PRINCIPLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Principle

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/prˈɪnsəpəl/ Listen

noun

Principle n.

1.

Beginning; commencement. (Obs.) "Doubting sad end of principle unsound."

2.

A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause. "The soul of man is an active principle."

3.

An original faculty or endowment. "Nature in your principles hath set (benignity)." "Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering."

4.

A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate. "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." "A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad."

5.

A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle. "All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind."

6.

(Chem.) Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc. "Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna."

Bitter principle, Principle of contradiction, etc. See under Bitter, Contradiction, etc.

verb

Principle v. t. (past & past part. principled; pres. part. principling) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet, or rule of conduct, good or ill. "Governors should be well principled." "Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired."

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Etymology of 'Principle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Principle" Quotes from Famous Books

... to them, because while they are a sign of a scrofulous constitution, which may require special care in diet and preparations of iron and cod-liver oil, they are best left absolutely alone—neither poulticed nor lanced. The same principle of non-intervention applies equally to the swellings which sometimes form on two or three of the fingers in infancy, not involving the joints but producing great thickening and a hard swelling around the bone. These swellings disappear by degrees ...

— The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases • Charles West, M.D.

... read history, or can avail themselves of the experiences of ages, ought to know that it is not by severity or persecution that the affections of their fellow-subjects can be conciliated. We ourselves once knew a brutal ruffian, who was a dealer in fruit in the little town of Maynooth, and whose principle of correcting his children was to continue whipping the poor things until they were forced to laugh! A person was one day present when he commenced chastising one of them—a child of about seven—upon this barbarous ...

— Willy Reilly - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... By applying the principle to an electro-magnetic engine, Dr. Pacinotti produced the machine which we illustrate on the present page. The armature consists of a turned ring of iron, having around its circumference sixteen teeth of equal size and at equal angular distance apart, as shown in Fig. 1, forming between them ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 • Various

... nothing might be lost of his own notes, he has included many things not directly relating to Rabelais, is full of observations and curious remarks which are very useful additions to Le Duchat. One fault to be found with him is his further complication of the spelling. This he did in accordance with a principle that the words should be referred to their real etymology. Learned though he was, Rabelais had little care to be so etymological, and it is not his theories but those of the modern scholar ...

— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... started right with Elmira Snodgrass, she would have thawed out at once. Elmira is always lookin' for trouble as the sparks fly upwards, or thereabouts. She'd crawl through a barbed wire fence if she couldn't get at it any other way. She always chews a pill on principle, and then she calls it a dispensation of Providence, and wonders why she was ever born ...

— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott

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