☞ The benefices of the Church of England are in every case subjects of presentation. They are nearly 12, 000 in number; the advowson of more than half of them belongs to private persons, and of the remainder to the crown, bishops, deans and chapters, universities, and colleges. Amer. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The definition of this crime is varied by statues in different countries and states. The English law of arson has been considerably modified in the United States; in some of the States it has been materially enlarged, while in others, various degrees of arson have been established, with corresponding punishment. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Pros.) A peculiar species of rhyme, in which the last accented vowel and those which follow it in one word correspond in sound with the vowels of another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary. [ 1913 Webster ]

The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. Hallam. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Incomplete correspondence. [ 1913 Webster ]

Assonance between facts seemingly remote. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Pros.) Pertaining to the peculiar species of rhyme called assonance; not consonant. [ 1913 Webster ]

More precious than the benison of friends. Talfourd. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (a) A water-tight box, of timber or iron within which work is carried on in building foundations or structures below the water level. (b) A hollow floating box, usually of iron, which serves to close the entrances of docks and basins. (c) A structure, usually with an air chamber, placed beneath a vessel to lift or float it. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Arch.) A sunk panel of ceilings or soffits. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pneumatic caisson (Engin.), a caisson, closed at the top but open at the bottom, and resting upon the ground under water. The pressure of air forced into the caisson keeps the water out. Men and materials are admitted to the interior through an air lock. See Lock. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To cover with housings, as a horse; to harness or fit out with decorative trappings, as a horse. [ 1913 Webster ]

The steeds, caparisoned with purple, stand. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To adorn with rich dress; to dress. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am caparisoned like a man. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their horses clothed with rich caparison. Drylen. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Gay or rich clothing. [ 1913 Webster ]

My heart groans beneath the gay caparison. Smollett. [ 1913 Webster ]

Langtoft had written in the ordinary measure of the later chansons de geste. Saintsbury. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

These pretty little chansonnettes that he sung. Black. [ 1913 Webster ]

As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison. Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being compared; a relative estimate; also, a state, quality, or relation, admitting of being compared; as, to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark iv. 30. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Gram.) The modification, by inflection or otherwise, which the adjective and adverb undergo to denote degrees of quality or quantity; as, little, less, least, are examples of comparison. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Rhet.) A figure by which one person or thing is compared to another, or the two are considered with regard to some property or quality, which is common to them both; e.g., the lake sparkled like a jewel. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Phren.) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts. [ 1913 Webster ]

Beyond comparison, so far superior as to have no likeness, or so as to make comparison needless. --
In comparison of,
In comparison with, as compared with; in proportion to. [ Archaic ] “So miserably unpeopled in comparison of what it once was.” Addison. --
Comparison of hands (Law), a mode of proving or disproving the genuineness of a signature or writing by comparing it with another proved or admitted to be genuine, in order to ascertain whether both were written by the same person. Bouvier. Burrill.

[ 1913 Webster ]

2. Agreement or congruity; harmony; accord; consistency; suitableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

The perfect consonancy of our persecuted church to the doctrines of Scripture and antiquity. Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

The optic nerve responds to the waves with which it is in consonance. Tyndall. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Friendship; concord. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

By the consonancy of our youth. Shak.

Syn. -- Agreement; accord; consistency; unison; harmony; congruity; suitableness; agreeableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Each one pretends that his opinion . . . is consonant to the words there used. Bp. Beveridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

That where much is given there shall be much required is a thing consonant with natural equity. Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having like sounds. [ 1913 Webster ]

Consonant words and syllables. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mus.) harmonizing together; accordant; as, consonant tones, consonant chords. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Of or pertaining to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants. [ 1913 Webster ]

No Russian whose dissonant consonant name
Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame. T. Moore. [ 1913 Webster ]

Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes, spirants, sibilants, nasals, semivowels, etc. All of them are sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than that of a vowel proper, although the most open of them, as the semivowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels, and forming syllables with other closer consonants, as in the English feeble taken All the consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely, prolonged in utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels and consonants may be regarded as the two poles in the scale of sounds produced by gradual approximation of the organ, of speech from the most open to the closest positions, the vowel being more open, the consonant closer; but there is a territory between them where the sounds produced partake of the qualities of both. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ “A consonant is the result of audible friction, squeezing, or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth (or occasionally of the throath.) The main distinction between vowels and consonants is, that while in the former the mouth configuration merely modifies the vocalized breath, which is therefore an essential element of the vowels, in consonants the narrowing or stopping of the oral passage is the foundation of the sound, and the state of the glottis is something secondary.” H. Sweet. [ 1913 Webster ]