a. [ F. allègre, earlier alègre, fr. L. alacer. ] Gay; cheerful; sprightly. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Alleged p. pr. & vb. n. Alleging. ] [ OE. aleggen to bring forward as evidence, OF. esligier to buy, prop. to free from legal difficulties, fr. an assumed LL. exlitigare; L. ex + litigare to quarrel, sue (see Litigate). The word was confused with L. allegare (see Allegation), and lex law. Cf. Allay. ] 1. To bring forward with positiveness; to declare; to affirm; to assert; as, to allege a fact. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cite or quote; as, to allege the authority of a judge. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To produce or urge as a reason, plea, or excuse; as, he refused to lend, alleging a resolution against lending. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To bring forward; adduce; advance; assign; produce; declare; affirm; assert; aver; predicate. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ See Allay. ] To alleviate; to lighten, as a burden or a trouble. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being alleged or affirmed. [ 1913 Webster ]

The most authentic examples allegeable in the case. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Allegation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Allegation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

With many complaints and allegements. Bp. Sanderson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who affirms or declares. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a plant of the genus Aquilegia having irregular showy spurred flowers; N temperate regions esp. mountains.
Syn. -- columbine, aquilegia [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ F. collège, L. collegium, fr. collega colleague. See Colleague. ] 1. A collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, peculiar rights and privileges; as, a college of heralds; a college of electors; a college of bishops. [ 1913 Webster ]

The college of the cardinals. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then they made colleges of sufferers; persons who, to secure their inheritance in the world to come, did cut off all their portion in this. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A society of scholars or friends of learning, incorporated for study or instruction, esp. in the higher branches of knowledge; as, the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and many American colleges. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In France and some other parts of continental Europe, college is used to include schools occupied with rudimentary studies, and receiving children as pupils. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A building, or number of buildings, used by a college. “The gate of Trinity College.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Fig.: A community. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Thick as the college of the bees in May. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

College of justice, a term applied in Scotland to the supreme civil courts and their principal officers. --
The sacred college, the college or cardinals at Rome. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To deprive of a privilege or privileges. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. florilegus flower-culling; flos, floris, flower + legere to gather: cf. F. florilège. ] The act of gathering flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Forealleged p. pr. & vb. n. Forealleging ] To allege or cite before. Fotherby. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Abbrev. fr. allege to assert. ] To allege; to assert. [ Obs. ] Bp. Fisher. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Ledgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. legende, OF. legende, F. légende, LL. legenda, fr. L. legendus to be read, fr. legere to read, gather; akin to Gr. le`gein to gather, speak. Cf. Collect, Dialogue, Lesson, Logic. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. That which is appointed to be read; especially, a chronicle or register of the lives of saints, formerly read at matins, and in the refectories of religious houses. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A story respecting saints; especially, one of a marvelous nature. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Any wonderful story coming down from the past, but not verifiable by historical record; a myth; a fable. [ 1913 Webster ]

And in this legend all that glorious deed
Read, whilst you arm you. Fairfax. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An inscription, motto, or title, esp. one surrounding the field in a medal or coin, or placed upon an heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or illustration. [ 1913 Webster ]

Golden legend. See under Golden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To tell or narrate, as a legend. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to a legend or to legends; consisting of legends; like a legend; fabulous. “Legendary writers.” Bp. Lloyd. [ 1913 Webster ]

Legendary stories of nurses and old women. Bourne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. legendaire, LL. legendarius. ] 1. A book of legends; a tale or narrative. [ 1913 Webster ]

Read the Countess of Pembroke's “Arcadia, ” a gallant legendary full of pleasurable accidents. James I. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who relates legends. Bp. Lavington. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Ledger. ] 1. Anything that lies in a place; that which, or one who, remains in a place. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A minister or ambassador resident at a court or seat of government. [ Written also lieger, leiger. ] [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sir Edward Carne, the queen's leger at Rome. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A ledger. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lying or remaining in a place; hence, resident; as, leger ambassador. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. léger, fr. LL. (assumed) leviarius, fr. L. levis light in weight. See Levity. ] Light; slender; slim; trivial. [ Obs. except in special phrases. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Leger line (Mus.), a line added above or below the staff to extend its compass; -- called also added line. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. léger light, nimble + de of + main hand, L. manus. See 3d Leger, and Manual. ] Sleight of hand; a trick of sleight of hand; hence, any artful deception or trick. [ 1913 Webster ]

He of legierdemayne the mysteries did know. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

The tricks and legerdemain by which men impose upon their own souls. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who practices sleight of hand; a prestidigitator. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. légèreté. See 3d Leger. ] Lightness; nimbleness. [ Archaic ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To state erroneously. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., fr. Gr. &unr_;, prop. p. pr. of &unr_; to blaze. ] (Class Myth.) One of the principal rivers of Hades, in the channel of which fire flowed instead of water.

Fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Milton. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., from Gr. (&unr_;) a stroke + -poda. In allusion to the rapid strokes of the vibrating cilia. ] (Zool.) Same as Infusoria. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. privilège, L. privilegium an ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual; privus private + lex, legis, law. See Private, and Legal. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity not enjoyed by others or by all; special enjoyment of a good, or exemption from an evil or burden; a prerogative; advantage; franchise. [ 1913 Webster ]

He pleads the legal privilege of a Roman. Kettlewell. [ 1913 Webster ]

The privilege birthright was a double portion. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

A people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Stockbroker's Cant) See Call, Put, Spread, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Breach of privilege. See under Breach. --
Question of privilege (Parliamentary practice), a question which concerns the security of a member of a legislative body in his special privileges as such. --
Water privilege, the advantage of having machinery driven by a stream, or a place affording such advantage. [ U. S. ] --
Writ of privilege (Law), a writ to deliver a privileged person from custody when arrested in a civil suit. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Prerogative; immunity; franchise; right; claim; liberty. -- Privilege, Prerogative. Privilege, among the Romans, was something conferred upon an individual by a private law; and hence, it denotes some peculiar benefit or advantage, some right or immunity, not enjoyed by the world at large. Prerogative, among the Romans, was the right of voting first; and, hence, it denotes a right of precedence, or of doing certain acts, or enjoying certain privileges, to the exclusion of others. It is the privilege of a member of Congress not to be called in question elsewhere for words uttered in debate. It is the prerogative of the president to nominate judges and executive officers. It is the privilege of a Christian child to be instructed in the true religion. It is the prerogative of a parent to govern and direct his children. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Privileged p. pr. & vb. n. Privileging. ] [ Cf. F. privilégier. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To grant some particular right or exemption to; to invest with a peculiar right or immunity; to authorize; as, to privilege representatives from arrest. [ 1913 Webster ]

To privilege dishonor in thy name. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bring or put into a condition of privilege or exemption from evil or danger; to exempt; to deliver. [ 1913 Webster ]

He took this place for sanctuary, And it shall privilege him from your hands. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Invested with a privilege; enjoying a peculiar right, advantage, or immunity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Privileged communication. (Law) (a) A communication which can not be disclosed without the consent of the party making it, -- such as those made by a client to his legal adviser, or by persons to their religious or medical advisers. (b) A communication which does not expose the party making it to indictment for libel, -- such as those made by persons communicating confidentially with a government, persons consulted confidentially as to the character of servants, etc. --
Privileged debts (Law), those to which a preference in payment is given out of the estate of a deceased person, or out of the estate of an insolvent. Wharton. Burrill. --
Privileged witnesses (Law) witnesses who are not obliged to testify as to certain things, as lawyers in relation to their dealings with their clients, and officers of state as to state secrets; also, by statute, clergymen and physicans are placed in the same category, so far as concerns information received by them professionally. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To allege again. Cotgrave. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. sacrilège, L. sacrilegium, from sacrilegus that steals, properly, gathers or picks up, sacred things; sacer sacred + legere to gather, pick up. See Sacred, and Legend. ] The sin or crime of violating or profaning sacred things; the alienating to laymen, or to common purposes, what has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the hid treasures in her sacred tomb
With sacrilege to dig. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Families raised upon the ruins of churches, and enriched with the spoils of sacrilege. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. sortilège, fr. L. sors, sortis, a lot + legere to gather, to select. ] The act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots. [ 1913 Webster ]

A woman infamous for sortileges and witcheries. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Pledget. ] (Med.) A cloth dipped in a liquid for washing a sore. Crabb. [ 1913 Webster ]

The advantage of using water as a mechanical power; also, the place where water is, or may be, so used. See under Privilege. [ 1913 Webster ]