| 释义 |
worldn. Forms: α. Old English uoruld, Old English vorvld, Old English weorold, Old English weorulð (probably transmission error), Old English weorund (transmission error), Old English weruld, Old English wiarald (Kentish), Old English worode (genitive, transmission error), Old English worvld, Old English wuruld, Old English wvorvld (rare), Old English wyruld (rare), Old English–early Middle English weoruld, Old English–early Middle English werold, Old English–early Middle English woruld, Old English–early Middle English wurold, Old English–early Middle English 1500s worold, Old English–1600s woreld, late Old English weiruld, early Middle English vorild, early Middle English wæruld, early Middle English weoreld, early Middle English weorelld ( Ormulum), early Middle English wereld, early Middle English werelld ( Ormulum), early Middle English worild, early Middle English wuereld, early Middle English wureld, 1500s worolde; English regional 1800s– wurreld (Sussex), 1900s– worruld (Berkshire); Scottish pre-1700 varild, pre-1700 voreld, pre-1700 wairild, pre-1700 warald, pre-1700 warild, pre-1700 woreld, 1800s worald, 1800s worilt. β. Old English wiorld, Old English–early Middle English weorld, Old English–Middle English wurld, Old English–Middle English 1600s vorld, Old English– world, late Old English–early Middle English worlð, early Middle English weorlde, early Middle English weorrld ( Ormulum), early Middle English werlð, early Middle English werrld ( Ormulum), early Middle English worlt (south-west midlands), early Middle English zerld, Middle English uorld, Middle English uuorld, Middle English verld, Middle English vorlde, Middle English vourld, Middle English warld, Middle English werlde, Middle English werlled, Middle English wharld, Middle English whorlld, Middle English whorllde, Middle English worldd, Middle English worled, Middle English worlth, Middle English wrld, Middle English wrlde, Middle English wurlde, Middle English–1500s whorlde, Middle English–1500s woorlde, Middle English–1500s worllde, Middle English–1600s werld, Middle English–1600s woorld, Middle English–1600s wourld, Middle English–1700s worlde, late Middle English verlde, late Middle English warlde, late Middle English warled, late Middle English warlede, 1500s worlld, 1500s wourlde, 1500s wuorlde, 1600s vrld (Welsh English), 1600s–1700s orld, 1600s–1800s 'orld; English regional 1800s werld (Lancashire), 1800s– warld, 1800s– wurld; Scottish pre-1700 uarld, pre-1700 uarlde, pre-1700 uorld, pre-1700 varld, pre-1700 varlde, pre-1700 vorld, pre-1700 warlde, pre-1700 werld, pre-1700 worlde, pre-1700 worled, pre-1700 1700s– warld, pre-1700 1700s– world, pre-1700 1800s wairld, pre-1700 1800s waurld, pre-1700 1900s– woorld, 1800s worlt, 1800s– warlt, 1800s– woarlt, 1900s– woarld, 1900s– wurld; also Irish English 1700s– warld, 1800s wurld, 1800s wurrld. γ. Old English weord (rare), Old English (rare)–1500s word, early Middle English wordd- (inflected form), Middle English uuord, Middle English verd, Middle English weerd, Middle English werd, Middle English werde, Middle English whord, Middle English wird, Middle English–1500s (1700s– English regional (chiefly northern)) ward, late Middle English warde, late Middle English woord, late Middle English–1500s worde, 1600s word- (in compounds); Scottish pre-1700 uard, pre-1700 uord, pre-1700 vard, pre-1700 warde, pre-1700 word, pre-1700 1700s– ward, 1800s war'd, 1900s– weird. δ. Old English weorl (rare), Old English (rare)–early Middle English worul, early Middle English worel, Middle English orlle (Cornwall), Middle English werl, Middle English werle, Middle English whorle, Middle English worl, Middle English worll, Middle English worlle, Middle English–1500s worle, 1500s warell, 1500s–1600s worell; English regional 1800s warl (Cumberland), 1800s worl (Dorset); Scottish 1700s– warl, 1700s– warl', 1700s– worl', 1800s warle; Irish English 1700s worl, 1800s warl (northern), 1800s wurrl' (northern), 1800s– warl' (northern), 1800s– worl', 1800s– wurl, 1900s– wurl'; N.E.D. (1928) also records a form late Middle English warle. ε. late Old English (dative)–early Middle English weordle, Middle English werdel, Middle English werdl, Middle English werdle, Middle English worddle, Middle English wordel, Middle English wordele, Middle English wordil, Middle English wordl, Middle English wordul, Middle English wordyl, Middle English–1600s wordle, late Middle English wardle, late Middle English wordell, late Middle English wordelle, late Middle English wordill, late Middle English wordulle, late Middle English wordyll, 1500s wardule; English regional 1800s– wardle (northern and north-east midlands), 1800s– wordle (south-western), 1900s– wordel (south-western), 1900s– wurdle (south-western); Scottish pre-1700 uoordill, pre-1700 uordill, pre-1700 vardel, pre-1700 vardil, pre-1700 vardle, pre-1700 vordil, pre-1700 warddyll, pre-1700 wardel, pre-1700 wardil, pre-1700 wardill, pre-1700 wardll, pre-1700 wardyll, pre-1700 wordil, pre-1700 wordill, pre-1700 wordyll, pre-1700 1700s– wardle, pre-1700 1700s– wordle, pre-1700 1900s– wardl, 1900s– wordl. ζ. early Middle English wordld, late Middle English wardlde, late Middle English wordlde; English regional (south-western) 1800s wordled, 1800s wurdled, 1800s– wordeld; Scottish pre-1700 warddilit, pre-1700 wardlit. η. Middle English welrd, Middle English–1600s wolrd, late Middle English–1600s wolrde. θ. early Middle English wolud, Middle English wold, Middle English wolde, late Middle English weld, late Middle English wodul, late Middle English woldle, 1500s woaude; English regional 1800s wald (Suffolk), 1800s wo'ld, 1800s– wold, 1800s– woo'ld. ι. Middle English worldel, Middle English worldl, Middle English worldle, late Middle English werldlys (genitive, perhaps transmission error), late Middle English worldell; Scottish pre-1700 warldill, pre-1700 warldl- (inflected form), pre-1700 warldyll, pre-1700 worldlie. κ. Middle English wrodle, late Middle English wrald, late Middle English wralde, late Middle English–1500s wrolde, late Middle English–1600s wrold. λ. late Middle English woderl. Origin: A word inherited from Germanic. Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian wrald , warld (West Frisian wrâld ), Old Saxon werold (Middle Low German werlt , warlt ), Middle Dutch werelt (Dutch wereld ), Old High German weralt (Middle High German werelt , werlt , welt , German welt ), Old Icelandic verǫld , Faroese verøld , vørild , verð , Norn (Shetland) vrild , Norwegian (Nynorsk) verd , (Bokmål) verden , Old Swedish väruld (Swedish värld ), Old Danish wæræld (Danish verden ) < the Germanic base of were n.1 + the Germanic base of old adj. (compare old n.2), originally lit. ‘age of man’. Compare middenerd n., and slightly later mound n.1Old English forms in wor- show combinative back mutation of earlier wer- , a sporadic feature of both West Saxon and Northumbrian dialects (see A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. (1959) §210.1, R. M. Hogg Gram. Old Eng. (1992) I. §5.110; see also A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. (1959) §320–3 for the further development to wur- characteristic of later West Saxon). In Old English usually a strong feminine (woruld , genitive worulde ); however, a strong masculine by-form (genitive woruldes ) is occasionally attested. Only the α. forms and the forms worel and worul at δ. forms preserve the two elements of the original Germanic compound. All other forms either show loss of the vowel in the second syllable or have developed from such forms, typically by epenthesis, i.e. the insertion of a vowel into the final consonant group (e.g. warell at δ. forms, wordeld at ζ. forms, and wodul at θ. forms). Later examples of α. forms may likewise show such a secondary development from the β. forms (with an epenthetic vowel between r and l ), rather than a direct continuation of the disyllabic forms in Old English. The β. forms show loss of an unstressed vowel after a short syllable and before a consonant group, a reduction already widespread in Old English. The γ. and δ. forms each show simplifications of the consonant group; and the ε. forms show either metathesis of -ld to -dl or a development from the δ. forms with epenthetic d . It is noteworthy that the rare Old English γ. and δ. forms (respectively weord , word , and weorl ) all occur in glosses of the common Latin phrase in saeculum saeculi (in second position; compare quot. OE2 at Phrases 2b); they may perhaps represent abbreviations. The ζ. forms show epenthetic d between r and l (compare the discussion of a very similar development at alder n.1). The η. forms show metathesis of rl to lr . The θ. forms show loss of r as a simplification of the consonant group. The κ. forms show metathesis of the vowel and r . The ι. and λ. forms apparently show different combinations of two or more of these developments. Some forms, especially in regional use, show loss of initial w before the rounded vowel, e.g. 'orld, orld at β. forms, and orlle at δ. forms. In early use the word is found frequently in Christian contexts, where it is often used in branch I. to convey the concept of post-classical Latin saeculum the temporal world and its duration (see secular adj.) and in branches II. and III. the concept of post-classical Latin mundus the physical world and its inhabitants (see mundane adj.), although the distinction is not always clear-cut. Compare also Hellenistic Greek αἰών aeon n. and κόσμος cosmos n.1 respectively in these uses in the New Testament. In Old English, the second of these concepts is also often expressed by middangeard middenerd n. Compare also (especially in branch III.) Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French monde (see mound n.1), which can cover both concepts (gradually falling together with and eventually largely superseding Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French siecle (French siècle ) in senses relating to both the physical and the temporal world: see siecle n.). I. Human existence; a period of this. 1. the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > present life eOE (Kentish) Charter: Lufu to Christ Church, Canterbury (Sawyer 1197) in F. E. Harmer (1914) 8 Ic bidde.., ðet he ðas god forðleste oð wiaralde ende. eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory (Hatton) (1871) xviii. 137 Hie eallinga agiemeleasiað ðone ymbhogan woruldcundra ðinga... Hie tælað..hiera hieramonna unðeawas, & ne dooð him nan oðer god ðisse weorolde. OE (2008) 60 Ðæm feower bearn forðgerimed in worold wocun. OE 57 We witon þæt ælc wlite..to ende efsteþ & onetteþ þisse weorlde lifes. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 17 (MED) Andswere me nu, þu un-ȝesælie saule..hwat hafst ðu swa lange idon on ðare woreld? c1275 Kentish Serm. in J. Hall (1920) I. 220 (MED) Sigge we him, ‘Lord, sauue us’..þet ha yef us swiche werkes to done in þise wordle þet þo saulen of us mote bien isauued. c1300 (Laud) (1868) 2335 Was neuere yete ioie more In al þis werd, þan þo was þore. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 32 Almigtin louerd, hegest kinge Ðu giue me seli timinge To thaunen ðis werdes biginninge. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 91 Quat bote is to sette traueil On thyng..þat es bot fantum o þis warld? 1513 (1911) 22 Yearelie to be distributed..twenty pounds in pence to the poore people duringe the Worlde. a1525 (c1448) R. Holland Bk. Howlat l. 43 in W. A. Craigie (1925) II. 96 Wa Is me wretche in yis warld wilsome of wane. 1600 W. Shakespeare v. iii. 99 I pray thee now deliuer them like a man of this world . View more context for this quotation 1640 R. Sanderson II. 175 God hath so tempered the things of this world, that every commodity hath some incommodiousness, and every conveniency some inconvenience attending the same. 1704 Earl of Shaftesbury Let. 23 Aug. in B. Rand (1900) 347 Throwing aside selfishness, mercenariness, and such servile thoughts as unfit us even for this world. 1795 W. Paley (ed. 3) II. ii. ii. 70 A Christian's chief care being to pass quietly through this world to a better. 1811 J. Austen III. viii. 184 ‘As to that,’ said he, ‘I must rub through the world as well as I can.’ View more context for this quotation 1856 C. Dickens (1874) 43 She was too good for this world and for me, and she died six weeks before our marriage-day. 1895 W. Carleton 55 I could see her mind revolving in the realms of faith and doubt; And the problem she was solving, what this world is all about. 1908 I. 630/2 Another controlling contrast in primitive Christian ethics..was that between this world and the next. 1939 J. Fante x. 105 You're dancing with a freak, an outcast from the world of man, neither fish, fowl, or good red herring. 1968 L. Goodman (1970) 193 These people either radiate incredible vitality or else complain that they're not long for this world. 2006 C. Frazier iv. iv. 327 The elk and bison didn't just wander off somewhere else and disappear from this world entirely but were every one hunted down. the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > future state OE (Corpus Cambr.) xii. 32 Ne byð hyt hym forgyfen, ne on þisse worulde ne on þære toweardan [c1384 Wycliffite, E.V. nether in this world, ne in the tother, 1526 Tyndale nether in this worlde, nether in the worlde to come; L. neque in hoc saeculo, neque in futuro]. OE Ælfric Homily: De Duodecim Abusivis (Corpus Cambr. 178) in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 297 Þonne se man bið lofgeorn..& deð for gylpe gif he hwæt dælan wyle, & bið se hlisa his edlean þære dæde, & hys wite andbidað on þære toweardan worulde [lOE Vesp. D.xiv þære towearden weordle]. OE Ælfric Homily (Trin. Cambr. B.15.34) in J. C. Pope (1968) II. 559 Lytel þing is geteald þises lifes ryne wið ða ecan worulde, þe ne wurð na geendod. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 135 (MED) On ðere eche weorlde he scal hafon ðer of his mede. ?1480 Earl Rivers tr. (Caxton) (new ed.) lf. 62v Sacdarge saith that the werkes of this vnto another world ben guided by two thingis. 1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart I. lxiii. f. xxxv/1 Ye nexte day assone as it was day lyght: ye shulde haue sene tentes taken downe, charyotes charged, & people remoue so thycke, that a man wold haue thought to haue sene a newe worlde. 1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch 1142 There is one..that helpeth to convey the soules of such as have ended their life, from hence into another world. 1715 I. Mather (title page) When Godly Men dye, Angels carry their Souls to another and a better World. 1770 O. Goldsmith 170 He..Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 1809 W. Magee (1816) II. 107 The appellation, ‘mighty dead’,..becomes applicable to all the inhabitants of the invisible world. 1817 P. B. Shelley Mont Blanc iii, in 178 Some say that gleams of a remoter world Visit the soul in sleep,—that death is slumber. 1846 Ld. Tennyson Golden Year in (ed. 4) II. 90 'Tis like the second world to us that live. 1899 R. Kipling I. viii. 263 A night's reflection has convinced me that there is no hell for these women [sc. prostitutes] in another world. 1956 2 Apr. 30/2 Its promise of another world has made it easier for many good Christians..to neglect the improvement of this one. 2003 J. Stockwin (2004) vi. 109 Her mother long departed for a better world. the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > [noun] > present or future state of existence eOE tr. Orosius (BL Add.) (1980) ii. viii. 52 Þa þa iermingas þe þær to lafe wurdon ut of þæm holan crupon þe heo on lutedan, swa bewopene swelce hie of oþerre worolde come, þonne hie besawon on þa besengdan burg & on þa westan, þæt him þa wæs syndrig ege þær him ær wæs seo mæsta wyn. c1300 (Harl. 2277) (1845) l. 77 (MED) Heo..ȝeode aboute as a best..As heo were of another wordle. a1500 (?c1425) (1936) 26 (MED) There come pestilences a-bove al manere of mesure..And the scharpe casualte of deth lost mennus wittis that the peple beyng now hole merveyled of the sodeyne translacion that was made of hem in-to an-other world. 1533 tr. Erasmus xiii. sig. H.iiv Let vs ymagyne therfore two worldes, the one intelligyble ye other visyble. 1604 W. Shakespeare iv. v. 132 Both the worlds I giue to negligence, Let come what comes. View more context for this quotation a1797 M. Wollstonecraft (1798) IV. lxvii. 3 A world in which self-interest..is the principal mobile. 1807 W. Wordsworth Ode in II. 155 Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realiz'd. View more context for this quotation 1859 E. FitzGerald tr. xxv. 6 All the Saints and Sages who discuss'd Of the Two Worlds so learnedly. 1909 W. C. Brownell 172 A view of the actual as the best possible world can hardly be ascribed to a revolutionary and reformatory spirit, always..a critic of the established order. 1963 L. S. de Camp Heroic Fantasy in 7 The tales collected under this name are adventure-fantasies, laid in imaginary prehistoric or medieval worlds. 2007 29 July (Home ed.) (Book World section) 5/1 Among Other Things, I've taken up Smoking is a coming-out novel about a world we don't quite live in yet, a world in which the dividing line between straight and gay looks..faint. the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > swift movement of time > [noun] > the present (temporal) state > earthly or temporal things OE 399 Ne won he æfter worulde, ac he in wuldre ahof modes wynne. lOE tr. Alcuin De Virtutibus et Vitiis (Vesp.) in R. D.-N. Warner (1917) 92 For Paulus se apostol þuss cwæð, Ne martyrhad, ne þysser wurlde forhogung, ne ælmesdæde, ne byð Gode gecweme bute þære soðen lufe. a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Egerton) 330 in J. Zupitza & J. Schipper (1904) 90 (MED) Bute we wurðe us iwer, ðeos woruld wule us for drenche. a1250 in C. Brown (1932) 16 Werld an wele þe bi-pecheth. 1340 (1866) 92 (MED) Þe more þet [me] lykeþ þe zuetnesse of þe wordle, þe lesse me wylneþ þe zuetnesse of god. a1450 (1969) l. 192 Whoso spekyth aȝeyn þe Werd In a presun he schal be sperd. 1540 J. Palsgrave tr. G. Gnapheus i. iii. sig. Fiv Bycause he is so sore sette, or to gredy vpon the world, or his thrift. 1564 J. Martiall f. 17 Christ hath subdued sinne, conquered the worlde, discomfited the deuil. 1668 J. Owen ii. 21 Whence is it that men follow and pursue the world with so much greediness? 1780 W. Cowper 25 Renounce the world—the preacher cries. 1785 W. Cowper ii. 389 Infidelity and love of world. 1807 W. Wordsworth I. 122 The world is too much with us. 1843 J. Martineau I. xvii. 255 The world..i.e. the opportunities of action with a view to temporal good. 1882 J. R. Seeley ii. i. 130 The World is the collective character of those who do not worship. 1978 P. Matthiessen iii. 236 But to renounce the world in this way requires the ultimate discipline. 3. the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun] > business claiming attention > an occupation or affair > affairs > of life OE (2008) 1738 Ac him eal worold wendeð on willan. OE 318 Hyra woruld wæs gehwyrfed. lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) xxvi. 58 Geþenc þu..hwæðer þin woruld þa eall wære æfter þinum willan? c1390 (a1376) W. Langland (Vernon) (1867) A. Prol. l. 19 A Feir feld ful of folk fond I þer bi-twene,..Worchinge and wondringe as þe world askeþ. c1400 (?c1390) (1940) l. 530 & wynter wyndeȝ aȝayn, as þe worlde askeȝ. 1481 in (1975) 122 Howr father..thynkys the whorllde qwhessy..and therfor he whowlde that ȝe gebart not yowrselfe to hofton to Bregys. 1570 J. Foxe (rev. ed.) II. 1848/1 What a Gospeller [he]..was in King Edwardes tyme, which now turning with ye world sheweth him self such a bytter Persecuter..in Queene Maries time. 1603 W. Shakespeare iii. ii. 262 Some must laugh, while some must weepe, Thus runnes the world away. 1672 H. Stubbe 79 The World is coming to a fine pass when these Butter-boxes presume to teach all Europe Civility. 1729 C. Coffey ii. ii. 32 What a strange Pass this World is come to—there is hardly any Thing to be had for Charity now adays. 1855 W. Howitt Holly-tree Inn: Landlord in Extra Christmas No. 23/1 How's the world used you since this morning? 1862 H. Kingsley xviii The world is out of joint. 1886 S. Baring-Gould iv What was the world coming to, when the police poked their noses into his shop? 1937 F. Loesser You can't tell Man by his Hat in R. Kimball & S. Nelson (2003) 24/3 Lowbrows in high hats, and highbrows in no hats, Oh, what is this world coming to? 1963 J. T. Farrell 223 The world seemed to be all askew, out of joint, off-kilter. 1999 C. B. Divakaruni i. iii. 38 What is the world coming to these days, she continued. the world > time > particular time > [noun] the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > circumstance or circumstances > [noun] > state of affairs or situation > state or course of human affairs 1389 in J. T. Smith & L. T. Smith (1870) 20 (MED) If eny brother or sister falle in pouert thurghe auenture of ye werld, his state shal bene holpen of euery brother and sister of ye gilde. 1456 J. Bokkyng in (2004) II. 162 And as for þe iiijxx li. to be sette on Oliuere is taile, I can nought see it wole be for þere is noo suche worlde to bringe it abowte. 1479 R. Cely Let. 14 June in (1975) 52 Here ys but strange warlede..The sekenese raynyd sore at London. 1484 W. Cely Let. 14 Apr. in (1975) 210 What world wee schall hawe wyth Flaunders I cannott sey. I feyr me they wyll breke wyth vs. ?1503 J. Flamank in J. Gairdner (1861) I. 232 Good yt is that we see to our owne surtie..wat world so euer shall hapen to fall here after. c1523 T. More in H. Ellis (1827) 2nd Ser. I. 295 They do but seke delayes till they may se how the world is. 1530 J. Palsgrave 559/2 Let the place be well fumygate..it is a daungerous worlde [Fr. temps] nowe a dayes. a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in (1557) 70/2 If the worlde woold haue gone as I would haue wished, king Henryes sonne had had the crown. 1548 f. cxcvv Til he might spye a tyme conuenient, & a world after hys awn appetite. a1575 N. Harpsfield (1878) (modernized text) 178 Others which foretold this dolorous doleful wretched world that followed upon this divorce. 