perspiration 
perspiration, perspiration which stands on the surface 
of the skin. = Syn. 2. Perspiration, Sweat. Sweat is much 
the stronger word ; hence it is by many considered inele- 
gant to apply it even to the visible perspiration of human 
beings. 
perspirative (per-splr'a-tiv), a. (X L. as if 
*perspimtivus, < perspirattis, pp. of perspirare, 
perspire: see perspire.] Performing the act of 
perspiration. Jolinson. 
perspiratory (per-spir'a-to-ri), a. [= P. per- 
ttjiinildire = Sp. perspiratorio, < L. persjnratus, 
pp. of perspirare, perspire : see perspire.] Of 
or pertaining to perspiration; causing or at- 
tending perspiration Perspiratory ducts, the ex- 
cretory ducts of the sweat-glands. Perspiratory gland. 
Same as sweat-gland. 
perspire (per-spir'), v.; pret. and pp. perspired, 
ppr. perspiring. [< OF. perspirer, < L. per- 
spirare, breathe everywhere, blow constantly 
(NL. perspire, sweat), < per, through, + spi- 
rare, breathe : see spirit. Cf. aspire, inspire, ex- 
pire, transpire, etc.] I. intrans. If. To breathe 
or blow through. 
What gentle winds pergpire .' As if here 
Never had been the northern plunderer 
To strip the trees. Herrick, Farewell Frost. 
2. To evacuate the fluids of the body through 
the excretories of the skin ; perform excretion 
by the cuticular pores ; sweat. 3. To be evac- 
uated or excreted through the excretories of 
the skin; exude by or through the skin, as a 
fluid. 
A man in the morning is lighter in the scale, because 
some pounds have perspired, and is also lighter unto him- 
self, because he is refected. 
Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iv. 7. 
II. trans. To emit or evacuate through the 
excretories of the skin; give out through ex- 
ternal pores. 
Firs . . . perspire a fine balsam of turpentine. Smollett. 
perstandt (per-stand'), . t. [< 2>er- + stand. 
Cf. perceive, peruse.] To understand. 
But, lady, say what is your will, that it I may peretand. 
Peele, Clyomon and Clamydes, i. 1. 
perstreperoust (per-strep'e-rus), a. [< L. per- 
strcpere, make much noise, < per, through, + 
*Jrepcre,rnakeanoise. Cf. obstreperous.] Noisy; 
obstreperous. 
You are too perstreperous, sauce-box. Ford. 
perstrictivet (per-strik'tiv), a. [< L. perstric- 
tus, pp. otperstringere, bind together, censure, 
+ -ive.] Compressing; binding. 
They. . . make no perstrictive or invective stroke against 
it. Up. Gauden, Tears of the Church, p. 883. (Daviei.) 
perstringe (per-strinj'), f. t.; pret. and pp. per- 
stringed, ppr. perstringing. [< L. perstringcre, 
bind together tightly, graze, touch, censure, < 
per, through, + stringere, bind together: see 
stringent.'] 1. To wring or tie hard; pass stric- 
tures upon in speaking or writing; criticize. 
[Obsolete or archaic.] 
But whom doth your poet mean now by this Master Bias? 
what lord's secretary doth he purpose to personate or per- 
stringef B. Jonson, Magnetick Lady, ii. 1. 
Such as personate, rail, scoff, calumniate, perstringe by 
name, or in presence offend. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 210. 
persuadable (per-swa'da-bl), a. [(.persuade + 
-able. Cf. It. persuadibilc = Pg. persuadivel, < 
ML. persnadibilis, < L. persuadere, persuade. 
Cf. also persuasible.] Capable of being per- 
suaded or prevailed upon. 
persuadableness (per-swa'da-bl-nes), n. The 
state or character of being persuadable ; com- 
plying disposition. 
persuadably (per-swa'da-bli), adv. In a per- 
suadable manner; so as to be persuaded. 
persuade (per-swad'), v. ; pret. and pp. persuad- 
ed, ppr. persuading. [Formerly also perswade; 
< F. persuader = Sp. Pg. persuadir = It. persua- 
dere, < L. persuadere, convince, persuade, < per, 
through, + suadere, advise: see suasion. Cf. 
dissuade.] I. trans. 1. To ad vise; counsel; urge 
the acceptance or practice of ; commend by ex- 
position, argument, demonstration, etc.; incul- 
cate. 
And these he bringeth in the patience of our Saviour 
Christ, to persuade obedience to governors, yea, although 
they be wicked and wrong doers. 
Homilies, p. 110, quoted in Wright's Bible Word-book. 
And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for 
the space of three months, disputing and persuading the 
things concerning the kingdom of God. Acts xix. 8. 
To children afraid of vain images we persuade confi- 
dence by making them handle and look nearer such things. 
Jer. Taylor. 
2. To lead to the opinion or conclusion (that) ; 
make (one) believe or think: frequently fol- 
lowed by that. 
