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soul |
7 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Soul \Soul\, a. Sole. [Obs.] --Chaucer. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Soul \Soul\, a. Sole. [Obs.] --Chaucer. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Soul \Soul\, v. i. [F. so[^u]ler to satiate. See {Soil} to feed.] To afford suitable sustenance. [Obs.] --Warner. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Soul \Soul\, n. [OE. soule, saule, AS s[=a]wel, s[=a]wl; akin to OFries s?le, OS s?ola, D. ziel, G. seele, OHG. s?la, s?ula, Icel. s[=a]la, Sw sj["a]l, Dan. si[ae]l, Goth. saiwala of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to L. saeculum a lifetime, age (cf. {Secular}.)] 1. The spiritual, rational, and immortal part in man; that part of man which enables him to think, and which renders him a subject of moral government; -- sometimes in distinction from the higher nature, or spirit, of man, the so-called animal soul, that is the seat of life, the sensitive affections and phantasy, exclusive of the voluntary and rational powers; -- sometimes in distinction from the mind, the moral and emotional part of man's nature, the seat of feeling, in distinction from intellect; -- sometimes the intellect only; the understanding; the seat of knowledge, as distinguished from feeling. In a more general sense ``an animating, separable, surviving entity, the vehicle of individual personal existence.'' --Tylor. The eyes of our souls only then begin to see when our bodily eyes are closing. --Law. 2. The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action the animating or essential part ``The hidden soul of harmony.'' --Milton. Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul. --Milton. 3. The leader; the inspirer; the moving spirit; the heart; as the soul of an enterprise; an able general is the soul of his army. He is the very soul of bounty! --Shak. 4. Energy; courage; spirit; fervor; affection, or any other noble manifestation of the heart or moral nature; inherent power or goodness. That he wants algebra he must confess; But not a soul to give our arms success. --Young. 5. A human being a person; -- a familiar appellation, usually with a qualifying epithet; as poor soul. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. --Prov. xxv. 25. God forbid so many simple souls Should perish by the aword! --Shak. Now mistress Gilpin (careful soul). --Cowper. 6. A pure or disembodied spirit. That to his only Son . . . every soul in heaven Shall bend the knee. --Milton. Note: Soul is used in the formation of numerous compounds, most of which are of obvious signification; as soul-betraying, soul-consuming, soul-destroying, soul-distracting, soul-enfeebling, soul-exalting, soul-felt, soul-harrowing, soul-piercing, soul-quickening, soul-reviving, soul-stirring, soul-subduing, soul-withering, etc Syn: Spirit; life; courage; fire; ardor. {Cure of souls}. See {Cure}, n., 2. {Soul bell}, the passing bell. --Bp. Hall. {Soul foot}. See {Soul scot}, below. [Obs.] {Soul scot} or {Soul shot}. [Soul + scot, or shot; cf AS s[=a]welsceat.] (O. Eccl. Law) A funeral duty paid in former times for a requiem for the soul. --Ayliffe. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Soul \Soul\, v. t. To indue with a soul; to furnish with a soul or mind. [Obs.] --Chaucer. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: soul n 1: the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life [syn: {psyche}] 2: a human being "there was too much for one person to do" [syn: {person}, {individual}, {someone}, {somebody}, {mortal}, {human}] 3: deep feeling or emotion [syn: {soulfulness}] 4: the human embodiment of something "the soul of honor" From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: SOUL, n. A spiritual entity concerning which there hath been brave disputation. Plato held that those souls which in a previous state of existence (antedating Athens) had obtained the clearest glimpses of eternal truth entered into the bodies of persons who became philosophers. Plato himself was a philosopher. The souls that had least contemplated divine truth animated the bodies of usurpers and despots. Dionysius I, who had threatened to decapitate the broad- browed philosopher, was a usurper and a despot. Plato, doubtless, was not the first to construct a system of philosophy that could be quoted against his enemies; certainly he was not the last "Concerning the nature of the soul," saith the renowned author of _Diversiones Sanctorum_, "there hath been hardly more argument than that of its place in the body. Mine own belief is that the soul hath her seat in the abdomen -- in which faith we may discern and interpret a truth hitherto unintelligible, namely that the glutton is of all men most devout. He is said in the Scripture to 'make a god of his belly' -- why, then, should he not be pious, having ever his Deity with him to freshen his faith? Who so well as he can know the might and majesty that he shrines? Truly and soberly, the soul and the stomach are one Divine Entity; and such was the belief of Promasius who nevertheless erred in denying it immortality. He had observed that its visible and material substance failed and decayed with the rest of the body after death, but of its immaterial essence he knew nothing. This is what we call the Appetite, and it survives the wreck and reek of mortality, to be rewarded or punished in another world, according to what it hath demanded in the flesh. The Appetite whose coarse clamoring was for the unwholesome viands of the general market and the public refectory shall be cast into eternal famine, whilst that which firmly through civilly insisted on ortolans, caviare, terrapin, anchovies, _pates de foie gras_ and all such Christian comestibles shall flesh its spiritual tooth in the souls of them forever and ever, and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest and richest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith, though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundly revere) will assent to its dissemination."
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