1598 W. Shakespeare ii. iv. 88 This is no world To play with mammets. View more context for this quotation ?1614 G. Chapman tr. Homer xi. 602 But take close shore disguisde, nor let her know, For tis no world to trust a woman now. 1652 J. Shirley Brothers ii. 12 in (1653) Now to my wits, this is no world to starve in. the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > [noun] > of a person or in life > in terms of prosperity, etc. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) Prol. l. 383 (MED) Every clerk his herte leith To kepe his world in special. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) vii. l. 2521 Whan that he weneth best achieve His goode world. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) i. l. 1257 (MED) I not in what degree Thou schalt thi goode world achieve. 4. the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun] > business claiming attention > an occupation or affair > affairs > worldly or secular OE (Tiber.) (1888) lxiv. 109 In ipsis imperiis suis providus et consideratus, sive secundum deum, sive secundum seculum sit : on þam sylfan bebodum forgleaw & forseone oððe æfter gode oððe æfter wurulde he [sc. the abbot] sy. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 7 Sume læted [read læteð] wel of hem seluen, ȝif hie bieð of heiȝe kenne,..oðer ȝif he hafð sum hei obedience, oðer ȝif menn of ðe world hes healdeð for hali menn. 1340 (1866) 49 Þe enlefte [sin of adultery] is of man of þe wordle to wyfman of religioun. 1526 W. Bonde Pref. sig. Ai That is to say, some chose to go by the world, & some by religion. 1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden i. 521 Hee taking a loathing to the world..retired into that hospitall..where with poore people hee lived to God. 1672 E. Ravenscroft ii. i. 33 I'l threaten to flee beyond Sea to a Nunnery, and for ever to exclude my self from the world. a1700 in (1911) 9 337 In the 20th of her age, forsaking ye world she desired nothing more, then to dedicate herselfe to God, in a Religious estate. 1717 A. Pope Eloisa to Abelard in 427 How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot. 1808 W. Scott ii. iii. 80 The Abbess..early took the veil and hood, Ere upon life she cast a look, Or knew the world that she forsook. 1845 M. Pattison in Jan. 74 A book which is not only esteemed in the Church, but has had the honour..of commanding the respect of the world. 1888 ‘Bernard’ ii. 12 Having resigned the situation I held in the world. 1932 E. Bevan ix. 191 Jesuits were trained by a severe discipline, not to live in retirement from the world, but to mingle with the world in order to conquer it for the Church. 1977 R. Barnard vii. 72 Father Anselm furrowed his brow. ‘I believe his name in the world was Denis Crowther,’ he said. 2006 Apr. 15 We must not withdraw from the world in a Christian sub-culture, but get involved in our society. society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > unspirituality > [noun] > person > collective c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) John xv. 19 But I chees ȝou fro the world, therfore the world hatith ȝou [OE West Saxon Gospels: Corpus Cambr. middaneard eow hatað; L. odit vos mundus]. c1390 (a1376) W. Langland (Vernon) (1867) A. i. l. 37 Leef not þi licam for lyȝere him techeþ, Þat is þe Wikkede word þe to bi-traye. a1569 M. Coverdale (1593) sig. Ev The world, that is to say, fleshly men and children of the world, receiue not this spirite. 1616 T. Gainsford f. 161 The world seekes wealth, the wealthy honor, the honourable respect, but the true conuert careth for nothing but Christ, and him crucified. 1738 J. Wesley (new ed.) iv. vi The World with fruitless Pain Seek Happiness below. society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Quakerism > [noun] > person > not > collective 1648 G. Fox (1852) I. 70 The Lord commanded me to go abroad into the world. c1680 in (1912) 55 81 The Other Months Named after ye Manner of ye world. 1698–9 Story & Gill in S. B. Weeks (1896) 67 The displeasure of God..against mixed marriages between them [sc. Quakers] and the world. a1713 T. Ellwood (1714) 340 Thomas Dell and Edward Moor [were discharged] by other People of the World, paying their Fines and Fees for them. 1837 H. Martineau II. 57 They are receiving a perpetual accession to their numbers from among the ‘world's people’. 1867 W. H. Dixon II. x. 93 Some of these [Quaker] ladies..have husbands (as the world would call them). 1936 J. Whitney iii. 58 [Visits] some to people of the world, and others to plain Quakers, and then father and daughter and female attendant..rattled home to Earlham. 2001 M. B. Weddle xiii. 192 Included in his [sc. George Fox's] reminder were..opposition to the world's fashions and customs [etc.]. 5. the world > time > period > [noun] > of the world or history the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > vastness of quantity or amount > (a) vast quantity or amount OE (Julius) 26 Mar. 46 Ða ða hi [sc. Adam and Eve] gesawon his [sc. Christ's] þæt beorhte leoht æfter þære langan worolde, þær Eua hine halsode for sancta Marian mægsibbe ðæt he hire miltsade. c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine (1993) 166 Þa rædlice ætsceawede him þær Moyses þe halȝæ þe þe ifyrren worlde ær wæs forðfæren. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 81 Þis bitacneð þe world þet wes from biginnegge... In þisse worlde nas na laȝe ne na larþeu. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 11690 A þere ilke worlde [c1300 Otho worle] þa þis wes iwurðen. wes Francene lond Gualle ihaten. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) vii. l. 2702 These olde worldes with the newe Who that wol take in evidence, Ther mai he se thexperience, What thing it is to kepe lawe. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 15128 Suilc a man was neuer yeitt Sin ani werldes ware. 1530 (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 115 All thys worlde ys departed in to thre tymes. The fyrst tyme was when men lyued after the lawe of nature [etc.]. 1567 (1897) 44 He that all warldis was beforne, Come downe of Marie to be borne. 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay vii. 100 The Heauen goeth about continually; and in so many worlds and ages as haue bin, we perceiue no alteration at all. 1593 T. Bilson 5 This was the blessing due to the elder Brother in the first world. 1596 J. Harington sig. D7 Tarquinius..prouident in peace, and in that young world, a notable polititian. a1600 R. Hooker (1888) (modernized text) III. 640 Adam and all the fathers before Christ, till Christ's coming, were for so many worlds together detained. 1674 N. Fairfax 202 [200] From all which 'tis as clear, that we meant in the dayes of yore by the word World, time, ages [etc.]. the world > time > period > [noun] > of the world or history > characterized by certain conditions a1439 J. Lydgate (Bodl. 263) vii. l. 1209 (MED) This goldene world long while did endure. 1530 W. Tyndale sig. Bijv Then they called a parliament (as though the golden worlde shuld come agayne). 1630 tr. G. Botero (rev. ed.) 160 It was used in that good old world, when men wiped their nose on their sleeve (as the French man sayes). 1781 Blair in (1793) 12 All old things now are past away, and a new world begun. 1849 T. B. Macaulay I. iii. 401 These were men whose minds had been trained in a world which had passed away. 1886 E. B. Bax 166 In Shakespeare's ‘historical plays’ the characters live and speak in the world of the sixteenth century. 1913 S. Phillips 17 Wail for a world gone by, Battle and prayer. 1991 R. Ferguson viii. 154 With such gestures he had already begun his obsessive lifelong concern with the ‘unre-enterable’ world of the past. II. The earth (also the universe) or a part of it; a natural environment or system. Cf. earth n.1 9b. 6. the world > the earth > [noun] the world > existence and causation > existence > materiality > [noun] > the material world or nature OE Cynewulf 659 Se þas world gescop, godes gæstsunu. OE tr. Orosius (Tiber.) (1980) i. vi. 24 On þæs Ambictiones tide wurdon swa mycele wæterflod geond ealle world,..þæt forneah eall þæt folc forwearð. lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) xxxiii. 79 Þeah þu þa ealle gesceafta ane naman genemde, elle þu nemdest togedere & hete woruld. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 15460 Godd shop all þe werrld off nohht. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 19 We habbeð ihereden þurh wise witega hu he erest astalde þeos woreld, al for ure neode. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 3592 He [sc. Julius Cæsar] þohte to bi-winnen..al middel-eærdes lond and halde þat worlde in his hond. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 901 Wiste noman of werlðe ðo, Quat kinde he was kumen fro. c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. i. l. 4 Ich wente forth in þe worlde [MS worle] wonders to hure. ?a1425 (c1400) (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 120 Men myghte go be schippe all aboute the world & aboven & benethen. c1450 (?a1400) (Ashm.) l. 1502 He mon ride þus & regne ouire all þe ronde werde. 1539 Psalms lxxxix. 12 Thou hast layed the foundacion of the rounde worlde, and all that therin is. 1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria f. 214v The vyage made by the Spanyardes rounde abowte the worlde. 1604 W. Shakespeare iii. ii. 151 And thirtie dozen Moones..About the world haue times twelue thirties beene. View more context for this quotation 1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto viii. 25 The Bisquayn Ship..wherein Magellan compassed the World. 1667 J. Milton xii. 646 The World was all before them, where to choose Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide. View more context for this quotation 1726 J. Swift (title) Travels into several remote nations of the world,..by Lemuel Gulliver. 1785 W. Cowper i. 372 Its own revolvency upholds the world. 1829 T. Carlyle in 3 vi. 445 She is perpetually travelling: a peaceful philosopher is lugged over the world, to Cirey, to Lunéville, to that pied à terre in Paris. 1877 VII. 390/1 [Drake] This voyage round the world, the first accomplished by an Englishman, was thus performed in two years and about ten months. 1920 Mar. 80/1 It is probable that kite balloons will be used as landmarks for the main aerial lines over the world. 2003 J. Scalzi v. 67 It's thought that the Moon was formed as a result of a catastrophic collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized planetoid, whose impact tore off the rocky skin of our world. c1480 (a1400) St. Margaret l. 639 in W. M. Metcalfe (1896) II. 65 Mychty god, makare of al warldis, þat gayne are or cum sal. ?1573 L. Lloyd f. 190v Anaxarchus the Philosopher, who affirmed..that there were diuers worldes, whiche when Alexander heard, he..answered, O Anaxarchus, are ther so many worldes to be had, & I skant haue half one worlde yet. 1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine viii. ii. 300 The ayre thickning it selfe into a globous body, produceth a world. 1643 Sir T. Browne (authorized ed.) i. §16 Nature hath made one World, and Art another. In briefe, all things are artificiall, for Nature is the Art of God. View more context for this quotation 1676 J. Dryden iii. 33 Too truly Tamerlain's Successors they, Each thinks a World too little for his sway. 1713 W. Derham ii. i. 39 This [spherical figure] must be allowed to be the most commodious, apt Figure for a World on many Accounts. 1748 S. Richardson VII. cii. 375 They have great force upon me..; or one world would not have held Mr. Lovelace and me thus long. 1785 W. Cowper iv. 89 'Tis pleasant through the loop-holes of retreat To peep at such a world. 1822 Ld. Byron Heaven & Earth i. iii, in 1 181 When the hot sun hath baked the reeking soil Into a world. 1865 A. C. Swinburne v. ii. 189 Life is not worth a world That you should weep to take it. 1917 A. Quiller-Couch xvi. 294 So he sleeps, and awakes—to be rewarded..with the best earthly thing that could betide in a world he has served worldlily yet well. 1991 E. S. Connell (1992) 168 God was a book rowled up in Himself that enlightened only Himself before the universe was created, but unfolded Himself during travail with the birth of a world. 1556 in T. Sharp (1825) 73 Paid to Crowe for makyng of iij worldys..ijs. 1594 W. Shakespeare sig. D2v Her breasts like Iuory globes circled with blew, A paire of maiden worlds vnconquered. View more context for this quotation 1609 W. Shakespeare Louers Complaint in sig. Kv I..Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale..Storming her world with sorrowes, wind and raine. 1648 2 This Monsieur Malignant, whose tongue, fired by Hell, is a world of wickedness. 1746 P. Francis tr. Horace in P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace i. xix. 29 Through open Worlds of Rhime I dar'd to tread In Paths unknown. 1873 R. Browning i. 47 See, the sun splits on yonder bauble world Of silvered glass. 1923 ‘K. Mansfield’ 109 The oranges were little worlds of burning light. 1992 S. Barker 62 There was no time in the city; all time was in small worlds of eyeball. 7. OE (Julius) 29 Aug. 193 Forþon God hine [sc. John the Baptist] forlet in þisse nyþerlican worulde swa forslegenlice ond swa orwyrþlicne deð þrowian, ðæt he hine wolde in ðære hean worulde gelædan to þam wuldre. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 17538 Off þise fowwre shaffte iss all. Þiss middell werelld timmbredd. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 98 Of watres froren, of yses wal, Ðis middel-werld it luket al. 1536 T. Starkey To Rdr. f. 1v Here in the lower worlde garnyshyng it with this varietie, wherin standeth all naturall beautie. 1593 R. Hooker i. iii. 53 If those principall & mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should loose the qualities which now they haue. 1609 S. Daniel (rev. ed.) viii. xxx. 211 The glory of that Mightinesse..That ouer-spreds..This vnder-world. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) i. i. 44 This beneath world . View more context for this quotation 1720 J. Gay Trivia ii, in I. 178 When dread Jove the son of Phœbus hurl'd..to the nether world. 1785 W. Cowper vi. 729 The groans of nature in this nether world, Which Heav'n has heard for ages. a1796 R. Burns (1968) I. 296 This lower world I you resign. a1796 R. Burns (1968) I. 337 Tho' 'twere a trip to yon blue warl [i.e. hell]. 1814 H. F. Cary tr. Dante III. xvii. 22 I..With Virgil..visited the nether world of woe. 1821 W. Scott II. xi. 270 He spoke mair like a man of the middle world than she had ever heard him since she had [etc.]. 1901 G. W. James xii. 214 The Sacred Navaho Basket..represents the mountains and valleys of the upper world and also of the under world. 1963 D. M. Matheson tr. F. Schuon ii. 64 Er-Rahmān is the Creator of the world inasmuch as..He has furnished the elements of well-being for this lower world. 2002 N. Drury 134/1 This ‘journey’ entails..travelling through to the lower world, where one may make contact with a power animal or magical ally. the world > the universe > planet > [noun] > habitable a1522 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil (1960) xii. Prol. l. 10 Behynd the circulat warld of iupiter. c1550 (1979) 33 The astrologien Metrodore affermit that ther is mony & infinit varldis. 1640 Bp. J. Wilkins (new ed.) i. sig. B1 (heading) That the Moone may be a World. 1713 J. Addison v. i But thou shalt flourish..Unhurt amidst..The Wrecks of Matter, and the Crush of Worlds. 1781 W. Cowper 81 The sun, a world whence other worlds drink light. 1811 26 Oct. 3/3 The nucleus of the present Comet is nothing more than a conglomeration of vapours... Such a body might very possibly be a incipient world, just passed its gaseous state. 1872 W. Black xxxi. 419 Overhead the great worlds became more visible in the deep vault of blue. 1929 J. Williamson & M. J. Breuer 12 I am not a terrestrial man. I came to earth in a meteor. I am the son of the science of another world. 1980 D. Brin iv. x. 107 Have only allowed the Pring to colonize class A worlds, devoid of life and requiring terraforming. 2003 July 38/3 The new search is prepared to..detect other Earth-sized worlds around Sun-like stars first, before investigating their atmospheres to see whether life is present. the world > the universe > [noun] the world > the universe > [noun] > part of eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 300 Microchosmos, se læssa middangeard.] c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 17597 Mycrocossmos. þatt nemmnedd iss. Affterr ennglisshe spæche. Þe little werelld. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) iv. l. 2078 A soubtil man,..Which thurgh magique and sorcerie Couthe al the world of tricherie. c1450 (c1350) (Bodl.) (1929) l. 645 Ȝe liknen a lud to a litil wordle [L. paruum mundum]. 1481 W. Caxton tr. i. xvi. sig. d. 4v This clerenesse..enuyronneth al aboute the worlde, the foure elementis whiche god created. ?1520 J. Rastell sig. Avjv The yerth as a poynt or center is sytuate In the myddis of the worlde. 1530 (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 181 No meruayle thoughe god had more delyte in the, thow lesse worlde, that were yet to be made, then of thys more worlde. 1556 R. Record i. 4 The worlde is an apte frame of heauen and earthe, and all other naturall thinges contained in them. 1608 W. Shakespeare viii. 9 In his little world of man. View more context for this quotation 1647 J. Howell 122 Surely, the Astronomers had reason to tearme this sphere..a thing of no dimension at all being compar'd to the whole world. 1690 J. Locke ii. xxiv. 149 The great collective Idea of all Bodies whatsoever signified by the name World. 1709 Ld. Shaftesbury iii. i. 182 Thy Works apparent to us, the System of the bigger World! 1728 E. Chambers at University The four Faculties are supposed to make the World or Universe of Study. 1755 B. Martin 8 The Philosophers of the present Age teach us, that the Universe..is replenished with Systems or Worlds of different Bodies. 1804 H. H. Brackenridge II. i. ii. 24 The public have now some idea that the licentiousness of the press is not more a nuisance in the moral, than offensive smells are in the physical world. 1882 T. Fowler 106 We may infer that Shaftesbury conceived the relation of God to the World as that of soul to the body. Nature is..the vesture of God, and God the soul of the Universe. 1967 J. R. R. Tolkien Aug. (1995) 386 Morgoth was overthrown and extruded from the World (the physical universe). 2007 (Nexis) 11 Aug. 47 Scientists..will have to solve the hard problem of exactly how a desire in the mental realm can cross into the physical world and cause something to happen. society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > [noun] 1551 J. Bale ii. f. liiiiv Lete vs include or admyt thys man in our worlde here, as ye Pope of an other worlde, meanynge great Brytayne or England, whych the old cosmographers and famouse hystoryanes called an other worlde, for so much as it semed from the great worlde by sea dyuyded. 1594 C. Marlowe & T. Nashe i. i Of Troy am I,..driuen by warre from forth my natiue world. 1597 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 45 This little world, This precious stone set in the siluer sea. View more context for this quotation 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny I. vi. i. 115 From the one side to the other [of the Bosphorus]..men out of these two worlds may parly one to another with audible voice. 1627 T. May tr. Lucan (new ed.) iii. E 2 b Tanais..doth diuide Europe from Asia, giuing to each side The name of seuerall worlds. 1698 J. Fryer 183 This World produces two Harvests. 1741 I. Watts i. i. 8 Alexander the Great..when he had conquered what was called the Eastern World..wept for want of more Worlds to conquer. 1812 S. Rogers (rev. ed.) ii. 15 From world to world their steady course they keep. 1842 Ld. Tennyson Ulysses in (new ed.) II. 90 Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 1888 J. Bryce I. iii. 29 The influence which American freedom would exert upon the Old World. 1919 G. White 45 Slowly the vaster winds, Than blow in the older world, Are wasting from south to north. 2006 (Nexis) 1 July John Tradescant's museum in 17th-century London, with its collection of natural wonders and curiosities from the newly discovered worlds of East and West. the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun] > business claiming attention > an occupation or affair > affairs > sphere of activity 1580 A. Saker i. 116 My Sunne will shine in the worlde of my weale, and my cleare day of delight bee faire in my fancy. 1594 T. Lodge & R. Greene sig. G Thine eyes the motors to command my world. 1642 H. More sig. N7v She dwells in her own self, there doth reside, Is her own world, and more or lesse doth pen Her self. 1774 W. H. Roberts 36 Huge Ocean trembles thro his world of waves. 1807 W. Wordsworth II. 120 Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies More justly balanced; partly at their feet, And part far from them. 1837 B. Disraeli I. 234 With no aspirations beyond the little world in which she moved. 1837 H. Martineau III. 28 The atmosphere of insolence in which he dwells;..the taint of contempt which infects all the intercourses of his world. 1853 T. T. Lynch iii. 53 A man's world is not of the senses simply, but of the spirit too. 1898 ‘H. S. Merriman’ xvi. 168 [His] world was a narrow one, consisting as it did of himself and his bank-book. ?1902 W. B. Yeats 8 Feb. (1994) III. 154 American publishers are to me at any rate most unintelligible and mysterious & copyright laws are not in my world. 1938 H. G. Wells iii. 124 In Paris, in her world, there is no such thing as an innocent garconnière. 2006 Oct. 36/2 Andrew Lipson is a very special kind of topologist: In his world, everything is made of little plastic bricks. the world > existence and causation > existence > materiality > [noun] > the material world or nature > division of natural world 1660 ‘R. D'Acres’ Pref. p. ii The experience of much time and treasure, which is the ruine of many, but..would very much advance the mineral World to a higher perfection. 1695 J. Woodward 3 Not neglecting..whatever either the Vegetable or Animal World afforded. 1749 D. Hartley i. iii. §2. 354 Regular and well-digested Accounts of the Phaenomena of the Natural World. 