Word Meanings - GENERAL - Book Publishers vocabulary database

One of the chief military officers of a government or country; the commander of an army, of a body of men not less than a brigade. In European armies, the highest military rank next below field marshal. Note: In the United States the office

Additional info about word: GENERAL

One of the chief military officers of a government or country; the commander of an army, of a body of men not less than a brigade. In European armies, the highest military rank next below field marshal. Note: In the United States the office of General of the Army has been created by temporary laws, and has been held only by Generals U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, and P. H. Sheridan. Popularly, the title General is given to various general officers, as General, Lieutenant general, Major general, Brigadier general, Commissary general, etc. See Brigadier general, Lieutenant general, Major general, in the Vocabulary. (more info) 1. Relating to a genus or kind; pertaining to a whole class or order; as, a general law of animal or vegetable economy. 2. Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars; as, a general inference or conclusion. 3. Not restrained or limited to a precise import; not specific; vague; indefinite; lax in signification; as, a loose and general expression. 4. Common to many, or the greatest number; widely spread; prevalent; extensive, though not universal; as, a general opinion; a general custom. This general applause and cheerful sShak. 5. Having a relation to all; common to the whole; as, Adam, our general sire. Milton. 6. As a whole; in gross; for the most part. His general behavior vain, ridiculous. Shak. 7. Usual; common, on most occasions; as, his general habit or method. Note: The word general, annexed to a name of office, usually denotes chief or superior; as, attorney-general; adjutant general; commissary general; quartermaster general; vicar-general, etc. General agent , an agent whom a principal employs to transact all his business of a particular kind, or to act in his affairs generally. -- General assembly. See the Note under Assembly. -- General average, General Court. See under Average, Court. -- General court-martial , the highest military and naval judicial tribunal. -- General dealer , a shopkeeper who deals in all articles in common use. -- General demurrer , a demurrer which objects to a pleading in general terms, as insufficient, without specifying the defects. Abbott. -- General epistle, a canonical epistle. -- General guides , two sergeants (called the right, and the left, general guide) posted opposite the right and left flanks of an infantry battalion, to preserve accuracy in marching. Farrow. -- General hospitals , hospitals established to receive sick and wounded sent from the field hospitals. Farrow. General issue , an issue made by a general plea, which traverses the whole declaration or indictment at once, without offering any special matter to evade it. Bouvier. Burrill. -- General lien , a right to detain a chattel, etc., until payment is made of any balance due on a general account. -- General officer , any officer having a rank above that of colonel. -- General orders , orders from headquarters published to the whole command. -- General practitioner, in the United States, one who practices medicine in all its branches without confining himself to any specialty; in England, one who practices both as physician and as surgeon. -- General ship, a ship not chartered or let to particular parties. -- General term , a term which is the sign of a general conception or notion. -- General verdict , the ordinary comprehensive verdict in civil actions, "for the plaintiff" or "for the defendant". Burrill. -- General warrant , a warrant, now illegal, to apprehend suspected persons, without naming individuals. Syn. General, Common, Universal. Common denotes primarily that in which many share; and hence, that which is often met with. General is stronger, denoting that which pertains to a majority of the individuals which compose a genus, or whole. Universal, that which pertains to all without exception. To be able to read and write is so common an attainment in the United States, that we may pronounce it general, though by no means universal. Syn: Gen"er*al, n. Etym: 1. The whole; the total; that which comprehends or relates to all, or the chief part; -- opposed to particular. In particulars our knowledge begins, and so spreads itself by degrees to generals. Locke.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of GENERAL)

• Chieftain
• Captain
• general
• chief
• commander
• head man
• leader
• Comprehensive
• Wide
• ample
• extensive
• large
• broad
• all
• embracing
• generic
• significant
• capacious
• inclusive
• compendious
• pregnant
• comical
• Universal
• Current
• Running
• prevalent
• ordinary
• present
• popular
• floating
• exoteric
• vulgar
• Frequent
• Many
• repeated
• numerous
• recurrent
• continual
• usual
• common

Related words: (words related to GENERAL)

