|
before the court; about a thing.
* * * * *
COMPLEX.
Synonyms:
abstruse, confused, intricate, mixed, complicated, conglomerate, involved, multiform, composite, entangled,
manifold, obscure, compound, heterogeneous, mingled, tangled.
That is complex which is made up of several connected parts. That is compound in which the parts are not
merely connected, but fused, or otherwise combined into a single substance. In a composite object the
different parts have less of unity than in that which is complex or compound, but maintain their distinct
individuality. In a heterogeneous body unlike parts or particles are intermingled, often without apparent order
or plan. Conglomerate (literally, globed together) is said of a confused mingling of masses or lumps of various
substances. The New England pudding-stone is a conglomerate rock. In a complex object the arrangement and
relation of parts may be perfectly clear; in a complicated mechanism the parts are so numerous, or so
combined, that the mind can not readily grasp their mutual relations; in an intricate arrangement the parts are
so intertwined that it is difficult to follow their windings; things are involved which are rolled together so as
not to be easily separated, either in thought or in fact; things which are tangled or entangled mutually hold
and draw upon each other. The conception of a material object is usually complex, involving form, color, size,
and other elements; a clock is a complicated mechanism; the Gordian knot was intricate; the twining serpents
of the Laocoon are involved. We speak of an abstruse statement, a complex conception, a confused heap, a
heterogeneous mass, a tangled skein, an intricate problem; of composite architecture, an involved sentence; of
the complicated or intricate accounts of a great business, the entangled accounts of an incompetent or
dishonest bookkeeper.
Antonyms:
clear, homogeneous, plain, uncombined, uniform, direct, obvious, simple, uncompounded, unraveled.
* * * * *
CONDEMN.
Synonyms:
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
97
blame, convict, doom, reprove, censure, denounce, reprobate, sentence.
To condemn is to pass judicial sentence or render judgment or decision against. We may censure silently; we
condemn ordinarily by open and formal utterance. Condemn is more final than blame or censure; a
condemned criminal has had his trial; a condemned building can not stand; a condemned ship can not sail. A
person is convicted when his guilt is made clearly manifest to others; in somewhat archaic use, a person is said
to be convicted when guilt is brought clearly home to his own conscience (convict in this sense being allied
with convince, which see under PERSUADE); in legal usage one is said to be convicted only by the verdict of
a jury. In stating the penalty of an offense, the legal word sentence is now more common than condemn; as, he
was sentenced to imprisonment; but it is good usage to say, he was condemned to imprisonment. To denounce
is to make public or official declaration against, especially in a violent and threatening manner.
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.
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.
* * * * *
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
98
CONFIRM.
Synonyms:
assure, fix, sanction, substantiate, corroborate, prove, settle, sustain, establish, ratify, strengthen, uphold.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