1784 tr. L. Spallanzani II. iii. v. 336 Can the whole vegetable kingdom be comprehended under one law? Does the organic world afford a single law, which can be called universal? 1804 T. Bewick II. Introd. p. vi They [sc. land birds] are the subtenants of the cultivated world. 1833 C. Lyell III. v. 52 Every geological monument, whether belonging to the animate or inanimate world, which appertains to this epoch, may be termed recent. 1892 J. Tait (ed. 3) 317 The micro-organic world is found to be silent as the grave on evolution. 1901 1 601/1 The plant..preserves itself through relationships which it maintains between itself..and the mineral world. 1966 R. Silverberg 63 Another queer-looking living fossil of the fish world is the lungfish. 1999 Spring 11/1 In the insect world, bright colours are usually a good clue that the insect is to be avoided by potential predators. the world > relative properties > kind or sort > [noun] > a kind, sort, or class 1685 G. Sinclair (title) Satans invisible world discovered. 1690 J. Locke iv. iii. 279 The whole intellectual World; a greater, certainly, and more beautiful World, than the material. 1701 J. Norris I. vi. 389 Truth is where the Divine Ideas are,..in the Intelligible World, that world of true light and glory. 1781 W. Cowper 536 Then, all the world of waters sleeps again. 1807 W. Wordsworth II. 121 Dreams, books, are each a world. 1821 C. Lamb in Oct. 386/2 Dear little T. H...finds all this world of fear [i.e. night fears]..in his own ‘thick-coming fancies’. 1842 C. Dickens II. viii. 234 We carried in the steerage nearly a hundred passengers: a little world of poverty. a1862 H. T. Buckle (1872) I. 213 The external world is governed by acts, the internal world by opinions. 1874 St. G. Mivart (1876) 199 The mingling of the hyperphysical world of rationality with the irrational creation. 1893 W. S. Furneaux (title) The Outdoor World; or, Young Collector's Handbook. 1901 W. B. Yeats 2 Aug. (1994) III. 99 The paragraph makes me say..that ‘I hoped to see Irish becoming the language of the artistic and intellectual world of Anglo-Saxondom.’ 1947 N. Frye i. 26 There are not only two worlds, but three: the world of vision, the world of sight and the world of memory. 1990 J. D. Barrow (1991) vii. 138 The extraordinary phenomena of solid-state physics, like superconductivity and semiconduction, the properties of new materials, all are the result of this complex world of large numbers. 2001 B. Riemschneider & U. Grosenick 174 Renger-Patzsch tried to capture the ‘essence’ of structures and phenomena of the visible world and to set them in order. III. The inhabitants of the earth, or a section of them. the world > people > [noun] OE Cynewulf 718 Cyning engla, meotud meahtum swið..woruld alyseð, ealle eorðbuend. OE 1423 Hwæt, ic þæt for worulde geþolade! c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 17496 Swa lufede þe laferrd godd. Þe werelld. tatt he sennde. Hiss aȝhenn sune..To wurrþenn mann onn erþe. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 4525 Iesu Crist..alre worulde wunne. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) Prol. l. 10 So that it myhte in such a wyse, Whan we ben dede..Beleve to the worldes eere. c1426 J. Audelay (1931) 115 (MED) Cnow ȝe now þe Sun of God, Þat aȝayn boȝt þe word. ?a1475 Lessons of Dirige (Douce) l. 596 in J. Kail (1904) 140 (MED) So shall I see my sauyour Deme the worlde. 1535 in T. Wright (1843) 31 I suppose it wolbe hard for you to purge your selfe before God or the worle. 1567 J. Jewel vi. vi. § 2. 620 They make Decrees expressely againste Goddes Woorde, and that not..couertly, but openly, and in the face of the worlde. 1619 T. Lushington Repetit. Serm. in (1708) II. 477 They say there was no such matter as the Resurrection, 'twas but a gull put upon the World by his Disciples. 1662 E. Stillingfleet ii. i. §2 It being impossible that persons employed by a God of truth should make it their design to impose upon the world. 1715 W. Derham Prelim. Disc. p. xxv The Condition, State and Order of the World inhabiting the Earth. 1743 A. Pope (new ed.) iii. 307 In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, But all Mankind's concern is Charity. 1842 Ld. Tennyson Walking to Mail in (new ed.) II. 50 You know That these two parties still divide the world—Of those that want, and those that have. 1866 H. P. Liddon (1875) vi. 337 The whole world was redeemed by Christ. 1904 G. K. Chesterton i. i. 16 The world was growing more merciful, and therefore no one would ever desire to kill. 2003 30 June 14/4 It was American management consultants..who visited the plague of corporate jargon upon the world. the world > people > [noun] 1340 (1866) 59 (MED) Þe wordle zelf ham halt uor fol and uor vilayn. ?a1450 (?c1400) (Lamb.) (1901) 51 Who euer mys-dispendys myȝtys of sowle or body..agaynst godys law ys a strong thef..what-euer þe word flaterys. 1535 W. Marshall tr. Marsilius of Padua ii. ix. f. 71v The contrarye wherof all this worlde maye iudge & thynke of certayne preestes agaynst the doctryne of the holy scrypture and of sayntes. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) i. ii. 108 Fellow, why do'st thou show me thus to th' world? Beare me to prison. View more context for this quotation 1616 R. Cocks (1883) I. 127 Yet let both hym and the world judg of me yf I dealt frendly with hym. 1693 29 To make the World think he has been at a good Meal. 1738 A. Pope 9 In golden Chains the willing World she [sc. Vice] draws. 1761 C. Churchill 16 You must be wrong, the World is in the right. 1785 W. Cowper vi. 681 He..call'd the world to worship on the banks Of Avon, fam'd in song. 1828 Ld. Ellenborough (1881) I. 201 There are all sorts of stories of the Lord High Admiral, and the world says he is mad. 1833–5 J. H. Newman (1873) 3rd Ser. x. 191 It is harder to resist the world's smiles than the world's frowns. 1858 D. M. Mulock ix. 230 How often do we hear the phrases,—‘What will the world say?’ 1893 June 85/1 From the world's point of view his unpopularity was richly deserved. 1959 J. Barzun ii. 48 The world has long observed that small acts of immorality, if repeated, will destroy character. 1990 O. Chadwick (1991) 73 The opinion of the world and society which thought of him as a boffin. 15. Usually with distinguishing word: a particular section or part of the earth's inhabitants or of (a) human society. society > society and the community > [noun] > a division of human society c1384 (Royal) (1850) 2 Pet. ii. 5 If God..sparide not to the first world, but kepte Noe [1534 Tyndale the olde worlde but saved Noe; L. originali mundo, sed..Noe..custodivit]. 1573 T. Twyne tr. H. Llwyd f. 44 They [sc. the Scots] were first knowne to the Roman world. 1590 C. Marlowe i. iii. sig. F6 Callapine, the sonne of Baiazeth, Born to be Monarch of the Western world. 1603 R. Johnson tr. G. Botero 121 For such an other piece of ground..is not to be found againe in all our western world. 1615 G. Sandys 76 The old world, as is thought, was ignorant of this sport. c1670 A. Wood (1891) I. 317 The world of England was perfectly mad. 1704 F. Atterbury 22 Those Conspiracies and Rebellions, with which they have..disturb'd the Quiet of this Western World. 1781 W. Cowper 40 While Cook is lov'd for savage lives he sav'd, See Cortez odious for a world enslav'd. a1822 P. B. Shelley tr. P. Calderon Scenes from Magico Prodigioso in (1824) 368 The wisdom Of the old world masked with the names of Gods. 1890 R. H. Wrightson 4 Theodosius left the Roman world in peace. 1922 G. M. Trevelyan v. 91 To prevent the domination and exploitation of the European world by France. 2007 Nov. 57/3 American manners, now a major influence on much of the modern world, have roughly achieved the goal of equal treatment. society > society and the community > [noun] > a division of human society > having values or interests in common 1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus I. Pref. f.iiiv He saw the onely waie to Goddes fauour to bee the enbracyng of his holy Scriptures, the drounyng wherof had enforced God to poure his indignacion vpon the Christian world. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iv. iv. 2 One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my suretie. View more context for this quotation 1658 R. Baillie in J. Durham To Rdr. sig. Bv The matter of it..cannot but be very welcom and acceptable to the world of Believers. 1710 R. Steele No. 195. ⁋1 The Learned World are very much offended at many of my Ratiocinations. 1779 No. 38 The female world. 1781 R. B. Sheridan i. i A gentleman well known in the theatrical world. 1796 Ld. Nelson Let. 25 Nov. in (1845) II. 305 The part allotted to me..ended, as our world here, say, much to my credit. 1798 C. Smith III. 74 Satiated as I am, and as I suppose two thirds of the reading world have been with sonnets. 1807 T. Thomson (ed. 3) II. 470 A fact now well known to the chemical world. 1810 35 304 An extraordinary circumstance is stated to have taken place in the musical world. 1854 2 219 Two noblemen, whose names are as eminent in the poultry world as in rank. 1870 T. H. Huxley iii. 48 The serene resting-place for worn human nature—the world of art. 1886 J. Ruskin II. i. 5 He brought us news from the mathematical and grammatical world. 1897 M. Kingsley 441 An old marine engineer..who loves them [sc. his engines] as living things,..defending them..against the aspersions of the silly, uninformed outside world. 1933 V. Brittain x. 520 I must now fight my way into the sceptical, indifferent world of London journalism. 1991 H. Rheingold i. i. 24 The scientific world has accepted the idea that computer graphics can help them understand their piles of numbers. society > [noun] society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] a1453 W. Cotyng in (2004) II. 82 He seythe that he shall dwelle with his wyffes fader..and he will no forther medill in þe werde. 1556 in A. Feuillerat (1914) 215 These two will attempt the worlde to seke theyr fortune. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. ii. 126 Olde folkes you know, haue discretion, as they say, and know the world . View more context for this quotation 1712 R. Steele No. 491. ⁋2 However he had so much of the World, that he had a great share of the Language which usually prevails upon the weaker Part of that Sex. 1732 G. Berkeley I. i. i. 3 That great Whirlpool of Business, Faction, and Pleasure, which is called the World. 1753 S. Richardson II. xvi. 124 He will be still kinder to them, when they are old enough to be put into the world. 1796 (title) Address to a young lady on her entrance into the world. 1839 J. H. Newman IV. xii. 212 By the world, I mean all that meets a man in intercourse with his fellow men. 1853 C. Dickens xiii. 127 The world is before you; and it is most probable that as you enter it, so it will receive you. 1882 W. Ballantine I. ix. 115 He was a perfect child in the world's ways. 1899 J. L. Williams 186 Hamilton J. Knox had been one of the great men of his day..when in college. He was in the World now. 1925 3 July 17/4 They..had vanished from the world's view for an hour or more, and had emerged at last with red eyes and a purged spirit. 1941 P. Grainger Let. 27 Sept. in (1994) 178 You had money & were born to shake it like a flag in the world's eye. 2006 2 Oct. 66/2 Design thinkers are trained to go out into the world and connect with the world in a way that gives insight into new ideas. society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun] 1618 H. Fitzgeffrey sig. F1v Knowest thou yon world of fashions now comes in In Turkie colours carued to the skin. 1673 J. Dryden i. i. 12 He talks, too like a man that knew the world To have been long a Peasant. 1711 J. Addison No. 15. ¶7 She..fancies her self out of the World, when she is not in the Ring, the Play-House, or the Drawing-Room. 1726 J. Swift 20 To know the World! a modern Phrase, For Visits, Ombre, Balls and Plays. 1726 Lady M. W. Montagu Nov. (1966) II. 71 I leave the great World to Girls that know no better. 1750 Ld. Chesterfield 11 June (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1554 The Court is called the world here, as well as at Paris; and nothing more is meant, by saying that a man knows the world, than that he knows Courts. 1763 Jan. 14/2 The polite world. 1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxii, in 17 To make a tour an' tak a whirl, To learn bon ton an' see the worl'. 1791 J. Boswell anno 1779 II. 291 Mr. Beauclerk..told us a number of short stories in a lively elegant manner, and with that air of the world which has I know not what impressive effect. 1791 C. Smith I. 32 His solicitude to maintain his importance as a man of taste in the fashionable world. 1796 C. Smith IV. 280 I saw enough of the lives of people of the very first world. 1853 C. Dickens ii. 5 It is but a glimpse of the world of fashion that we want. 1889 ‘J. S. Winter’ (1891) ix. 109 I must tell you that the Parish set comprised ‘the world’ of the ancient city. 1929 Jan. 96/1 The polite world was full of compliments and abrazos. 1992 Mar. 231/2 The social life rankled Tatiana's daughter: a wariness of the fashionable world probably colored all of her choices in life. society > leisure > sport > match or competition > [noun] > series of, as public spectacle > specific 1984 124/2 Sabine Everts, 23, of West Germany, fourth in the Worlds and favored to do well here. 1995 June 6/3 The IWSF have decided not to use a waterski ‘cruise control’ on the tow boats for the Worlds. 2001 S. Fatsis xvi. 240 Hirai, a young Japanese translator playing in his first Worlds, is dressed in a bright jacket. IV. Hyperbolical uses extended from Branch II. 19. Hyperbolically for: a great quantity or number, a vast amount. Now colloquial. a. With of. the world > action or operation > advantage > [noun] > vast amount of tr. Palladius (Duke Humfrey) (1896) vii. l. 28 (MED) The playner part of fraunce a craft hath fonde To repe in litel space a world of londe. c1500 (?a1437) (1939) lxxxii Standing there I sawe A warld of folk. 1575 A. Golding tr. 113 But the Cardinall came to the Towne in very good season, who in very deede doth a whole worlde of good turnes heer. 1598 W. Shakespeare v. ii. 353 A worlde of tormentes though I should endure. View more context for this quotation 1616 R. Betts tr. King James VI & I 264 There is a world of difference betweene the termes of disobedience, and of deposition. 1632 W. Lithgow i. 16 I beheld a world of old Bookes. 1673 T. Blount (title) A world of errors discovered in the new world of words. 1703 Earl of Orrery ii. ii. 22 I have a World of Business to do this Afternoon. 1779 G. Keate (ed. 2) II. 78 A ship that hath traversed the globe, and cut her passage through a world of waters. 1791 F. Burney Sept. (1972) I. 57 The Water has done me a World of good—I drink it at morning & Noon regularly. 1804 W. Scott 19 Mar. in J. G. Lockhart I. xii. 412 I had a world of things to say to you. 1849 F. W. Robertson (1866) 1st Ser. v. 79 A whole world of passions. 1880 6th Ser. 1 412/2 The daffodils of the garden are amaryllids; and between these and lily-worts there is a world of difference. 1897 S. Crane iv. 22 These long walks in the clear mountain air are doing you a world of good. 1903 4 Mar. 5 There is a world of difference between the Iron Chancellor and Count von Bülow. 1949 R. Lowell 5 Nov. (1982) 167 I have a world of things to do. 1990 A. Stoddard Introd. 10 A world of difference separates a phone call from a letter. 2002 J. McGahern (2003) 221 A touch of hardship would do them a world of good. 1575 P. Beverley (new ed.) sig. Cviii If shame a man mought call An honest loue, when worlds of men to loue are bound and thrall? a1586 Sir P. Sidney (1590) iii. xxviii. sig. Zz7 Like two contrarie tides, either of which are able to carry worldes of shippes, and men vpon them. 1600 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 223 Nor doth this wood lacke worlds of company. View more context for this quotation 1621 J. Taylor Unnaturall Father in (1630) i. 142 Through worlds of Deaths I'l breake to fly to him. 1725 E. F. Haywood 154 Fame, Duty, Virtue, are too weak Defence—against..those thousand, thousand Worlds of Charms! 1891 F. W. Farrar I. x. 78 She seemed to be separated by whole worlds of difference from such ladies as his own mother. the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adverb] > extremely or exceedingly > hugely or immensely the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adverb] > extremely or exceedingly > infinitely a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 160 His youthfull hose well sau'd, a world too wide, For his shrunke shanke. View more context for this quotation 1879 ‘H. Stretton’ xxxiv Her smile..had a world more tenderness in it. 1892 ‘G. Travers’ I. vi. 59 I was worlds too shy. 1932 30 Mar. 11/4 What would be their shame if one day they were to see a certain eminent actress, writer and painter slippety-slopping down Marsham-street in shoes a world too big for her feet? 2007 (Nexis) 19 Nov. c4 The half-full explanation is that 5-5 is a world better than 2-8 or 1-9, which is where the Toronto Raptors stood after 10 games in the last two NBA seasons. the world > space > distance > [noun] > a long distance 1619 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher iv. 67 Arb. Is there no steppe To our full happinesse, but these meere sounds Brother and Sister. Pan. There is nothing else But these alas will seperate vs more Then twentie worlds betwixt vs. 1696 R. Gould i. 1 If after all our mutual Vows of Love, Some fatal Hand shou'd tear me from your Arms, And set whole Worlds between us. 1753 E. Young iv. 56 Long as I live, I stand a World between you, And keep you distant as the Poles asunder. 1845 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc II. iv. x. 351 Nothing appears to us in the same light that it does to you. There is a world between us. 1868 B. Cracroft II. 113 There is..a brotherly homeliness, in the very sound of ordinary Christian English,..which, though quite compatible with manliness, is separated by a world from the fierce pagan rhetoric..of a Tacitus. 1877 June 447 There is a world between us as I write. 1911 H. Macfall xvi. 152 To utter in art the significance of the one was to portray a part of the nation divided by worlds from the other. 1938 48 381 A world separates this Platonic conception from that of modern science. 2011 M. Langford in P. Hoikkala & D. D. Wills xii. 212 He doesn't return the invitation,..because he understands that a world separates them. PhrasesOE (1931) 1542 Þæt ic monnum þas wære gelæste, þenden woruld standeð. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 10515 Iesu crist. Winndweþþ hiss corn..Whil þatt tiss weorelld lassteþþ. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 33 (MED) Gif ðu liuedest swa lange swa ðes woreld ilast, and æure þoledest pine, ne mihtest ðu of-earnin swa michel eadinesse swa ðe is behaten. c1225 (?c1200) (Bodl. 34) 542 Þu schalt habben..a temple þet schal a stonden hwil þet te worlt stont. c1450 Siege Calais (Rome) in (1952) 67 894 (MED) O oonly god..Save Calais..That euer it mot wel cheve Vnto the crovn of England, As longe as the world shal stonde. a1500 (?a1400) (Trin. Dublin) l. 2255 Yf it worth sall to wy whil þe world standes, Oure burgh ayayn to be beld þat brytynd is to noght? 1570 in J. Cranstoun (1891) I. x. 36 He sall with vs rest, And we with him, sa lang as warld may lest. 1611 1 Cor. viii. 13 If meate make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth. View more context for this quotation 1647 N. Ward 80 If any of these come out So long's the world doe last: Then credit not a word Of what is said and past. 1710 W. Wycherley Let. 1 Apr. in (1956) I. 80 By preserving his Life, he can only make him live about threescore or fourscore Years; but by preserving his Reputation, he can make him live as long as the World lasts. 1785 W. Cowper ii. 332 I say the pulpit..Must stand acknowledg'd, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. 1847 H. W. Herbert 46 Girls will be girls, I fancy, so long as the world lasts; and men will be fooled by them! 1884 23 Aug. 186/3 Teetotallers and moderate drinkers will probably be at war on this point..as long as the world lasts. 1918 63 408/2 As long as the world lasts it will be a punishment to be a German. 1924 Nov. 257/1 The two peoples will never understand each other as long as the world stands. 2006 J. I. Packer & C. Nystrom v. 145 These words..are as timely today as when he first put them on paper and will continue so as long as the world lasts. P2. In various phrases with the sense ‘for ever and ever, for all time, throughout eternity’. Chiefly in religious context or with religious connotation. [After various post-classical Latin phrases containing saeculum (see secular adj. and n.), e.g. usque in saeculum, in saeculum saeculi, in saecula saeculorum (see in saecula saeculorum adv.), all attested in the Vulgate (see examples in quots.), in turn after various Hellenistic Greek phrases containing αἰών aeon n. (e.g. εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα , εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος , ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων ) in the Septuagint, which render various biblical Hebrew phrases containing ʿōlām age, aeon, long duration (in post-biblical Hebrew also ‘world’). Post-classical Latin in saeculum saeculi and in saecula saeculorum (and their Greek models) imitate a biblical Hebrew idiom expressing a superlative or elative, also seen in e.g. holy of holies n. at holy n. 5 (see note at that entry) and Song of Songs n. at song n.1 Phrases 1a, in which the construct state of a noun is followed by the plural of its absolute state; although this construction is apparently unattested with ʿōlām , compare synonymous biblical Hebrew phrases like lĕ-ʿōlām wā-ʿeḏ ‘for ever and ever’, lit. ‘to ages and ages’, where ʿōlām is paired with its near synonym ʿeḏ ‘perpetuity’. Compare especially Phrases 2b.] OE (1910) xxvii. 9 Extolle illos usque in seculum uel in eternum : uppahefe hi oð on worulde. OE (1932) li. 7 Ic þonne swa elebeam up weaxende on godes huse ece gewene, and on milde mod mines drihtnes, and me þæt to worulde [L. in aeternum et in saeculum saeculi] wat to helpe. lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) xxi. 48 Se ilca gesette unawendendlicne sido & þeawas & eac gecyndelice sibbe eallum his gesceaftum..; þa nu sculon standan to worulde. c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring (1891) cxiii. 