, sense-impulse, sense-knowledge, sense-life, sense-material, sense-modality, sense-object, sense-observation, sense-organ, sense-percept, sense-perception, sense-phenomenon, sense-picture, sense-presentation, sense-symbolism, sense-verification; (senses 19 and 20) sense-assimilation, sense-change, sense-development, sense-group, sense-link, sense-linkage, sense-loan, sense-unit, sense-word; objective, as sense-pleaser; sense-bereaving, sense-confounding, sense-confusing, sense-ravishing adjs.; instrumental, etc., as sense-besotted, sense-bound, sense-distracted, sense-given adjs. Also sense aerial = sense-finder below; sense-box jocular, the head; sense-carrier Anglo-Irish, one who expresses the collective opinion of a group or party; sense-content, (a) Philos., whatever is present to one of the senses; a sense-datum; (b) the sense or meaning contained in an idea or literary passage; sense-experience, experience that is derived from the senses; sense-field Philos. (see quot. 1925); sense-finder, an aerial designed for sense-finding; sense-finding, with some radio direction-finders: the operation of determining which of two indicated directions 180° apart is correct; sense history, (a) Philos. (see quot. 1923); (b) the history of the development of meaning attached to a word; sense-quality Philos. and Psychol., the quality of the sensory properties inherent in an object; sense-withdrawal Yoga = pratyahara; sense-world, the external world as it is known through the senses; the ‘world’ of experience that is derived from one of the senses.
1941W. J. D. Allan Radio Navigation ii. 42 The third method of finding sense is by means of a *sense aerial. 1970Taylor & Parmar Ground Studies for Pilots vii. 245 By adjusting the phasing of the loop and sense aerials, the cardioid and its image are produced in rapid alterations.
1894A. C. Fraser in Locke's Essay Hum. Und. II. iv. xi. 328 When ideas, or qualities of things, are..not merely revived in memory or imagination, in the absence of the actual *sense-appearances. 1947Mind LVI. 300 A chief begetter of the sense-datum theory was the problem set by illusory sense-appearances.
a1902R. Adamson Devel. Mod. Philos. (1903) II. ii. i. 229 Leibniz..maintains that our *sense-apprehension of the colour green is a confused sense-apprehension of the two colours blue and yellow. 1921Hannay & Collingwood tr. Ruggiero's Mod. Philos. 206 The first ‘something’ is mere sense-apprehension.
1935M. E. Houtzager Unconscious Sound- & Sense-Assimilations i. 26 Place-names..change according to sound-laws, but also..through unconscious sound- and *sense-assimilations.
1922A. N. Whitehead Princ. Relativity ii. 20 Divest consciousness of its ideality, such as its logical, emotional, aesthetic and moral apprehensions, and what is left is *sense-awareness. 1978English Jrnl. Dec. 57/2 The second group of students did get to try to drink from a water fountain which was truly a unique experience in sense-awareness.
1597Drayton Heroic Ep., Isabel to Mortimer 29 Those *sence-bereauing stalkes That grow in shadie Proserpines darke walkes.
1647C. Harvey Schola Cordis iv. 7 Poore, silly, simple, *sense-besotted soule.
1620Quarles Feast for Wormes (1638) 13 His *sense-bound heart relents not. 1853Kingsley Hypatia viii. 99 The coarse and sense-bound tribe who can appreciate nothing but what is palpable to sense and sight!
1808E. S. Barrett Miss-led General 132 Spun from my own *sense-box.
1879McCarthy Own Times I. xvi. 401 Thenceforward he was really the mouth⁓piece and the *sense-carrier of his party. 1887Dowden Shelley I. vi. 247 Eliza..had..evidently been assigned the position of sense-carrier to the others.
1908Practitioner Oct. 548 In the case of all our senses, the effects are produced by reponsive protoplasmic movements of the specially adapted *sense-cells. 1953N. Tinbergen Herring Gull's World iii. 19 The sense-cells in the retina are the units of vision. 1976H. R. Schiffman Sensation & Perception ix. 125/2 (caption) The tips of the sense cells extend into a pit.
