sect 
Wherfore methinkethe that Cristene men scholden hen 
more devoute to serven oure Lord <iod than ony other men 
of ony other drrtr. Maiulei-itle, Travels, p. 261. 
4. In a general souse, a number of persons hold- 
ing the same opinions or practising the same 
customs, or having common associations or in- 
terests; M party; following; company; faction. 
We'll wear out, 
In a wall'd prison, packs and serfs of great onus. 
That ebb and How by the moon. Shah., Lear, v. 3. 18. 
But in this age a sect of writers IUT-, 
That only for particular likings care. 
B. Jonson, Epiccene, Prol. 
5. Kind; sex: originally merely a particular 
use of sect in sense 4, but now regarded as a 
form of sex, and as sucli avoided as incorrect. 
The wives love of Hathe 
Whos lif and al hire secte God maintene. 
Chaucer, C. T., 1. 9048. 
So is all her sect ; an they be once in a calm, they are 
Rick. Shalt., 2 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 41. 
When she blushes. 
It is the holiest thing to look upon, 
The purest temple of her sect that ever 
Made Nature a blest founder. 
Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 1. 
6f. Apparel; likeness. 
Many tyme God hath ben mette amonge nedy peple, 
There nenere segge hym seigh in secte of the riche. 
Piers Plowman (B), xi. 237. 
Ionic sect. See Ionic. 
sect 2 t (sekt), w. [< L. section, a part cut (in pi. 
m-ctit, parts of the body operated on), neut. of 
sectus, cut, pp. of secure, cut : see secant, section. 
Cf. sec ft, with which sect 2 has been confused.] 
A part cut off; a cutting; scion. 
But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our car- 
nal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you 
call love to be a sect or scion. Shak., Othello, i. 3. 33S. 
sectant (sek'tant), . [< L. sectus, pp. of secare, 
cut, + -ant. Cf. secant.'] A portion of space 
cut off from the rest by three planes, but ex- 
tending to infinity. 
sectarial (sek-ta'ri-al), a. [< sectary (ML. sec- 
taring) + -o?.] Same as sectarian. Sectarial 
marks, emblems marked on the forehead of the mem- 
bers of the different sects, or worshipers of the different 
gods, in India. They are painted or tattooed on the skin 
in the middle of the forehead. Representations of the 
gods have usually also a distinguishing mark of this kind. 
More than forty different sectarial marks are in common 
use. 
sectarian (sek-ta'ri-an), a. and . [< sectary 
(ML. seetarius) + -an.] I. a. 1. Of or per- 
taining to a sect or sects ; peculiar to a sect : 
as, sectarian interests; sectarian principles. 
2. That inculcates the particular tenets of a 
sect: as, sectarian instruction ; a sectarian book. 
3. Of or pertaining to one who is bigotedly 
attached to a particular sect ; characterized by 
or characteristic of bigoted attachment to a par- 
ticular sect or its teachings, interests, etc. 
Zeal for some opinion, or some party, beareth out men 
of sectarian and factious spirits in such practices [as slan- 
der]. Barrow, Works, Sermon xviii. 
The chief cause of sectarian animosity is the incapacity 
of most men to conceive systems in the light in which they 
appear to their adherents, and to enter into the enthusi- 
asm they inspire. Lecky, Europ. Morals, I. 141. 
II. it. One of a sect; especially, a person who 
attaches excessive importance or is bigotedly 
attached to the tenets and interests of a sect. 
But hardly less censurable, hardly less contemptible, is 
the tranquilly arrogant sectarian, who denies that wisdom 
or honesty can exist beyond the limits of his own ill-light- 
ed chamber. 
Landor, Imaginary Conversations, Lucian and Timotheus. 
= Syn. See heretic. 
sectarianise, r. t. See sectarianize. 
sectarianism (sek-ta'ri-an-izm), n. [< sectarian 
+ -ism.] The state or character of being sec- 
tarian; adherence to a separate religious sect 
or party; especially, excessive partizan or de- 
nominational zeal. 
There was in Foster's nature no sectarianism, religious 
or political. Edinburgh Rev., CLXVIIL 634. 
sectarianize (sek-ta'ri-an-iz), . t. ; pret. and 
pp. sectarianized, ppr. sectarianizing. [< secta- 
rian + -ire.] To render sectarian ; imbue with 
sectarian principles or feelings. Also spelled 
sectarianise. 
Sectarianizing the schools. 
Jour, of Education, XVIII. 83. 
sectarismt (sek'ta-rizm), n. [< scctttr-i/ + -ixm.] 
1. Sectarianism. 
Nor is ther any thing that hath more marks of Seism and 
Sectarixm then English Episcopacy. 
Milton, Eikonoklastcs, xiii. 
2. A sect or sectarian party. [Rare.] 
Towards Quakers who came here they were most cruelly 
intolerant, driving them from the colony by the severest 
penalties. In process of time, however, otiirr wrtarisms 
were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family. 
Jefferson, Autobiog., p. 31. 
343 
5457 
sectarist (sek'ta-rist), n. [< sectar-i/ + -int.] 
,\ sectary. [Rare.] 