19 (MED) Blisce our Lord nou and þanne vnto þe worled [L. in saeculum]. a1382 (Bodl. 959) (1959) Exod. xxi. 6 He schall be to hym a seruaunt in to þe world [L. in saeculum]. c1425 (c1400) (Cambr.) (1895) 74 He ordeynede þo þingis in-to þe world, & in to þe world of world [L. in aeternum, et in saeculum saeculi]. OE Cynewulf 778 Si him lof symle þurh woruld worulda, wuldor on heofnum. OE xlvii. 15 Hic est deus deus noster in aeternum et in saeculum saeculi : þes is god ure god on ecnesse & on weorlda weorl. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 63 (MED) An oðer..is icleped..hali dradnesse, ðe æure scal ilasten, on worelde woreld. c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring (1891) xlvii. 13 (MED) Here is our God wyþ-outen ende in þe worled of worldles [L. in saeculum saeculi]. a1382 (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Isa. xxxiv. 10 Desolat shal [his land] be in to worldus of worldis [L. in saecula saeculorum]. a1400 Psalter (Vesp.) lx. 8 in C. Horstmann (1896) II. 191 Swa salme saie sal I, þe same In werld of werld vnto þi name. c1425 (c1400) (Cambr.) (1895) 74 (MED) He ordeynede þo þingis in-to þe world, & in to þe world of world [L. in aeternum, et in saeculum saeculi]. c1425 (c1400) (Cambr.) (1895) 1 As it was in þe bigynnyng, & now, & euere in-to þe worldis of worldis. amen! R. Misyn tr. R. Rolle 131 To qwhome be wyrschip & ioy..in warld of warldys. Amen. 1556 R. Record i. 4 Thorough worlde of worldes: whiche signifieth for euer. ?1591 H. Barrow 245 Thy throne Ô God to the world of worldes. the world > time > duration > eternity or infinite duration > eternity [phrase] > eternally or for ever OE (1932) cii. 16 Þin mildheortnes, mihtig drihten, þurh ealra worulda woruld [L. ab æterno, et usque in æternum] wislic standeð. OE Wulfstan (Hatton 113) 127 Him symle sy lof & wuldor in ealra worulda woruld a butan ende, amen. c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine (1993) 177 Uton we..þæs blisses brucæn mid þam heofenlice Kynge, þe leofeð and rixæð on alræ worldæ world. a1250 (?c1200) (Titus) (1981) l. 1724 (MED) Beo he, ase healend, ihered & iheiet, in alre worlde world. c1384 (Royal) (1850) Jude ii. 25 Bi Jhesu Crist..[be] glorye..now, and in to alle worldlis of worldlis [L. in omnia saecula saeculorum]. c1425 (c1400) (Cambr.) (1895) 16 (MED) Glorie be to þee, lord..in euerlastynge worldis. a1450 (Vesp.) (1902) l. 331 (MED) Loue god euer of al his lone And wirchip him werld al-wais. c1450 (1979) 104 (MED) Y magnifye the..for alle goodnes whiche thyne glorious godhede..haffes wrought in vs..into alle the worldys. a1500 (Harl. 149) (1974) 119 (MED) Thys ys he that ys oure God yn thys worlde and yn alle worldes. a1500 (Harl. 149) (1974) 116 (MED) Sathan schal be yn thy pooste for euyrlastynge worldes. 1584 R. Scot xv. xii. 411 Eternall God, which liuest and reignest euer one God through all worlds, Amen. 1697 J. Lead II. 390 Your true Labour herein shall have such success, as you may bring great acclamation, and renown to your Lord and Saviour, through all Worlds. 1842 Ld. Tennyson Gardener's Daughter in (new ed.) II. 28 I heard his deep ‘I will’, Breathed, like the covenant of a God, to hold From thence thro' all the worlds. d. the world > time > duration > eternity or infinite duration > eternity [phrase] > eternally or for ever OE 314 Þær heo mid wuldorcyninge wunian moton awa to aldre, agan dreama dream mid drihtne gode, a to worulde a buton ende. lOE Prayer (Bodl. 180) in W. J. Sedgefield (1899) 149 Si þe lof & wylder nu & a a a to worulde buton æghwilcum ende. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 25 (MED) Þe lauerd..is feder and sune and hali gast, wuniende and rixlende on worlde a buten ende. ?c1225 (?a1200) (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 139 Þeo þe hefden of erned þe pinen of helle world aa buten ende. c1300 St. Swithun (Harl.) l. 109 in F. J. Furnivall (1862) 46 (MED) Þat vuel..ne schal no leng ileste Ac þu worst þerof hol and sound, wordle wiþouten ende. 1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine 94/1 Many benefetes ben gyuen to thonour of our lord Jhū crist whiche is blessed world wythouten ende. Amen. a1500 (a1460) (1994) I. ii. 25 I must nedys weynd, And to the dwill be thrall, Warld withoutten end. 1535 Psalms xliv. 18 I wil remembre thy name from one generacion to another: therfore shal the people geue thankes vnto the, worlde without ende [L. in saeculum saeculi]. 1549 (STC 16267) Mattyns f. i As it was in the begynning, is now, and euer shallbe world without ende. 1649 J. Milton xxi. 184 This man..thinks by talking world without end, to make good his integrity. 1753 in (1847) II. 499 Ld Chesterfield writes Worlds without End. 1823 30 May 4/2 ‘Why,’ quoth her friend, ‘do not they say every Sunday at church, “which was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end”?’ 1896 A. E. Housman xiv. 22 My heart and soul and senses, World without end, are drowned. 1937 D. L. Sayers x. 213 She'd got it firmly into her head that to be married to her white-headed boy meant an untroubled elysium, world without end. 1991 J. Connor 95 And so it goes, world without end, amen. 1598 W. Shakespeare v. ii. 781 A time me thinkes too short, To make a world-without-end bargaine in. View more context for this quotation 1881 Morris (1899) II. 34 This world-without-end-for-everlasting hole of a London. 1960 C. Day Lewis i. 16 The smell of bacon and the sweetish breadcrumb smell seem to speak the world-without-end language of infancy. 1888 20 Dec. 831 A city pastor, with a world-without-end of things to be done. 1905 F. Young i. v Small wonder if the embodiment of the world-without-end should prove no encourager of man's happiness! c1225 (?c1200) (Bodl.) (1940) l. 404 (MED) Ha..schal ifinden him aa swetture & sauurure, from worlde into worlde, aa on ecnesse. a1382 (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Psalms. lx. 14 Blessid the Lord God of Irael; fro the world, and in to the world [L. a saeculo, et usque in saeculum], be it do. 1447 O. Bokenham (Arun.) (1938) l. 4588 (MED) Þe holy gost..Now lyuyst & regnyst intermynabylly..From werd in-to werdys euere-more, amen. P3. OE Ælfric (Royal) (1997) x. 263 Hi woldon hine [sc. Christ]..ahebban to cyninge, þæt he wære heora heafod for worulde. OE St. Eustace (Julius) in W. W. Skeat (1900) II. 190 Wæs sum cempena ealdorman..æfter worulde swiðe æþelboren. OE Ælfric Homily: De Duodecim Abusivis (Corpus Cambr. 178) in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 302 Menig mann..is earm for worulde & ungesælig for gode. OE Agreement between Bp. Wærferð & Æðelwold (Sawyer 1441) in F. E. Harmer (1914) 24 Heo þa þær smeadan hu heo ryhtlicast heora þeodscipe ægþer ge for Gode ge for weorlde gehealdan mehton. OE tr. Bede (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) i. viii. 42 Wæs se mon monðwære & for weorulde god. lOE Revival of Monasticism in D. Whitelock et al. (1981) I. 153 Gif heora hwilc, mid deofles costnunge beswicen, for Gode oþþe for worulde gyltig biþ. c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine (1993) 143 We alle moten on þis haliȝe tid æȝþer ȝe for Godæ ȝe for weorlde þe bliþelycor lybbæn. the world > life > source or principle of life > [adverb] > in this life OE tr. Bede (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) iv. xxiv. 332 Heo wolde hire eðel forlætan & eall, þæt heo on weorulde [eOE Tanner for worulde] hæfde [L. omnibus quaecumque habuerat]. a1225 ( Ælfric's Homily De Duodecim Abusivis (Lamb. 487) in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 111 Vnclene wif þoleð scome on weorlde [OE Corpus Cambr. 178 for worulde] and unclene wif bið unwurð on liue. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 11715 Þat nuste he neuere on weorlde hu feole þusend, þer weoren. a1300 (c1275) (1991) l. 94 An wirm is o werlde, wel man it knoweð: Neddre is te name. c1330 (?a1300) (1886) l. 1270 (MED) In warld was non so wiis Of craft þat men knewe. c1400 (?c1390) (1940) l. 871 Wheþen in worlde he were, Hit semed as he m[o]ȝt Be prynce. ?1457 J. Hardyng Chron. (Lansd.) in (1912) 27 740 This book..Whiche no man hath in worlde bot oonly ye. 1508 Devise Prowes & Eke Humilitee in W. Dunbar (Chepman & Myllar) sig. bivv Full mony a gudely syre That efterward in warld had newir plesance. 1593 T. Churchyard 170 To such as still, in world did me deceaue, I wish they may, beware of such like trap. 1660 S. Fisher iv. 41 The purging of them from pride and the other pollutions and corruptions that are in world through lust. 1780 R. B. Sheridan v. 57 Sir Peter is one of the most imprudent men in world, for here he comes walking as if nothing had happened. a1864 J. Clare (1984) II. 1083 Love wi me and be my ladie And we love on in world sae wide. 1923 C. M. Doughty (rev. ed.) i. 14 Trees grow there beyond, All other than today in World be found. P4. in the world: on earth, in existence; (also) of all, at all. [Compare classical Latin in mundō.] OE (Nero) xxv. 472 On hwam mæg huru æfre ænig man on worolde swyðor God wurðian þonne on cyrcan? c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 11013 Na mon on worlde swa wod no iwurðe..þat his grið bræke. c1325 (c1300) (Calig.) l. 181 So clene lond is engelond.., Þe veireste men in þe world þer inne beþ ibore. c1450 (?a1400) (Ashm.) l. 5131 Thretti goblettis of gold, þe grattest in þe worde. 1489 (a1380) J. Barbour (Adv.) i. 240 Mar to prys Than all the gold in warld that is. c1500 (1895) 27 He had nat mow say one only word for all the gold in the world. 1589 R. Lane in R. Hakluyt iii. 739 The Riuer of Choanoak, and all the other sounds,..shewe no currant in the world in calme weather. 1598 W. Shakespeare v. i. 67 And I had but one peny in the world thou shouldst haue it. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 2 The least winde i' th' world wil blow them downe. View more context for this quotation 1694 F. Atterbury 14 The Gospel of Christ, at its Earliest appearance, had all the Probabilities in the World against its Success. 1711 R. Steele No. 142. ⁋7 It is the hardest thing in the World to be in Love, and yet attend Business. 1790 A. Wheeler 23 Thats aw spite, nowt ith Ward else. 1826 B. Disraeli II. iii. viii. 98 Here is every body in the world that I wish to see, except yourself. 1836 C. Dickens 2nd Ser. 257 He was..the most retiring man in the world. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ xxvi Hartley enjoyed his dinner..as if he had not a debt in the world. 1936 M. Allingham vii. 125 Not a care in the world except Mr. Brande's neglect and mental cruelty to her. 1954 A. Thirkell 122 It will do him all the good in the world to feel he is someone and get a bit of importance. 2006 (National ed.) 5 Nov. ii. 4/5 Arion Press..produces some of the most beautiful..handprinted books in the world. eOE (partly from transcript of damaged MS) xxviii. 41 Hwa is on weorulde þæt ne wundrige fulles monan, þonne he færinga wyrð under wolcnum wlites bereafad, beþeaht mid þiostrum?] 1530 J. Palsgrave 467/2 He wyste nat in the worlde what to do. 1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus i. 11 He knew not what in the world to doe. 1614 J. Day Ep. Ded. sig. ¶2v Hee..could not tell where in the world he had laid it. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) v. iv. 26 What in the world should make me now deceiue? View more context for this quotation 1735 H. Fielding iii. i. 35 Now don't I know what in the World to do with my self. 1768 H. Brooke (Dublin ed.) III. xvi. 141 Where in the World did you come by all this Learning? 1836 C. Dickens 1st Ser. II. 198 And if they don't know how to do this sort of thing, who in the world does? 1865 A. D. Whitney xxvi How in the world did you persuade the captain? 1900 Nov. 481/2 What in the world is this freak of a mountainer team that we're up against? 1923 G. K. Chesterton ix. 82 Why in the world should they use the parallel evils as an argument for a veto? 1976 24 Oct. b7/1 The usual questions—Who is your favorite author? Who in the world would you most like to dine with?—seem out of place at the presidential level. 2005 A. Smith 76 Who in the world gave a damn..about ‘epiphany’. P5. With reference to birth, marriage, or death. the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > confine or deliver [verb (transitive)] > give birth OE (1931) 2286 Þu scealt, Agar, Abrahame sunu on woruld bringan. OE tr. (Vitell.) §11. 192 Þonne hy cennan willað, þonne farað hy on scipum to Indeum, & þær hyra gecynd on weorold bringað [L. prolem reddunt]. c1580 105 For then should I be..Now brought into the world, and streight againe outsent. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) v. iii. 126 Thy Mothers wombe That brought thee to this world. View more context for this quotation 1660 J. Howell 62 Those pretty Fawns, Prickets, Sorrells, Hemuses, and Girls..which I [sc. a Hinde] brought into the world. 1703 R. Calder 10 I with great Reluctancy condescended to the desire of these Gentlemen to be the Mid-wife of bringing this once thought, abortive Child into the World. 1848 S. Bamford i I was brought into the world on the 28th February. 1888 12 Sept. Where men are brutalized, women are demonized, and children are brought into the world only to be inoculated with corruption. 1937 J. P. Marquand xxix. 324 I still cannot understand why you have insisted on the new-fangled idea of having my grandson..brought into the world in the delivery room of a hospital. 1999 T. Gilling (2000) 21 ‘Get a hold, missus,’ says William Dyer, not wanting to peer too closely at the thing his wife has brought into the world. 2000 (Nexis) 6 July 8 If you were born at the Queen Mary Maternity Home..chances are you were brought into the world, nursed or nannied by one of these women. the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > be born [verb (intransitive)] OE (1931) 2365 Hwæðre ic Isace, eaforan þinum, geongum bearne, þam þe gen nis on woruld cumen, willa spedum dugeða gehwilcre on dagum wille swiðor stepan. c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) John xviii. 37 To this thing I am born, and to this I cam in to the world [OE West Saxon Gospels: Corpus Cambr. to þam ic com on middaneard; L. veni in mundum], that I bere witnessing to treuthe. c1510 (de Worde) A vij Euery man cometh poore and naked in to this worlde frome his moders bely. 1579 Randolph Let. in Buchanan (S.T.S.) 56 The last little Treatise..that lately come into the World. 1630 N. Richards sig. C5 Borne of a Virgin, came to the world a stranger His Palace an Oxe-stall, his Bed a Manger. 1686 J. Scott II. 866 When our Saviour came into the World he unveiled the Jewish Religion, and decyphered all those mystical Characters wherein its spiritual Sense was expressed. 1720 R. Welton tr. T. Alvares de Andrade I. viii 204 Thou wast but just come into the World, when, presently, Thou must Away, and take thy Flight into Egypt. a1791 R. Burns (1968) I. 100 My funny toil is no a' tint; Tho' ye come to the warld asklent. 1849 C. Dickens (1850) i. 3 He died..six months before I came into the world. 1914 ‘I. Hay’ xiii. §3 Having been born into the world with a club foot. 1969 R. Howard 13 Still deep snow, A foot thick in the courtyard, I dare say: severe Welcome to the new lambs coming into the world. 2007 6 Aug. 71/1 ‘The Robber’ itself, more an assemblage of passages than a novel in any ordinary sense, did not tumble into the world until 1972. 1565 J. Calfhill f. 109v Ye say when a man wyl marry, then he goeth to the world. 1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin 230/2 This man is of the worlde, that is to say, he is maried: This man is of the Churche, that is to say, Spirituall. 1600 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 299 Good Lord for aliance: thus goes euery one to the world but I. View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) v. iii. 5 I do desire it [sc. marriage] with all my heart: and I hope it is no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of ye world? View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) i. iii. 18 But if I may haue your Ladiships good will to goe to the world, Isbell the woman and [I] will doe as we may. View more context for this quotation the world > life > death > [verb (intransitive)] OE tr. (1995) §40. 252 Ðin modor gewiteð of weorulde þurh scondlicne deað. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 8602 He sæt stille. al-se þeh he wolde of worlden iwiten. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 2390 Ic sal to min sune fare..or ic of werlde chare. a1450 (Faust.) (1883) l. 3953 Þaw y shulde now ouȝt of þis worde gone. a1500 (?a1400) (Trin. Dublin) l. 2653 Qwen he went of þis warld. 1548 f. xxviiiv The earle receiued such a wound in his head that he departed out of this world. c1588 (S.T.S.) 250 Not doutand bot angels and sanctis depairted out of this wardle may and do pray for us. 1603 T. Dekker sig. Ev The bringer of these heauy tydings..the very next day after his comming home, departed out of this world. a1682 Sir T. Browne (1716) iii. 114 Our hard entrance into the World, our miserable going out of it, our..sad Rencounters in it. 1701 iv. 20 Who at the time that he departed out of the World, was as much redoubted by his Enemies, as he was belov'd by the Soldiers, and the People. 1736 Bp. J. Butler i. i. 28 When we go out of this World, we may pass into..a new State of Life and Action. 1832 J. S. Mill (1910) I. 33 It seems as though all the old ones with one accord were departing out of the world together. 1937 J. F. Dobie in J. F. Dobie & M. C. Boatright p. iii We go out of this world we don't know where, But if we've been good hombres here, We need not fear what will be there. 1953 P. Gallico xi. 56 She must put aside her gains and depart the world as poor and naked as when she entered it? 2002 3 Mar. 4 c/1 To better understand our passing out of this world and our entrance into the next, the scriptures plainly say we can study God's creation to find clues. P6. all the world. In Old English (and early Middle English) eall woruld. [Compare post-classical Latin mundus totus , totus mundus the whole world, everybody (Vulgate, compare quots. c1384 at Phrases 6a and c1384 at Phrases 6b(a), respectively), Anglo-Norman tut le mund and Middle French, French tout le monde the whole world (early 13th cent. or earlier), everything (late 13th cent. or earlier), everybody (a1411 or earlier); and also Dutch al die werelt the whole world, everybody (Dutch al de wereld), Middle Low German al de werlt the whole world, early modern German al die welt the whole world (1464; compare without the article Old High German elliu worolt everybody (German alle Welt everybody, (in some prepositional phrases) the whole world)).] the world > the earth > [noun] eOE (partly from transcript of damaged MS) xx. 171 Swa stent eall weoruld stille on tille, streamas ymbutan, lagufloda gelac, lyfte and tungla. lOE Homily: Gospel of Nicodemus (Vesp. D.xiv) in R. D.-N. Warner (1917) 86 Beelzebub fleah þa into helle botme, & ure Drihten him strangode æfter, & hine befran hwy he swa swyðe nyðer his setle gecure, & ærre cwæð þæt eall wurld wæs his. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 35 (MED) Swilche pine ic habbe þet me were leofere þenne al world þah hit were min most ic habben..summe lisse. c1300 (Laud) (1868) 1290 It [sc. the hill] was so hey, þat y wel mouthe Al þe werd se, als me þouthe. c1325 (c1300) (Calig.) l. 7551 (MED) Þer nas prince in al þe world of so noble fame. c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Mark viii. 36 What profiteth it a man, if he wynne al the world [L. mundum totum], and do peyringe to his soule? 1420 in H. Ellis (1846) 3rd Ser. I. 70 Aboue all erthely Princeps thorw all the word Cristene and Hethene. c1450 (?a1400) (Ashm.) l. 18 Þat was þe athill Alexsandire..Þat aȝte euyn as his awyn all þe werd ouire. 1567 (1897) 4 Go zour way into all the warld, and preiche the Euangell. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 139 All the world's a stage, And all the men and women, meerely Players. 1713 W. Derham ii. v. 48 Every where all the World over. 1785 W. Cowper i. 698 Such London is, by taste and wealth proclaim'd The fairest capital of all the world. 1833 Ld. Tennyson 24 In the early early morning..Before the red cock crows..When..all the world is still. 1853 Ld. Tennyson Sea-fairies (rev. ed.) in (ed. 8) 44 Who can light on as happy a shore All the world o'er? 1958 C. Achebe xxi. 160 We also believe in Him and call Him Chukwu. He made all the world and the other gods. 1999 C. Creedon ix. 57 I mean of all the great tracks in all the world, some tasteless, tone-deaf, poulanus of a Dj, with a flick of a switch can just inflict Neil Diamond on the whole country. b. the world > people > people collectively > [noun] > all people OE Homily: Sunnandæges Spell (Tiber. A.iii) in A. S. Napier (1883) 219 And an þam dege wurdan todælde ealra manna gehriorde; and ær wæs eal weoruld sprecende an an gehriorde, and nu is ealra gehriorde twa and hundseofentig. c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) John xii. 19 Lo! al the world [L. mundus totus] wente aftir him. a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng (Harl.) l. 2386 Þou mayst nat excuse þe with rous And sey, ‘al þe worlde so dous’. c1426 J. Audelay (1931) 2 Þat al þe word schal haue wyttyng. 1523 T. Cromwell Speech to Parl. in R. B. Merriman (1902) I. 33 Theire insaciable apetite..ys so manyfest and notorys to all the word. 1588 in (1894) I. 307 The Kinge..will mayntaine it [sc. religion] to the uttermoste of his power against all the worlde. 1600 W. Shakespeare iv. iii. 353 Which I with more then with a common paine, Gainst all the world will rightfully maintaine. View more context for this quotation 1617 F. Moryson ii. 157 I will faithfully serve her against all the World. 1660 Bp. J. Taylor II. iii. iv. Rule 13 284 The Rogation fast (all the world knows) was instituted by Mammercus Bishop of Vienna. 