1931G. Stern Meaning & Change of Meaning x. 261 Clippings seldom give rise to *sense-changes. 1951W. Empson Structure Complex Words 26 The cause of a sense-change need have nothing to do with the use made of it after it has been pushed through.
1600Tourneur Trans. Metamorph. xlvii, Amazed with *sence-confounding wretchednesse.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. i. viii, One *sense-confusing tumult.
1858A. C. Fraser Rational Philos. 94 So-called *sense-consciousness can be analysed. 1874Reynolds John Bapt. iii. §3. 201 The prophet's ordinary sense-consciousness was suspended.
1896L. T. Hobhouse Theory of Knowl. ii. 42 It is quite enough for our purpose that some *sense-contents should be complex. 1902W. James Var. Relig. Exper. iii. 55 The words ‘soul’, ‘God’, ‘immortality’, cover no distinctive sense-content. 1962W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use v. 111 The action of the poem..is not something agglomerated out of the successive sense-contents of each line. 1975W. S. Robinson in H. N. Castaneda Stud. in Sellars' Philos. 105 An analogue..designed to apply specifically to sensing sense contents, is presupposed.
1882J. A. H. Murray Let. in K. M. E. Murray Caught in Web of Words (1977) x. 190 Nobody exc[ept] my predecessors in specimens of the Dicty has yet tried to trace out historically the *sense-development of English words. 1960C. S. Lewis Studies in Words 29 Indeed the sense-development of the word proper itself..is a striking instance.
1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. iii. (1632) 97 With that, in-rush the *sense-distracted Crew.
1889J. Venn Empirical Logic vi. 150 The adhesive power between the *sense-element and the notion is particularly strong in the case of..smell.
1862A. C. Fraser in Macm. Mag. VI. 194/2 The steady reference to *sense-experience..distinguished Locke. 1871Sense-experience [see preperception]. 1923T. P. Nunn Educ. xiii. 171 All that constitutes..the quantitative as distinguished from the qualitative aspects of sense-experience. 1968Listener 30 May 685 Principles native to the mind which we utilise in grasping sense-experience.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xx. 268 The education of our space-perception consists largely of two processes—reducing the various *sense-feelings to a common measure, and adding them together into the single all-including space of the real world.
1925C. D. Broad Mind & its Place iv. 195 A sensum is not something that exists in isolation; it is a differentiated part of a bigger and more enduring whole, viz., of a *sense-field. 1971A. J. Ayer Russell & Moore iii. 65 To obtain the equivalent of sensibilia, on the basis of our primitive percepts, all that is needed, I believe, is the projection of spatial and temporal relations beyond the sense-fields in which they are originally given.
1934Webster, *Sense finder. 1953C. H. Cotter Elem. Navigation xlvii. 485 The principle of the sense finder is as follows. Depending on whether the transmitting station lies in a certain direction or the opposite direction, the e.m.f. in the loop aerial will be altered in phase by 180°.
1937D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navigator iv. 134 A *sense-finding arrangement is usually incorporated in Fixed Loop Direction Finders. 1957R. Watson-Watt Three Steps to Victory lviii. 361 Our Radio Research Station work..had included ‘sense-finding’, the removal of the direction-finding ambiguity between one compass bearing and its exact opposite.
1871A. C. Fraser Life of Berkeley x. 369 We may even, with Berkeley, call these *sense-given phenomena ‘sensations’. 1933Mind XLII. 292 A great variety of sense-given shapes—squares, parallelograms, trapezia, etc.—would then..all be either portions or distortions of the surface of this cube.
1928C. Bergener Contrib. to Study of Conversion of Adjectives into Nouns 1, I have..made an attempt.., after arranging the material in *sense-groups, to ascertain the productivity of this mode of word-formation during the different periods of the language. 1966G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising viii. 89 One of the skills of writing formal English consists in..arranging one's ideas so as to make the end of each sense-group..as far as possible the appropriate place for emphasis.
1923C. D. Broad Sci. Thought x. 362 Let us call the whole series of sensible fields which an observer O senses in the course of his life, O's *sense-history. 1933Oxf. Eng. Dict. I. p. v, The aim of this Dictionary is to present..the words that have formed the English vocabulary..with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense-history, pronunciation, and etymology. 1954A. J. Ayer Philos. Ess. iv. 95 The occurrence, within a given sense-history, of a series of sense-fields.
