consequence 
2. That which follows from or grows out of 
any act, cause, proceeding, or series of actions ; 
an event or effect produced by some preceding 
influence, action, act, or cause ; a consequent ; 
a result. 
Shun the bitter consequence : for know, 
The day thoa eat'st thereof, my sole command 
Transgress'd, inevitably thou shalt die. 
Milton, P. L., vlii. 328. 
The misfortune of speaking with bitterness is a most nat- 
ural consequence of the prejudices I had been encouraging. 
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, p. 193. 
He [Mr. Bentham] says that the atrocities of the Revolu- 
tion were the natural consequences of the absurd principles 
on which it was commenced. 
Macaulay, Sir James Mackintosh. 
3. The conclusion of a syllogism. 
Can syllogism set things right? 
No majors soon with minors fight ; 
Or both in friendly consort join'd, 
The consequence limps false behind. 
Prior, Alma, iii. 
4. A consequent inference ; deduction ; specifi- 
cally, in logic, a form of inference or aspect 
under which any inference may be regarded, 
having but one premise, the antecedent, and 
one conclusion, the consequent, the principle ac- 
cording to which the consequent follows from 
the antecedent being, like the whole inference, 
termed the consequence. 5. (a) Importance; 
moment ; significance : applied to things : as, 
this is a matter of consequence, or of some, lit- 
tle, great, or no consequence. 
A night is but small breath, and little pause, 
To answer matters of this consequence. 
STtak., Hen. V., ii. 4. 
To people whose eyes do not wander beyond their ledgers, 
it seems of no consequence how the affairs of mankind go. 
//. Spencer, Social Statics, ]>. 488. 
(6) Importance ; influence ; distinction ; note : 
applied to persons : as, a man of consequence. 
Their people ai'e ... of as little consequence as women 
and children. Sieift. 
Here, Dangle, I have brought you two pieces, one of 
which you must exert yourself to make the managers ac- 
cept, I can tell you that ; for 'tis written by a person of 
consequence. Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 
6. pi. A game in which one player writes down 
an adjective, the second the name of a man, 
the third an adjective, the fourth the name of a 
woman, the fifth what he said, the sixth what 
she said, the seventh the consequence, etc., etc., 
no one seeing what the others have written. 
After all have written, the paper is read. 
They met for the sake of eating, drinking, and laughing 
together, playing at cards or consequences, or any other 
game that was sufficiently noisy. 
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, xxiii. 
In consequence, as a result; consequently. Inconse- 
quence Of, as the effect of ; by reason of ; through. = Syn. 
2. Result, f issue, etc. See effect. 
consequence! (kon'se-kwens), r. i. [< conse- 
quence, .] To draw inferences ; form deduc- 
tions. 
Moses . . . condescends . . . to such a methodical and 
school-like way of denning and consequencintj. 
Stilton, Tetrachordon. 
consequent (kon'se-kwent), a. and n. [< ME. 
consequent, < OF. 'consequent, F. consequent = 
Sp. consecwnte = Pg. conscquenfc = It. conse- 
quente = D. konsekwcnt = G. consequent = Dan. 
konsekvent, consequent, < L. consequcn(t-)s, fol- 
lowing, consequent (ML. also as a noun, a con- 
sequent, apodosis, tr. Gr. lieiftfvov). prop. ppr. 
of consequi, follow after, pursue, follow a cause 
as an effect (> Sp. Pg. conseguir, obtain, = It. 
conseguire, obtain, follow), < com-, together, + 
sequi, follow : see sequent, second, and cf. subse- 
quent.] I. a. 1. Following as an effect or re- 
sult, or as a necessary inference ; having a re- 
lation of sequence : with on, or rarely to : as, 
the war and the consequent poverty; the pov- 
erty consequent on the war. 
The right was consequent to, and built on, ail act per- 
fectly personal. Locke. 
He had arrived on the eve of a general election, and 
during the excitement of political changes consequent 
upon the murder of Mr. Percival. 
Lady Holland, in Sydney Smith, vi. 
2f. Following in time ; subsequent. 
Thy memory, 
After thy life, in brazen characters 
Shall monumentally be register'd 
To ages consequent. 
Beau, and Ft., Knight of Malta, v. 2. 
3. Characterized by correctness of inference or 
connectedness of reasoning; logical: as, a con- 
sequent action. 
The intensity of her [Dorothea's] religious disposition 
. . . was but one aspect of a nature altogether ardent, 
theoretic, and intellectually consequent. 
George Shot, Middlemarch, I. 32. 
1206 
Consequent factor, in math., that factor of a non-com- 
mutative product which is written last. Consequent 
poles of a magnet. See magnet. 
