OBSERVANCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Observance

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/əbzˈərvəns/ Listen

noun

Observance n.

1.

The act or practice of observing or noticing with attention; a heeding or keeping with care; performance; usually with a sense of strictness and fidelity; as, the observance of the Sabbath is general; the strict observance of duties. "It is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance."

2.

An act, ceremony, or rite, as of worship or respect; especially, a customary act or service of attention; a form; a practice; a rite; a custom. "At dances These young folk kept their observances." "Use all the observance of civility." "Some represent to themselves the whole of religion as consisting in a few easy observances." "O I that wasted time to tend upon her, To compass her with sweet observances!"

3.

Servile attention; sycophancy. (Obs.) "Salads and flesh, such as their haste could get, Served with observance." "This is not atheism, But court observance."

Synonyms: Observance, Observation. These words are discriminated by the two distinct senses of observe. To observe means (1) to keep strictly; as, to observe a fast day, and hence, observance denotes the keeping or heeding with strictness; (2) to consider attentively, or to remark; and hence, observation denotes either the act of observing, or some remark made as the result thereof. We do not say the observation of Sunday, though the word was formerly so used. The Pharisees were curious in external observances; the astronomers are curious in celestial observations. "Love rigid honesty, And strict observance of impartial laws."

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Etymology of 'Observance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Observance" Quotes from Famous Books

... of them extended, and would have required a system of espionage to detect them, or informers from the guilty ones themselves. Dartmouth however, at its worst, in that period, was not one whit behind any other college in New England, in its general tone of morals, in observance of law, in habits of study and in scholarly attainments. There were not a few whose sense of honor was very high, and as they were popular and influential, they in some degree necessarily gave tone to others. Nay, surrounded by such an atmosphere of benignity—of which every student ...

— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith

... up to so scrupulous an observance of the Puritan Sabbath, that I was rather surprised, this morning, by his proposition to drive over to the Flume. His equanimity had been disturbed by finding one of the horses that had brought us here, seemingly in a dying condition. He was one of the 'team' that had taken us on ...

— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... made by agents is amazing. A man who bets on commission for others may have L100,000 to lay out on a race; every farthing is accounted for, and dishonesty among the higher grades of the betting brotherhood is practically unknown. It is this rigid observance of the point of honour that tempts people like our gang in The Chequers bar to risk their shillings; they know that if they make a right guess their payment is safe. The statesman who called the turf "a vast instrument of national ...

— The Chequers - Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in - a Loafer's Diary • James Runciman

... The observance of the proprieties of time, place, and occasion are nowhere more urgent than at church. Much of the liberty that is granted on secular occasions is entirely out ...

— Etiquette • Agnes H. Morton

... Crees have, probably since their acquaintance with Europeans, undergone a change at least equal to that which has taken place in their moral character; and although we heard of many practises peculiar to them yet they appeared to be nearly as much honoured in the breach as the observance. We shall however briefly notice a few of the most ...

— The Journey to the Polar Sea • John Franklin

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