Define
Pronunciation
- IPA: /dɪˈfaɪn/
- Rhymes: -aɪn
Origin
From Middle English definen, from Old French definer, variant of definir, from Latin dēfīniŠ("limit, settle, define"), from dē + fīniŠ("set a limit, bound, end")
Full definition of define
Verb
- To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
- Sir Isaac NewtonRings...very distinct and well defined.
- 2013, Lee S. Langston, The Adaptable Gas Turbine, Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
- the defining power of an optical instrument
- (obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.). 16th-17th c.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:These warlike Champions, all in armour shine,
Assembled were in field the chalenge to define. - To express the essential nature of something.
- 2013, w, Crinkly Curves, Cantor defined a one-to-one correspondence between the points of the square and the points of the line segment. Every point in the square was associated with a single point in the segment; every point in the segment was matched with a unique point in the square.
- I define myself as a techno-anarchist.
- To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.The textbook defined speed as velocity divided by time.
- To describe, explain, or make definite and clear.
- To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.
- 2012, Jan Sapp, Race Finished, Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
- to define the legal boundaries of a property
- (mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.
Related terms
Noun
define
(plural defines)- (computing, programming) A kind of macro in source code that replaces one text string with another wherever it occurs.
- 1996, James Gosling, Henry McGilton, The Java Language EnvironmentFrom the computer programming perspective, Java looks like C and C++ while discarding the overwhelming complexities of those languages, such as typedefs, defines, preprocessor, unions, pointers, and multiple inheritance.
- 1999, Ian Joyner, Objects unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++ (page 309)Anyone who has attempted to do OO programming in a conventional language using defines will find out that it is impossible to realize the benefits easily, if at all, without compiler support.