4418 
On the top of a round hill there are the remains of an 
edifice, whose ruine would perswade that it flourished in 
the old worlds childhood. Sandys, Travailes, p. 68. 
Who among all the Citizens of London could have been 
persivaded, but the day before the Fire brake out, . . . that 
ever in four days time not a fourth part of the City should 
be left standing? StiUingJlcet, Sermons, I. i. 
The monks would persuade me that my indisposition was 
occasioned by my going into the Dead Sea. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. 38. 
3. To prevail upon, as by demonstration, ex- 
position, argument, entreaty, expostulation, 
etc.; argue or reason into a certain belief or 
course of conduct; induce; win over. 
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. ["With 
but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Chris- 
tian " revised version.) Acts xxvi. 28. 
This Priest shew'd me a Copy of the Samaritan Penta- 
teuch, but would not be persicaded to part with it upon any 
consideration. Maundrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 62. 
My Lord and I have been fetching a Walk, and I could 
not persuade his Lordship to pass by your Door. 
Mrs. Centlivre, The Artifice, ill. 
4. To convince, as by argument or reasons of- 
fered. 
Much like the Mole in .Esopcs fable, that, being blynd 
herselfe, would in no wise be perswaded that any beast 
could see. Spenser, To G. Harvey. 
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 
Rom. xiv. 5. 
We are persuaded that moral and material values are al- 
ways commensurate. Emerson, Miscellanies, p. 328. 
= Syn. 3. Convince, Persuade (see convince), prevail on, 
lead. 
II. intrans. To use persuasion. 
Twenty merchants . . . have all persuaded with him. 
Shak., M. of V., iii. 2. 283. 
These appointed of God called them together by utter- 
ance of speech, and persuaded with them what was good, 
what was bad, and what was gainful for mankind. 
Sir T. Wilson (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 466). 
persuadet (per-swad'), n. [< persuade, v .] Per- 
suasion. [Bare.] 
Were her husband from her, 
She happily might be won by thy persuades. 
Kyd (?), Soliman and Perseda, iv. 
The king's entreats, 
Persuades of friends, business of state, my honours, 
Marriage rites, nor aught that can be nam'd, 
Since Leila's loss, can move him. 
Beau, and Ft. (1), Faithful Friends, i. 1. 
persuadedlyt (per-swa'ded-li), adv. In the 
manner of one who is persuaded; assuredly; 
positively. 
He 's our own ; 
Surely, nay, most persuadedly. 
.Ford, Fancies, i. 1. 
persuadedness (per-swa'ded-nes), n. The state 
of being persuaded or convinced ; conviction. 
A persuadedness that nothing can be a greater happi- 
ness than her favour, or deserve the name of happiness 
without it. Boyle, Works, I. 249. 
persuader (per-swa'der), n. [< persuade + -erl. 
Cf . F. persnadeur = Sp. persuadidor. ] One who 
or that which persuades, influences, or prevails 
upon. 
persuasibility (per-swa-si-bil'i-ti), n. [< ML. 
persuasibilita(t-)s, < L. perstiasibilis, persuasi- 
ble : see persuasible.] Capability of being per- 
suaded. 
Persuasibility, or the act of being persuaded, is a work 
of men's own. HallyweU, Saving of Souls (1677), p. 39. 
persuasible (per-swa'si-bl), . [< F. persuasi- 
ble = Sp. persuasible = Pg. persuasivel = It. per- 
suasibile, < L. persuasibilis, convincing, < per- 
suadere, convince, persuade : see persuade.] 1. 
Capable of being persuaded or influenced. 
It makes us apprehend our own interest in that obe- 
dience, makes us tractable and persuasible, contrary to 
that brutish stubbornness of the horse and mule which 
the Psalmist reproaches. Government of the Tongue. 
2f. Haying power to persuade or influence; 
persuasive. 
A letter to his abandoned wife, in the behalf e of his gen- 
tle host : not so short as persuasible in the beginning, and 
pittifull in the ending. G. Harvey, Four Letters (1592). 
persuasibleness (per-swa'si-bl-nes), n. The 
character of being persuasible. 
persuasiblyt (per-swa'si-bli), adv. Persua- 
sively. Foxe, Martyrs, Q. Mary, an. 1555. 
persuasion (per-swa'zhon), n. [Formerly also 
perswasion; < F. persuasion = Pr. persuasio = 
Sp. persuasion = Pg. persuasSo = It. persuasi- 
ons, < L. persuasio(n-), < persuadere, pp. persua- 
sus, persuade: see persuade.] 1. The act of 
persuading, influencing, or winning over the 
mind or will to some conclusion, determination, 
or course of action, by argument or the presen- 
tation of suitable reasons, and not by the exer- 
cise of authority, force, or fear ; a coaxing or in- 
clining of the mind or will by argument, or by 
appeals to reason, interest, the feelings, etc. 
persuasive 
Vtterance also and language is giuen by nature tn man 
for persicasion of others, and aide of them seines. 