II. . [< ME. consequente, n. ; from the adj.] 
1. Effect or result; that which proceeds from 
a cause ; outcome. [Rare or obsolete.] 
Those envies that I see pursue me 
Of all true actions are the natural comequents. 
Chapman and Shirley, Chabot, Admiral of France, ii. 
Death is not a consequent to any sin but our own. 
Jer. Taylor, Worke (ed. 1835), I. 772. 
Avarice is the necessary consequent of old age. 
Swift, Gulliver's Travels, iii. 10. 
A world's lifetime with its incidents and consequents is 
but a progressive cooling. Winchell, World-Life, p. 538. 
2. In logic: (a) That member of a hypotheti- 
cal proposition which contains the conclusion. 
See antecedent, (b) The conclusion of a con- 
sequence, or necessary inference conceived as 
consisting of an antecedent (or premise) and 
a consequent (or conclusion), and as governed 
by a consequence (or principle of consecution). 
3. In music, same as comes, 3. Consequent 
Of a ratio, in math., the latter of the two terms of a ratio, 
or that with which the antecedent is compared. Thus, in 
the ratio m : n, or m to n, n is the consequent and m the 
antecedent. Fallacy Of the consequent. See fallacy. 
consequential (kon-se-kwen'shal), a. and . [< 
L. cOHseqtieiitia, consequence (see consequence), 
+ -al.] I. a. I. Following as the effect or re- 
sult ; resultant. 
We sometimes wrangle when we should debate ; 
A conseqitential ill which freedom draws ; 
A bad effect, but from a noble cause. Prior. 
The expansion of trade and production, and the conse- 
iiuential increase of social and national well-being. 
Edinburgh Rev., CLXIV. 30. 
2f. Having the consequence properly connected 
with the premises; logically correct; conclusive. 
Though these arguments may seem obscure, yet, upon 
a due consideration of them, they are highly consequential 
and conolndent to my purpose. 
Sir M. Hale, Orig. of Mankind. 
3. Assuming airs of consequence or great self- 
importance, or characterized by such affecta- 
tion ; conceited ; pompous : applied to persons 
and their manners. 
Goldsmith was sometimes content to be treated with an 
easy familiarity, but upon occasions would be consequcn. 
tial and important. BotteeU, Johnson (ret. 64). 
His stately and consequential pace. Scott. 
Consequential losses or damages, in >"". such losses 
or damages as arise not immediately from the act com- 
plained of, but as a result of it. 
II. n. An inference ; a deduction; a conclu- 
sion. [Rare.] 
It may be thought superfluous to spend so many words 
upon our author's precious observations out of the Lord 
Clarendon's History, and some consequentials, as I have 
done. Roger North, Examen, p. 29. 
consequentially (kon-se-kwen'shal-i), adr. 1. 
In a connected series ; in the or(ler of cause 
and effect, or of antecedent and consequent. 
2. With correct deduction of consequences ; 
with right connection of ideas; connectedly; 
coherently. 
The faculty of writing consequentially. 
Addison, Whig Examiner, No. 4. 
3. In sequence or course of time ; hence, not 
immediately ; eventually. 
This relation is so necessary that God himself can not 
discharge a rational creature from it ; although consequen- 
tially indeed he may do so by the annihilation of such 
creatures. South. 
4. Consecutively; in due order and connection. 
Were a man a king in his dreams, and a beggar awake, 
and dreamt consequentially, and in continuous unbroken 
schemes, would he be in reality a king or a beggar? 
Addison. 
5. With assumed importance ; with conceit ; 
pompously ; pretentiously. 
He adjusts his cravat consequentially. 
R. R. Peate, Court and City, iv. 1. 
[Now rare in all senses but the last.] 
consequentialness (kon-se-kwen'shal-nes), n. 
1. The quality of being consequential or con- 
secutive, as in discourse. [Rare.] 2. Con- 
ceit ; pompousness ; pretentiousness ; the as- 
sumption of dignity or importance. 
consequently (kon'se-kwent-li), ode. 1. By 
consequence; by the connection of cause and 
effect or of antecedent and consequent; in con- 
sequence of something; therefore. 
Man was originally immortal, and it was consequently a 
part of his nature to cherish the hope of an undying life. 
Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 204. 
2f. Subsequently. 
Hee was visited and saluted: and consequently was 
brought vnto the Kings and Queenes majesties presence. 
Ilakluyt's Voyages, I. 287. 
=Syn. Wherefore, Accordingly, etc. See therefore. 
conservative 
COnsequentuess (kon'se-kwent-nes), n. Regu- 
lar connection of propositions; consecutive- 
ness of discourse ; logicalness. 
The consequentness of the whole body of the doctrine. 