1768 O. Goldsmith i. 1 All the world loves him. 1841 W. M. Thackeray xii A man has no business to place them on paper for all the world to read. 1855 Ld. Tennyson Charge Light Brigade iii, in 152 Charging an army, while All the world wonder'd. 1879 J. McCarthy I. 60 A woman can be handsome without all the world running after her. 1913 22 Feb. 13/3 I was spotted on the train. I was spotted in the street car. Grand!..The fact is I was not only a jailbird, but all the world had begun to make me remember I was! 1955 A. L. Rowse 12 July (2003) 243 The figure all the world knows now entered: stripy blue zip-suit, blue velvet slippers with W.S.C. worked in gold braid, outwards, for the world to read. 1998 A. Ashworth (1999) vii. 105 Our mother would let out an end-of-her-tether sigh at our shameless flaming antics, our screaming like banshees and acting proper common for all the world to witness. society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [noun] 1808 I. iii. 47 Oh, all the world's here, the season was never so full. 1860 A. Trollope II. xiii. 265 All the world—her world and his world—would think it better that they should part. 1877 31 July 1/4 The London Season when ‘everybody’ goes out of town—all the world, indeed. c. the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > thinking about, consideration, deliberation > indicating reflection [phrase] a1375 (c1350) (1867) l. 1877 (MED) For al þe world I nold our werk were undone. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng (Petyt) (1996) i. l. 15331 For alle þe world [a1450 Lamb. werd] so ferd he, o lyue wild he late non be. a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer (Corpus Cambr. 61) (1894) iii. l. 1244 Ffor al this world in swych present gladnesse Was Troilus and hath his lady swete. c1430 (c1395) G. Chaucer (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) Prol. l. 150 Ffor al the world ryght as the dayseye I-corounede is with white leuys lite. a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil (1957) iii. vii. l. 40 Syk eyn had he, and syk fair handis tway, For all the warld syk mowth and face, perfay. 1598 W. Shakespeare iii. ii. 93 For all the world, As thou art to this houre was Richard then. View more context for this quotation 1600 W. Shakespeare v. i. 149 A paltry ring..whose posie was for all the world like Cutlers poetry vpon a knife. View more context for this quotation 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny I. xi. xliv. 349 Thumbs and great toes they have moreover, with joints like (in all the world) to a man. 1621 R. Montagu 339 Iust, for all the world, as the Pharises are taxed by our Sauiour. 1753 S. Foote i. 19 Their Water-gruel Jaws, sunk in a Thicket of Curls, appear, for all the World, like a Lark in a Soup-dish! 1794 R. B. Sheridan (new ed.) ii. 43 As to her singing..she has a shrill crack'd pipe, that sounds for all the world like a child's trumpet. 1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage II. iv. v. 103 She..dressed herself up in such a costume, as to look for all the world as if her sex were of a piece with her appearance. 1893 R. L. Stevenson i. 3 This..city..was for all the world like a rabbit-warren. 1942 E. Ferber (new ed.) vii. 154 Out stepped a majestic turbaned black woman looking for all the world like an exiled Nubian queen. 2007 C. Stross (2008) 80 She pauses and looks straight at the phonecam, for all the world as if she's reading from a teleprompter. the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > most important > other 1600 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 224 You, in my respect, are all the world . View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iii. iv. 104 My life, my ioy, my food, my all the world . View more context for this quotation 1709 A. Pope Autumn in vi. 744 I may..Forsake mankind, and all the world—but love! 1811 J. Austen III. x. 220 You, my mother, and Margaret, must henceforth be all the world to me. View more context for this quotation 1853 E. C. Gaskell I. iv. 120 Happiest of all, there was the consciousness of his love, who was all the world to her. 1899 21 35 The plaintive cry went to his heart and stirred every manly impulse. She was all the world to him. 1923 G. W. Bullett 121 ‘We were very young,’ she said, with disarming simplicity, ‘and we loved each other very much. He was all the world to me.’ 1998 S. Waters i. 4 Whitstable was all the world to me, Astley's Parlour my own particular country. P7. of the world. society > faith > church government > laity > [adjective] society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > unspirituality > [adjective] ?c1225 (?a1200) (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 22 Wenne preostes of þe world singeð heore messen. c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) l. 244 in C. Horstmann (1887) 113 (MED) Þis holi Man was i-torned fram þe office of holi churche To a gret office of þe world. 1533 J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen sig. Cviiiv The oder varkis qvhilk ar techit in al the buikis of the wardel. c1400 (?c1390) (1940) l. 238 Al studied þat þer stod, & stalked hym nerre, Wyth al þe wonder of þe worlde what he worch schulde. 1476 in C. L. Kingsford (1919) II. 7 Yff ye wold be a good etter off your mete..ye shuld make me the gladdest man off the world. 1477 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre (1913) 92 Wherfore they began to crye and demene the gretteste sorow of the worlde. 1589 G. Puttenham iii. xxiv. 246 The most gentle and affable Prince of the world. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) v. iii. 72 No setled Sences of the World can match The pleasure of that madnesse. View more context for this quotation 1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes iii. ix. 203 He began the most sadd and dolefull lamentation of the world. the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > quality of being special or extraordinary > especially or particularly [phrase] > especially or most of all 1481 W. Caxton tr. (1893) clxxxvi. 273 Thei [sc. the Turks] were the men of the world whom our men had grettest hate vnto. ?1572 T. Paynell tr. iv. 92 Gandalin my friende, what thinkest thou of fortune, the which is to me so contrarie, that it depriueth me of that person of all the worlde, whose frequentation I loue moste. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) i. ii. 68 He, whom next thy selfe Of all the world I lou'd. View more context for this quotation 1769 H. Brooke IV. xvii. 8 The man of the world, excepting yourself.., for whom I have the dearest respect. 1782 W. Cowper Hope in 161 The book of all the world that charm'd me most Was, well-a-day, the title-page was lost! 1885 G. Meredith III. xiv. 293 The man of all the world the most chivalrous!.. He is a man quite other from what you think him. 1954 J. Hale iii. 79 It was he..who praised Florence as, after Rome, the city of all the world where the greatest number of fine works of art were to be seen. P8. Predominantly in negative contexts (equivalent to Phrases 8a), whereby an inducement or other alternative is rejected. the mind > language > statement > negation > [adverb] > no > certainly not a1375 (c1350) (1867) l. 1877 (MED) For al þe world I nold our werk were undone. c1450 (a1425) (Selden) 3952 Þat wold not I, for all þis werld heyre I yow hette. 1533 T. More i. xv. f. lxiiv She wold not for all the worlde take her own pleasure without goddes wyll. 1598 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 99 Prin. He'le be forsworne. Nau. Not for the worlde faire Madame, by my will. View more context for this quotation 1605 P. Erondelle N 6 b I would not faile in it for any thing in the world. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1622) iv. iii. 66 Wouldst thou doe such a deed, for all the world ? View more context for this quotation 1664 in (N.S.) 178 A thing I would not have been guilty of for halfe the world. 1665 R. Boyle iv. i. sig. Aa3v He would not for all the World return again. 1738 J. Swift 43 I wou'dn't be as sick as she's proud, for all the World. 1785 W. Cowper iii. 807 He..Can dig, beg, rot,..but could not for a world Fish up his dirty and dependent bread, [etc.]. 1811 J. Austen III. ii. 46 But I am sure I would not do such a thing for all the world . View more context for this quotation 1847 J. B. Buckstone iii. vii No, no—not for the wide wide world. 1881 M. E. Braddon I. iii. 62 Daphne, usually loquacious, felt as if she could not have spoken for the world. 1930 N. Coward i. 29 I wouldn't have had it happen for the world. 2005 T. Hall xi. 241 For them, Reg Kray's funeral provided a dose of good old-fashioned London street theatre, and it was a show that they would not have missed for the world. 1663 T. Porter i. ii. 6 Mod. In that opinion you deceive your self, me you cannot Sir. Pars. Not for Worlds on worlds! 1794 W. Godwin III. iii. 52 They all exclaimed, Betray him! No, not for worlds! 1831 G. P. R. James xxiv Nor would he do one act for worlds, that could..cast a shade over the fame and honour of one ——. 1872 F. Locker (ed. 5) 178 I'd give worlds to borrow Her yellow rose with russet leaves. 1874 W. S. Gilbert ii. I'm sure I wouldn't stand in his way for worlds. 1952 A. Wilson ii. ii. 130 I wouldn't have you give it up now for worlds. 2005 (Nexis) 9 Nov. 27 Looking back, I wouldn't have missed it for worlds! It helped me to appreciate and understand people better in post war life. P9. c1400 (Bodl.) 190 (MED) Impossible forsoþe it is, hem þat..haue tasted Godis word and uertues of þe world to come. 1479 Earl Rivers tr. (Caxton) iv. iii Of this worlde to come speketh seint austyne in his book of the debate bitwix vertues & vices. 1526 W. Bonde iii. sig. FFiiii Affection and loue to this present worlde, herrour and dispection of the worlde to come. 1549 (STC 16267) Svpper of the Lorde f. cxxiii And I loke for..the lyfe of the worlde to come. 1581 J. Hamilton Epist. f. 2 The horribill tormentis preparit foryame in ye varld to cum. 1651 T. Hobbes iii. xxxviii. 247 There are three worlds mentioned in Scripture, the Old World, the Present World, and the World to come. 1744 E. Young 2 The World's a Prophecy of Worlds to come. 1875 H. E. Manning i. 10 He predestinated them, first to grace in this world, and..to glory in the world to come. 1910 J. Hastings III. 822/2 The punishment of the wicked, in the world to come, will not be of endless duration, since their life must finally be extinguished. 2004 P. de Rosa ii. 102 The..subterfuge..that..awaiting us, if only we repent and renounce this world, is glory unimaginable in the world to come. 1549 Ridley in R. Potts (1855) 245 (note) A dangerouse example to the worlde to cum. 1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara 28 For that in the worldes to come, it might bee knowen who was the author therof. 1609 W. Shakespeare iii. ii. 169 True swains in loue shall in the world to come Approue their trueth by Troylus. View more context for this quotation †P10. tr. Palladius (Duke Humfrey) (1896) xi. l. 162 (MED) Who wol do puruyaunce in worldis longe [L. seculorum], The palmes forto sette he must ha mynde. tr. Palladius (Duke Humfrey) (1896) xi. l. 482 Tyl worldis [L. aetate] longe This drynkis wole abide and ay be stronge. a1500 (?a1425) tr. (Lamb.) 113 Þe olde philosophers vsyd it by longe werldes [L. per longitudinem dierum]. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 10103 Thrin fas..þis werld, my fleche, þe warlau als. c1425 Edward, Duke of York (Vesp. B.xii) (1904) 5 Þe deuel, the world, and the flayssh.] a1450 (1969) l. 1006 Þe Werld, þe Flesch, and þe Devyl are knowe Grete lordys. 1544 Letanie in sig. Bv From fornication, & al deadly synne, and from all the deceites of the worlde, the flesshe, and the deuill, Good lorde deliuer vs. 1614 J. Day x. 263 First that this kingdome of Grace be not hindred by many spars and lets that it hath what with the World, the Flesh, & the Divell. 1708 S. Hill 154 The Priviledge of Baptism is not to be granted him without Renuntiation of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. 1787 A. Davies 1 Jan. (1788) 249 Bless us as a family;..save from the wickedness of the world, the flesh, and the devil! 1882 C. H. Spurgeon VI. Ps. cxix. 9 The world, the flesh, and the devil, that trinity of defilers. 1929 J. D. Bernal (title) The world, the flesh, & the Devil. 2000 H. S. Pyper in A. Hastings et al. 761/2 Often.., ‘the world’ has been used as shorthand for everything that Christians should reject, summed up in the slogan ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil’. P12. c1460 in R. Brotanek (1940) 128 Trust not..youre foos, ffor þei be double in wirking, as þe worlde gos. 1478 W. Paston in (2004) I. 178 William Paston..paid to the parson..xxiiij li. It is yerly worth, as the world goth now—x li. 1604 W. Shakespeare ii. ii. 180 To be honest as this world goes, Is to be one man pickt out of tenne thousand. View more context for this quotation 1713 A. Pope Dec. (1956) I. 198 And give me leave to tell you, that (as the world goes) this is no small assurance I repose in you. 1820 P. Sebright II. iii. 117 Nor, as the world goes, is it to be wondered at, that there are more who are willing to talk than to hear. 1930 H. Paterson tr. W. von Molo in O. F. de Battaglia i. 140 A permanent dictatorship, as this world goes, is an impossibility. 2007 C. Thomas xix. 303 This is no very appalling crime as the world goes, and especially as the world went in the Middle Ages. 1481 W. Caxton tr. (1970) 70 They knowe not how the world gooth [Du. hoet gaet dye werelt]. 1540 J. Palsgrave tr. G. Gnapheus iv. iv. sig. Tiij What is the matter, or howe gothe the worlde with hym? 1564 W. Bullein f. 18 Now let vs go..and see how the worlde goeth with maister Antonius. a1677 I. Barrow (1685) 83 However the world goes, we may yet make a tolerable shift. 1765 S. Foote i. i. 16 But first, how goes the world with you, Simon? 1886 L. Morris iii. iii. 107 Good my lord, How goes the world with thee? 1984 C. H. Sisson 309 A commonplace is good for nothing now, Yet that is how the world goes, all the same. P13. 1486 (Rood & Hunte) sig. bvi/2 There is moche peple and hit wher not for shame of the worlde in lenton nor oute lenton wold neuer come to shryfte. 1533 T. More f. 213 After that he was suspected of heresye and spoken to therof, ferynge the shame of the worlde drowned hym self in a well. 1611 G. Chapman iv. Has not one of them [sc. disguises] kept you safe from the shame of the world? 1738 J. Swift 32 Fie, fie, Miss! for Shame of the World, and Speech of good People. 1815 10 Apr. 3/4 The shame of the world will be threefold increased. 1908 H. James (1949) 657 The Scandal of History; the Dead Waste of Power; the Sin and Shame of the World. the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > wonder, be astonished [phrase] > it is wonderful c1495 (Arun. 249) (1956) 3 It is a worlde to se the delectacioun..that a mann shall have which riseth erly in thies summer mornynges. a1500 (a1450) (Trin. Cambr.) l. 2205 (MED) Euerychone on other ferly they sette..and trewly for to speke It was a world to here the sperys breke. ?1520 J. Rastell sig. Cvv It is a worlde to se her whyrle Daunsynge in a rounde. ?a1562 G. Cavendish (1959) 78 Ys it not a world to consider the desier of wylfull prynces whan they fully be bent..to fullfyll ther voluptious Appetytes. 1600 P. Holland tr. Livy iii. xxvi. 105 A world and wonder it is to hear them speak. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. i. 307 'Tis a world to see How tame when men and women are alone, A meacocke wretch can make the curstest shrew. View more context for this quotation 1620 L. Andrewes (1629) xiii. 738 But it were a world to rake up old errors. 1637 J. Pocklington 52 It is a world to see, what pert Gynny Birds their Gossips are. 1666 W. Dugdale 152/1 The Prince so served will tender meats,..as it seemed wonder a world to observe the provision. 1766 W. Kenrick i. v. 6 Well, as I am an honest woman, who would have thought it? it is a world to see! 1881 S. Evans (new ed.) (at cited word) It's a woo'ld to see that theer little un order the big uns to the roight abaout! P15. the whole world. the world > the earth > [noun] a1513 J. Irland (1926) I. 89 He has..maid a man king of angellis, lord of the haill waurld and alkynd of creaturis. 1528 W. Tyndale To Rdr. f. viiv The ypocrites with worldly preachinge have not goten the prayse only, but even the possessions also and the dominion and rule of the whole worlde. 1534 Luke ix. 25 What avauntageth it a man, to wynne the whole worlde, yf he loose him sylfe? ?1577 Misogonus in R. W. Bond (1911) 238 As any is ith whole woaude. 1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie (1888) I. 4 The vther parte..sa is situat, as frome the hail warlde it war diuidet. 1625 N. Carpenter ii. i. 7 Man..had left him notwithstanding for his lot the whole world besides. 1760 L. Sterne I. x. 48 It being just so long since he left his parish,—and the whole world at the same time behind him. 1856 C. M. Yonge ii. viii Ethel [was] full of glee and wonder, for once beyond Whitford, the whole world was new to her. a1933 J. A. Thomson (1934) II. 1385 The extermination of a walrus or a musk-ox, a quagga or a sea-otter, is more than a national or continental loss, it is an impoverishment of the whole world. 2007 H. Kunzru 162 Up there the crew-cut astronauts could see the whole world as a blue-green disc. the world > people > people collectively > [noun] > all people 1530 Lev. Prol. Vntyil the full age were come that God wold shewe him [sc. Christ] openlye vnto the whole worlde and delyuer them from their shadowes and cloudelight. ?1553 H. Dekyn tr. Herman V of Wied sig. Ci v The amendemente of all the whole worlde. 1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane f. lxij I had the whole worlde against me with all their force and myght. 1571 G. Buchanan sig. A.3 Ze haue oblist zour selffis befoir ye haill warld, to continew in the same vertew of Iustice. 1609 W. Shakespeare iii. iii. 169 One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. View more context for this quotation 1776 S. Foote ii. 29 The whole world concur in giving him sense. 1891 T. Hardy III. xlvi. 114 Subjection, not only to her present oppressive employer, but to a whole world who seemed to despise her. 1935 ‘E. Queen’ iv. 104 ‘Yeah, I know,’ said Moley disconsolately. ‘The whole world could have bumped him off, including myself. Nuts and bolts!’ 2006 V. Vinge xxiv. 255 The whole world was here tonight. P16. With reference to social status or worldly fortune. the mind > possession > poverty > be poor [verb (intransitive)] 1521 tr. C. de Pisan ii. lxv. sig. Q.iiiv Howe many nedy gentylmen & others haue ben and ben all dayes lowe in the worlde comforted & socoured by women & by theyr goodes. 1696 E. Phillips (new ed.) Rehabilitation, an Act whereby the Pope or the King, by Dispensation, or Letters Patents, restores those that are grown low in the World. 1785 W. Cowper Tirocinium in 672 Low in the world, because he scorns its arts. View more context for this quotation 1839 19 May 401/1 One of the prisoners, named Waddington, was reduced so low in the world as to render it out of the question that he could hope to find bail. 1985 ‘T. J. J. Altizer’ iv. 77 But Paul in his opening chapter to these spiritual Christians insists that God chose what is foolish, weak, and low in the world. the mind > possession > poverty > be poor [verb (intransitive)] the mind > possession > wealth > be rich [verb (intransitive)] > be well off 1600 B. Jonson iv. iv. sig. Niii Cord. Do you obserue the plunges that this poore Gallant is put too (Signior) to purchase the Fashion. Mit. I, and to be still a Fashion behind with the world, that's the sport. View more context for this quotation] 1615 R. Rogers lxviii. 578 Their parents are many waies grieued by them in other respects; as to see them crossed and brought behinde hand in the world. 1650 J. Howell Additional Lett. v. 9 in (ed. 2) Hee is the happy man who can square his mind to his means,..He who is before hand with the world. 1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti ii. ii. 173 All that are in Rome do strive to be aforehand with the world. 1688 G. Miege ii. sig. Iiii3/2 To be before hand in the World, être à son aise... To be behind hand in the World, faire mal ses Affaires. 1704 J. Swift ii. 73 Having run something behind-hand with the World. 1777 P. Thicknesse (1789) I. 10 My landlord, Monsieur Dessein, who was behind-hand with the world ten years ago, is now become one of the richest men in Calais. 1811 J. Austen I. vi. 66 I shall see how much I am before-hand with the world in the spring. 1849 C. Dickens (1850) xi. 121 ‘And then,’ said Mr. Micawber,..‘I shall, please Heaven, begin to be beforehand with the world,..if—in short, if anything turns up.’ the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > advance, progress, or develop [verb (intransitive)] > rise in prosperity, power, or rank 1791 J. Woodforde 20 Mar. (1927) III. 257 John Greaves, my Carpenter..married about 2 Years or more ago, to a Servant Maid of Mrs. Lombe's..and lived very happy together and daily getting up in the World. 1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage I. ii. vii. ⁋6 Do they get on in the world? 1840 F. Marryat xxviii. 196 His family is getting up in the world. 1883 D. C. Murray (1885) xiv. 112 I am getting on a little in the world, and am in the way to earn a little money. 1911 G. B. Shaw Getting Married Pref. in 124 It used to be said that members of large families get on in the world. 1933 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ ii. 87 She deaved John Muir from morning till night to get out of his job, a common bit roadman, and get on in the world. 1996 I. Donnachie et al. 120 But all develop the same stereotypes of the self-sacrificing mother, the stern-but-just father, the ‘lad o' pairts’ (the son who gets on in the world),..and, at the centre of the novel, the community itself. the world > action or operation > adversity > be in adversity [verb (intransitive)] > fall from prosperous or thriving condition the mind > possession > poverty > be poor [verb (intransitive)] > become poor 1819 I. v. 75 It's a sign her father's come down in the world, seeing his daughter crouches so low to one who was once her equal. 