• REPEAT
  To repay or refund . To repeat one's self, to do or say what one has already done or said. -- To repeat signals, to make the same signals again; specifically, to communicate, by repeating them, the signals shown at headquarters. Syn.
• FREQUENTATIVE
  Serving to express the frequent repetition of an action; as, a frequentative verb. -- n.
• CHIEFLESS
  Without a chief or leader.
• POPULARIZATION
  The act of making popular, or of introducing among the people.
• COMPREHENSIVENESS
  The quality of being comprehensive; extensiveness of scope. Compare the beauty and comprehensiveness of legends on ancient coins. Addison.
• REPEATEDLY
  More than once; again and again; indefinitely.
• BROADSWORD
  A sword with a broad blade and a cutting edge; a claymore. I heard the broadsword's deadly clang. Sir W. Scott.
• BROADBILL
  A wild duck , which appears in large numbers on the eastern coast of the United States, in autumn; - - called also bluebill, blackhead, raft duck, and scaup duck. See Scaup duck.
• EXOTERICS
  The public lectures or published writings of Aristotle. See Esoterics.
• PRESENT
  one, in sight or at hand, p. p. of praeesse to be before; prae before 1. Being at hand, within reach or call, within certain contemplated limits; -- opposed to absent. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. John xiv. 25.
• COMMONER
  1. One of the common people; one having no rank of nobility. All below them even their children, were commoners, and in the eye law equal to each other. Hallam. 2. A member of the House of Commons. 3. One who has a joint right in common ground.
• PRESENTIVE
  Bringing a conception or notion directly before the mind; presenting an object to the memory of imagination; -- distinguished from symbolic. How greatly the word "will" is felt to have lost presentive power in the last three centuries. Earle. --
• UNIVERSAL
  Adapted or adaptable to all or to various uses, shapes, sizes, etc.; as, a universal milling machine. (more info) 1. Of or pertaining to the universe; extending to, including, or affecting, the whole number, quantity, or space; unlimited; general;
• UNIVERSALNESS
  The quality or state of being universal; universality.
• GENERALIZED
  Comprising structural characters which are separated in more specialized forms; synthetic; as, a generalized type.
• PREVALENTLY
  In a prevalent manner. Prior.
• BROADLY
  In a broad manner.
• PRESENTANEOUS
  Ready; quick; immediate in effect; as, presentaneous poison. Harvey.
• GENERALIZABLE
  Capable of being generalized, or reduced to a general form of statement, or brought under a general rule. Extreme cases are . . . not generalizable. Coleridge
• PREGNANT
  1. Being with young, as a female; having conceived; great with young; breeding; teeming; gravid; preparing to bring forth. 2. Heavy with important contents, significance, or issue; full of consequence or results; weighty; as, pregnant replies.
• RIGHT-RUNNING
  Straight; direct.
• MAJOR GENERAL
  . An officer of the army holding a rank next above that of brigadier general and next below that of lieutenant general, and who usually commands a division or a corps.
• OVERFREQUENT
  Too frequent.
• DIRECT CURRENT
  A current flowing in one direction only; -- distinguished from alternating current. When steady and not pulsating a direct current is often called a continuous current. A direct induced current, or momentary current of the same direction as the
• UNEXAMPLED
  Having no example or similar case; being without precedent; unprecedented; unparalleled. "A revolution . . . unexampled for grandeur of results." De Quincey.
• UNCOMMON
  Not common; unusual; infrequent; rare; hence, remarkable; strange; as, an uncommon season; an uncommon degree of cold or heat; uncommon courage. Syn. -- Rare; scarce; infrequent; unwonted. -- Un*com"mon*ly, adv. -- Un*com"mon*ness, n.
• INNUMEROUS
  Innumerable. Milton.
• JAPAN CURRENT
  A branch of the equatorial current of the Pacific, washing the eastern coast of Formosa and thence flowing northeastward past Japan and merging into the easterly drift of the North Pacific; -- called also Kuro-Siwo, or Black Stream, in allusion
• FELLOW-COMMONER
  A student at Cambridge University, England, who commons, or dines, at the Fellow's table.
• INTERCOMMON
  To graze cattle promiscuously in the commons of each other, as the inhabitants of adjoining townships, manors, etc. (more info) 1. To share with others; to participate; especially, to eat at the same table. Bacon.
• PHASING CURRENT
  The momentary current between two alternating-current generators when juxtaposed in parallel and not agreeing exactly in phase or period.
• ALTERNATING CURRENT
  A current which periodically changes or reverses its direction of flow.