Sir K. Digby, Ded. of Nature of Man's Soul. 
consertion (kon-ser'shon), n. [< LL. conser- 
tio(n-), < L. conserere, pp. consertus, put toge- 
ther, < com-, together, + serere, bind, join. Cf. 
concert.'] Junction; adaptation; conformity. 
[Rare.] 
What order, beauty, motion, distance, size, 
Consertion of design, how exquisite ! 
Young, Night Thoughts, U. 
conservable (kon-ser'va-bl), a. [< LL. conser- 
vabilis, < L. conservare', keep : see conserve, v.~\ 
That may be conserved; able to be kept or 
preserved from decay or injury. 
conservancy (kon-ser'van-si), . [< ML. con- 
servantia, < L. conserv an( t-)s, ppr. : see conser- 
vant.] The act of preserving; conservation; 
preservation : as, the conservancy of forests. 
Conservancy has been introduced in time to preserve 
many of the advantages they [forests] are calculated to 
afford, [and] to make them a considerable source of rev- 
enue to the state. Encyc. Brit., IX. 404. 
Court of conservancy, a court held by the Lord Mayor 
of London for the preservation of the fishery on the 
Thames. 
conservant (kon-ser'vant), a. [< L. conser- 
van(t-)s, ppr. of conservare, keep: see conserve, 
.] Conserving; having the power or quality 
of preserving from decay or destruction. In the 
traditional Aristotelian philosophy, efficient causes are di- 
vided into procreant and conservant causes. The procreant 
cause is that which makes a thing to be which before was 
not ; the conservant cause, that which causes an existent 
thing to endure. 
The papacy ... was either the procreant or conservant 
cause ... of all the ecclesiastical controversies in the 
Christian world. 
T. Puller, Moderation of Church of Eng., p. 493. 
conservation (kon-ser-va'shpn), n. [= F. con- 
servation = Pr. conservatio = Sp. conservacion = 
Pg. conservaqdo = It. conservazione, < L. eon- 
senatio(n-), < conservare, pp. conservatus, keep: 
see conserve, .] 1. The act of conserving, 
guarding, or keeping with care ; preservation 
from loss, decay, injury, or violation ; the keep- 
ing of a thing in a safe or entire state. 
Certayne ordinauncez and ruellez . . . concernyng the 
said crafte . . . and for the conseruacion of the politick 
gouernance of the same. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 335. 
They judged the conservation, and, in some degree, the 
renovation, of natural bodies to be no desperate or im- 
possible thing. Bacon, Physical Fables, xi., Expl. 
Aristotle distinguishes memory as the faculty of Con- 
gervation from reminiscence, the faculty of Reproduction. 
Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxx. 
2. Persistence ; perdurance ; permanence. 
Conservation of energy. See t,irr<ni. 
conservational (kon-ser-va'shon-al), a. [< 
conserratwn + -n/.] Tending to conserve; pre- 
servative. 
conservatism (kpn-ser'va-tizm), n. [For *eon- 
scrvatirism, < conservative + -ism.'] 1. The dis- 
position to maintain and adhere to the estab- 
lished order of things ; opposition to innovation 
and change: as, the conservatism of the clergy. 
Of all the difficulties that were met in establishing loco- 
motion by steam, the obstruction offered by blind, stolid, 
unreasoning conservatism^ was not the least. 
Josiah Quinci/, Figures of the Past, p. 350. 
The hard conservatism which refuses to see what it has 
never yet seen, and so never learns anything new. 
J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 89. 
2. The political principles and opinions main- 
tained by Conservatives. See conservative, n., 3. 
I advocate . . . neither Conservatism nor Liberalism in 
the sense in which those slogans of modern party-warfare 
are commonly understood. 
Sir E. Creasy, Eng. Const., p. 11. 
conservative (kon-ser'va-tiv), a. and . [= F. 
c onserva tif (~>T>. co nservatief= G. conserrativ = 
Dan. konserrativ) = Sp. Pg. It. conservative, < 
ML. eonsercatirus, < L. coiiservatus, pp. of COH- 
scrvare, keep, preserve: see conserve, r.] I. a. 
1 . Preservative ; having power or tendency to 
preserve in a safe or entire state ; protecting 
from loss, waste, or injury : said of things. 
This place of which I tclle, . . . 
Ys sette amyddys of these three, 
Hevene, erthe, and eke the see, 
As most consermtif the soun. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, ii. 339. 
I refer tx> their respective conservative principle: that 
is, the principle by which they arc upheld and preserved. 
Calhmtn, Works, I. 37. 
2. Disposed to retain and maintain what is es- 
tablished, as institutions, customs, and the like ; 
opposed to innovation and change ; in an ex- 
treme and unfavorable sense, opposed to pro- 
gress : said of persons or their characteristics. 
