Page:The plan of a dictionary of the English language - Samuel Johnson (1747).djvu/34

 of bite used for cheat.

More a dupe than wit, Sappho can tell you, how this man was bit. Author:Alexander Pope.

lastly, may be produced the peculiar sense, in which a word is found in any great author. As faculties in Shakespeare signifies the powers of authority.

This Duncan Has born his faculties so meek, has been So clear in his great office, that &c.

signification of adjectives, may be often ascertained by uniting them to substantives, as simple swain, simple sheep; sometimes the sense of a substantive may be elucidated by the epithets annexed to it in good authors, as the boundless ocean, the open lawns, and where such advantage can be gained by a short quotation it is not to be omitted.

difference of signification in words generally accounted synonimous, ought to be carefully observed; as in pride, haughtiness, arrogance; and the strict and critical meaning ought to be distinguished from that which is loose and popular; as in the word perfection, which though in its philosophical and exact sense, it can be of