DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Per·son·al a.
1. Pertaining to human beings as distinct from things.
Every man so termed by way of personal difference. --Hooker.
2. Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals; peculiar or proper to private concerns; not public or general; as, personal comfort; personal desire.
The words are conditional, -- If thou doest well, -- and so personal to Cain. --Locke.
3. Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; as, personal charms.
4. Done in person; without the intervention of another. “Personal communication.”
The immediate and personal speaking of God. --White.
5. Relating to an individual, his character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner; as, personal reflections or remarks.
6. Gram. Denoting person; as, a personal pronoun.
Personal action Law, a suit or action by which a man claims a debt or personal duty, or damages in lieu of it; or wherein he claims satisfaction in damages for an injury to his person or property, or the specific recovery of goods or chattels; -- opposed to real action.
Personal equation. Astron. See under Equation.
Personal estate or Personal property Law, movables; chattels; -- opposed to real estate or real property. It usually consists of things temporary and movable, including all subjects of property not of a freehold nature.
Personal identity Metaph., the persistent and continuous unity of the individual person, which is attested by consciousness.
Personal pronoun Gram., one of the pronouns I, thou, he, she, it, and their plurals.
Personal representatives Law, the executors or administrators of a person deceased.
Personal rights, rights appertaining to the person; as, the rights of a personal security, personal liberty, and private property.
Personal tithes. See under Tithe.
Personal verb Gram., a verb which is modified or inflected to correspond with the three persons.
Thing n.
1. Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought.
God made . . . every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. --Gen. i. 25.
He sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt. --Gen. xiv. 23.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. --Keats.
2. An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material.
Ye meads and groves, unconscious things! --Cowper.
3. A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed.
[And Jacob said] All these things are against me. --Gen. xlii. 36.
Which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. --Matt. xxi. 24.
4. A portion or part; something.
Wicked men who understand any thing of wisdom. --Tillotson.
5. A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; -- often used in pity or contempt.
See, sons, what things you are! --Shak.
The poor thing sighed, and . . . turned from me. --Addison.
I'll be this abject thing no more. --Granville.
I have a thing in prose. --Swift.
6. pl. Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things. [Colloq.]
Note: ☞ Formerly, the singular was sometimes used in a plural or collective sense.
And them she gave her moebles and her thing. --Chaucer.
Note: ☞ Thing was used in a very general sense in Old English, and is still heard colloquially where some more definite term would be used in careful composition.
In the garden [he] walketh to and fro,
And hath his things [i. e., prayers, devotions] said full courteously. --Chaucer.
Hearkening his minstrels their things play. --Chaucer.
7. Law Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; -- distinguished from person.
8. In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly.
Things personal. Law Same as Personal property, under Personal.
Things real. Same as Real property, under Real.
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personal property
n : movable property (as distinguished from real estate) [syn: personal
estate, personalty, private property]