Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Cardinal   /kˈɑrdənəl/  /kˈɑrdɪnəl/   Listen
noun
Cardinal  n.  
1.
(R. C. Ch.) One of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college. "The clerics of the supreme Chair are called Cardinals, as undoubtedly adhering more nearly to the hinge by which all things are moved." Note: The cardinals are appointed by the pope. Since the time of Sixtus V., their number can never exceed seventy (six of episcopal rank, fifty priests, fourteen deacons), and the number of cardinal priests and deacons is seldom full. When the papel chair is vacant a pope is elected by the college of cardinals from among themselves. The cardinals take precedence of all dignitaries except the pope. The principal parts of a cardinal's costume are a red cassock, a rochet, a short purple mantle, and a red hat with a small crown and broad brim, with cords and tessels of a special pattern hanging from it.
2.
A woman's short cloak with a hood. "Where's your cardinal! Make haste."
3.
Mulled red wine.
4.
The cardinal bird, also called the northern cardinal.
Cardinal bird, or Cardinal grosbeak (Zool.), an American song bird (Cardinalis cardinalis, or Cardinalis Virginianus), of the family Fringillidae, or finches of which the male has a bright red plumage, and both sexes have a high, pointed crest on its head; it is also called the northern cardinal or eastern cardinal. The males have loud and musical notes resembling those of a fife. Other related species are also called cardinal birds.
Cardinal flower (Bot.), an herbaceous plant (Lobelia cardinalis) bearing brilliant red flowers of much beauty.
Cardinal red, a color like that of a cardinal's cassock, hat, etc.; a bright red, darker than scarlet, and between scarlet and crimson.


adjective
Cardinal  adj.  Of fundamental importance; preeminent; superior; chief; principal. "The cardinal intersections of the zodiac." "Impudence is now a cardinal virtue." "But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye."
Cardinal numbers, the numbers one, two, three, etc., in distinction from first, second, third, etc., which are called ordinal numbers.
Cardinal points
(a)
(Geol.) The four principal points of the compass, or intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west.
(b)
(Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir.
Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricorn.
Cardinal teeth (Zool.), the central teeth of bivalve shell. See Bivalve.
Cardinal veins (Anat.), the veins in vertebrate embryos, which run each side of the vertebral column and returm the blood to the heart. They remain through life in some fishes.
Cardinal virtues, preeminent virtues; among the ancients, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
Cardinal winds, winds which blow from the cardinal points due north, south, east, or west.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Cardinal" Quotes from Famous Books



... of the pines and hemlocks beyond. In little bays there were patches of white and yellow water lilies, alternating their orbed blossoms with the showy blue spikes of the Pickerel weed, and, beyond them, on the bank itself, grew many a crimson banner of the Cardinal flower. Another little bay was passed with its last rocky point, and then a clearing stood revealed, void of stump or stone or mark of fire, covered with grass and clover, save where, in the midst of a little neglected garden, stood the model of a Swiss chalet. "Do not be afraid!" said ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell
... "civil virtues" are the four cardinal virtues. Plotinus says that justice is mainly "minding one's business" [Greek: oikeiopagia]. "The purifying virtues" deliver us from sin; but [Greek: he spoude ouk exo ...
— Christian Mysticism • William Ralph Inge
... the lead of men to whom scientific analysis and observation were anathema if opposed to accepted cardinal political theories as enunciated in the Declaration as read by them, the African was not only emancipated, but so far as the letter of the law, as expressed in an amended Constitution, would establish the fact, the quondam slave was in all respects placed on an equality, political, legal and moral, ...
— 'Tis Sixty Years Since • Charles Francis Adams
... space of seventy-five hectares, on which were fish ponds, flower beds, orchards and vegetable gardens, besides the houses or rather villas of the temple priesthood. Everywhere grew poplars and acacias, as well as palm, fig, and orange trees which formed alleys directed toward the cardinal points of the world, or groups of trees of almost the same height and set out ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus
... amazed by the information of Monsignor X., and went at once to the Palazzo Braschi to inform Crispi and ascertain if there was positive confirmation of the information. I asked him to use his means of intelligence at the Vatican, which was always sure, and so well informed that Cardinal Hohenlohe told me one day that Crispi knew better what was passing at the Vatican than the cardinals did. On inquiry he discovered that my news was true, and for the first time he understood the full meaning of the combination ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II • William James Stillman


More quotes...


Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com