1837 J. S. Mill Let. 6 Aug. in (1963) XII. 346 To alter their style of living and go (as the vulgar phrase is) down in the world. 1852 2 Oct. 3/5 When a tradesman came down in the world he might perhaps rise again. 1889 C. E. L. Riddell I. i. 8 They had come down in the world. 1906 E. Dyson v. 51 Miss Pilcher, who had been in ‘the profession’ as a Fat Girl, had come down in the world. 1959 O. Sitwell 56 She still occupied her father's substantial house in Penge, but she had come down in the world. 2002 N. Lebrecht iv. 58 Strong-boned and with a cut-glass voice, Mother held herself with an hauteur that suggested she had come down in the world through no fault of her own. 1560 J. Knox 190 Let vs set the cock on hoope and let the world slyde. 1609 T. Dekker sig. B2v Amongst Gentlemen that haue full pursses, and those that crie trilill, let the world slide. 1611 R. Cotgrave at Chargé To take no thought, passe the time merrily, let the world slide. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) Induct. i. 5 Therefore..let the world slide . View more context for this quotation 1796 G. Colman (ed. 2) Pref. p.ii I cannot, however, cry ‘Let the world slide:’ I must persue my journey. 1873 Apr. 380 I sit, pottle-pot in hand, i' the chimney-nook—let the world slide while I taste it. 1900 J. L. Robertson 100 An' weel contentit there they ride, An' lauch, an' let the warld slide. 2003 (Nexis) 2 Nov. Go to work, come home, put your feet up and let the world slide. P18. Expressing seclusion and detachment. 1542 T. Becon ii. sig. dviiv As whan a man is so rapte into another kynd or state that he forgetteth himselfe, or semeth to be in another world, as they vse to saye. 1759 J. Wesley 6 Aug. (1764) 72 From that Moment, they were in another World, knowing nothing of what was done or said, by all that were round about them. 1876 17 579 He had been sent or taken to this hall and that society to hear—the music of the spheres to Clem—he was in another world, and was exalted and engrossed. 1925 14 807 I was carried quite out of myself... I quite forgot it was a play: I was in another world. 2004 Dec. 55/2 Your father, before he died, half the time he was in another world. You couldn't talk sensibly to him for five minutes in his last years. 1658 C. B. & W. G. i. xi. 119 He that dreameth, who from the common world with-draweth into a world of his own. a1668 W. Waller (1680) iv. 22 Here, within the inclosure of these Walls, thou art in a particular world of thine own. 1705 R. Steele i. i. 7 You must understand, the young Lady by being kept from the World, has made a World of her own—She has spent all her solitude in Reading Romances. 1773 R. Graves I. ii. vii. 71 He threw himself at length upon the turf; and was soon got into a world of his own, snoring most profoundly. 1805 W. Godwin II. xiii. 180 He lived however, toward the close of his life, in a world of his own, and saw nothing as it really was. 1851 N. Hawthorne v. 86 These..people were odd humorists, in a world of their own,—a world of vivid brilliancy. 1931 E. Bliss i. 11 She's always dreaming. I think she lives in a world of her own. 1992 T. Davies 177 God help him. He's in a world of his own. the world > action or operation > difficulty > opposition > in the face of or in opposition [phrase] > to everyone or everything the mind > will > free will > choice or choosing > types of choice > choice [phrase] > by preference > in preference to everything else 1537 T. Paynell tr. Erasmus f. 21 It is also a sure thynge, trusting faythfully in hym, to rise and rebelle agaynst the worlde [L. aduersus mundum], whiche braggyngly shewethe forthe his delectable pleasures. 1606 i. ii What Monsier Kynsader, lifting vp your legge and pissing against the world. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iii. ii. 120 But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might Haue stood against the World . View more context for this quotation 1690 W. Walker 531 I am for the woods against the World, i.e. before any thing. 1722 H. Carey vi. 28 Why 'tis the Dead-man's Wedding; we mun be merry now against the World! 1826 W. Scott 7 Feb. (1939) 92 As a lion-catcher, I could pit her against the world. 1859 Ld. Tennyson Guinevere in 231 There will I..hold thee with my life against the world. 1919 17 Mar. 3/4 Ireland for seven centuries has stood up against the world, against the pride of the world, the riches of the world. 2007 (U.K. ed.) Apr. 158/3 You've got to have some talent but you've really got to believe in yourself. You get in the trenches and it's you against the world. 1557 H. Iden tr. G. B. Gelli vi. sig. K.v Hathe fortune dryuen the hyther, as she dydde me? Not fortune, but desyre to see the worlde. 1588 T. Hariot sig. A4v Some also were of a nice bringing vp, only in cities or townes, or such as neuer (as I may say) had seene the world before. 1686 tr. J. Chardin Coronation Solyman 35 in One who had never seen the world. 1790 R. Tyler i. i. 4 To see the world and rub off a little of the patroon rust. 1809 A. Wilson in 1 540 Fresh on his maiden cruise to see the world. 1890 M. Oliphant I. viii. 130 Right or wrong it was always a good thing that her nurslings should see the world. 1955 G. Greene (1962) 58 You've seen so much more of the world than I have. 2007 Jan. 105/1 Neither was keen on staying put and working in the UK. Instead, they wanted to travel and see the world. society > occupation and work > working > career > have career [verb (intransitive)] > take up profession or start career the world > action or operation > undertaking > beginning action or activity > begin action or activity [verb (intransitive)] > become active or come into operation > in the affairs of life 1570 J. Foxe (rev. ed.) II. 2237/2 A stocke of money to begin the world withall. a1600 T. Deloney (1612) xiv. sig. K Thereupon one gaue him ten pounds, another twenty, another thirtie pounds, to begin the world anew. 1704 M. Henry 55 You are beginning the World (as you call it). 1753 S. Richardson III. ii. 17 Who might, from such an outsetting, begin the world..with some hope of success. 1833 H. Martineau (ed. 3) iv. 53 Do you know..with how much land Mr. Malton began the world? 1882 W. Besant II. xxxii. 307 Two thousand pounds; that's a large sum to hand over... Upon my word,..you will have to begin the world again. 1903 H. Alger x. 68 At the end of that time I was to receive a hundred dollars and a freedom suit to begin the world with. 1598 G. Chapman sig. D3v What a worlde of tyme, Is it for me to lie as in a sounde, Without my life. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny I. xiv. i. 404 Yet continued it hath a world of yeares [Fr. vn monde d'ans, L. tot aevis] uncorrupt. 1603 R. Knolles 2 Forgetfull of all other things in their antient countrey, after so many worlds of yeeres. 1620 F. Quarles N4 Seruing a world of yeeres. 1723 D. Defoe (ed. 2) 315 I took up a World of time in Considering of this Matter. 1854 A. E. Baker II. 407 It'll take a world of time to do it. 1994 L. Owens (1996) x. 57 She has plunged him back to that moment of decision a world of years before when it was she whom he cast off before he could even know. 2004 N. Ayo 13 Though it may take a world of time to become a new heaven and new earth,..yet we believe such an evening glory has been promised in the end. †P23. the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > lexicography > [noun] > dictionary 1598 J. Florio (title page) A Worlde of Wordes, Or Most copious, and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English. 1611 R. Cotgrave Vocabulaire, a Vocabularie, Dictionarie, world of words. 1646 W. Twisse 132 But you bring no Greeke Grammarian or Dictionarie to justifie either the one or the other; neither doe I thinke any world of words (as Dictionaries are sometimes called) doth justifie any such interpretation. 1696 E. Phillips (new ed.) (title page) The Moderne World of Words, or A Vniversall English Dictionary,..Novus Orbis Verborum. 1656 S. Holland iii. iv. 181 Fair Nymph, whose beauties all admire, Whose face does set the World on fire. 1725 42 His Doctrine..would however, when publish'd, set the World on fire, Father against Father, and Son against Son. 1832 Dec. 567/2 Give him a welcome in that Uncle's name, Whose proud example sets the world aflame,..our Uncle Sam! 1883 31 Aug. These over-cautious, know-it-all, beg-leave-to-differ people are not the kind who set even a small part of the world on fire. 1918 Jan. 300/1 If I could, I should write a poem that would set the world ablaze. 1923 2 29 Blind to danger and deaf to advice as were the statesmen of the three despotic Empires, not one of them..desired to set the world alight. 1959 M. Spark i. 2 A lady who once set the whole of the literary world..on fire. 2009 (Nexis) 17 Oct. Just because they put a new, refined blah-blah diesel engine in, it doesn't mean it is going to set the world alight. 1698 E. Settle 26 He owed that Justice both to the World around him, and Posterity after him, to read a little longer Esculapian Lecture upon so Epidemick a Disease. 1709 No. 37. 268 With an estate that might make him the blessing and ornament of the world around him. 1819 W. Irving ii. 149 She walked about in a sad reverie, apparently unconscious of the world around her. 1893 27 June 2/1 Six months in the fields with a platyscopic lens would teach them strange things about the world around them. 1955 19 Mar. 185/2 Patients with this disease are at times completely withdrawn from the world around them and give the picture of the very extreme of introversion. 2004 Summer 33 Curiosity and wonder depend..on being happily surprised again and again as the intricacies of the world around us are revealed. the world > relative properties > relationship > identity > the same [phrase] > exactly like 1749 H. Fielding III. viii. viii. 202 There the Bastard was bred up,..all to the World like any Gentleman. View more context for this quotation 1782 F. Burney IV. viii. viii. 307 Young, rich, and attractive, the world at your feet. 1863 H. Kingsley viii. 60 Without her money he will be an office-hunter. He may have the world at his feet with my daughter's money. 1890 A. Conan Doyle ix. 164 Just imagine what it must be to be so rich, and to have the world at your feet. 1927 Summer 22/1 Ah! then..he had the world at his feet. 1988 O. Clark 6 Sept. (1998) 263 Why should a boy of 18, with his head screwed on properly, with the world at his feet,..bother to see his father? 2003 (Nexis) 30 Aug. 46 The Magpies defender insists the Irish teenager has the world at his feet, after seeing him make his full debut against Peterborough on Monday. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 114 Cup vs till the world go round. View more context for this quotation] 1788 J. Hurdis 21 Tis drink, And only drink, that makes the world go round. 1826 III. 369/1 Oh! 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love, That makes the world go round. 1865 ‘L. Carroll’ ix. 132 ‘“Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go round!”’ ‘Somebody said,’ Alice whispered, ‘that it's done by everybody minding their own business.’ c1882 W. S. Gilbert ii. 33 It's Love that makes the world go round! 1894 30 June 305 It is not poesy, culture, wisdom, wit, That make the literary world go round. 1929 E. Hope xxvi. 287 Money..makes the world go 'round. 1961 J. Heller (1962) iv. 33 A little grease is what makes this world go round... Know what I mean? 2001 Dec. 25/1 Relationships are what makes the world go round, but in the end she finds that sex is sex is sex. P29. 1822 J. Squire II. 497 Men surely cannot expect to have the best of both worlds. 1860 E. House lxii. 368 The religious man does make ‘the best of both worlds’, but it is not by serving God and mammon. 1922 L. Weaver (ed. 3) xxv. 127 By the combination of open fires with central heating, one gets the best of both worlds. 1960 20 Aug. 7/1 A waterfront hotel where you can..have the best of both worlds by spending your holiday sailing yet being able to live ashore in warm, dry comfort. 1969 (National Materials Advisory Board) p. v The ultimate users, desiring the best of all worlds, have compounded the problems. 2002 M. Holroyd 37 The biographer wants the best of both worlds—the artistic freedom to invent and the reliance on authenticated fact. 1856 June 101 Surely it is a hard thing they [sc. the poor] should have the worst of both worlds... Must they suffer the misery of Lazarus in this world, and yet endure the torments of Dives in the world to come? 1920 17 Oct. 12/3 The two-fold effect of the strike must inevitably be to increase unemployment while maintaining high prices, and thus to give the country the worst of both worlds. 1981 R. W. Mansbach & J. A. Vasquez ix. 375 The result was the worst of all worlds. 1984 V. Stolcke in R. T. Smith 289 A woman gets the worst of both worlds: the husband is as likely to beat her up when he fears her reprimands for his infidelity as when she is suspected of being unfaithful. 2015 (Nexis) 12 July (Business section) 11 They were told to put their money into highly nondiversified portfolios that were also expensive. That's the worst of both worlds: high risk and low returns. the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > [verb (transitive)] 1826 3 Jan. I thought the world of him—and he took the first fair opportunity of cheating me most. 1844 7 Dec. 1/3 Mr. Hoyden thinks the world of her. 1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner viii. 82 He thinks the world of me, Fugier does. 1905 F. Young ii. i She was kept by a Russian Prince, who thought the world of her. 1956 M. Dickens ix. 167 I know you don't think much of him, although you've hung around him for ages, but I think the world of him. 1970 N. Bawden viii. 140 He thinks the world of Toby, you know that, but he can't keep things up at your pitch when he's tired after a long day's work. 2003 B. Wagner i. 36 She knew only the vulnerable, courtly, rollicksome bear, and thought the world of him. 1828 Baroness Bunsen Let. 6 Feb. in A. J. C. Hare (1879) I. viii. 301 The very fact of writing..tells worlds as to the feelings of tenderness towards you that occupied him. 1879 13 Jan. 10/1 Not a hostile shot had been fired at the little column the whole way going and returning, which speaks worlds for the compactness with which the troops marched. 1934 9 210/2 To him who can interpret, it tells worlds. 1969 J. Fowles (1977) xiv. 93 It was very brief, but it spoke worlds; two strangers had recognized they shared a common enemy. 2001 M. Yalom ii. 64 The salutation of her first letter speaks worlds about the difference in their stations. P32. In adverbial uses premodifying adverbs. 1832 Dec. 421 The language is simple—a world apart from the stilted exaggerations in vogue. 1867 H. W. Preston tr. 213 Though they show equal ability, what an infinite distance there is between the two pictures! They are a world apart. 1962 34 345/1 Despite Guizot's early influence on him, Tocqueville was a world apart from the ‘enrichessez-vous’. 1996 Oct. 32/3 Her naturalism and Scully's stiff professionalism are a world apart. 2006 Mar. 42/1 It's a world apart from the rather harsh conditions of the wilayas or refugee camps. 1841 61 34 The cravings of the passion are directed into some channel, a world away from the attainments, position, havings, and expectancies of the individual. 1922 36 193 An address by Dr. Mackail..dazzles us with a view of an ode of Horace..(and what a world away from the traditional commentaries). 1976 31 Jan. 1/3 A world away, at Philadelphia, Congress was trying almost single-mindedly to settle its grievances with England peacefully. 1992 23 July c1/2 In the 1988 Summer Olympics, the boats raced on the waters of the mighty Han River in Korea, a world away. 2006 Aug. 10/1 Most anti-Jewish feeling is a world away from ‘traditional’ antisemitism. 1800 C. Hutton 4 How did we revel in our distant bow'rs, In fancied interviews, whole worlds apart!] 1891 19 Sept. 7/2 It is always the case, in every game where skill can be employed, that the most skilful make their mark, and are worlds apart from the comparatively unskilful. 1900 H. S. Holland 33 They look to you worlds apart. 1957 R. Hoggart (1959) 61 It is worlds away from the ‘fellowship in service’ of some of the socially purposive movements. 1970 W. Stracke in S. Terkel (2000) 166 In 1940, I was fired by the Fourth Presbyterian Church. I had become active, singing for various causes. I hadn't gotten too much static from this because they were worlds apart. 2002 B. Risebero (ed. 3) 281 These middle-class kids, trying to form a commune, were worlds apart from the building-workers in the French bidonvilles or the thousands of homeless in the barriadas of Peru. 1841 T. C. Morgan I. 79 The guest freezes in the north-east corner of the dining-hall,..half a world away from the glowing hearth. 1908 13 837 Here is a group of colored folks half a world away, yet the United States is not content until it goes, annexes them, and rules them. 1954 2 Aug. 7 The camps of the ‘gold rush’ never grew into a powerful city, as they did at Johannesburg, half a world away. 1991 H. Rheingold iv. xvi. 361 The other tanks that are visible during a SIMNET session are controlled by other tank crews that can be twelve feet or half a world away, in real time. 2004 Feb. 48/2 Half a world away from the Adirondacks, gazelles in the Gobi Desert rely on ‘snow mines’, oases of water from melting snows buried beneath the sand. the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun] > one who engages in an activity or occupation > one who is not idle or slothful 1851 13 Sept. 592/1 So spoke one of the world's workers ; and there is still need that he should speak, for although the form of the old antagonism be altered, too much of its spirit yet remains. 1898 L. A. Banks iii. 27 (heading) The Christian Gentleman as one of the world's workers. 1933 D. L. Sayers v. 78 ‘So you have become one of the world's workers.’.. ‘Yes; I'm pulling down four solid quid a week.’ 1964 D. Gray x. 91 ‘Mr. Weston isn't one of the world's workers, exactly,’ said Mary. 1976 G. Moffat ii. 20 Jackson..is not one of the world's workers, as you must have noticed. 2003 (Nexis) 30 Apr. 20 Gladys Blades will be long remembered as one of the world's workers, efforts which included tireless services to the community. P34. In the genitive with superlative adjectives. 1873 15 Feb. (advt.) Herr Willio,..the world's greatest living Contortionist. 1930 9 Apr. 11/7 (advt.) ‘Ovaltine’... The world's best ‘night-cap’ to ensure sound, natural sleep. 1941 R. Riskin in (1997) 628 He's Joe Doakes, the world's greatest stooge and the world's greatest strength. 1955 O. Manning (1984) ii. vii. 158 ‘My father,’ said Nancy, ‘is the world's most excruciating bore.’ 1957 24 June 114 (advt.) Everyone wants a trophy!.. Sayings available:..World's Greatest Dad..World's Most Adorable Baby..World's Greatest Lover. 1977 3 Mar. 282/1 The entrance of Salomé is greeted by the world's sleeziest tune, ‘La Paloma’. 1981 Nov. 44/1 (advt.) The world's moistest, yummiest carrot cake. 2001 B. Broady 85 Maybe some supergrass or IRA turncoat had been resettled locally,..so they'd set up the world's best chippy and were waiting for him to show. 2006 Nov. 90/1 Who do I put at center mid, the crotch-tugging kid with the world's smallest bladder or the attention-deficit space case? the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective] > most unskilful 1897 19 May 1/7 (advt.) Walton & Lester, The World's Worst Wizards. 1921 T. Wolfe 13 Nov. (1956) 22 ‘The Woman of Bronze’, the world's worst play. 1929 J. B. Priestley ii. i. 248 She was easily the world's worst as a pianist. 1933 L. Einstein in O. W. Holmes (1964) 352 I hasten to add that they are the world's most famous bridge players and she the world's worst! 1954 R. P. Bissell i. 11 He shaved every other day and of all the Second Mates in the company they could have dumped on me he was the world's worst. 1962 C. Draper iv. 88 I am probably the world's worst dancer. 1976 N. Thornburg x. 244 Oh, she was a pillhead, yeah. And maybe the world's worst housekeeper too. 1994 (Nexis) 26 Jan. 13 It remains unclear why the Prime Minister of Great Britain was lunching with the 92-year-old authoress of the world's worst penny novelettes. 2000 Mar. 113/2 You're the world's worst bluffer. the world > relative properties > kind or sort > in respect of kind [phrase] > of a kind to 1897 Sept. 304 The Mrs. Siddons' or Rachels of the world have gained a fame to which even Garrick and Booth cannot approach. 1920 10 Feb. 10/1 The burlesque writers, the Gilberts and others of this world, have come between us and Dryden. 1960 J. Stroud iv. 44 He's settling... We're quite used to the Egberts of this world. 1972 20 Feb. 11/3 There is a limit on how far the Libyas of this world can bid up the price of oil. 2004 J. Colgan viii. 156 Why should fashion belong only to the Britneys of this world, goddamit? P36. out of this world. 1928 R. Fisher 303 Out (of) this world, beyond mortal experience or belief. 1931 17 Dec. 12 Alberta Hunter..warbles out of this world. 1935 July 114/2 Benny's clarinet playing here is out-of-this-world for beauty of tone. 1946 19 Oct. 25/3 Petarded on his own cliché And violently hurled, Should be the Joe whose one bon mot Is ‘It's out of this world!’ 1952 G. Wilson 36 A slender, graceful, out-of-this-world bridge Claud…had been. 1957 J. Braine vi. 51 You've got a lovely part. Out of this world. 1972 J. Rossiter v. 61 She gave me the skinned fruit... With Cointreau poured on, mine tasted out of this world. 1993 I. Okpewho (1994) 142 But Engineering is out of this world. Like—what do you know about bridges? I mean, about the history and the mechanics of bridges? 2002 N. Minhas xvii. 196 Apparently she was, quote: ‘Out of this world!’ society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > [phrase] the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adjective] > with quality of strangeness the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adverb] > with a degree of strangeness 1941 B. Schulberg vii. 149 The gallery was in a funny little bungalow with an easy~going, out-of-this-world atmosphere. 1951 ‘A. Garve’ ii. 32 They hate our guts, and the way they behave is out of this world. 