receive 
by transfer: as, to receive money or a letter; to 
receive gifts. 
They be like Gray Friars, that will not be seen to receive 
bribes themselves, but have others to receive for them. 
Latimer, 5th Sermon bef. Edw. VI., 1549. 
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. 
Luke xvi. 25. 
2. To take or get from a primary source : as, 
to receive favors or a good eduoatiou ; to receive 
an impression, a wound, or a shock. 
Receives not thy nose court-odour from me? 
S/>ak.,W. T.,iv. 4. 757. 
The idea of solidity we receive by our touch. Locke. 
No Norman or Breton ever saw a Mussulman, except to 
give and receive blows on some Syrian field of battle. 
Macaulay, Von Rauke's Hist. Popes. 
3. To take notice of on coming or appearing ; 
greet the advent of; salute or treat upon ap- 
proach: as, to receive an actor with applause; 
to receive news joyfully. 
To Westmynstur the kyng be water did glide, 
Worshypfully resayvid with procession in frett, 
Resaynd with reverence, his dewte notdenye. 
MS. KM. Reg. 17 D. xv. (Halliwell.) 
My father was received with open arms by all his old 
friends. Lady Holland, Sydney Smith, vi. 
4. To take or consider favorably; admit as 
credible, worthy, acceptable, etc. ; give ad- 
mission or recognition to : as, to receive a per- 
son into one's friendship; a received authority. 
What he hath seen and heard, that he testifleth ; and 
no man receiveth his testimony. John iii. 82. 
He is a Gentleman so receiv'd, so courted, and so trusted. 
Steele, Tender Husband, i. 1. 
Every person who should now leave received opinions 
. . . might be regarded as a chimerical projector. 
Qolaxmtth, The Bee, No. 4. 
5. To admit for intercourse or entertainment ; 
grant audience or welcome to ; give a friendly 
reception to : as, to receive an ambassador or 
guests. 
The quen with hire companie com him a-jens, 
& resseyued as real! as swiche rinkes ougt. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3989. 
It was so fre that Men resceyved there alle manere of 
Fugityfes of other places for here evyl Dedis. 
lUandemlle, Travels, p. 66. 
They kindled a fire, and received us every one, because 
of the present rain, and because of the cold. Acts xxviii. 2. 
6. To take in or on ; give entrance to ; hold ; 
contain; have capacity for: as, a box to re- 
ceive contributions. 
The brasen altar that was before the Lord was too little 
to receive the burnt offerings. 1 Ki. viii. 64. 
This cave, fashion'd 
By provident Nature in this solid rock 
To be a den for beasts, alone receives me. 
lli'iui. and Ft., Knight of Malta, iv. 1. 
7f. To perceive; comprehend; take into the 
mind. 
To be received plain, I'll speak more gross. 
Shak., M. for M., ii. 4. 82. 
8. In law : (a) To take by transfer in a crimi- 
nal manner ; accept the custody or possession 
of from a known thief: as, to receive stolen 
goods. 
You must restore all stoln goods you receiv'd. 
Fletcher (and another), Love's Cure, v. 2. 
(6) To admit as pertinent ; take into consider- 
ation; permit the reception of: as, the court 
refused to receive the evidence, and ordered it 
to be stricken out To receive the canvas*. See 
canvas. To receive the COlf. See co\f.=&yn. 1 and 
2. Receive, Take, Accept. These words are in the order 
of strength in regard to the willingness with which the 
thing in question is received, etc., but none of them is 
warm. One may receive a letter, a challenge to a duel, a 
remittance, detriment, or a wound ; the word thus may be 
wholly neuter. One may take cold, but, more often, take 
that which he might refuse, as a present, a bribe, offense, 
a pinch of snuff, or an orange. One may accept one's fate, 
but even then the word means a mental consent, a move- 
ment of mind ; more often it means to receive with some 
willingness, as to accept a proposition, an invitation, or an 
offer. An offer, etc., may be received and not accepted. 
II. intrans. 1. To be a receiver or recipient; 
come into custody or possession of something 
by transfer. 
Every one shall receive of thy words. Deut. xxxiii. 3. 
Freely ye have received, freely give. Mat. x. 8. 
2. To give, or take part in holding, a reception ; 
greet and entertain visitors, especially at cer- 
tain fixed times. 
As this name was called the person presented advanced, 
bowed first to the prince and then separately to the two 
members of the royal family who were receiving with him. 
T. C. Crawford, English Life, p. 3S. 
received (re-sevd'), a. In entom., projecting be- 
tween other parts Received acutellum, a scutel- 
lum which lies between the bases of the elytra, as in most 
beetles. 
4997 
receivedneSS (re-se'ved-nes), n. The state of 
being received; general allowance or belief. 
