In the preceding senses, with various defining attributes.

the immediate or direct cause. Obsolete.

Having regard to end or purpose: chiefly in final cause (see cause, n. 4b); final clause (Gram.), a clause expressing purpose or intention.

an action or agent that produces a good or evil result by the fact of meriting it. Obsolete.

The elements of which something consists or out of which it is developed; material cause. Obsolete.

that ‘deficience’, failure to act, or absence of anything, which becomes the cause or negative condition of some result. Obsolete.

An efficient cause or power.

In the preceding senses, with various defining attributes.

In the preceding senses, with various defining attributes.

final cause: a term introduced into philosophical language by the schoolmen as a transl. of Aristotle's fourth cause, τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα or τέλος, the end…

That conserves; conserving, preserving; esp. in conservant cause. Frequently with of.

‘The cause which makes effects to be what they are’ (Johnson). Obsolete, but in 17th cent. very common.

An effective cause (see effective cause n. at compounds and cf. sense A. 3). Obsolete.

Philosophy and Theology. Designating a cause which is of the nature of a failure or deficiency; chiefly in defective cause. Cf. deficient, adj.…

Coming immediately before or after in a chain of causation, agency, reasoning, or other relation; immediate, short-term. Frequently in proximate cause…