Word Meanings - ATTITUDE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

The posture, action, or disposition of a figure or a statue. 2. The posture or position of a person or an animal, or the manner in which the parts of his body are disposed; position assumed or studied to serve a purpose; as, a threatening attitude;

Additional info about word: ATTITUDE

The posture, action, or disposition of a figure or a statue. 2. The posture or position of a person or an animal, or the manner in which the parts of his body are disposed; position assumed or studied to serve a purpose; as, a threatening attitude; an attitude of entreaty. 3. Fig.: Position as indicating action, feeling, or mood; as, in times of trouble let a nation preserve a firm attitude; one's mental attitude in respect to religion. The attitude of the country was rapidly changing. J. R. Green. To strike an attitude, to take an attitude for mere effect. Syn. -- Attitude, Posture. Both of these words describe the visible disposition of the limbs. Posture relates to their position merely; attitude refers to their fitness for some specific object. The object of an attitude is to set forth exhibit some internal feeling; as, attitude of wonder, of admiration, of grief, etc. It is, therefore, essentially and designedly expressive. Its object is the same with that of gesture; viz., to hold forth and represent. Posture has no such design. If we speak of posture in prayer, or the posture of devotion, it is only the natural disposition of the limbs, without any intention to show forth or exhibit. 'T is business of a painter in his choice of attitudes to foresee the effect and harmony of the lights and shadows. Dryden. Never to keep the body in the same posture half an hour at a time. Bacon.

Related words: (words related to ATTITUDE)

• STATUELESS
  Without a statue.
• DISPOSEMENT
  Disposal. Goodwin.
• ASSUMABLE
  That may be assumed.
• ANIMALIZATION
  1. The act of animalizing; the giving of animal life, or endowing with animal properties. 2. Conversion into animal matter by the process of assimilation. Owen.
• STATUED
  Adorned with statues. "The statued hall." Longfellow. "Statued niches." G. Eliot.
• DISPOSURE
  1. The act of disposing; power to dispose of; disposal; direction. Give up My estate to his disposure. Massinger. 2. Disposition; arrangement; position; posture. In a kind of warlike disposure. Sir H. Wotton.
• ANIMALCULISM
  The theory which seeks to explain certain physiological and pathological by means of animalcules.
• PURPOSELESS
  Having no purpose or result; objectless. Bp. Hall. -- Pur"pose*less*ness, n.
• PERSONNEL
  The body of persons employed in some public service, as the army, navy, etc.; -- distinguished from matériel.
• PERSONIFICATION
  A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstract idea is represented as animated, or endowed with personality; prosopopas, the floods clap their hands. "Confusion heards his voice." Milton. (more info) 1. The act of personifying;
• DISPOSITED
  Disposed. Glanvill.
• ANIMALITY
  Animal existence or nature. Locke.
• ANIMALLY
  Physically. G. Eliot.
• ANIMALNESS
  Animality.
• DISPOSITOR
  The planet which is lord of the sign where another planet is. Crabb. (more info) 1. A disposer.
• DISPOSE
  Etym: 1. To distribute and put in place; to arrange; to set in order; as, to dispose the ships in the form of a crescent. Who hath disposed the whole world Job xxxiv. 13. All ranged in order and disposed with grace. Pope. The rest themselves in
• DISPOSEDNESS
  The state of being disposed or inclined; inclination; propensity.
• DISPOSSESS
  To put out of possession; to deprive of the actual occupancy of, particularly of land or real estate; to disseize; to eject; -- usually followed by of before the thing taken away; as, to dispossess a king of his crown. Usurp the land, and dispossess
• ACTION
  Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun. (more info) 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of
• PERSONIZE
  To personify. Milton has personized them. J. Richardson.
• DISSERVE
  To fail to serve; to do injury or mischief to; to damage; to hurt; to harm. Have neither served nor disserved the interests of any party. Jer. Taylor. (more info) Etym:
• RESERVE
  1. To keep back; to retain; not to deliver, make over, or disclose. "I have reserved to myself nothing." Shak. 2. Hence, to keep in store for future or special use; to withhold from present use for another purpose or time; to keep; to retain. Gen.
• DESERVEDNESS
  Meritoriousness.
• NON ASSUMPSIT
  The general plea or denial in an action of assumpsit.
• REACTIONIST
  A reactionary. C. Kingsley.
• SARGASSUM
  A genus of algæ including the gulf weed.
• APPOSITION
  The state of two nouns or pronouns, put in the same case, without a connecting word between them; as, I admire Cicero, the orator. Here, the second noun explains or characterizes the first. Growth by apposition , a mode of growth characteristic
• MISOBSERVE
  To observe inaccurately; to mistake in observing. Locke.