Others will, upon account of the receivedness of this 
opinion, think it rather worth to be examined, than ac- 
quiesced in. Boyle. 
receiver (re-se'ver), M. [Early mod. E. also 
receever, re'ceaver; < ME. resaver, receyvour, < 
OF. recevour, receveur, F. receveur, < recevoir, 
receive: see receive.'] 1. One who or that which 
receives, in any general sense ; a recipient ; a 
receptacle ; a taker or container of anything 
transmitted : as, a receiver of taxes ; a receiver 
for odds and ends. 
We are receivers through grace and mercy, authors 
through merit and desert we are not, of our own salva- 
tion. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, v., App. 1. 
But in this thankless World the Givers 
Are envy'd ev'n by the Receivers. 
Cou-ley, Pindaric Odes, i. 11. 
This invention covers a combined grass receiver and 
dumper to catch and carry the grass while the lawn mower 
is being operated. Sei. Amer., N. 8., LXII. 364. 
2. An officer appointed toreceive public money ; 
a treasurer ; specifically, a person appointed by 
a court of equity or other judicial tribunal to 
take, pending litigation, the custody and man- 
agement or disposal of property in controversy, 
or to receive the rents and profits of land or the 
produce of other property. 3. One who, for 
purposes of profit or concealment, takes stolen 
goods from a thief, knowing them to be stolen, 
thus making himself a party to the crime. 
Were there noe receavers, there would be noe theeves. 
Spenser, State of Ireland. 
4. liicheni.: (a) A vessel for receiving and con- 
taining the product of distillation. (6) A vessel 
for receiving and containing gases. 5. The 
glass vessel placed on the plate of an air-pump, 
in order to be exhausted of air: so named be- 
cause it is the recipient of those things on which 
experiments are made. See air-pump. 6. The 
receiving magnet of an electric telegraph, the 
receiving apparatus of a telephone, or the like. 
Exhausted receiver. Seeexhaust. Florentine re- 
ceiver. See Florentine. Knitting-needle receiver, an 
apparatus consisting of a magnetizing coil with a knitting- 
needle in its axis, used by Reis as a telephonic receiver. The 
action of this receiver depends on Page's discovery that an 
iron bar gives a sharp click when magnetized ; the rapid 
succession of clicks in the receiver, corresponding to the 
successive make-and-breaks of the Reis transmitter, repro- 
duces the sound. Mall-Dag receiver and discharger. 
See man-catcher. Receiver and manager. See man- 
ager, 4. Eeceiyer Of the fines, formerly, in England, an 
officer who received the money of all such as compounded 
with the crown on original writs sued out of Chancery. 
Receiver's certificates, evidences of debt, issued by a 
receiver of property in litigation, for the discharge of ob- 
ligations incurred in the management of it, to be redeemed 
out of its proceeds when finally disposed of or restored to 
its owners. Such certificates may be authorized by the 
proper court, and made a lien upon the property, when the 
expenses connected with it cannot be otherwise met with- 
out detriment. Receivers Of wreck, officers appointed 
by the British Board of Trade for the preservation of 
wreck, etc., for the benefit of the shipping interests. They 
were formerly called receivers of droits of admiralty. 
receiver-general (re-so'ver-jen'e-ral), n. In 
some countries or states, an officer wno receives 
the public revenues in general or in a particu- 
lar territory: in some of the United States, an 
additional title of the State treasurer. 
receivership (re-se'ver-ship), n. [< receiver + 
-ship.] The office of a receiver of public 
money, or of money or other property in liti- 
gation ; the collection and care of funds await- 
ing final distribution by legal process. 
receiving (re-se'ving), n. [< ME. receyving; 
verbal n. oi receive, '.] The act of one who 
receives, in any sense of that verb. Receiving 
apparatus or Instrument, in teles/., any appliance used 
at a telegraph-station, by the action of which the signals 
transmitted from another station are rendered perceptible 
to any of the senses of the receiving operator. Receiv- 
ing tubes of the kidney, the straight tubules of the 
kidney. 
receiving-house (re-se'ving-hous), n. A house 
where letters or parcels are received for trans- 
mission; a place of deposit for things to be 
forwarded; a depot. [Great Britain.] 
receiving-magnet (re-se'ving-mag"net), n. See 
magnet. 
receiving-office (re-se'ving-of'is), n. In Great 
Britain, a branch post-office where letters, par- 
cels, etc., may be posted, but from which no 
delivery is made to persons addressed. 
receiving-ship (re-se'yirig-ship), . A ship 
stationed permanently in a harbor to receive 
recruits for the navy until they can be trans- 
ferred to a cruising ship. 
receiving-tomb (re-se'ving-tom), n. Same as 
I'fi'i-ii -ing-raulf. 
receiving-vault (re-se'ving-valt), n. A build- 
ing or other structure in which the bodies of 
recent 
the dead may be placed temporarily when it is 
impossible or inconvenient to inter them in the 
usual manner. 
recency (re'sen-si), . [< ML. recentia, < L. 
recen(t-)s, new, fresh: see recent.] The state 
or quality of being recent; recentness; new- 
ness; lateness; freshness. 