1958 27 Aug. 6/1 The worst part of a woman's magazine..is the fiction. Stories about quite impossible people in out-of-this-world situations. 1963 P. Willmott viii. 92 The L.C.C.'s wallpapers..are very antiquated, out of this world. 1999 D. Haslam iii. 67 The super cinema..was really something out of this world to the people of the period who'd been used to the local cinema or the old converted theatres. 1965 R. Marks Let. 9 Aug. in (1967) 115 A couple of my pals here decided that when we get back to the world we are going to..throw a real wild party. 1968 19 Feb. 11/1 The 150 servicemen ending their Vietnam duty and waiting for the 8:05 a.m. airline flight for the ‘trip back to the world’. 1971 (Univ. S. Dakota) 6 5 Get back to the world,..to be discharged and sent home. 1979 28 Apr. (Weekender Mag.) 3/1 He was due to rotate back to ‘the world’, as it was known, in only a few weeks. 1993 R. Shilts ii. xvi. 158 All during their tours of duty, GIs talked about going ‘back to the world’, the expression for returning to the States. 2008 (Nexis) 2 Apr. 11 a When I came ‘back to the world’ in 1969, I jumped at loud noises and had some unaccountable bouts of bad temper. 1978 J. Irving (title) The world according to Garp. 1979 Nov. 36 (title) The world according to Will Rogers. ‘I am just an old country boy in a big town trying to get along.’ 1992 4 Apr. 18/1 Welcome to the world according to Sly & Lovechild, where glamour puss Elliot and wild child Simon have taken to the stage to inject sass, panache and a dash of glam. 2009 20 July 46/1 In the world according to Sheriff Joe, almost every problem in America these days can somehow be traced back to ‘illegals’. CompoundsOE Ælfric (Julius) (1900) II. 128 Aidan..ealle woruldcara awearp fram his heortan nanes þinges wilnigende butan godes willan. OE Wulfstan (Nero) (1957) 271 Wala þære yrmðe & wala þære woroldscame þe nu habbað Engle eal þurh Godes yrre. OE Nativity of Virgin (Hatton) in B. Assmann (1889) 119 Ða midþam þe he þas ðing wæs donde þus, þa micclode god his woruldæhta, þæt on þa tid næs nan wer him gelic on Israhelum. lOE (Faust. A.ix) (Dict. Old Eng. transcript) Wa is woruldscriftum [OE Vercelli worulde sciriftum, c1175 Bodl. 343 weorldscryftum] butan hy mid rihte reccan. c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine (1993) 197 Heore worldþrym swa rice ȝedwæscte, and ȝedwan. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 7513 & uss birrþ weorelldþingess lusst. forrbuȝhenn. & forrwerrpenn. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 12079 Off þatt hemm weorelldahhtess spedd. Aȝȝ waxeþþ mare & mare. a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Egerton) 363 in J. Zupitza & J. Schipper (1904) 90 (MED) Ne sceal ðer beo sciet ne scrud ne woruld wele nane. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 143 Þer scal beon worldwunne wið-uten pouerte. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 147 On twa wise Mon mei forlete world winne. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 4151 & æfter muchel weorld-scome wurð-scipe wurhten. a1300 (?c1200) (Jesus Oxf.) (1955) 125 Alle world-ayhte [a1275 Trin. Cambr. werldes welþe] schulle bi-cumen to nouhte. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 13281 Petre and andreu..Wit a word þai left þair scipps tuin, For þat was al þair werld win [Gött. worldis win]. 1611 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas (new ed.) ii. iv. 557 To go Raign in Heav'n (from World-cares free) The Crown of Izrael I resigne to thee. OE (2008) 2343 Sceolde [li]þend daga, æþeling ærgod ende gebidan, worulde lifes. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 7483 Itt tacneþþ uss þatt alle þa..slæpenn fra þe weorrldess lusst & wakenn aȝȝ wiþþ criste. a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris (1873) 2nd Ser. 51 (MED) Hie weren wuniende in ierusalem..and hadden þe fulle of wurldes richeisse. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 61 Hit bieð maniȝe men..ðe for ðare worldes scame..hem al forswerieð. a1275 Body & Soul (Trin. Cambr. B.14.39) l. 129 in A. S. M. Clark (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 143 Al þe worldes aite, Ne muen holden is lif. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 48 Hise word, ðat is hise wise sune, Ðe was of hin fer ear bi-foren Or ani werldes time boren. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) iii. l. 2199 He schal with worldes schame Himself and ek his love schame. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) iii. l. 2470 For coveitise and worldes pride. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) v. l. 5755 (MED) This ladi wepte And thoghte that sche nevere kepte To ben a worldes womman more. a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer (Hunterian) (1891) l. 5605 He dredith nought..Though he haue lytel worldis goode, Mete, and drynke, and esy foode. c1430 N. Love (Brasenose e.9) (1908) 159 Forsakynge all worldes besynesse. c1440 (?a1400) l. 674 All my werdez wele. 1484 (Electronic ed.) Parl. Jan. 1484 §22. m. 17 Persones of noo substaunce ne havur, not dredyng God nor worldez shame. a1500 (?c1300) (Chetham) l. 1384 Beues..shold be my worldus make. ?1507 W. Dunbar (1998) I. 90 A barell bung ay at my bosum, Of varldis gud I bad na mair. 1579 E. Spenser May 73 Ah Palinodie, thou art a worldes childe: Who touches Pitch mought needes be defilde. 1597 W. Shakespeare iv. iv. 27 Worlds shame. View more context for this quotation 1611 J. Davies in J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas (new ed.) 816 For whose deare birth, thou didst all ease refuse, Worlds-weal, and (being a Marchant) thy Receits. 1786 R. Burns Let. 3 Mar. in (1834) VII. 335 Now if ye're ane o' warl's folk, Wha rate the wearer by the cloak. 1787 R. Poems (new ed.) 323 My riches a's my penny-fee... But warl's gear ne'er troubles me. a1801 R. Gall in J. Johnson (1803) VI. 537 The chield wha boasts o' warld's walth. 1820 May 165 Let warld's gear gang. 1824 C. M. Sedgwick I. v. 137 ‘Nay, ye world's woman, let me alone,’ said he, extricating himself from her grasp. 1833 R. H. Dana 440 We are put into a right relation with the world; neither holding it in proud scorn, like the solitary man, nor being carried along by shifting and hurried feelings..like the world's man. 1901 R. W. Buchanan II. 395 Full of world's wisdom and life's variety, Always alive and alert is he. 1906 C. M. Doughty V. xix. 162 To shield this loved one little head, Life, in world's mortal tumult..desires. C3. General attributive. Some of the more established compounds of this type are treated separately. The construction does not become common until the mid 19th cent.a1586 Sir P. Sidney (1593) v. sig. Rr5v All mankinde being as it were coinhabitors or worlde-citizens together. 1651 H. More 68 But now to put the bloud, flesh and bones together, of your World-Animal. a1721 M. Prior Cromwell & Porter in (1907) ii. 267 Your System-Makers and World-wrights. 1837 T. Carlyle I. vii. x. 394 The Cimmerian World-wreckage. 1848 P. J. Bailey (ed. 3) 108 The scape goat of this dark world-wilderness. 1853 W. M. Thackeray iv. 160 Mat was a world-philosopher of no small genius. 1871 R. B. Vaughan II. 295 He was a world-saint, for he had a world-battle to fight and win. 1876 ‘G. Eliot’ II. iii. xxiv. 130 She had a world-nausea upon her. 1886 A. Winchell 213 The background of the heavens is phosphorescent with the glow of these distant fields of world-stuff. 1908 5 June 761/4 Our Lord's teaching..was that the end of the present world-age was at hand. 1911 S. M. Zwemer Pref. p. vii The entire world-area has not yet been wholly covered by the tracks of the explorer. 1916 S. A. Brooke in (1917) II. 663 You are in the roar and hustle of world-noises and affairs which make history. 1931 H. S. Williams 50 Comets are simply collections of meteoritic matter, ‘world-stuff’ that has not been compacted into planetary masses. 1936 May 162/1 The Determinists have created for themselves an intellectual structure which represents a world-image or rather a physical world-image. 1976 R. C. Stalnaker in T. Honderich & M. Burnyeat (1979) 461 These definitions and postulates yield a minimal world-story theory. 2006 S. S. Klein in C. A. Lees & G. R. Overing ii. iv. 125 In The Seafarer, women are grouped with such earthly pleasures as the harp, ring-receiving, and generic world-joys. 1799 S. T. Coleridge I. 465 The Roman Empire..took up a World-Religion. 1839 P. J. Bailey 53 [Immortality] That is the great world question. 1856 G. Grote XII. ii. xciv. 367 Alexander, had he lived, would..have multiplied..the communications..between the various parts of his world-empire. 1864 E. B. Pusey ii. 78 When He took away their world-rule, He left them in being as nations. 1879 G. H. Lewes ix. 162 The World-process has been assigned to a Soul of the World. 1894 A. J. Balfour (1895) 3 Looking at the World-problems which..we are compelled to face. 1904 14 Nov. 4/2 The great British World-Empire. 1905 21 Sept. 3/2 The great world-commerce, upon which the very existence of England will depend. 1920 B. Russell ix. 109 The following passages [from article by Lenin] seemed to me illuminating:—The present world-situation in politics places on the order of the day the dictatorship of the proletariat. 1921 J. C. Maxwell Garnett (title) Education and world citizenship. 1928 (Liberal Industr. Inq.) iv. xxiv. 331 This difference in price-level is largely the result of world-causes. 1930 J. H. Randall (title) A world community. 1936 45 294 In the modern world, with its ever-increasing facilities for culture-contacts, a world-culture is in process of formation. 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ xii. 247 It is quite easy to imagine a world-society, economically collectivist. 1946 J. S. Huxley i. 17 The task of unifying the world mind. 1954 ‘M. Cost’ 218 The world-press..was hourly dominated by bulletins of their plight. 1966 S. Beer xv. 391 As usual, the study begins with a..world situation. 1985 1 May 27/1 Schweppes..employs Mr Woodrow and three other flavourists as vital elements in the race to open up new market opportunities in the world drinks business. 1991 Summer 37/1 I liked that each piece was the tip of the iceberg, and had its own subtext in regard to everything else it represented. In a sense, it was like a world summit meeting. 2006 Sept. 89/1 I call this ‘Star Trek theology’: the faith that through natural and social sciences, we can all live longer, solve world hunger, and make war obsolete. c. 1612 H. Peacham 173 For infinite's the summe of world affaires, Nor new, nor straunge, that doe afflict the mind. 1805 M. L. Ramsay Diary 2 Nov. in D. Ramsay (1812) 183 Our world affairs are very much perplexed. 1910 9 Apr. 1/3 For Great Britain anti-Germanism is..a view of world affairs which has grown up on historical and religious grounds. 2000 D. Brooks 175 At the top of intellectual life are semiprofessional, semisocial institutions like..the Colorado Conference on World Affairs. 1903 Nov. 92 Carl Eigenmann,..professor of zoology..and world authority on blind fish. 1948 26 Apr. 30/1 He made himself into a world authority on food for humans. 2007 May 186/1 Louise..has lived in Iran for over 40 years and is a world authority on Turkoman horses. 1850 79 (heading) The world champion. 1878 7 Dec. 587/2 ‘Corkey’, the English long-distance champion, offers to contest with O'Leary..for the possession of the English Champion and the World Champion belts. 1923 20 Jan. 1/5 A five year old..holstein cow..has just finished a year's production run..which makes the cow a world champion..for [milk] production. 2006 B. George & L. Hardy xii. 175 The WDC wanted former world champions to be invited to play by right, but the BDO wanted all players to qualify via world-ranking points. 1874 11 Dec. A match game of billiards..between Rudolph and Garnier, for the world championship. 1963 13 Oct. 15/6 I hate to think of the next kid that gets stoked on board riding..and wins a world championship and nobody even knows him. 2002 S. Finnan in L. Purcell 58 It was the first World Championship Australia hosted and we were the champs. 1930 15 526 The Soviet cinema contributed its part to the world cinema, and in some respects had even certain influence. 2006 22 June 87/3 A doozy of a last shot, it confirms he may be the most exciting new voice in world cinema today. a1586*Worlde-citizen [see Compounds 3a]. 1899 1 Apr. 104/3 My facts go to show that the literary spirit is the true world-citizen, and is at home everywhere. 2004 A. Dorfman iv. 241 Ever since you heard through the baby grapevine that you were slated to be the Six Billionth World Citizen..you've been planning to go on strike and refuse to be born. 1871 4 103 The red dragon is Satan... His ten horns are symbolic of world-domination. 1900 13 July 6/1 Open up China, introduce the Chinese to world-competition, and indoctrinate them with the idea of world-domination. 1957 J. S. Huxley (rev. ed.) iii. 63 Nazism was inherently self-destructive because of its claim to world domination by a small group. 2002 P. Collins 70 Adam and Sacha had a seven-year plan for world domination which they had been sketching in their rough books for months. 1833 J. S. Mill in 7 510 The most stirring scenes of that mighty world-drama, under his pen turn flat, cold, and spiritless. 1858 T. Carlyle I. v. vi. 594 The Second Act..of this foolish World-Drama of the Double-Marriage opens. 1948 L. Spitzer 220 This is also the main idea of Claudel's Spanish Catholic world-drama Le soulier de satin. 2002 R. R. Wilk in K. Askew & R. R. Wilk iv. 288 The world drama, in this view, is one of global hegemony and local resistance. 1878 J. J. Lalor tr. W. Roscher I. i. 80 The most that can be said..so far as an economy of mankind, or a world-economy, is concerned, is, that it may be shown that important preparations have been made for it. 1931 22 May 9/5 State and collective farming..enabled the U.S.S.R. to enter the world economy..with lower costs of production than in a number of other countries. 1974 I. Wallerstein (title) The modern world system and the origins of the European world-economy in the 16th century. 2006 D. Edgerton (2008) v. 105 The steam ship, the aeroplane, the radio, and more recently television and the internet..are forging a new global world economy and culture. 1851 Jan. 35 The New Church as a world-event is undoubtedly to..make its ingress into human history very much through the leavening process. 1924 22 Feb. 439 (heading) ‘Shooting’ news for the silver screen; Pathe film editor who brings home to millions timely pictures of world events. 2005 (U.K. ed.) Dec. 37/4 He takes some huge world events and demonstrates how it was the sheer nuts and bolts of everyday personalities that were the building blocks of history. 1925 19 July ii. 1/1 (heading) City holds three world firsts... Port Arthur is the greatest oil port in the world. 1972 3 Nov. 33/3 It is a world first, it enables the memorable ‘wrist radio’ label of the Dick Tracy strip cartoons to become reality. 2002 18 Nov. 23/3 In a world first, Thaksin's government launched a body charged with supporting privately owned stores, and spent two years drafting legislation to limit the hypermarkets' expansion. 1880 M. M. Kalisch v. 190 Only after having fathomed this primary element and its attributes that will it be possible for us..to find that ‘world-formula’ to which our friend Wolfram has alluded. 1907 W. James ii. 50 The whole function of philosophy ought to be to find out what definite difference it will make to you and me, at definite instants of our life, if this world-formula or that world-formula be the true one. 1978 J. E. Smith i. 44 He was attempting to assess the validity of monism as a world formula by appealing to experience. 1852 T. J. Vaiden 262 Does pretended prophecy represent any elevated character, of policy or statesmanship or world government? 1915 N. L. McClung ix. 153 The problems of discovery have been solved; the problems of colonization are being solved, and when the war is over the problem of world government will be solved. 1958 B. W. Aldiss iv. v. 241 The ship is in an orbit round Earth and there it must stay. That was the edict of the World Government. 2001 B. Lietaer 326 Some observers now see the ‘hot-money’ (funds that move around quickly from one country to another) becoming a sort of shadow world government. 1837 T. Carlyle II. ii. vi. 136 Scottish John Knox, such World-Hero as we know, sat once nevertheless pulling grim-taciturn at the oar of French Galley. 1998 D. A. Leeming (ed. 3) viii. 257 It is as if the hero by this act were warning us to concentrate not on his historical qualities but on his role as world hero. 1864 4 337 Whenever the Christian comes down from his elevation to the world-level, it is a declaration stronger than words that there is nothing above worth having. 1978 29 Dec. 1/3 The consultation is proposing to the sponsoring bodies that a dialogue programme at world level be implemented between the Anglican and Reformed traditions. 1850 E. V. Childe tr. M. F. Santarém vi. 150 M. de la Sagra also has done the same with regard to another large portion of this World-Map, comprising the New Continent. 1970 80 186 It is usual to represent the circumstances as a world map on Mercator's projection. 2001 D. Mitchell 326 There is a gunk-smattered world map to taunt the slaves of the inferno with thoughts of all the countries in the world..where we are not free to go. 1845 6 July 8/3 As it is with eggs, so in the world-market is it with human pretensions. 1891 W. Morris xv. 103 They had gradually created..a most elaborate system of buying and selling, which has been called the World-Market. 1928 (Liberal Industr. Inq.) i. v. 50 They showed that the practice of dumping demoralises the world-market to the ultimate disadvantage of all concerned. 1969 B. J. Rendle I. 134 Mansonia was introduced to the world market from Nigeria, as a substitute for walnut, in the 1930s. 2005 R. Nidel vi. 316 Perhaps the crises will..allow Argentina to once again compete in the world market as it did in the early part of the twentieth century. 1852 W. Pulsford tr. J. Müller I. i. ii. 289 So certainly must a world-opinion [Ger. Weltansicht]..appear nothing more than in the highest degree empty and abstract. 1921 21 July 10/2 (heading) Force of world opinion. 1996 J. T. Hospital (1997) 276 All this bowing and scraping to world opinion and the United Nations,..I mean Oyster was absolutely right about that. 1883 July 392/1 His fund of acquaintance with his own country..gives his novels an airy, spacious quality..which is the sign of an extraordinary difference between such an horizon as his and the limited world-outlook, as the Germans would say, of the brilliant writers who practice the art of realistic fiction on the other side of the Channel. 1915 (title) World outlook. 1929 31 Aug. 628/1 All poetic genius has always fumbled instinctively for a world-outlook in which everything has significance at all times. 1976 tr. Shih Min in 75 Remould your world-outlook and steel yourself into a self-aware revolutionary. 2005 R. D. Lewis xii. 143 It is quite possible that an Italian woman has a world outlook more similar to that of a Finnish woman than to that of a male Italian. 1901 33 267 The approach of world peace. Wars of the century. 1914 G. Frankau (1923) I. 185 Battlers for world-peace, slaves of Honour's lamp. 1957 G. L. Goodwin 459 The prospects of world peace will turn not on the United Nations but on the effectiveness of global and regional balances of power. 2002 H. Ritchie (2003) ii. ix. 188 A break. That's all. Not world peace or a win on the lottery... Just a break. 1847 F. A. Kemble I. 265 We, shut in within the limits of our span-short life, would have the great world-picture complete before us. 1912 W. James i. 8 Experience, at this rate, would be much like a paint of which the world pictures were made. 1981 N. Tucker iv. 108 In Enid Blyton's work, this excessively simple world picture is carried to extremes. 2006 J. Updike iv. 199 ‘Where does the money come from’? Ahmad asks, when Charlie's words—not so different, after all, from the world-picture that Shaikh Rashid more silkily paints—have run their course. society > authority > rule or government > politics > [noun] > branches of politics 1848 W. Hazlitt tr. M. Luther 128 In the life to come, the world will cease and end together with all external worship of God, all world policy and government. 1896 10 Mar. 6/5 The Minister again declared that Germany did not think of inaugurating a ‘world-policy’. 1905 24 Mar. 2/1 A world-policy alliance with Japan. 2004 23 Aug. 80/1 Germany's Weltpolitik , its ‘world-policy’, put it into competition with the French and particularly the British for colonies and imperial power. 1847 8 167 England is now the centre to which the world-population directs itself. 1962 R. S. Palmer I. 130 The world population of the Laysan Albatross, in 1957–58 season, was estimated at 1,500,000. 2008 E. Royte i. 15 The world population is growing rapidly, and fresh, drinkable water..is growing scarce. 1900 J. Strong ii. 78 There are only two steps from world poverty to world plenty. 1961 23 200/1 The results will promote constructive programs and information needed to reduce world poverty. 2005 Mar. 11/2 Similar Marshall Plans have been suggested to promote an African renaissance, an end to world poverty or a halt to global warming. 1910 6 Nov. 4/1 Such is to be the case when Pietro Mascagni's latest opera, ‘Ysobel’, is to have its world premiere the latter part of this month at the New Theater in New York. 1948 7 July 1/5 ‘Return of the Bad Man’ will open a three day engagement in Ardmore just one day after its world premier. 1981 Ld. Harewood ix. 150 He..put on several important world premières of British operas. 2002 2 Feb. 76/1 It was no surprise that the world premiere of Long Time Dead attracted a huge, eclectic mix of celebs, media types and fashionistas. 1886 20 Feb. 68/2 World-prices reached their highest point in 1866 (prices in the United States having gone up extravagantly even for gold payments). 1955 24 Aug. 7/2 American farm prices are..often [kept] above world prices by the arrangements whereby the Government must buy certain produce for stock when its price falls. 