plural. Personal qualities; manners, morals, ways; behaviour, temper. Obsolete.

Intrinsic character or nature; quality. In early use also in plural in same sense. Obsolete.

A person's character, disposition, or temperament; the ‘stuff’ of which one is made, regarded as an indication of one's character.

transferred and figurative. What a person is ‘made of’; one's capabilities or inward character. Also, solid qualities of intellect or character…

Intrinsic character or nature; quality. Cf. allay, n.1 1b.

In echoes of the Latin proverb which appears in Erasmus's Adagia ii. v. xlvii in the form Ne e quovis ligno Mercurius fiat (see quot. 1594, and cf…

Inward qualities, feelings, etc.; internal or essential character. Obsolete.

in reference to the mind or character.

figurative. Degree of personal capacity or ability; ‘weight’ of character; (often with conscious reference to 1). In wider sense: Quality…

figurative. Bodily structure, frame, build. In later use, the ‘stuff’ of which a person is made; personal quality or character; preceded by a…