So also a scirrhus in its recency, whilst it is in its aug- 
ment, requireth milder applications than the confirmed 
or inveterate one. Wiseman, Surgery, i. 19. 
An impression of recency is given which some minds 
are clearly unable to shake off. 
Maine, Early Law and Custom, p. 198. 
recense (re-sens'), v. t. ; pret. and pp. recensed, 
ppr. recensing. [< OF. recenser, number, count, 
peruse, muster, review, F. recenser, number, 
take the census of, = Pr. recensar = Pg. reeen- 
sear, examine, survey, < L. recensere, recount, 
examine closely, review, muster, revise, etc., < 
re-, again, -f censere, think, deem, judge: see 
census."] To review ; revise. [Rare.] 
Slxtus and Clemens, at a vast expence, had an assembly 
of learned divines to recense and adjust the Latin Vulgate. 
Bentley. 
recension (re-sen'shon), n. [< F. recension, < 
L. recensio(n'-), an enumeration, reviewing, re- 
cension, < recensere, review: see recense.] 1. 
Review; examination; enumeration. [Obsolete 
or rare.] 
In this recension of monthly flowers, It is to be under- 
stood for the whole period that any flower continues, 
from its first appearing to its final withering. 
Evelyn, Calendarium Hortense, January. 
2. A critical or methodical revision, as of the 
text of a book or document; alteration of a 
text according to some authority, standard, or 
principle ; a reediting or systematic revisal. 
He who . . . spends nine years in the elaboration and 
recension of his book . . . will find that he comes too late. 
G. P. Marsh, Lects. on Eng. Lang., xxi. 
3. A text established by critical or systematic 
revision ; an edited version. 
The genuine ballad-book thus published was so success- 
ful that in less than ten years three editions or recensions 
of it appeared. Ticknor, Span. Lit., 1. 115. 
Using the ancient versions in this way, we can recover 
a recension (or recensions) differing more or less widely 
from that represented by the traditional Hebrew text. 
Contemporary Rev,, L. 695. 
4. A critical examination, as of a book ; a re- 
view; a critique. 
He was . . . bitterly convinced that his old acquain- 
tance Carp had been the writer of that depreciatory recen- 
sion which was kept locked in a small drawer of Mr. Ca- 
saubon's desk, and also in a small dark closet of his verbal 
memory. George Eliot, Middlemarch, xxix. 
recensionist (re-sen'shon-ist), . [< recension 
+ -ist.] One who reviews or revises, as the text 
of an ancient author ; an editor. 
recent (re'sent), a. [< OF. recent, F. recent = 
Pr. recent ="Sp. reciente = Pg. It. recente, < L. 
recen(t-)s, fresh, new ; (a) in one view, < re- + 
-cen(t-)s, supposed to be allied to W. cynt, first, 
earliest, Skt. kaniyans, smaller, Tfanistha, small- 
est (cf. Russ.j>o-c/M'a?, begin); (6) in another 
view, orig. ppr. from a root *rec = Zend / rac, 
come (cf. recens a victoria, 'just coming from a 
victory'; Bhodo recentes Somam venenmt, 'they 
came to Rome just from Rhodes,' etc.: see def. 
5).] 1. Of or pertaining to time just before 
the present; not long past in occurrence or 
existence; lately happening or being; newly 
appearing, done, or made: as, recent events; 
recent importations; recent memories; recent 
news; a recent speech. 2. Of modern date, 
absolutely or relatively; not of primitive or 
remote origin ; belonging to or occurring in 
times not far removed. 3. Still fresh in quality 
or existence ; not old or degenerate ; unchanged 
by time : said of things liable to rapid change, 
as newly gathered plants or specimens in nat- 
ural history. 
The odour [of essential oils] is seldom as pleasant as that 
of the recent plant. Ure, Diet., III. 456. 
4. In geol., of or pertaining to the epoch re- 
garded as the present from a geological point 
of view. Strata so called contain few, if any, fossils be- 
longing to extinct species. The alluvial formations in the 
valleys are generally of recent formation, as well as most 
of the superficial detrital material. The deposits which 
belong to the Post-tertiary, or which are more recent than 
the Tertiary, are with difficulty classified, except for pur- 
poses of local geology. In glaciated regions, the traces 
of the former presence of ice adds variety to the phenom- 
ena, and complexity to the classification, of the various 
forms of detrital material. The existence of very ancient 
remains and works of man is a further element of inter- 
est In the geology of the recent formations. 
5. Lately come; not long removed or sepa- 
rated. [Poetical and rare.] 
