3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Experience \Ex*pe"ri*ence\, n. [F. exp['e]rience, L.
experientia, tr experiens, ?entis, p. pr of experiri
expertus to try ex out + the root of pertus experienced.
See {Peril}, and cf {Expert}.]
1. Trial, as a test or experiment. [Obs.]
She caused him to make experience Upon wild beasts.
--Spenser.
2. The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any
event, whether witnessed or participated in personal and
direct impressions as contrasted with description or
fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or
suffering. ``Guided by other's experiences.'' --Shak.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and
that is the lamp of experience. --P. Henry
To most men experience is like the stern lights of a
ship, which illumine only the track it has passed.
--Coleridge.
When the consuls . . . came in . . . they knew soon
by experience how slenderly guarded against danger
the majesty of rulers is where force is wanting.
--Holland.
Those that undertook the religion of our Savior upon
his preaching, had no experience of it --Sharp.
3. An act of knowledge, one or more by which single facts or
general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive
knowledge; hence implying skill, facility, or practical
wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action
as a king without experience of war.
Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and
knowledge? To this I answer in one word from
experience. --Locke.
Experience may be acquired in two ways; either
first by noticing facts without any attempt to
influence the frequency of their occurrence or to
vary the circumstances under which they occur; this
is observation; or secondly, by putting in action
causes or agents over which we have control, and
purposely varying their combinations, and noticing
what effects take place this is experiment. --Sir
J. Herschel.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
experience
n 1: the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from
direct participation in events or activities; "a man of
experience"; "experience is the best teacher" [ant: {inexperience}]
2: the content of direct observation or participation in an
event; "he had a religious experience"; "he recallled the
experience vividly"
3: an event as apprehended; "a surprising experience"; "that
painful experience certainly got our attention"
v 1: go or live through "We had many trials to go through" [syn:
{undergo}, {go through}]
2: have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or
sensations; "I know the feeling!" "have you ever known
hunger?" [syn: {know}, {live}]
3: of mental or bodily states or experiences: "get an idea";
"experience vertigo"; "get nauseous"; "undergo a strange
sensation"; "The fluid undergoes shear"; "receive
injuries"; "have a feeling" [syn: {receive}, {have}, {get},
{undergo}]
4: undergo an emotional sensation; "She felt resentful"; "He
felt regret" [syn: {feel}]
5: undergo; "The stocks had a fast run-up" [syn: {have}]
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
EXPERIENCE, n. The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an
undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.
To one who journeying through night and fog,
Is mired neck-deep in an unwholesome bog,
Experience, like the rising of the dawn,
Reveals the path that he should not have gone.
Joel Frad Bink
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