1871A. C. Fraser Life of Berkeley iii. 75 *Sense-ideas are with Berkeley real and presentative; not representative images. 1900B. Russell Philos. Leibniz xiv. 161 Sense-ideas must..be distinguished by their own nature.
1862Spencer First Princ. i. iv. §22 (1875) 69 The illusiveness of *sense-impressions.
1896L. T. Hobhouse Theory of Knowl. ii. 56 A felt total impression resulting from the forty separate *sense-impulses.
1847Lewes Biog. Hist. Philos. I. 111 The distinction between *sense-knowledge and reflective knowledge.
1894A. C. Fraser in Locke's Essay Hum. Und. II. iv. xi. 332 For it is not metaphysically impossible that there may be a dream, continuous and orderly, like the actual *sense-life of a man. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media i. i. 19 Money has reorganized the sense life of peoples just because it is an extension of our sense lives.
1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism iv. 272 The poetic creation..is an associative rhetorical process, most of it below the threshold of consciousness, a chaos of paronomasia, sound-links, ambiguous *sense-links, and memory-links very like that of the dream.
1962W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use i. 15 The *sense-linkage effected by rhyme is an effect of which Arnold was well aware.
1931*Sense-loan [see cross-influence s.v. cross- B.].
a1902R. Adamson Devel. Mod. Philos. (1903) II. 68 Nor does inner *sense-material lend itself even to the less complete theoretical form of natural science.
1894Creighton & Titchener tr. Wundt's Hum. & Anim. Psychol. vii. 119 The individual sensation is estimated by the relation in which it stands to other sensations of the same *sense-modality. 1977P. Strevens New Orientations Teaching of Eng. ix. 115 The sense-modalities of vision and hearing.
1908W. James Meaning of Truth (1909) xii. 239 Our private concepts represent the *sense-objects to which they lead us, these being public realities independent of the individual. 1920A. N. Whitehead Concept Nat. viii. 170 The appearance of sense-objects is conditioned by the adventures of material objects. 1949Mind LVIII. 58 The position will be, as Mr. Russell in fact saw, that the constituents of physical constructs are not simply sense-objects but sensations or sense-experiences.
1909W. James Pluralistic Universe iv. 145 Hypotheses, and deductions from these, controlled by *sense-observations and analogies with what we know elsewhere, are to be thanked for all of science's results. 1956E. L. Mascall Christian Theol. & Nat. Sci. ii. 48 Scientific theories need for their expression technical terms..whose definition in terms of sense-observations is extremely complicated and remote.
1854Owen Skel. & Teeth (1855) 13 Brain and *sense-organs.
1907W. James Pragmatism vi. 218 Some part of a system that dips at numerous points into *sense-percepts.
1846J. D. Morell Hist. Philos. I. ii. 205 In doing this, Kant took it for granted, as a thing lying altogether beyond the region of proof, the reality of our *sense-perceptions. 1868N. Porter Hum. Intellect §102 (1872) 119 We define Sense-perception as that power of the intellect by which it gains the knowledge of material objects. 1971R. I. Aaron Knowing & Function of Reason iv. 79 This conclusion is reinforced by arguments from the change induced in sense-perception by drugs, such as mescaline.
1871A. C. Fraser Life of Berkeley x. 371 There is no evidence that an unperceived sensation or *sense-phenomenon exists. 1971R. I. Aaron Knowing & Function of Reason iv. 79 What is sensed has been variously described as idea, impression,..sense-phenomenon, sensum, and so on.
1920A. S. Eddington Space, Time & Gravit. ii. 32 It would be unreasonable to limit our thought of nature to what can be comprised in *sense-pictures.
1600Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. i. xiv. I. 5, When these *sence-pleasers haue come from any of their sports.
1884S. H. Hodgson Let. 14 Feb. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) I. 625 The answer must, for me, be given by a ‘what’ which is at least a possibility of *sense presentation. 1932W. T. Stace Theory of Knowl. iii. 34 The images of hallucination and dream are just as much part of the given as are sense presentations.
