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HOME | Definition of material (MATERIAL, Material)


    Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, n.
    The substance or matter of which anything is made or may be
    made.
    [1913 Webster]

    Raw material, any crude, unfinished, or elementary
    materials that are adapted to use only by processes of
    skilled labor. Cotton, wool, ore, logs, etc., are raw
    material.
    [1913 Webster]

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, a. [L. materialis, fr. materia stuff,
    matter: cf. F. mat['e]riel. See Matter, and cf.
    Mat['e]riel.]
    [1913 Webster]
    1. Consisting of matter; not spiritual; corporeal; physical;
    as, material substance or bodies.
    [1913 Webster]

    The material elements of the universe. --Whewell.
    [1913 Webster]

    2. Hence: Pertaining to, or affecting, the physical nature of
    man, as distinguished from the mental or moral nature;
    relating to the bodily wants, interests, and comforts; as,
    material well-being; material comforts.
    [1913 Webster]

    3. Of solid or weighty character; not insubstantial; of
    consequence; not be dispensed with; important;
    significant.
    [1913 Webster]

    Discourse, which was always material, never
    trifling. --Evelyn.
    [1913 Webster]

    I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down
    only such as are most material to our present
    purpose. --Locke.
    [1913 Webster]

    4. (Logic.) Pertaining to the matter, as opposed to the form,
    of a thing. See Matter.
    [1913 Webster]

    Material cause. See under Cause.

    Material evidence (Law), evidence which conduces to the
    proof or disproof of a relevant hypothesis. --Wharton.
    [1913 Webster]

    Syn: Corporeal; bodily; important; weighty; momentous;
    essential.
    [1913 Webster]

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, v. t.
    To form from matter; to materialize. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
    [1913 Webster]

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    material
    adj 1: concerned with worldly rather than spiritual interests;
    "material possessions"; "material wealth"; "material
    comforts"
    2: derived from or composed of matter; "the material universe"
    [ant: immaterial]
    3: directly relevant to a matter especially a law case; "his
    support made a material difference"; "evidence material to
    the issue at hand"; "facts likely to influence the
    judgment are called material facts"; "a material witness"
    [ant: immaterial]
    4: concerned with or affecting physical as distinct from
    intellectual or psychological well-being; "material
    needs"; "the moral and material welfare of all good
    citizens"- T.Roosevelt
    5: having material or physical form or substance; "that which
    is created is of necessity corporeal and visible and
    tangible" - Benjamin Jowett [syn: corporeal] [ant: incorporeal]
    6: having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not
    imaginary; "the substantial world"; "a mere dream, neither
    substantial nor practical"; "most ponderous and
    substantial things"- Shakespeare [syn: substantial, real]
    [ant: insubstantial]
    n 1: the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a
    physical object; "coal is a hard black material"; "wheat
    is the stuff they use to make bread" [syn: stuff]
    2: information (data or ideas or observations) that can be used
    or reworked into a finished form; "the archives provided
    rich material for a definitive biography"
    3: things needed for doing or making something; "writing
    materials"; "useful teaching materials"
    4: artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or
    crocheting natural or synthetic fibers; "the fabric in the
    curtains was light and semitraqnsparent"; "woven cloth
    originated in Mesopotamia around 5000 BC"; "she measured
    off enough material for a dress" [syn: fabric, cloth,
    textile]
    5: a person judged suitable for admission or employment; "he
    was university material"; "she was vice-presidential
    material"

