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Cardinal   /kˈɑrdənəl/  /kˈɑrdɪnəl/   Listen
noun
Cardinal  n.  
1.
(R. C. Ch.) One of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college. "The clerics of the supreme Chair are called Cardinals, as undoubtedly adhering more nearly to the hinge by which all things are moved." Note: The cardinals are appointed by the pope. Since the time of Sixtus V., their number can never exceed seventy (six of episcopal rank, fifty priests, fourteen deacons), and the number of cardinal priests and deacons is seldom full. When the papel chair is vacant a pope is elected by the college of cardinals from among themselves. The cardinals take precedence of all dignitaries except the pope. The principal parts of a cardinal's costume are a red cassock, a rochet, a short purple mantle, and a red hat with a small crown and broad brim, with cords and tessels of a special pattern hanging from it.
2.
A woman's short cloak with a hood. "Where's your cardinal! Make haste."
3.
Mulled red wine.
4.
The cardinal bird, also called the northern cardinal.
Cardinal bird, or Cardinal grosbeak (Zool.), an American song bird (Cardinalis cardinalis, or Cardinalis Virginianus), of the family Fringillidae, or finches of which the male has a bright red plumage, and both sexes have a high, pointed crest on its head; it is also called the northern cardinal or eastern cardinal. The males have loud and musical notes resembling those of a fife. Other related species are also called cardinal birds.
Cardinal flower (Bot.), an herbaceous plant (Lobelia cardinalis) bearing brilliant red flowers of much beauty.
Cardinal red, a color like that of a cardinal's cassock, hat, etc.; a bright red, darker than scarlet, and between scarlet and crimson.


adjective
Cardinal  adj.  Of fundamental importance; preeminent; superior; chief; principal. "The cardinal intersections of the zodiac." "Impudence is now a cardinal virtue." "But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye."
Cardinal numbers, the numbers one, two, three, etc., in distinction from first, second, third, etc., which are called ordinal numbers.
Cardinal points
(a)
(Geol.) The four principal points of the compass, or intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west.
(b)
(Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir.
Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricorn.
Cardinal teeth (Zool.), the central teeth of bivalve shell. See Bivalve.
Cardinal veins (Anat.), the veins in vertebrate embryos, which run each side of the vertebral column and returm the blood to the heart. They remain through life in some fishes.
Cardinal virtues, preeminent virtues; among the ancients, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
Cardinal winds, winds which blow from the cardinal points due north, south, east, or west.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Cardinal" Quotes from Famous Books



... way of inserting your comb, which flatters the skin, and stirs the animal spirits agreeably in that region; and a little of your most delicate orange-scent would not lie amiss, for I am bound to the Scala palace, and am to present myself in radiant company. The young cardinal Giovanni de' Medici is to be there, and he brings with him a certain young Bernardo Dovizi of Bibbiena, whose wit is so rapid that I see no way of out-rivalling it save by ...
— Romola • George Eliot
... present declared his ideas heretical, supporting themselves upon the authority of St. Augustine and Nicholas de Lyra. Alessandro Geraldini, an Italian, preceptor of the royal children, who was standing behind Cardinal Mendoza at the time, "represented to him that Nicholas de Lyra and St. Augustine had been, without doubt, excellent theologians but only mediocre geographers, since the Portuguese had reached a point of the other hemisphere where they had ceased to see ...
— European Background Of American History - (Vol. I of The American Nation: A History) • Edward Potts Cheyney
... value of obedience, we must be careful not to exaggerate it and consider it a cardinal virtue. Obedience is far from being a fundamental virtue. On the contrary, once established as a ruling principle in the household or anywhere else, it is easily carried far enough to become a source of positive harm. To ...
— Your Child: Today and Tomorrow • Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg
... said the poet, addressing himself deferentially to Levi, "who had got grace were waiting to be baptized at Burgos Cathedral. There was a great throng of Catholics and a special Cardinal was coming to conduct the ceremony, for their conversion was a great triumph. But the Cardinal was late and the Jews fumed and fretted at the delay. The shadows of evening were falling on vault and transept. At last one turned to the other ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... of Oran, in Africa, Cardinal Ximenes led the Spanish troops to the breach, mounted on a charger, dressed in his pontifical robes, and preceded by a monk on horseback, who bore his archiepiscopal cross. "Go on, go on, my children," exclaimed he to the soldiers, "I ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous--A New Selection • Various


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