EXAMPLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Example

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/ɪgzˈæmpəl/ Listen

noun

Example n.

1.

One or a portion taken to show the character or quality of the whole; a sample; a specimen.

2.

That which is to be followed or imitated as a model; a pattern or copy. "For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." "I gave, thou sayest, the example; I led the way."

3.

That which resembles or corresponds with something else; a precedent; a model. "Such temperate order in so fierce a cause Doth want example."

4.

That which is to be avoided; one selected for punishment and to serve as a warning; a warning. "Hang him; he'll be made an example." "Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted."

5.

An instance serving for illustration of a rule or precept, especially a problem to be solved, or a case to be determined, as an exercise in the application of the rules of any study or branch of science; as, in trigonometry and grammar, the principles and rules are illustrated by examples.

Synonyms: Precedent; case; instance. Example, Instance. The discrimination to be made between these two words relates to cases in which we give "instances" or "examples" of things done. An instance denotes the single case then "standing" before us; if there be others like it, the word does not express this fact. On the contrary, an example is one of an entire class of like things, and should be a true representative or sample of that class. Hence, an example proves a rule or regular course of things; an instance simply points out what may be true only in the case presented. A man's life may be filled up with examples of the self-command and kindness which marked his character, and may present only a solitary instance of haste or severity. Hence, the word "example" should never be used to describe what stands singly and alone. We do, however, sometimes apply the word instance to what is really an example, because we are not thinking of the latter under this aspect, but solely as a case which "stands before us." See Precedent.

verb

Example v. t. (past & past part. exampled; pres. part. exampling) To set an example for; to give a precedent for; to exemplify; to give an instance of; to instance. (Obs.) "I may example my digression by some mighty precedent." "Burke devoted himself to this duty with a fervid assiduity that has not often been exampled, and has never been surpassed."

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Etymology of 'Example'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Example" Quotes from Famous Books

... felt it their duty to humour you. Mrs. Harris remarks at breakfast that at least you might have seen to it that the children were properly dressed before you took them out; while Harris points out to you, pathetically, how, by your one morning's example and encouragement, you have undone ...

— Three Men on the Bummel • Jerome K. Jerome

... can doubt that slavery must sooner or later be done away with, wherever it now exists, the time of its abolition may be indefinitely postponed, and other means of accomplishing it must be devised and adopted, than those which the example of the West Indies will ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... Mother expects it? Of course she does! And some day she'll expect to dress you in white, and bid us all to come and dance at the wedding! But in the meantime, Mother mustn't blame someone who has just a LITTLE more discernment than- -well, young Brevoort, for example, for seeing that her tame dove is really a wild little sea-gull starving for the sea. Now, look here, Miss Nina, you hate all this society ...

— Harriet and the Piper - (Norris Volume XI) • Kathleen Norris

... also distressed and unhappy, and whose voice was balm for the humiliations that smarted in his eyes. Indeed, now in many particulars I cannot disentangle this harangue of which I tell from many of the things I may have said in other talks to Parload. For example, I forget if it was then or before or afterwards that, as it were by accident, I let out what might be taken as an admission that I was addicted ...

— In the Days of the Comet • H. G. Wells

... Trigonia, a great Secondary genus of shells surviving in a single species in the Australian seas, is given as an example in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 321, vi. ...

— The Foundations of the Origin of Species - Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 • Charles Darwin

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