Milton was certainly of that profession or general prin- 
ciple in which all sectarists agree : a departure from estab- 
lishment. T. Warton, Notes on Milton's Smaller Poems. 
sectary (sek'ta-ri), n. and a. ; pi. sectaries (-riz). 
[< F. scctaire = Sp. Pg. sectario = It. settario, < 
ML. seetarius, < L. secta, a sect: see sect 1 .] I. 
n. 1. A member of a particular sect, school, 
party, or profession. 
Then he would seoffe at learning, and eke scorne 
The Sectaries thereof, as people base. 
Spenser, Mother Hub. Tale, 1. 833. 
How long have you been a sectary astronomical? 
Shak., Lear, i. 2. 162. 
Specifically 2. A member or an adherent of 
a sect in religion; a sectarian: often used op- 
probriously by those who regard as mere sects 
all bodies of Christians outside of their own. 
Sects may be in a true Church as well as in a false, when 
men follow the Doctrin too much for the Teachers sake, 
whom they think almost infallible; and this becomes, 
through Intlrmity, implicit Faith ; and the name Sectary 
pertains to such a Disiple. Milton, True Religion. 
Anno 1063, divers sectaries in religion beginning to spread 
themselves there [in the Virginia colonies], great restraints 
were laid upon them, under severe penalties, to prevent 
their increase. Beverley, Virginia, i. 1J 79. 
He had no party's rage, no sect'ry's whim ; 
Christian and countryman was all with him. 
CroMe, Works, I. 110. 
= Syn. Dissenter, Schismatic, etc. See heretic. 
II. a. Sectarian. 
These sectary precise preachers. 
L. Bacon, Genesis of New Eng. Churches. 
sectatort (sek-ta'tor), n. [= F. sectateur; < L. 
sectator, a follower, < sectari, follow eagerly, 
accompany, freq. of sequi, follow : see sequent .] 
A follower ; a disciple ; an adherent of a sect, 
school, or party. 
The best learned of the philosophers were not ignorant, 
as Cicero witnesseth for them, gathering the opinion of 
Aristotle and his sectatort with those of Plato and the 
Academicks. Raleigh, Hist. World, i. 1. 
The philosopher busies himself in accommodating all 
her [Nature's] appearances to the principles of a school of 
which he has sworn himself the sectator. 
Warburton, Prodigies, p. 92. 
sectile (sek'til), a. [= F. sectile = Pg. sectil; 
< L. sectilis, cut, divided, < secare, pp. sectus, 
cut : see sedan t, section. ] Capable of being cut ; 
in mineral., noting minerals, as talc, mica, and 
steatite, which can be cut smoothly by a knife 
without the particles breaking, crumbling, or 
flying about; in bot., appearing as if cut into 
small particles or pieces. Also sective Sectile 
mosaic, inlaid work the pieces of which are notably larger 
than the tessera of ordinary mosaic. See opus sectile, un- 
der opus. 
sectility (sek-til'i-ti), . [<sectile + -ity.] Sec- 
tile character or property ; the property of be- 
ing easily cut. 
sectio (sek'shi-6), H. [L.] A section or cutting. 
Sectio alta, suprapubic lithotomy. Sectio cada- 
veris, an autopsy ; a post-mortem operation. Sectio 
lateralis, lateral perineal lithotomy. 
section (sek'shon), . [< OF. (and F.) section 
= Sp. seccion = Pg. secfao = It. sezione, < L. 
sectio(n-), a cutting, cutting off, excision, am- 
putation of diseased parts of the body, a dis- 
tribution by auction of confiscated property, in 
geom. a division, section, < secare, pp. sectus, 
cut: see secant.] 1. The act of cutting or di- 
viding; separation by cutting: as, the section 
of one plane by another. 
In the section of bodies we find man, of all sensible crea- 
tures, to have the fullest brain to his proportion, and that 
it was so provided by the Supreme Wisdom, for the lodg- 
ing of the intellective faculties. 
Sir H. Wotton, Reliquire, p. 80. 
2. A part cut or separated, or regarded as sep- 
arated, from the rest ; a division ; a portion. 
Specifically (a) A distinct part or division of a book 
or writing; a subdivision of a chapter; a division of a 
law or other writing ; a paragraph. (&) In music, one of 
the equal and more or less similar divisions or parts of a 
melody or movement. The term is used inconsistently to 
describe either the half of a phrase or a double phrase, 
(c) A distinct part of a country or nation, community, class, 
or the like ; a part of territory separated by geographical 
lines or of a people considered as distinct. 
The extreme section of one class consists of bigoted do- 
tards, the extreme section of the other consists of shallow 
and reckless empirics. Macaulay. 
I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently 
with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be 
cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully demanded, 
for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as to an- 
other. Lincoln, in Raymond, p. 113. 
(<f) One of the squares, each containing 640 acres, into 
which the public lands of the United States are divided; 
the thirty-sixth part of a township, (e) A certain propor- 
tion of a battalion or company told off for military move- 
ments and evolutions. (/) In mech., any part of a ma- 
chine that can be readily detached from the other parts, 
as one of the knives of a mower, (y) A division in a sleep- 
sectionalism 
ing-car, including two seats facing each other, and de- 
signed to be made into two sleeping-berths. A double 
section takes in four seats, two on each side of the car. 
