TRADITION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tradition

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/trədˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Tradition n.

1.

The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery. "A deed takes effect only from the tradition or delivery."

2.

The unwritten or oral delivery of information, opinions, doctrines, practices, rites, and customs, from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; the transmission of any knowledge, opinions, or practice, from forefathers to descendants by oral communication, without written memorials.

3.

Hence, that which is transmitted orally from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; knowledge or belief transmitted without the aid of written memorials; custom or practice long observed. "Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect?" "Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré."

4.

(Theol.)

(a)

An unwritten code of law represented to have been given by God to Moses on Sinai. "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered."

(b)

That body of doctrine and discipline, or any article thereof, supposed to have been put forth by Christ or his apostles, and not committed to writing. "Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle."

Tradition Sunday (Eccl.), Palm Sunday; so called because the creed was then taught to candidates for baptism at Easter.

verb

Tradition v. t. To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down. (Obs.) "The following story is... traditioned with very much credit amongst our English Catholics."

See images of 'Tradition'

Etymology of 'Tradition'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tradition" Quotes from Famous Books

... dawn, but Old Man Curry was abroad; more than that, he was fully dressed. It was a tradition of the Jungle Circuit that he had never been seen in any other condition. The owner of the "Bible horses," in shirt sleeves and bareheaded, would have created a sensation among his competing brethren, some of whom ...

— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan

... Darerca belonged to a family which drew its origin from the south-east of the present county Kerry, though she seems to have settled in Cenel Fiachach at the time when Beoit met her. Incidents VIII and X of Ciaran's Life are laid in that territory, which falls in with a tradition, presently to be noted, that the dwelling-place of the family of the saint was not Raith Cremthainn, but the place where the parents had first met—which would be an instance of the husband dwelling with the wife's people, as is frequent under ...

— The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran - Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of - The Celtic Saints • Anonymous

... there stood in the citadel of Athens three statues of Minerva. The first was of olive wood, and, according to popular tradition, had fallen from heaven. The second was of bronze, commemorating the victory of Marathon; and the third of gold and ivory,—a great miracle of art, in the age of Pericles. And thus in the citadel of Time stands Man himself. ...

— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... told of Red Butte and its region. The Havasupais have a tradition that many years ago a large spring of water flowed from near its base, but in the great convulsion of nature which changed the current of the waters of Havasu Creek the spring disappeared, and never ...

— The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It, • George Wharton James

... [Footnote A: This tradition has always been in the Yeaman family, and very likely to be true, for the reason that an origin not gratifying to the pride of an old house would not have been accepted on the dubious authority ...

— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIV. • Revised by Alexander Leighton

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