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Observation   /ˌɑbzərvˈeɪʃən/   Listen
noun
Observation  n.  
1.
The act or the faculty of observing or taking notice; the act of seeing, or of fixing the mind upon, anything. "My observation, which very seldom lies."
2.
The result of an act, or of acts, of observing; view; reflection; conclusion; judgment. "In matters of human prudence, we shall find the greatest advantage in making wise observations on our conduct."
3.
Hence: An expression of an opinion or judgment upon what one has observed; a remark. "That's a foolish observation." "To observations which ourselves we make We grow more partial for the observer's sake."
4.
Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance. (Obs.) "We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances."
5.
(Science)
(a)
The act of recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence in nature, as an aurora, a corona, or the structure of an animal.
(b)
Specifically, the act of measuring, with suitable instruments, some magnitude, as the time of an occultation, with a clock; the right ascension of a star, with a transit instrument and clock; the sun's altitude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc.
(c)
The information so acquired; as, to record one's observations carefully. Note: When a phenomenon is scrutinized as it occurs in nature, the act is termed an observation. When the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs are artificial, or arranged beforehand by the observer, the process is called an experiment. Experiment includes observation.
To take an observation (Naut.), to ascertain the altitude of a heavenly body, with a view to fixing a vessel's position at sea.
Synonyms: Observance; notice; attention; remark; comment; note. See Observance.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Observation" Quotes from Famous Books



... would rather be condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office of a cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the national character, from my own observation: but, if the portraits drawn by Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature, I would not hesitate to pronounce the Italian women the most haughty, insolent, capricious, and revengeful females on the face of the earth. Indeed their resentments are so cruelly ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett

... readers, particularly of our English readers, will be somewhat startled to hear that, except the change of names and places, there is actually little exaggeration in the form of this oath; so just is the observation, that the romance of truth frequently ...
— Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee • William Carleton

... irritating on two separate grounds. It implied that people were talking freely of my attachment, which, until I had formally acknowledged it, I resented as an impertinence; and it implied that, from personal observation, Agalma doubted Ottilie's feelings for me. This alarmed my quick-retreating pride! I, too, began to doubt. Once let loose on that field, imagination soon saw shapes enough to confirm any doubt. Ottilie's manner ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.

... being recognized. A father, mother, and four children (in view of the term "many") would seem a reasonable surmise, and would make six, or another third of the whole number. The probability that the unknown two thirds were chiefly from England, rather than Holland, is increased by observation of the evident care with which, as a rule, those from the Leyden congregation were picked, as to strength and fitness, and also by the fact that their Leyden homes were broken up. Winslow remarks, "the youngest and strongest part were to go," and an ...
— The Mayflower and Her Log, Complete • Azel Ames

... Harlowe," and the like; and imitations of them in Russia. "Sensibility" was held to be the highest quality in human nature, and a man's—much more a woman's—worth was measured by the amount of "sensibility" he or she possessed. This new school paid scant heed to the observation and study of real life. An essential tenet in the cult consisted of a glorification of the distant past, "the good old times," adorned by fancy, as the ideal model for the present; the worship of the poor but honest country ...
— A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections • Isabel Florence Hapgood


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