PROPERTY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Property

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/prˈɑpərti/ Listen

noun

Property n. (pl. properties)

That which is proper to anything; a peculiar quality of a thing; that which is inherent in a subject, or naturally essential to it; an attribute; as, sweetness is a property of sugar. "Property is correctly a synonym for peculiar quality; but it is frequently used as coextensive with quality in general." Note: In physical science, the properties of matter are distinguished to the three following classes: 1. Physical properties, or those which result from the relations of bodies to the physical agents, light, heat, electricity, gravitation, cohesion, adhesion, etc., and which are exhibited without a change in the composition or kind of matter acted on. They are color, luster, opacity, transparency, hardness, sonorousness, density, crystalline form, solubility, capability of osmotic diffusion, vaporization, boiling, fusion, etc. 2. Chemical properties, or those which are conditioned by affinity and composition; thus, combustion, explosion, and certain solutions are reactions occasioned by chemical properties. Chemical properties are identical when there is identity of composition and structure, and change according as the composition changes. 3. Organoleptic properties, or those forming a class which can not be included in either of the other two divisions. They manifest themselves in the contact of substances with the organs of taste, touch, and smell, or otherwise affect the living organism, as in the manner of medicines and poisons.

An acquired or artificial quality; that which is given by art, or bestowed by man; as, the poem has the properties which constitute excellence.

The exclusive right of possessing, enjoying, and disposing of a thing; ownership; title. "Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood." "Shall man assume a property in man?"

That to which a person has a legal title, whether in his possession or not; thing owned; an estate, whether in lands, goods, or money; as, a man of large property, or small property.

pl. All the adjuncts of a play except the scenery and the dresses of the actors; stage requisites. "I will draw a bill of properties."

Propriety; correctness. (Obs.)

Literary property. (Law) See under Literary.

Property man, one who has charge of the "properties" of a theater.

verb

Property v. t.

To invest which properties, or qualities. (Obs.)

To make a property of; to appropriate. (Obs.) "They have here propertied me."

See images of 'Property'

Etymology of 'Property'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Property" Quotes from Famous Books

... were various reasons why this fine island should become the scene of servile wars sooner than other portions of the Roman dominions. Upon the final expulsion of the Carthaginians, about the middle of the second Punic War, great changes of property ensued. Speculators from Italy rushed into the island, "who," says Arnold, "in the general distress of the Sicilians, bought up large tracts of land at a low price, or became the occupiers of estates which had belonged to Sicilians ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... per Nicholo di Lorenzo della Magna, 1481, folio. "In this book are several remarks by Dr. Munro, on separate papers. An old scarce print, separate. On the title-page the following initials C M/DC R; upon which the Doctor remarks it might probably be the signature of Charles the First, whose property it might have been. The Doctor likewise observes this copy, though imperfect, is still very valuable, on account of its having eight plates, the generality having only the two first."——No. 2208, Molinet (Les Faictz et dictz ...

— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... almost invariably prefers the materialistic explanation. She is anxious that we should be kept free of superstition. But the superstition that forces are the effects of things does not seem to distress her at all. And so we are told that gravitation is a property of matter, and are forbidden to think that perhaps gravitation, a force, procreates matter, a thing, in order that the effects of the fore may be perceived by dull sense. We are told that the function of the liver and ...

— The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28 - The Independent Health Magazine • Various

... acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of Salerno, [47] and the trade of Amalphi, [48] may detain for a moment the curiosity of the reader. I. Of the learned faculties, jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the full light of religion and reason. But the savage and the sage must alike implore the assistance of physic; and, if our diseases are inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds ...

— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... two or three years by a young and able general—a Wolfe, a Desaix, a Hoche—with three hundred thousand disciplined men, estimating a third for garrisons and the loss of a yet greater number by skirmishes, sieges, battles, and Southern fevers. The destruction of life and property on the other side would be frightful, however perfect the moral discipline ...

— General Scott • General Marcus J. Wright

More quotes...