1896L. T. Hobhouse Theory of Knowl. ii. 38 The idea of sensation as giving these simple *sense-qualities and nothing else. 1954R. Wells in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 280/2, I refer to the fact that they are all names of sense-qualities.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 266 The ayre is a compound of *sense-ravishing odours.
1871A. C. Fraser Life of Berkeley x. 375 The substantiality and causality of matter thus resolve into a Universal *Sense-symbolism, the interpretation of which is the office of physical science.
1892H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. i. 20 A word may be defined as an ultimate independent *sense-unit. 1974R. Quirk Linguist & Eng. Lang. vi. 97 We are dealing with languages whose structures differ so much that..translation..is possible only if we deal in large sense-units.
1907W. James Pragmatism vi. 209 Their relations are perceptually obvious at a glance, and no *sense-verification is necessary.
1937K. T. Behanan Yoga xiii. 215 In pratyahara or the *sense-withdrawal stage, a deliberate effort is made to diminish the impulses streaming in through the sense organs. 1960J. Hewitt Yoga viii. 116 Sense-Withdrawal is something which you must do for yourself, your ‘I’ must be in complete control.
c1874*Sense-word [see rhythm-word s.v. rhythm 9 a].
1911W. James Some Probl. Philos. viii. 139 Monism usually treats the *sense-world as a mirage or illusion. 1932W. T. Stace Theory of Knowl. ix. 212 Those characters of the ‘thing’..are in different sense-worlds.
Add:[29.] c. attrib. (quasi-adj.) Biochem. and Genetics. Designating or pertaining to a strand of DNA complementary to that which acts as a template for the synthesis of mRNA in a cell, and so essentially similar to mRNA in its base sequence; also, designating or pertaining to RNA (mRNA) produced by the transcription of antisense DNA.
Although this is the dominant use in the literature, the meanings of ‘sense’ and ‘antisense’ as defined are occasionally reversed: see quots. 1972, 1989, and quot. 1979 s.v. *antisense a.
1972Molecular & Gen. Genetics CXVIII. 61 The codogenic or ‘sense’ DNA strand for various genes is conveniently identified by its ability to specifically hybridize with its complementary messenger RNA. 1988P. W. Kuchel et al. Schaum's Outl. Theory & Probl. Biochem. xvii. 493 Each strand of the duplex DNA would be functioning as both sense and antisense strands, but for two different RNA transcripts. 1989New Scientist 28 Oct. 50/1 Only one strand of the double helix carries this information in a form that cells can use to make proteins—it is called the sense strand. 1990Nucleic Acids Res. XVIII. 261/2 Using yeast codon usage data, a sense strand 64-fold degenerate 44-mer oligonucleotide was made. 1990Embo Jrnl. IX. 3018/2 If the anti-sense RNA interacts with the sense RNA, a biomolecular reaction has to be postulated.
▪ II. sense, v.|sɛns|
Also 6–7 sence, 7 sens.
[f. the n.]
†1.
a. trans. To perceive (an outward object) by the senses; also, to feel (pain). Obs.
1598Rowlands Betray. Christ D j, Could sinnes-besotted, hell-path wrandrers, see The horrours on an out-cast wretch imposed, Or sence the inward worme that gnaweth me. 1682J. Flavel Fear 129 They loved their lives, and sensed their pains as well as you. 1873W. Carleton Farm Ball. 33 O God! if you want a man to sense the pains of hell, Before you pitch him in just keep him in heaven a spell!
b. To feel, be conscious of (an inward state, etc.).
1685W. Adams Dedham Pulpit 86 The man that does duly sense his spiritual poverty. 1755T. Amory Mem. (1769) I. Ded. 6 Your books and philosophy..hinder you from ever sensing the irksomeness of solitude and indolence.
†c. To test, make trial of. Obs.
a1688Bunyan Christ Compl. Saviour Wks. 1852 I. 221/1 To sense smell and taste what saving is..is a rare thing kept close from most. a1688― Expos. Gen. iii. ibid. II. 431/1 She took Satan's arguments into consideration and sensed or tasted them; not by the word of God, but her own natural or rather sore-deluded fancy.
