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Principle   /prˈɪnsəpəl/   Listen
noun
Principle  n.  
1.
Beginning; commencement. (Obs.) "Doubting sad end of principle unsound."
2.
A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause. "The soul of man is an active principle."
3.
An original faculty or endowment. "Nature in your principles hath set (benignity)." "Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering."
4.
A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate. "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." "A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad."
5.
A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle. "All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind."
6.
(Chem.) Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc. "Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna."
Bitter principle, Principle of contradiction, etc. See under Bitter, Contradiction, etc.



verb
Principle  v. t.  (past & past part. principled; pres. part. principling)  To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet, or rule of conduct, good or ill. "Governors should be well principled." "Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Principle" Quotes from Famous Books



... convinced—and seeing the mark upon it as plain as my nose—I leap'd out of the chaise in a passion, and so saw every thing at Chantilly in spite.—I tried it but for three posts and a half, but believe 'tis the best principle in the world to travel speedily upon; for as few objects look very inviting in that mood—you have little or nothing to stop you; by which means it was that I passed through St. Dennis, without turning my head so much as on one side ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

... trained soldiers because they fight better, trained singers because they sing better, trained dancers because they dance better, specially instructed laughers because they laugh better, and so on and so on. The principle has been applied to law and politics by innumerable modern writers. Many Fabians have insisted that a greater part of our political work should be performed by experts. Many legalists have declared that the untrained jury should be altogether ...
— Tremendous Trifles • G. K. Chesterton

... heart's rightness, and have recourse to it, when your conversation cannot defend you, yet your hearts are the worst of all, and have no uprightness towards God; for you know that what duties you go about, it is not from an inward principle, but from education, or custom, or constraint. Are you upright, when you are forced, for fear of censure, to come here, or to pray at home? Is that sincerity and spiritual worship? And for the more polished and refined professors, you have this moth in your performances, and this fly to make ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... shaking off the rule of the oppressor. But patriotism, as a philosophic sentiment, to be indulged after a good dinner, and discussed phlegmatically, if not classically, over sherry and cigars, is a very different sort of thing from patriotism as a principle of action, to be prosecuted as a duty, at every peril, instantly and always, to the death, if need be. Our patriots at Bogota were but too frequently of the contemplative, the philosophical order. ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 2 August 1848 • Various

... That this principle may be clearly understood, it may be well to explain more fully the application of the proximate constituents ...
— The Elements of Agriculture - A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools • George E. Waring


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