SENTENCE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Sentence

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/sˈɛntəns/ Listen

noun

Sentence n.

1.

Sense; meaning; significance. (Obs.) "Tales of best sentence and most solace." "The discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence."

2.

(a)

An opinion; a decision; a determination; a judgment, especially one of an unfavorable nature. "My sentence is for open war." "That by them (Luther's works) we may pass sentence upon his doctrines."

(b)

A philosophical or theological opinion; a dogma; as, Summary of the Sentences; Book of the Sentences.

3.

(Law) In civil and admiralty law, the judgment of a court pronounced in a cause; in criminal and ecclesiastical courts, a judgment passed on a criminal by a court or judge; condemnation pronounced by a judicial tribunal; doom. In common law, the term is exclusively used to denote the judgment in criminal cases. "Received the sentence of the law."

4.

A short saying, usually containing moral instruction; a maxim; an axiom; a saw.

5.

(Gram.) A combination of words which is complete as expressing a thought, and in writing is marked at the close by a period, or full point. See Proposition, 4. Note: Sentences are simple or compound. A simple sentence consists of one subject and one finite verb; as, "The Lord reigns." A compound sentence contains two or more subjects and finite verbs, as in this verse: - "He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all."

Dark sentence, a saying not easily explained. "A king... understanding dark sentences."

verb

Sentence v. t. (past & past part. sentenced; pres. part. sentencing)

1.

To pass or pronounce judgment upon; to doom; to condemn to punishment; to prescribe the punishment of. "Nature herself is sentenced in your doom."

2.

To decree or announce as a sentence. (Obs.)

3.

To utter sententiously. (Obs.)

See images of 'Sentence'

Etymology of 'Sentence'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sentence" Quotes from Famous Books

... speech character were chosen. The fifth is the interval of the rising inflection of the question, the fourth is the interval of the rising inflection of indifference or negation, and the single falling slide used is a descending interval of a third or fourth at the close of the sentence. The fifth appears in the table as 5/, the fourth as 4/, and the single descending interval of finality as the period (.). Each verse was read on approximately the first tone of the interval, the rhyming syllable only had the second ...

— Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 • Various

... steadily out of the gorge, twitching an ear backward with flattering attention when his lady spoke. He held it so for a minute, waiting for that sentence to be finished, perhaps; for he was wise beyond his kind—was Blue. But his lady was staring at the rock wall they were passing then, where the winds and the cold and heat had carved jutting ledges into the crude form of cabbages; though Billy ...

— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower

... graves of Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart. It is not possible to feel indifferent to such associations. No grander figure can be found in the history of the Reformation than that of John Knox. His biography reads like a romance. Whether serving a two years' sentence in the French galleys, enduring a siege in the castle of St. Andrews, being tried for treason by order of Queen Mary, haranguing from the pulpit against what he considered false religionists, or having his steps dogged by assassins, Knox never swerved from ...

— Foot-prints of Travel - or, Journeyings in Many Lands • Maturin M. Ballou

... be to the parents of this boy as they read this sentence in the head master's letter to the father ...

— Herself - Talks with Women Concerning Themselves • E. B. Lowry

... criminals even get off scotfree. This produces only bad results. The officials are slow to arrest because the criminal will soon be released as a general rule, and will always take vengeance if possible. Although he argues that the death sentence ought to be abolished as an unnecessary cruelty, Mas urges that the lash be not spared, for a good beating will correct more faults than anything else. The jail only acts as an allurement for the ...

— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXXVI, 1649-1666 • Various

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