(A) In booklrimliny, the leaves of an intended book that 
are folded together to make one gathering and to prepare 
them for sewing, (i) In printing, that part of a printed 
sheet of book-work which has to be cut off from the full 
sheet and separately folded and sewed. On paper of 
ordinary thickness, the section is usually of eight leaves 
or sixteen pages; on thick paper, the section is often of 
four leaves or eight pages. 
3. The curve of intersection of two surfaces. 
4. A representation of an object as it would 
appear if cut by any intersecting plane, show- 
ing the internal structure ; a diagram or pic- 
ture showing what would appear were a part 
cut off by a plane supposed to pass through 
an object, as a building, a machine, a biologi- 
cal structure, or a succession of strata, in me- 
chanical drawing, a longitudinal section usually presents 
the object as cut through its center lengthwise and ver- 
tically, a cross-section or traiwverse section as cut cross- 
wise and vertically, and a horizontal section as cut through 
its center horizontally. Oblique sectionsare made at vari- 
ous angles. Sections are of great importance in geology, 
as it is largely by their aid that the relations and positions 
of the various members of the different formations, both 
stratified and unstratifled, are made intelligible. The 
geological structure of any region is best indicated by one 
or more cross-sections on which the groups of rocks are 
represented in the order in which they occur and with the 
proper dips, as well as the irregularities due to faults, 
crust-movements, and invasions by igneous masses, by 
which causes the stratigraphy of a region maybe made so 
complicated and obscure as to be unintelligible without 
such assistance to its comprehension as is afforded by 
cross-sections. 
5. A thin slice of an organic or inorganic sub- 
stance cut off, as for microscopic examination. 
6. In ro67., a elassifieatory group of no fixed 
grade or taxonomic rank; a division, series, or 
group of animals : used, like group, differently 
by different authors. Sections, cohorts, phalanges, 
tribes, etc.. are frequently introduced between the family 
and the order, or between the family and the genus ; but 
it is commoner to speak of sections of a genus (i. e., sub- 
genera). The sense corresponds to that of the word coup 
as much used by French zoologists. The sections of many 
English entomologists often correspond to families as they 
are understood in continental Europe and the United 
States. 
7. In bot., a group of species subordinate to a 
genus : nearly the same as subgemis (which 
see). 8. In fort., the outline of a cut made 
at any angle to the principal lines other than 
a right angle. 9. The sign , used either (a) 
as a mark of reference to a foot-note, or (6), 
prefixed to consecutive numerals, to indicate 
divisions of subdivisions of a book. Abdominal 
section, laparotomy. Angular sections. See angular. 
Ciesarean, conic, dominant section. See the ad- 
jectives. Frontal section. See frontal plane, under 
frontal. Frozen section, a cutting of frozen parts, or 
that which is cut while frozen ; especially, the surface of 
such cutting. It is much used in anatomy to show the 
exact relations of soft parts which might be disarranged 
or distorted if cut in their natural state. Golden, mac- 
rodiagonal, principal section. See the adjectives. 
Harmonic section, the cutting of a straight line at four 
points harmonically situated. Microscopic section. 
See def. 5, and section-cutter. Normal section. See 
normal, 4. Pubic Section, symphyseotomy. RhinO- 
cerotic section, ribbon sections, sagittal sections, 
serial sections, Sigaultian section, subcontrary 
section, etc. See the adjectives Vertical section. 
See nrthograph. = Syn, 2. Division, Piece, etc. See part, n. 
section (sek'shon), r. t. [< section, n.] To 
make a section of; divide into sections, as a 
ship; cut or reduce to the degree of thinness 
required for study with the microscope. 
The embryos may then be embedded in parafflne and 
sectioned lengthwise. Amer. Naturalist, XXIII. 829. 
sectional (sek'shon-al), a. [= F. sectionnel; < 
section + -al.~\ 1'. Composed of or made up in 
several independent sections : as, the sectional 
hull of a ship. 2. Of or pertaining to some 
particular section or region ; for or in regard 
to some particular part of a country as distinct 
from others; local: as, sectional interests; 
sectional prejudices; sectional spirit; sectional 
legislation. 
If that government be not careful to keep within its own 
proper sphere, and prudent to square its policy by rules of 
national welfare, sectional lines must and will be known. 
W. Wilson, Congressional Government, vl. 
Sectional dock. See dodts. 
sectionalism (sek'shon-al-izm), w. [< sectional 
+ -ism."] The existence, development, or ex- 
hibition of sectional prejudices, or of a section- 
al spirit, arising from the clashing of sectional 
interests, whether commercial or political; the 
arraying of one section of a country against an- 
other on questions of interest or policy, as, in 
the United States, the Northern States against 
the Southern, or the contrary; sectional preju- 
dice or hatred. [U. 8.] 
Their last organic act was to meet the dark wave of this 
tide of sectionalism on the strand, breast high, and roll it 
back upon its depths. /?. Cltoatc, Addresses, p. 427. 
