Expression \Ex*pres"sion\ ([e^]ks*pr[e^]sh"[u^]n), n. [L.
expressio: cf. F. expression.]
1. The act of expressing; the act of forcing out by pressure;
as, the expression of juices or oils; also, of extorting
or eliciting; as, a forcible expression of truth.
[1913 Webster]
2. The act of declaring or signifying; declaration;
utterance; as, an expression of the public will.
[1913 Webster]
With this tone of philosophy were mingled
expressions of sympathy. --Prescott.
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3. Lively or vivid representation of meaning, sentiment, or
feeling, etc.; significant and impressive indication,
whether by language, appearance, or gesture; that manner
or style which gives life and suggestive force to ideas
and sentiments; as, he reads with expression; her
performance on the piano has expression.
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The imitators of Shakespeare, fixing their attention
on his wonderful power of expression, have directed
their imitation to this. --M. Arnold.
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4. That which is expressed by a countenance, a posture, a
work of art, etc.; look, as indicative of thought or
feeling. "The expression of an eye." --Tennyson.
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It still wore the majesty of expression so
conspicuous in his portraits by the inimitable
pencil of Titian. --Prescott.
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5. A form of words in which an idea or sentiment is conveyed;
a mode of speech; a phrase; as, a common expression; an
odd expression.
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6. (Math.) The representation of any quantity or relation by
appropriate characters or symbols, usually in a specific
order.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
7. (Genetics) the production of products by a gene that cause
the appearance of the corresponding protein or phenotype;
-- of a gene or of an organism with a specific gene; as,
the expression the beta-galactosidase positive phenotype,
[PJC]
8. (Computers) a combination of characters linked by
operators, occurring as part of the code of a computer
program, which must be evaluated according to the rules of
the computer language in order to produce a resulting
value.
[PJC]
Note: In most programming languages, (a + b) is an expression
indicating simple arithmetic addition, if the variables
a and b are real numbers. Many other types of operation
may be used in programs, and each set of symbols
indicating an operation is an expression in that
program.
[PJC]
Past expression, Beyond expression, beyond the power of
description. "Beyond expression bright." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
expression
n 1: the expression on a person's face; "a sad expression"; "a
look of triumph"; "an angry face" [syn: look, aspect,
facial expression, face]
2: expression without words; "tears are an expression of
grief"; "the pulse is a reflection of the heart's
condition" [syn: manifestation, reflection, reflexion]
3: the communication (in speech or writing) of your beliefs or
opinions; "expressions of good will"; "he helped me find
expression for my ideas"
4: a word or phrase that particular people use in particular
situations; "pardon the expression" [syn: saying, locution]
5: the style of expressing yourself; "he suggested a better
formulation"; "his manner of expression showed how much he
cared" [syn: formulation]
6: a group of symbols that make a mathematical statement [syn:
formula]
7: (genetics) the process of expressing a gene
8: a group of words that form a constituent of a sentence and
are considered as a single unit; "I concluded from his
awkward constructions that he was a foreigner" [syn: construction,
grammatical construction] [ant: misconstruction]
9: the act of forcing something out by squeezing or pressing;
"the expression of milk from her breast"
WordNet (r) 2.0
292 Moby Thesaurus words for "expression":
Christophany, Parthian shot, Satanophany, accent, adage, address,
adjectival phrase, affirmation, air, airing, allegation, ana,
analects, angelophany, announcement, answer, antonym, aphorism,
apostrophe, apothegm, appearance, ardor, articulateness,
articulation, aspect, assertion, asseveration, avatar, averment,
avulsion, axiom, byword, cantando, cast, catchword,
characterization, choice of words, clause, collected sayings,
command of language, command of words, comment, communication,
composition, concentration, construction, countenance, crack,
current saying, cutting out, declaration, decoction, delivery,
demilegato, demonstration, denomination, denotation, depth,
deracination, designation, dialect, dictate, diction, dictum,
differentiation, disclosure, disentanglement, dissemination,
distich, distillation, drawing, drawing out, dredging, drilling,
effective style, eloquence, eloquent tongue, embodiment, emotion,
enucleation, enunciation, epigram, epiphany, eradication, evidence,
evincement, evolvement, evulsion, excavation, excision,
exclamation, execution, expressiveness, exsection, extirpation,
extraction, extrication, face, facundity, feeling, felicitousness,
felicity, fingering, formulation, free form, gesture,
gift of expression, gift of gab, glibness, glissando, gnome,
golden saying, grammar, graphicness, greeting, headed group, hint,
homograph, homonym, homophone, identification, idiom, idiotism,
incarnation, indication, indicativeness, infusion, intensity,
interjection, intonation, issue, language, legato, lexeme,
linguistic form, locution, logos, look, loudness, manifestation,
manner of speaking, materialization, maxim, meaning,
meaningfulness, mention, metonym, mezzo staccato, mien,
minimum free form, mining, monosyllable, moral, mot, motto,
music-making, naming, note, noun phrase, nuance, observation,
oracle, oratory, paragraph, parlance, parlando, passion, pathos,
peculiar expression, performance, period, phrasal idiom, phrase,
phraseology, phrasing, pianism, picking out, pithy saying,
pizzicato, pneumatophany, pointing, pointing out, pointing to,
polysyllable, position, precept, prescript, pressing, pressing out,
pronouncement, proof, proverb, proverbial saying, proverbs,
publication, pulling, quarrying, question, reflection, remark,
reminder, removal, rendering, rendition, repercussion,
representation, revelation, rhetoric, ripping out, rubato, saw,
say, saying, selection, sensitivity, sentence,
sententious expression, set phrase, shading, show, showing, sign,
signification, silver tongue, slickness, sloka, slur, smoothness,
soaking, softness, specification, speech, spiccato, spirit,
squeezing, squeezing out, staccato, standard phrase, statement,
steeping, stock saying, style, subjoinder, suggestion, sutra,
syllable, symbol, symptomaticness, synonym, syntactic structure,
talk, teaching, term, text, theophany, thought, token, tone, touch,
turn of expression, turn of phrase, unrooting, uprooting, usage,
use of words, usus loquendi, utterance, vent, verb complex,
verb phrase, verbalism, verbalization, verbiage, verbum, verse,
visage, vividness, vocable, voice, voicing, way of speaking,
wisdom, wisdom literature, wise saying, withdrawal, witticism,
word, word-group, wordage, wording, words of wisdom,
wresting out
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
expression
Any piece of program code in a high-level
language which, when (if) its execution terminates, returns a
value. In most programming languages, expressions consist of
constants, variables, operators, functions, and parentheses.
The operators and functions may be built-in or user defined.
Languages differ on how expressions of different types may
be combined - with some combination of explicit casts and
implicit coercions.
The syntax of expressions generally follows conventional
mathematical notation, though some languages such as Lisp or
Forth have their own idiosyncratic syntax.
(2001-05-14)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
EXPRESSION. The term or use of language employed to explain a thing.
2. It is a general rule, that expressions shall be construed, when they
are capable of several significations, so as to give operation to the
agreement, act, or will, if it can be done; and an expression is always to
be understood in the sense most agreeable to the nature of the contract.
Vide Clause; Construction; Equivocal; Interpretation; Words.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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