English Synonyms and Antonyms - James Champlin Fernald (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗

From the pulpits in the northern States Burr was denounced as an assassin.

Coffin Building the Nation ch. 10, p. 137. [H. '83.]

To doom is to condemn solemnly and consign to evil or destruction or to predetermine to an evil destiny; an inferior race in presence of a superior is doomed to subjugation or extinction. Compare ARRAIGN; REPROVE.[114]

Antonyms: absolve, applaud, exonerate, pardon, acquit, approve, justify, praise. Prepositions:

The bandit was condemned to death for his crime.

CONFESS. Synonyms: accept, allow, concede, grant, acknowledge, avow, disclose, own, admit, certify, endorse, recognize.

We accept another's statement; admit any point made against us; acknowledge what we have said or done, good or bad; avow our individual beliefs or feelings; certify to facts within our knowledge; confess our own faults; endorse a friend's note or statement; grant a request; own our faults or obligations; recognize lawful authority; concede a claim. Confess has a high and sacred use in the religious sense; as, to confess Christ before men. It may have also a playful sense (often with to); as, one confesses to a weakness for confectionery. The chief present use of the word, however, is in the sense of making known to others one's own wrong-doing; in this sense confess is stronger than acknowledge or admit, and more specific than own; a person admits a mistake; acknowledges a fault; confesses sin or crime. Compare APOLOGY; AVOW.

Antonyms: cloak, deny, disown, hide, screen, conceal, disavow, dissemble, mask, secrete, cover, disguise, dissimulate, repudiate, veil. CONFIRM. Synonyms: assure, fix, sanction, substantiate, corroborate, prove, settle, sustain, establish, ratify, strengthen, uphold.

Confirm (L. con, together, and firmus, firm) is to add firmness or give stability to. Both confirm and corroborate presuppose something already existing to which the confirmation or corroboration is added. Testimony is corroborated by concurrent testimony or by circumstances; confirmed by established facts. That which is thoroughly proved is said to be established; so is that which is official and has adequate power behind it; as, the established government; the established church. The continents are fixed. A treaty is ratified; an appointment confirmed. An act is sanctioned by any person or authority that passes upon it[115] approvingly. A statement is substantiated; a report confirmed; a controversy settled; the decision of a lower court sustained by a higher. Just government should be upheld. The beneficent results of Christianity confirm our faith in it as a divine revelation.

Antonyms: abrogate, cancel, overthrow, shatter, upset, annul, destroy, shake, unsettle, weaken. Prepositions:

Confirm a statement by testimony; confirm a person in a belief.

CONGRATULATE. Synonym: felicitate.

To felicitate is to pronounce one happy or wish one joy; to congratulate is to express hearty sympathy in his joys or hopes. Felicitate is cold and formal. We say one felicitates himself; tho to congratulate oneself, which is less natural, is becoming prevalent.

Antonyms: condole with, console. Prepositions:

Congratulate one on or upon his success.

CONQUER. Synonyms: beat, humble, overthrow, subject, checkmate, master, prevail over, subjugate, crush, overcome, put down, surmount, defeat, overmaster, reduce, vanquish, discomfit, overmatch, rout, win, down, overpower, subdue, worst.

To defeat an enemy is to gain an advantage for the time; to vanquish is to win a signal victory; to conquer is to overcome so effectually that the victory is regarded as final. Conquer, in many cases, carries the idea of possession; as, to conquer respect, affection, peace, etc. A country is conquered when its armies are defeated and its territory is occupied by the enemy; it may be subjected to indemnity or to various disabilities; it is subjugated when it is held helplessly and continuously under military control; it is subdued when all resistance has died out. An army is defeated when forcibly driven back; it is routed when it is converted into a mob of fugitives. Compare BEAT.

Antonyms: capitulate, fail, fly, lose, retire, submit, surrender, cede, fall, forfeit, resign, retreat, succumb, yield.

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CONSCIOUS. Synonyms: advised, assured, certain, cognizant, sensible, apprised, aware, certified, informed, sure.

One is aware of that which exists without him; he is conscious of the inner workings of his own mind. Sensible may be used in the exact sense of conscious, or it may partake of both the senses mentioned above. One may be sensible of his own or another's error; he is conscious only of his own. A person may feel assured or sure of something false or non-existent; what he is aware of, still more what he is conscious of, must be fact. Sensible has often a reference to the emotions where conscious might apply only to the intellect; to say a culprit is sensible of his degradation is more forcible than to say he is conscious of it.