Putttnham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 5. 
No perswaswn could prevaile, 
Nor change her mind in any thing that shee had said. 
The Merchant's Daughter (Child's Ballads, IV. 337). 
The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion. 
Macaulay, Athenian Orators. 
2. The state of being persuaded or convinced ; 
settled opinion or conviction. 
St. Paul doth mean nothing else by Faith but only "a 
full persuasion that that which we do is well done": 
against which kind of faith or persuasion ... St. Paul 
doth count it sin to enterprise any thing. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, ii. 4. 
One in whom persuasion and belief 
Had ripened into faith, and faith become 
A passionate intuition. Wordsworth, Excursion, iv. 
His besetting error was an unfortunate persuasion that 
he was gifted with a certain degree of pleasantly, with 
which it behoved him occasionally to favour the stage. 
Gifford, Int. to Ford's Plays, p. xlv. 
3. An inducement; a reason or motive for a 
certain action. 
Yet he with strong pervasions her asswaged, 
And wonne her will to suffer him depart. 
Spenser, F. Q., IV. vi. 43. 
For this relation we gaue him many toyes, with pcrswa- 
sions to goe with vs. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, I. 187. 
4. Way of thinking ; creed or belief ; hence, a 
sect or party adhering to a creed or system of 
opinions: as, Christians of the same persua- 
sion. 
There are diversity of persuasions in matters adiapho- 
rous, as meats, and drinks, and holy days. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 294. 
The company consisted of thirty members, of whom 
twenty-two were Quakers, and eight only of other persua- 
sions. B. Franklin, Autobiography, p. 178. 
5. Kind; sort. [Colloq. or humorous.] 
I have a canary of the feminine persuasion who is par- 
ticularly fond of music. Amer. Nat., XXIV. 236. 
= Syn. Opinion, Belief, Persuasion, Conviction, and Faith 
agree in expressing the assent of the mind. Opinion has 
the least feeling or energy, is most intellectual. Belief may 
be purely intellectual, or largely moral by the consent of the 
feelings or the will. Persuasion is a word borrowed from 
the field of action ; primarily, we persuade one to do some- 
thing by motives addressed to his feelings or interests ;- 
when the word is applied to opinions, it seems to retain 
much of its original sense, suggesting that the persuasion 
is founded largely on the feelings or wishes : we have a 
persuasion of that which we are willing to believe. Con- 
viction starts from the other side, primarily suggesting that 
one was rather reluctantly forced to believe by the weight 
of evidence ; it is now more often used of settled, profound, 
and earnest beliefs : as, his deepest convictions of right 
and duty. Faith rests upon belief, but implies confidence 
in a person on whose authority one depends at least partly, 
and the gathering of feeling about the opinion held : it is 
a confident belief: as, to have implicit faith in a friend 
or a promise. (See inference, and quotation from Words- 
worth under definition 2. 
Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. 
Milton, Areopagitica, p. 46. 
Belief is regarded . . . as the recognition by conscience 
of moral truth. Lecky, Rationalism, I. 191. 
Surely force cannot work perswasion, which is faith. 
Milton, Civil Power. 
Conviction and persuasion are commonly used as synony- 
mous terms ; or, if any difference be made between them, 
it lies in this, that conviction denotes the beginning, and 
persuasion the continuance, of assent : for we are said to 
be convinced when brought by fresh evidence to the be- 
lief of a proposition we did not hold for truth before, but 
remain persuaded of what we have formerly seen suffi- 
cient grounds to gain our credit. 
A. Tucker, Light of Nature (1768), xiii. 
Faith shone from out her eyes, and on her lips 
Unknown love trembled. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 299. 
persuasive (per-swa'siv), a. and n. [Formerly 
also persuasive ; < OF. (and F. ) persuasif, a., 
persuasive, ii.,="Pr.persuasiu = Sp. Pg. li.per- 
suasivo,< L. persuadere, pp.persuasus, persuade : 
see persuade.] I. a. Having the power of per- 
suading; tending to influence or win over the 
mind or will : as, persuasive eloquence ; persua- 
sive glances. 
In all wise apprehensions the persuasive power in man 
to win others to goodnesse by instruction is greater, and 
more divine, then the compulsive power to restraine men 
from being evill by terrour of the Law. 
MMon, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
Send Ajax there, with his persuasive sense 
To mollify the man, and draw him thence. 
Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Metamorph., xiii. 
= Syn. Cogent, weighty, winning, moving. See convince . 
II. . That which persuades; an exhortation, 
incentive, or incitement. 
[To do good] is that which he hath, with the most ear- 
nest and affectionate persuasives, . . . enforc'd upon us. 
Sharp, Works, I. iii. 
I would . . . speake persicasi-ves to a comely, brotherly, 
seasonable, and reasonable cessation of Amies on both 
sides. JV. Ward, Simple Cobler, p. 33. 