    WordNet (r) 2.0


    384 Moby Thesaurus words for "material":
    Adamic, Circean, Formica, Masonite, Philistine, a propos, ab ovo,
    absolute, abundance, accumulation, actual, ad rem, adducible,
    admissible, air, amassment, animal, animalistic, apparatus,
    appertaining, applicable, applying, apposite, appreciable,
    appropriate, apropos, asphalt, atom, atomic particles, atoms,
    attestative, attestive, authentic, backlog, ballpoint pen, basal,
    based on, basic, beastlike, beastly, bedrock, being, belonging,
    bestial, bibliography, big, big-league, big-name, big-time, bigwig,
    bigwigged, blackboard, blacktop, bodily, body of knowledge,
    body of learning, brick, brutal, brute, brute matter, brutish,
    budget, building block, canvas, cardinal, carnal, carnal-minded,
    carpeting, central, certain, chalk, chemical element,
    circumstantial, clapboard, cloth, coarse, cobblestone, collection,
    commissariat, commissary, component, components, conclusive,
    concrete, consequential, considerable, constituent, constituents,
    constitutive, convincing, core, cork tile, cornucopia, corporal,
    corporeal, crayon, cumulation, cumulative, cyclopedia, damning,
    data, decisive, determinative, distillate, distillation,
    documentary, documentation, documented, documents, double-barreled,
    drapery, dump, earth, earthly, earthshaking, earthy, element,
    elemental, elementary, elementary particle, elementary unit,
    elements, elixir, encyclopedia, entity, equipment, eraser, essence,
    essential, etoffe, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte, eye-witness,
    fabric, facts, factual, fallen, felt, fiber glass, figures, final,
    fire, firsthand, flag, flagging, flagstone, fleshly, flooring,
    focal, founded on, fundamental, fundamental particle, gear,
    germane, gist, goods, grand, great, gross, grounded on, gut,
    habiliments, heap, hearsay, heart, heavyweight, high-powered,
    hoard, hyle, hylic, hypostasis, implicit, important, in point,
    incontrovertible, indicative, indispensable, indisputable,
    individual, information, ingredient, ink, inkhorn, inkstand,
    inkwell, inventory, invisible ink, involving, irrefutable,
    irresistible, kernel, lace, lapsed, larder, lay, lead pencil,
    life-and-death, life-or-death, linoleum, literature, lore, macadam,
    machinery, major, marrow, mass, material world, materialistic,
    materiality, materials, materiate, materiel, matter, meaningful,
    means, meat, medium, molecule, momentous, monad, mundane,
    munitions, name, napery, natural world, nature, nib, nonspiritual,
    notes, nub, nuncupative, object, objective, of the essence,
    of vital importance, orgiastic, original, outfit, overwhelming,
    palpable, pantile, paper, papers, paraphernalia, parquet, pavement,
    pavestone, paving, pen, perceptible, pertaining, pertinent,
    phenomenal, physical, physical world, pile, pith, plasterboard,
    plenitude, plenty, plenum, plume, plywood, ponderable,
    postlapsarian, presumptive, primal, primary, primitive, probative,
    provisionment, provisions, publications, quill, quintessence,
    radical, rag, rations, real, reed, relevant, reliable, repertoire,
    repertory, research, resources, rick, roofage, roofing,
    roofing paper, sap, secular, self-important, sensible, sensual,
    serious, shake, sheathing board, sheeting, shingle, siding,
    significant, silk, slate, solid, somatic, soul, spirit, spun glass,
    stack, statistics, stencil, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile,
    stone, store, store of knowledge, stores, stuff, style, stylograph,
    stylus, substance, substantial, substantive, substratum,
    suggestive, sum and substance, superior, supplies, supply on hand,
    sure, swinish, sympathetic ink, symptomatic, system of knowledge,
    table, tablet, tackle, tackling, tangible, tar paper, telling,
    temporal, terrestrial, textile, textile fabric, texture, thatch,
    the four elements, tile, tilestone, tiling, tissu, tissue,
    to the point, to the purpose, treasure, treasury,
    treasury of information, true, underlying, unit of being,
    unspiritual, valid, veneer, vital, wainscoting, wallboard, walling,
    wallpaper, water, weatherboard, weave, web, weft, weighty, wood,
    woof, wool, world-shaking, worldly

    Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0


    MATERIALS. Everything of which anything is made.
    2. When materials are furnished to a workman he is bound to use them
    according to his contract, as a tailor is bound to employ the cloth I
    furnish him with, to make me a coat that shall fit me, for if he so make it
    that I cannot wear it, it is not a proper employment of the materials. But
    if the undertaker use ordinary skill and care, he will not be responsible,
    although the materials may be injured; as, if a gem be delivered to a
    jeweler, and it is broken without any unskillfulness, negligence or rashness
    of the artisan, he will not be liable. Poth. Louage, n. 428.
    3. The workman is to use ordinary diligence in the care of the
    materials entrusted with him, or to exercise that caution which a prudent
    man takes of his own affairs, and he is also bound to preserve them from any
    unexpected danger to which they may be exposed. 1 Gow. R. 30; 1 Camp. 138.
    4. When there is no special contract between the parties, and the
    materials perish while in the possession of the workman or undertaker,
    without his default, either by inevitable casualty, by internal defect, by
    superior force, by robbery or by any peril not guarded against by ordinary
    diligence, he is not responsible. This is the case only when the material
    belongs to the employer and the workman only undertakes to put his work upon
    it. But a distinction must be observed in the case when the employer has
    engaged a workman to make him an article out of his own materials, for in
    that case the employer has no property in it, until the work be completed,
    and the article be delivered to him; if, in the mean time, the thing
    perishes, it is the loss of the workman, who is wholly its owner, according
    to the maxim res perit domino. In the former case the employer is the owner;
    in the latter the workman; in the first case it is a bailment, in the second
    a sale of the thing in futuro. Domat. B. 1, t. 4, Sec. 7, n. 3; Id. B. 1, t.
    4, Sec. 8, n. 10.
    5. Another distinction must be made in the case when the thing given by
    the employer was to become the property of the workman, and an article was
    to be made out of similar materials, and before its completion it perished.
    In this case the title to the thing having passed to the workman, the loss
    must be his. 1 Blackf. 353; 7 Cowen, 752, 756, note; 21 Wend. 85; 3 Mason,
    478; Dig. 19, 2, 31; 1 Bouv. Inst. 1006-7.
    6. In some of the states by their laws persons who furnish materials
    for the construction of a building, have a lien against such building for
    the payment of the value of such materials. See Lien of Mechanics.

    Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)


    MATERIAL, adj. Having an actual existence, as distinguished from an
    imaginary one. Important.

    Material things I know, or fell, or see;
    All else is immaterial to me.
    Jamrach Holobom

    THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)




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