Antonyms: cold, dead, deaf, ignorant, insensible, unaware, unconscious. Preposition:

On the stormy sea, man is conscious of the limitation of human power.

CONSEQUENCE. Synonyms: consequent, end, issue, outgrowth, sequel, effect, event, outcome, result, upshot.

Effect is the strongest of these words; it is that which is directly produced by the action of an efficient cause; we say, "Every effect must have an adequate cause" (compare CAUSE). In regard to human actions, effect commonly relates to intention; as, the shot took effect, i. e., the effect intended. A consequence is that which follows an act naturally, but less directly than the effect. The motion of the piston is the effect, and the agitation of the water under the paddle-wheels a consequence of the expansion of steam in the cylinder. The result is, literally, the rebound of an act, depending on many elements; the issue is that which flows forth directly; we say the issue of a battle, the result of a campaign. A consequent commonly is that which follows simply in order of time, or by logical inference. The end is the actual outcome without determination of its relation to what has gone before; it is ordinarily viewed as either the necessary, natural, or logical outcome, any effect, consequence, or result being termed an end; as, the end of such a course must be ruin. The event (L. e, out, and venio, come) is primarily exactly the same in meaning as outcome; but in use it is more nearly equivalent to upshot[117] signifying the sum and substance of all effects, consequences, and results of a course of action. Compare ACCIDENT; CAUSE; CIRCUMSTANCE; END; EVENT.

CONSOLE. Synonyms: comfort, condole with, encourage, sympathize with.

One condoles with another by the expression of kindly sympathy in his trouble; he consoles him by considerations adapted to soothe and sustain the spirit, as by the assurances and promises of the gospel; he encourages him by the hope of some relief or deliverance; he comforts him by whatever act or word tends to bring mind or body to a state of rest and cheer. We sympathize with others, not only in sorrow, but in joy. Compare ALLEVIATE; PITY.

Antonyms: annoy, distress, disturb, grieve, hurt, sadden, trouble, wound. CONTAGION. Synonym: infection.

Infection is frequently confused with contagion, even by medical men. The best usage now limits contagion to diseases that are transmitted by contact with the diseased person, either directly by touch or indirectly by use of the same articles, by breath, effluvia, etc. Infection is applied to diseases produced by no known or definable influence of one person upon another, but where common climatic, malarious, or other wide-spread conditions are believed to be chiefly instrumental.

CONTINUAL. Synonyms: ceaseless, incessant, regular, uninterrupted, constant, invariable, unbroken, unremitting, continuous, perpetual, unceasing, unvarying.

Continuous describes that which is absolutely without pause or break; continual, that which often intermits, but as regularly begins again. A continuous beach is exposed to the continual beating of the waves. A similar distinction is made between incessant and ceaseless. The incessant discharge of firearms makes the ceaseless roar of battle. Constant is sometimes used in the sense of continual; but its chief uses are mental and moral.

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CONTRACT. Synonyms: agreement, cartel, engagement, pledge, arrangement, compact, obligation, promise, bargain, covenant, pact, stipulation.

All these words involve at least two parties, tho an engagement or promise may be the act of but one. A contract is a formal agreement between two or more parties for the doing or leaving undone some specified act or acts, and is ordinarily in writing. Mutual promises may have the force of a contract. A consideration, or compensation, is essential to convert an agreement into a contract. A contract may be oral or written. A covenant in law is a written contract under seal. Covenant is frequent in religious usage, as contract is in law and business. Compact is essentially the same as contract, but is applied to international agreements, treaties, etc. A bargain is a mutual agreement for an exchange of values, without the formality of a contract. A stipulation is a single item in an agreement or contract. A cartel is a military agreement for the exchange of prisoners or the like.

CONTRAST. Synonyms: compare, differentiate, discriminate, oppose.

To compare (L. con, together, and par, equal) is to place together in order to show likeness or unlikeness; to contrast (L. contra, against, and sto, stand) is to set in opposition in order to show unlikeness. We contrast objects that have been already compared. We must compare them, at least momentarily, even to know that they are different. We contrast them when we observe their unlikeness in a general way; we differentiate them when we note the difference exactly and point by point. We distinguish objects when we note a difference that may fall short of contrast; we discriminate them when we classify or place them according to their differences.

Preposition:

We contrast one object with another.

CONVERSATION. Synonyms: chat, communion, converse, intercourse, colloquy, confabulation, dialogue, parley, communication, conference, discourse, talk.

Conversation (Latin con, with)