†2. To expound the sense or meaning of; to ascribe a meaning to; to take or understand in a particular sense. Also, to explain (to be something). Obs.
1623T. Ailesbury Serm. 4 The first [exposition]..is Origens, who hath sensed the bodie to be the church. a1631J. Done Polydoron (1650) 88 The word good fellow as it is now senced by the vulgar, imports a drunkard. 1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xx. 16 Some sense the text thus. 1687Stillingfl. Doctr. Trin. & Transubst. ii. 2, Pr. How doth it [sc. the Doctrine of the Trinity] appear? P. By the Scripture sensed by the Church. 1726Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 261 Dr. Clarke at first tried to reconcile his doctrine to that of the Church of England, by sensing the Articles.
3. To perceive, become aware of, ‘feel’ (something present, a fact, state of things, etc.) not by direct perception but more or less vaguely or instinctively. (Often app. a nonce-word, adopted by the writer to express a particular shade of meaning.)
1872L. Oliphant Let. in Life (1891) 101 He ‘senses’ the least coldness towards himself, and it stops everything. 1885W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle xvii. 189 The herd sensed the danger and made off. 1904M. Hewlett Queen's Quair i. vii. 102 Queen Mary watched her closely, sensing an enemy. 1904S. E. White Forest iii. 28 You must travel three or four days from such a place before you sense the forest in its vastness.
4. To understand, comprehend, grasp, ‘take in’. Chiefly U.S. and dial.
1841A. M. Maxwell Run through U.S. I. 102 The noun sense they convert into a most comical verb—‘I sense’, or ‘She sensed him to do it’. 1849Knickerbocker XXXIII. 201 ‘Do you sense what you are doing, Jack?’ said she. ‘Sense it, Suzy?’ replied B.,—‘I do, to the letter.’ 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), To sense, to comprehend; as, ‘Do you sense that?’ New England. 1885Merriam in Century Mag. XXX. 832 He..got at the plans of the leaders, the temper of the crowd, sensed the whole situation. 1891Hardy Tess xlviii, I cannot sense your meaning sometimes. 1893E. D. Fawcett Riddle of Universe Proem 2 He should sense how this spectacle belittles the theology of his fellows.
5. Philos. To have a sense-perception of. Also absol., to experience sensations.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. xxii. 218 Is he [the Sciolist] sure, that objects are not otherwise sensed by others, then they are by him? 1704Norris Ideal World ii. ii. 81 All that we sense or experience are the outward actions and motions which proceed from them. 1884[Laurie] Metaph. Nova & Vet. 91 But we did not then perceive extension or space as such, although it was felt in the very first breath which consciousness drew, and was afterwards sensed. 1904Titchener tr. Wundt's Physiol. Psychol. I. 14 We may sense in dreams, or in a state of hallucination, as intensively as we sense under the operation of actual sensory stimuli. 1909Q. Rev. Oct. 434 The impossible assumption that there are sensations which are not ‘sensed’.
6. Of a machine, instrument, etc.: to detect (some circumstance or entity).
1946Ann. Computation Lab. Harvard Univ. I. 22 In the event that one or both of the factors involved in a multiplication are negative numbers, this fact is sensed and stored by the multiply unit. 1962F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronomics v. 197 After arrival on the Moon the fluid is vented, an operation sensed by a pressure switch. 1978Sci. Amer. June 54/3 In general particle detectors operate by sensing the ionization of atoms caused by the passage of a charged particle.
Hence sensed ppl. a.
1884[Laurie] Metaph. Nova & Vet. 26 The subject as Will..itself goes out and seizes the sensed object.
▪ III. sense
obs. form of cense n.1, v.1, n.2, v.2
c1550Disc. Common Weal Eng. (1893) 77 In paiment of theire rentes, customes and senses. 1623tr. Favine's Theat. Honour i. vi. 54 The sonnes..are not sensed and reputed to be noble [F. ne sont censez et reputez Nobles]. 1657W. Morice Coena Pref. 1 The Ministery, whose honor and maintenance I have ever sensed to be very much of the interest of Religion. |