NOBILITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Nobility

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/noʊbˈɪləti/ Listen

noun

Nobility n.

The quality or state of being noble; superiority of mind or of character; commanding excellence; eminence. "Though she hated Amphialus, yet the nobility of her courage prevailed over it." "They thought it great their sovereign to control, And named their pride nobility of soul."

The state of being of high rank or noble birth; patrician dignity; antiquity of family; distinction by rank, station, or title, whether inherited or conferred. "I fell on the same argument of preferring virtue to nobility of blood and titles, in the story of Sigismunda."

Those who are noble; the collective body of nobles or titled persons in a state; the aristocratic and patrician class; the peerage; as, the English nobility.

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Etymology of 'Nobility'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nobility" Quotes from Famous Books

... down its branches to the ground, trailing a wealth of long, glossy green leaves in the dust of the ruined city. This was the famous tree called by the natives Athel, of which old legends say that it used to be a favorite evergreen much cultivated and prized by the Babylonian nobility, who loving its pleasant shade, spared no pains to make it grow in their hanging gardens and spacious courts, though its nature was altogether foreign to the soil. And now, with none to tend it or care whether it flourishes or decays, it faithfully ...

— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... no one around him, because he knew no one. Van Duyckink kept his eyes on his plate because he knew that every one present was hungry to catch his. He could bestow knighthood and prestige by a nod, and he was chary of creating a too extensive nobility. ...

— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry

... and that is, that on Sunday I was at church, without gaping crowds to attend us, and blessings too loud for my wishes. Yet I was more gazed at (and so was Mr. B.) than I expected, considering there were so many well-dressed gentry, and some nobility there, and they stared as much as any body, but will not, I hope, when we cease ...

— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

... carries with it a certain social dignity, and where the mere possession of money has a less marked influence in this direction, there is no doubt that the title-deeds to broad acres constitute a certain sort of patent of nobility. In this country, where land is plenty and cheap and where large fortunes are rare, a farmer gets consideration less for the amount of land that he himself owns, than for the sum-total of the mortgages which he holds upon his neighbors' land. That is to say, it is better to be rich in money ...

— Village Improvements and Farm Villages • George E. Waring

... Augustus was the first who restored that intermitted law. By the words "under colour of that law" he insinuates that Augustus caused it to be executed on pretence of those libels which were written by Cassius Severus against the nobility, but in truth to save himself from such defamatory verses. Suetonius likewise makes mention of it thus:- Sparsos de se in curia famosos libellos, nec exparit, et magna cura redarguit. Ac ne requisitis quidem auctoribus, id modo censuit, cognoscendum posthac de iis qui libellos aut carmina ad ...

— Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry • John Dryden

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