| |
Definitions for: Quality
[n]
[n] a degree or grade of excellence or worth; "the quality of students has risen"; "an executive of low caliber"
[n] the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound); "the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely"; "the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet"
[n] a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something; "each town has a quality all its own"; "the radical character of our demands"
[n] high social status; "a man of quality"
[adj] of high social status; "people of quality"; "a quality family"
[adj] of superior grade; "choice wines"; "prime beef"; "prize carnations"; "quality paper"; "select peaches"
Webster (1913) Definition: Qual"i*ty, n.; pl. Qualities. [F. qualit['e], L.
qualitas, fr. qualis how constituted, as; akin to E. which.
See Which.]
1. The condition of being of such and such a sort as
distinguished from others; nature or character relatively
considered, as of goods; character; sort; rank.
We lived most joyful, obtaining acquaintance with
many of the city not of the meanest quality. --Bacon
2. Special or temporary character; profession; occupation;
assumed or asserted rank, part, or position.
I made that inquiry in quality of an antiquary.
--Gray.
3. That which makes, or helps to make, anything such as it
is; anything belonging to a subject, or predicable of it;
distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute;
peculiar power, capacity, or virtue; distinctive trait;
as, the tones of a flute differ from those of a violin in
quality; the great quality of a statesman.
Note: Qualities, in metaphysics, are primary or secondary.
Primary are those essential to the existence, and even
the conception, of the thing, as of matter or spirit
Secondary are those not essential to such a conception.
4. An acquired trait; accomplishment; acquisition.
He had those qualities of horsemanship, dancing, and
fencing which accompany a good breeding.
--Clarendon.
5. Superior birth or station; high rank; elevated character.
``Persons of quality.'' --Bacon.
Quality binding, a kind of worsted tape used in Scotland
for binding carpets, and the like.
The quality, those of high rank or station, as
distinguished from the masses, or common people; the
nobility; the gentry.
I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my
feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they
will look in their traveling habits. --Addison.
Syn: Property; attribute; nature; peculiarity; character;
sort; rank; disposition; temper.
Synonyms: caliber, calibre, character, choice, lineament, prime(a), prize, select, superior, timber, timbre, tone, upper-class
See Also: air, appearance, atmosphere, attraction, attractiveness, attribute, attribute, aura, believability, certainty, changeability, changeableness, changelessness, characteristic, clarity, clearness, color, coloration, colour, colouration, complexity, complexness, corporeality, counterfactuality, credibility, credibleness, curiousness, degree, difference, difficultness, difficulty, dimension, ease, easiness, ethnicity, excellence, extraordinariness, factuality, factualness, foreignness, fullness, generality, grade, harshness, high quality, humanity, humanness, illogic, illogicality, illogicalness, immateriality, immobility, incorporeality, incredibility, incredibleness, ineptness, inferiority, irregularity, level, logicality, logicalness, low quality, materiality, mellowness, mobility, morbidity, morbidness, nasality, nativeness, naturalness, nature, opacity, opaqueness, ordinariness, particularity, physicalness, plangency, pleasantness, probability, property, rank, register, regularity, resonance, reverberance, richness, ringing, roughness, sameness, satisfactoriness, shrillness, simpleness, simplicity, social rank, social station, social status, sonority, sonorousness, sound property, strangeness, stridence, stridency, suitability, suitableness, superiority, sure thing, sweetness, texture, uncertainness, uncertainty, unchangeability, unchangeableness, unchangingness, uncloudedness, unnaturalness, unpleasantness, unregularity, unsatisfactoriness, unsuitability, unsuitableness, unwholesomeness, vertu, vibrancy, virtu, visual aspect, wholesomeness
|
