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RESPE'RSION, s. [ respersio , Lat.] The act of sprink- 
^RESPIRA'TION, s. [respiratio, from respiro, Lat.] 
The act of breathing. See the article Physiology, p. 
340.—Apollonius of Tyana affirmed, that the ebbing and 
flowing of the sea was the respiration of the world, draw¬ 
ing in water as breath, and putting it forth again. Bacon .— 
Relief from toil. 
Till the day 
Appear of respiration to the just. 
And vengeance to the wicked. Milton. 
Interval.—Some meet respiration of a more full trial and 
inquiry into each other’s condition. Bp, Hall. 
To RESPI'RE, v. n, [ respiro , Lat.] To breathe. 
The ladies gasp’d, and scarcely could respire ; 
The breath they drew, no longer air, but fire, 
The fainty knights were scorch’d. Dry den. 
To catch breath. 
I, a prisoner chain’d, scarce freely draw 
The air imprison’d also, close and damp, 
Unwholesome draught; but here I feel amends, 
The breath of heaven fresh blowing, pure, and sweet. 
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire. Milton. 
To rest; to take rest from toil. 
Hark! he strikes the golden lyre; 
And see! the tortur’d ghosts respire. 
See shady forms advance! Pope. 
To RESPI'RE, v. a. To breathe out; to send out in 
exhalations. 
The air respires the pure Elysian sweets 
In which she breathes, and from her looks descend 
The glories of the summer. B. Jonson. 
RESPI'RABLE, adj. That can respire. 
RESPI'RATORY, adj. Having power to respire.—In 
the construction of the respiratory organs, a bird and a 
snake are not the same. Hunter. 
RE'SPITE, s. [respit , Fr. Johnson; respectus, Lat. 
Menage; respitare, Lat.] (As giving time to breathe.) Du 
Cange. —Reprieve; suspension of a capital sentence. 
I had hope to spend 
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day, 
That must be mortal to us both. Milton. 
Pause; interval.—This customary war, which troublethall 
the world, giving little respite or breathing time of peace, 
doth usually borrow pretence from the necessary, to make 
itself appear more honest. Ralegh. 
To RE'SPITE, v. a. To relieve by a pause. 
In what bower or shade 
Thou find’st him, from the heat of noon retir’d, 
To respite his day-labour with repast. 
Or with repose. Milton. 
\Respiter, old Fr.] To suspend; to delay.—An act 
passed for the satisfaction of the officers of the king’s army, 
by which they were promised payment, in November follow¬ 
ing ; till which time they were to respite it, and be contented 
that the common soldiers and inferior officers should be sa¬ 
tisfied upon their disbanding. Clarendon. 
There are respites of execution, of debt, and, formerly, of 
homage. To be respited on the muster-roll is, in military 
language, to be suspended from pay. 
RESPLE'NDENCE, or Resplendency, s. Lustre; 
brightness; splendour. 
Son! thou in whom my glory I behold 
In full resplendence , heir of all my might. Milton. 
RESPLE'NDENT, adj. [rcsplendens , Lat.] Bright; 
shining; having a beautiful lustre.—Empress of this fair 
world, resplendent Eve! Milton. —Every body looks more 
splendid and luminous in the light of its own colour: cinna- 
ber in the homogeneal light is most resplendent, in the green 
light it is manifestly less resplendent, in the blue light still 
less. Newton. — Resplendent brass, and more resplendent 
dames. Pope. 
RESPLE'NDENTLY, adv. With lustre; brightly, splen¬ 
didly. 
To RESPO'ND, v. n. [ respondeo, Lat. respondre, Fr.] 
To answer. Little used. —I remember him in the divinity- 
school responding and disputing with a perspicuous energy. 
Oldisworth.— To correspond; to suit. 
To every theme responds thy various lay; 
Here rolls a torrent, there meanders play. Broome. 
RESPO'ND, s. [respondeo , Lat.] A respond is a short 
anthem, interrupting the middle of a chapter, which is not 
to proceed till the anthem is done. Wheatly. —Whether 
they have not omitted at even-song the responds. Art. of 
Visit, of K. Edw. VI. 
RESPONDEAS OUSTER, in Law, is to answer over 
in an action to the merits of the case: or put in a more sub¬ 
stantial plea. 
RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR ; the superior shall answer; 
a law phrase. Where the sheriff’s are removable, as in Lon¬ 
don, for insufficiency; respondeat superior, that is, the 
mayor and commonalty are to answer for them. 
RESPONDENT. s. [respondens , Lat.] An answerer 
in a suit, whether for himself or another. 1 —In giving an an¬ 
swer, the respondent should be in court, and personally ad¬ 
monished by the judge to answer the judge’s interrogation. 
Ay life. —One whose province, in a set disputation, is to re¬ 
fute objections.—The respondent may easily shew, that 
though wine may do all this, yet it may be finally hurtful to 
the soul and body of him. Watts. 
RESPONDENTIA, a term applied to money which is 
borrowed, not upon the vessel, as in bottomry, but upon the 
goods and merchandize contained in it, which must neces¬ 
sarily be sold or exchanged, in the course of a voyage; in 
which case the borrower, personally, is bound to answer the 
contract; and he is said to take up money at respondentia. 
It is enacted, by stat. 19 Geo. II. cap. 37, that all monies 
lent on bottomry, or respondentia, on vessels bound to or 
from the East Indies, shall be expressly lent only upon the 
ship, or upon the merchandize; that the lender shall have 
the benefit of salvage; and that, if the borrower has not on 
board effects to the value of the sum borrowed, he shall be 
responsible to the lender for so much of the principal as hath 
not been laid out, with legal interest and all other charges, 
though the ship and merchandize be totally lost. 
Although respondentia and bottomry are, of themselves, a 
species of insurance, yet the lender may protect himself from 
the sea-risk by insuring them. 
RESPONDY, a small island in the Eastern seas, off Ma¬ 
dura, and divided by a channel from the island of Bondy. 
It is woody and populous, and subject to a prince of the east 
coast of Madura. 
RESPO'NSAL, adj. Answerable; responsible.—For 
whom he was to be responsal both to God and the king. 
Hey/in. 
RESPO'NSAL, s. One responsible for another person.— 
Anatolius was put into the see of Constantinople by the in¬ 
fluence of Dioscorus, whose responsal he had been. Barrow. 
—Response.—Alternate psalmody, for its division into two 
parts, was commonly called antiphony, and sometimes the 
singing by responsals. Christian Antiq. 
RESPONSE, s. \responsum, Lat.] An ansrver; com¬ 
monly an oraculous answer.—Mere natural piety has taught 
men to receive the responses of the gods with all possible 
veneration. Gov. of the Tongue. — [Respons, Fr.] Answer 
made by the congregation, speaking alternately with the 
priest in public worship.—To make his parishioners kneel 
and join in the responses, he gave everyone of them a has¬ 
sock and common prayer book. Addison. —Reply to an 
objection in a formal disputation.—Let the respondent not 
turn opponent; except in retorting the argument upon his 
adversary after a direct response; and even this is allowed 
only as a confirmation of his own response. Watts. 
RESPONSIBILITY, 