2002 A. Mukherjee in A. K. Bagchi 149 World prices, especially those of primary produce, plummetted and India's export earnings collapsed. 1854 M. Evans tr. L. Feuerbach x. 101 Individual subjectivity..is regarded as the highest essence—the omnipotent world-principle [Ger. Weltprincip]. 1912 W. Temple in v. §iii. 243 A World-principle, the Logos of the Stoics. 2004 G. W. Bromiley tr. E. Busch ii. vi. 187 The world principle that would animate us too to develop ‘in an infinite series of productions’ would not ‘belong to itself’. 1891 11 Dec. After she made her world record at the Stockton kite-shaped track the mare went lame. 1909 G. B. Shaw (1931) 236 In his stories of mystery and imagination Poe created a world-record for the English language. 1976 20 July 1/5 Cornelia Ender won 100m women's freestyle gold model in world record 55.65 secs. 2004 (National ed.) 4 July viii. 3/2 In 2000, Real Madrid made Figo the first of its imported Galacticos (so called because they are bigger than stars) when it paid Barcelona a world record transfer fee of $56 million. 1799*World-Religion [see Compounds 3b]. 1812 P. B. Shelley 1 May (1964) I. 185 The bigots to World-Religion. 1941 A. C. Bouquet iv. 166 Real use is made of the Jewish diaspora (or dispersion) and its proselytes to create a new universal or common world religion. 2000 M. G. Lawler in A. Hastings et al. 409/1 The major world religions such as Judaism and Islam all provide for divorce, as does civil law in the societies which they control. 1896 7 Dec. 6/4 The Maypole Company (Limited) (whole world rights) has been formed with a capital of £200,000.] 1908 19 Feb. 3/1 (advt.) Renard trains... Full particulars supplied on application to the owners of the world rights. 1922 T. S. Eliot 25 June (1988) I. 530 As I read Liveright's form, it practically gives him world rights..and seems tantamount to selling him the book outright for $150. 1959 24 Oct. 185/1 Joyce..gave her..world rights to publish and sell ‘Ulysses’. 2001 31 Aug. ii. 24/1 For the 2002 event in Japan and Korea, Fifa, the international football federation, sold the world rights to Leo Kirch, an independent German television magnate. society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > [noun] > of the world 1710 (new ed.) 193 The Rulers (or World-Rulers..) of the Darkness of this World. 1874 W. P. Mackay (new ed.) 160 We protest against the awful power that the world-rulers used in former days. 1881 vi. 12 Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but..against the world-rulers [Gk. κοσμοκράτορας] of this darkness. 1918 2 423 The bombastic..vision of the future as it appears to the German World-ruler. 2002 (Nexis) 9 July 15 No nation should be allowed to tell Hong Kong what form of democracy it should adopt and certainly not countries like the US, which want to become world rulers. 1887 J. P. Mahaffy xii. 273 There is the melancholy, almost the despondency, felt in a weary time at the many troubles of life, that world-sadness of which Euripides shows the earliest traces among the Greeks. 1901 VIII. at Pessimism The same ‘world-sadness’ (Weltschmerz)..colours..the poetry of Omar Khayyam, Leopardi, Heine, and Byron. 2001 A. Solomon (2002) viii. 315 In Germany, the feeling would acquire a name beyond that of melancholy; Weltschmerz, or world-sadness. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 139 All the world's a stage, And all the men and women, meerely Players.] 1841 E. Wright tr. La Fontaine II. xii. xvi. 310 Behold the world-stage and its actors, Where benefits hurt benefactors! 1993 A. Toffler & H. Toffler xxv. 250 More and more players on the world stage take on the characteristics of what Yehezkel Dror, a brilliant Israeli policy scientist, once called ‘crazy states’. 1848 C. T. Brookes tr. J. P. F. Richter in F. H. Hedge 409/2 There rose itself around them a holy, simple, free world-structure [Ger. Weltgebäude], with its heaven-arches soaring and striving upward. 1944 C. Goodrich in H. E. Davis 105 The hope of such advance rests on the success of efforts to build a world structure that will guarantee security against war. 1999 G. D. Venerable ii. 29 World structure is composed of a lattice of world points. 1829 3 473 Some poets..in so doing, ran a risk of kindling the new world-system by ancient fire. 1874 G. H. Lewes I. 85 Our parochial system will sometimes be favourably contrasted with the results of their world-system. 1977 P. Johnson ii. 12 We have characterized its [sc. Freedom's] development into the Roman world-system as essentially a liberal economic process, presided over by a night-watchman state. 1999 M. Thompson iv. 122 Alongside the multiplicity of world systems, there is another important feature of Mahayana cosmology—the concept of hua-yen. 1835 Sept. 383/1 They are the candle-snuffers, in the World-Theatre. Neither actors nor audience. 1948 46 62/2 The development of experimental trends in the world theater. 2009 (Nexis) 8 Oct. 49 An hilarious adaptation of one of the most popular comedies in world theatre. 1834 J. S. Mill in 8 657 They are probably as sincere as they are capable of being, in any creed, or world-theory, or abstract principle. 1960 W. V. Quine i. 24 The saving consideration is that we continue to take seriously our own..aggregate science, our own particular world-theory or loose total fabric of quasi-theories, whatever it may be. 1995 J. Nelson in L. H. Nelson & J. Nelson ii. 70 If this is so, it suggests that the value content of utilitarianism is spread through at least large parts of our world theory. 1906 18 Apr. 8/4 The World Title Bout. 1909 3 Jan. 5/5 (heading) Mrs. Holben has undisputed national and world title. 1971 9 May 1/2 The unrated Mexican shattered the..boxing champion's hopes of a crack at the world title. 2003 K. Slater & J. Borte (2004) vii. 170 It was the ultimate surfing trifecta—winning at Pipeline, earning the Hawaiian Triple Crown, and securing the world title. 1855 Aug. 416/2 What could be more natural than that a commercial people should ‘follow’ with a will, an exhibition containing within itself all the objects and aims of a great world-trade to which they had always aspired. 1961 467 The expansion of world trade on a multilateral non-discriminatory basis. 2005 May 151/2 He staked out the territory at the intersection of technology, financial markets, and world trade, which the foreign policy establishment..had largely ignored. 1891 G. B. Shaw iv. 70 The world-will shall answer for Julian's soul. 1998 A. Joron et al. tr. E. Bloch 287 The fire itself is nothing but sixth chords racing up and down the chromatic scale; the storm itself, the hammering sextoles issued by the world-will. d. With reference to (esp. early) cosmogonies. 1865 Jan. 23 The holy tree was sometimes an ash—the world-ash. 1937 Apr. 199/1 The norns under The ‘World-ash’. 2003 P. Bassett 284 The noble ones of Valhalla were sent by him to the forest to cut down the world ash. 1848 P. J. Bailey (ed. 3) 108 The azure serpent..that sloughs its years And lays its world-eggs in thy brightness. 1874 A. H. Sayce iii. 99 The primeval world-egg of Egyptian philosophy, out of which all things have been generated. c1967 J. Tate (1991) 192 Winding boy and the remaining daughters exchanged niceties and the World-Egg and dentistry. 2002 N. Drury 85/2 The Hindu world-egg was known as Hiranya-garbha and, when it hatched, Brahma, the sun-god, came forth. 1889 R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg 118 That the world-mill [Sw. världsqvarnen] has a möndull, the mill-handle, which sweeps the uttermost rim of the earth. 1923 D. A. Mackenzie xiii. 232 In Norse-Icelandic mythology the World Mill controls the seasons and the movements of the heavenly bodies. 1988 H. R. Ellis Davidson vi. 187 Rydberg worked out a theory of a great World Mill grinding out the sands of the sea as part of the picture of the world, quoting the legend of the magic mill worked by two giantesses which turned the sea salt. 1832 1 130 Table of the successive Dynasties and Incas of Peru... 3. Pachamama or the earth, properly world mother. 1848 C. de Crespigny tr. 200 When night in Heaven, world-mother there, Shakes o'er the earth her ebon hair, Calm reigns. 1902 Dec. 991 The World-Mother looked down through the ascending incense, as through the veil of centuries. 1990 J. Morrow (1991) i. ii. 36 Not God God, I mean god God. The God beyond God..The Spirit of Absolute Being, the World Mother, the Wisdom Goddess, the Overmind, the Primal Hermaphrodite. 1904 Sept. 295 The world-oak or cloud-oak of Central and Southern Europe. 2003 D. Leeming ii. vii. 126 Saule is associated with the world oak tree..the source of all fertility, that grows out of the heavenly mountain and has been seen by no mortal. 1841 T. Carlyle i. 35 The Midgard-snake, the Great World-serpent, which, tail in mouth, girds and keeps-up the whole created world. 1908 20 746 The idea of the World Serpent cannot, I think, be eliminated from the cultus of the God of Sinai and the story of Moses. 2005 Mar. 15/2 Dragons as worms tended to be found in Northumberland and Durham, perhaps due to the invasion of Norse sea captains spinning tales of Thor and the world serpent, Jormundgand [sic]. 1859 July 46/2 It is, as regards the religious views of educated persons, the same thing as the stories in the Vedas about the world-tortoise are to those who are supposed to believe them—a stone of stumbling. 1967 26 51/1 Perhaps no literature in the West exists which contains a strong proto-image constituted by the World-Tortoise myth. 1835 July 35/1 The doctrine of the world-tree Yggdrasill needs no panegyric, it is above praise. 1858 T. Carlyle I. i. iv. 46 Scepticism, which is there beginning at the very top of the world-tree. 1924 D. A. Mackenzie ix. 112 The Japanese Creator has a tortoise form that supports the world-tree, on the summit of which sits a four-armed god. 2003 Jan. 68/2 The ceiba , or yazche (green tree), was the living symbol of the world tree for Yucatec Maya. C4. Objective. a. With agent nouns. 1582 T. Blenerhasset Ded. sig. *3v I filled of late fiue queeres of paper with mine owne deuises, if a man may esteeme that his which the great worldemaker..conuaieth into him. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) ii. vii. 69 These three World-sharers, these Competitors Are in thy vessell. View more context for this quotation 1631 Earl of Manchester 56 The world-louer ends both hope and happinesse when he dyes. 1682 A. Peden (1739) 7 O..World-monger that thou art, hath not Christ answered thee in that 6th of Matthew 33 Verse? 1703 T. Doolittle v. 53 Shall not the Whoremonger be saved, nor the World monger neither? 1759 ‘Lucius’ Let. 8 Mar. in (1760) viii. 67 When I first considered Hutchinson's system of what is called natural philosophy,..I thought here is a new world-maker. 1825 T. Doubleday i. ii. 15 Have not we all turned worldmenders, forsooth? 1843 T. Carlyle iii. vi. 229 Giant Labour, truest emblem there is of God the World-Worker. 1858 T. P. Thompson I. xliv. 171 The tyrants and world-destroyers of antiquity. 1877 E. Caird ii. xviii. 635 The idea of a world-creator, for whom the means can have no existence apart from the end. 1887 H. R. Haweis viii. 211 The Jew never was to have an Empire. He was the world-teacher not the world-ruler. 1892 Mar. 447/1 They probably learned enough about it to make them treat the next world-girdler with high respect. 1912 Mar. 638 The art of world-forsakers and hermits, of super-individualists. 1928 Aug. 392/1 Some world-reformers married and forgot the universe in their families. 1952 B. Wolfe iv. 214 A ‘messianic complex’, an urge to be a ‘world-saver’. 2002 14 Oct. 173/3 They think of themselves as moralists and world-remakers. (b) 1842 E. Bulwer-Lytton ii. vii. 183 He was, to use the expressive German phrase, a world-betterer! 1875 W. Cory (1897) 376 One should..try to be an improver, a ‘world-betterer’ (Cambridge slang of my time). 1896 L. A. Tollemache (ed. 2) 118 That ardent world-betterer T. H. Green. 1996 E. Alexander ii. 15 Any nurse who ever lifted a bedpan has done more for tikkun olam than all these world-betterers listed by Fein. 1741 T. Francklin tr. Cicero i. 16 Now I would demand of you both, why these World-builders [L. mundi aedificatores] started up so suddenly, and lay dormant so many Ages? 1892 J. Tait (ed. 3) 158 Imaginary world-builders, like Mr. Spencer, lay their foundations in shallows. 1993 Jan. 15/1 Once you step Inside the Funhouse..you will see that the world-builders are just as weird as the worlds they build. 1832 T. Carlyle 1847 III. 155 We have looked at Goethe..chiefly as a world-changer. 1891 W. James 30 Jan. (1920) I. 305 Verily you are the stuff of which world-changers are made! 2000 A. Calcutt 50/1 So what makes The Beatles world-changers as well as best-sellers? 1582*Worldemaker [see Compounds 4a(a)]. 1674 N. Fairfax 138 I can't find in my heart to deny that skill to a World-maker, that I must needs give to a Watch-maker. a1730 N. Marshall (1731) III. ix. 242 He will not..pretend to be a World-maker without the Help of a Deity. 1871 R. B. Vaughan II. 678 Plato..who admitted a world-maker, and a Providence. 1995 K. Plummer i. iii. 35 They become myth-makers, story tellers, dreamers, definers of situations, scriptwriters, world-makers, producers of ‘programmes’ about their own sexual lives. 1852 3 Apr. 2/1 England did not come under the lash of that ill-natured world-traveller. 1934 43 540 The author of this book is an explorer, a world traveller, a mountaineer,..and finally a mystic. 2001 K. Izzo & C. Marsh (2002) 12 Having lived as single girls, party girls, married women, out-of-workniks, professionals, world travellers and fashion addicts, we knew the world. b. With verbal nouns. 1820 Dec. 346/1 After reviewing a variety of world-building theories, all of them cunningly devised,..he proceeds to sum up the case. 1900 24 Mar. 280/2 Those great epochal dramas..appeared to our fathers to be majestic monitors and memorials of world-building and fate-defying individualities. 1920 A. S. Eddington x. 160 It might seem that this kind of fantastic world-building can have little to do with practical problems. 2004 25 July 53/2 (advt.) George R.R. Martin's ‘A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)’, the first in a fantasy series that Ms. Brockway called ‘the best world-building since Noah crashed into Mount Ararat’. 1709 W. Oldisworth I. 12 No body understood the Trade of World-making so well, or had so good a set of Atoms as he had. a1776 D. Hume (1779) v. 61 A slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making. 1884 27 914 World-making as practiced by the Astronomers. 1990 D. Carrasco v. 126 These journeys involve..the three processes we have emphasized in this book: worldmaking, worldcentering, and worldrenewing. c. With present participles. ?1594 M. Drayton sig. K4v This gracious King..ouer mee a stately Tombe erected. Which world-deuouring Time, hath now out-worne, As but for Letters, were my name forlorne. 1603 J. Davies Extasie in 236 A Ladie..Cladd like a World-commanding Potentate. 1608 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas (new ed.) ii. iv. 131 World-tossing Tempest! a1644 F. Quarles (1645) xi. 54 Every one Takes pleasure in the world-rejoycing Sunne. 1702 C. Beaumont (new ed.) xvi. xci. 250 The World-alarming Trumpets. 1744 J. Thomson Summer in (new ed.) 126 The World-producing Essence, who alone Possesses Being. 1822 Ld. Byron iv. i. 410 A world-winning battle. 1851 G. Brimley (1858) ii. 107 Iron, of which world-subduing machines may be wrought. 1876 ‘G. Eliot’ IV. vii. lii. 51 A world-supporting elephant. 1887 G. M. Hopkins (1967) 70 And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder. 1895 K. Grahame 54 Rosa looked far away in a visionary, world-forgetting sort of way. 1909 G. K. Chesterton (ed. 2) iv. 92 We count on the ordinary course of things... We risk the remote possibility of a miracle as we do that of a poisoned pancake or a world-destroying comet. 1935 W. B. Yeats 68 What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived? 1961 W. Brandon ii. 55 They had no interest in the intellectual game of a complex world-devouring theogony. 1996 Summer 3 At times Hofmann's appetite for low lives and sad lives—a sort of nostalgie de la boue—combines the attractions of the nineteenth-century opium den with a world-knowing modern eye. 2006 9 Feb. 8/1 He wasn't an unpredictable and world-bestriding genius like Rembrandt. (b) 1877 10 Jan. 2/2 Marathon somewhat disappointed us, as does Mr. Mahaffy's low estimate of that world-altering fight. 1937 78 36/2 Even short memories can remember the Silly Decade, after the war, in which nearly everything that came out was hailed as a world-altering masterpiece. 1999 2 Aug. c11/4 But Mr. Gupta, at least, has no doubts about the world-altering potential of his system. 1886 3 Aug. With his world-beating, sun-dazzling show... Cole's colossal shows will arrive in Bismarck to-morrow morning. 1928 24 June 20/4 The way he flashed the passing shot wide of Higgs..was world-beating stuff. 1977 24 Sept. 15/1 The BBC..never became the really ‘world-beating station that I would like it to have been’. 2002 C. Llewellyn-Smith v. 113 And supermodel takes drugs was hardly a world-beating scoop in the first place. 1838 J. Mitchell 186 This charge..does not, like Kellerman's charge at Marengo, stand by itself as a world-changing event. 1876 ‘G. Eliot’ IV. vii. l. 12 The world-changing battle of Sadowa. 2001 S. Walton (2002) v. 202 When the world-changing investigations of Dr Serge Renaud into the so-called ‘French paradox’ were released,..the unit-rationing system was rather stopped in its tracks. 1638 R. Chamberlain sig. H2v That worthy Captain, world conquering great Alexander. 1756 15 Jan. (1823) No. 159 xxv. 100 Alexander's carcase, after his world-conquering spirit had left it. 1901 27 Dec. 5/4 Wartburg, whence Luther's song entered upon its world-conquering career. 2002 12 Oct. (Review section) 4/2 (heading) It took a cerebral leap of daring to transform a children's animated movie into a world-conquering stage show. 1603 J. Davies sig. Mm4v Thy World-contemning Thoughts. a1859 W. Watt (1860) 160 His rural weeds and matted hair, His musing, world-contemning air. 1997 H. A. Kelly (2000) ii. 90 Chaucer was doubtless being intentionally droll in giving these tragic and world-contemning stories to the worldly Monk. 1649 W. Cooper 2 This is to tell you how far the Lord Jehovah will engage for the rescuing of Jerusalem in distress, his wonder-working, and world creating power. 1753 H. Jones 10 Reveal, at once, thy mystic Stores to Sight, Thy World-creating Force, thy wond'rous Light. 1854 M. Evans tr. L. Feuerbach xxii. 218 The world-creating activity in itself negatives every determinate activity. 1995 Feb. 25/1 It comes as no surprise to learn that among human societies the belief in a world-creating and world-ending fire is nearly universal. 1603 J. Davies Extasie in 237 I tooke her for some World-despising Dame. 1835 T. S. Fay I. xiv. 138 The lover, the quiet, shrinking, world-despising lover—the haunter of brooks, the feeder of birds. 2002 D. Rodier in R. B. Harris ii. 196 They also both reject the world-despising attitude implicit in the image. ?1594*World-deuouring [see Compounds 4c(a)]. 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas ii. ii. 402 These stormy Seas deepe World-deuouring waues. 1702 C. Beaumont (new ed.) v. cxcix. 66 From Philip and his world-devouring Son. 1832 T. Carlyle Corn-Law Rhymes in July 355 A bodeful sound, like the rustle of approaching world-devouring tornadoes, quivers through their whole existence. 1938 D. Thomas Let. 1 June in (1966) 199 A world-devouring ghost creature bit out the horror of tomorrow from a gentleman's loins. 2006 C. Tripp v. 191 Others may simply be made to stand for the practices which capitalism has encouraged and has made an accelerated part of the ‘world-devouring’ nature of its onward momentum. 1871 C. P. Krauth 258 It overthrew the conception of the Church as a great world-dominating power. 1912 M. Booth tr. R. Eucken 396 Hence arose the immorality of the Renaissance, a chief reason for its collapse as a world-dominating power. 1997 12 May 40/2 Dispelling Internet images of a black-helicopter, world-dominating U.N., he cheerfully insists that Americans support the organization. 1728 J. Thomson 46 'Tis Harmony, that World-embracing Power, By which all Beings are adjusted. 1807 J. Barlow iv. 155 The world-embracing scope That prompts his genius and expands his hope. 1848 R. I. Wilberforce (1852) ii. 18 The world-embracing benefits of his [sc. Abraham's] seed. 1991 M. Gullan-Whur ii. 120 A spaced-out signature..shows a forward-reaching, world-embracing attitude with nothing to hide or fear. 1730 W. Hatchett p. vii Then Britons,..Where-e'er appears the World-encircling Sun, Vie with your neighbouring Nation's loud Applause. 1827 J. Keble I. xxix. 116 The world-encircling sun. 1976 S. Judson et al. i. 5/1 Early in his career he [sc. Darwin] served for five years as the naturalist on H.M.S. Beagle on its world-encircling voyage. 1805 3 60/1 The majestic Thames, with the ideas of world-encompassing commerce and empire which that winding forest of masts is adapted to excite. 1999 4 Nov. 41/3 It is not easy to bring the welcoming of complete, world-encompassing variety into harmony with another strongly expressed wish. 1850 18 Dec. It is impossible to estimate the changes which the establishment of world-girdling telegraphs would develope within a few years. 1934 A. Woollcott 93 Twenty such world-girdling tales. 1992 D. Morgan iii. xx. 369 She had reason to believe that the Fresno contingent did not approve of her tight skirts, dyed hair, and world-girdling life-style as an airline employee. 1899 3 Dec. The great exposition is represented today in the toy department of California's great world-leading merchants. 1918 18 Dec. 613/2 What should be said of a world-leading democracy wherein ten per cent of the adult population cannot read the laws which they are presumed to know? 2008 3 May 81 (advt.) A taught M.Sc Programme in NanoBio Science with contributions from world-leading scientists in the field. 1671 J. Eachard 26 For all that, these pale and world-renouncing Saints, should..religiously suck down a Pint or two of Malaga. 1717 T. Lewis 16 Sept. 274 The spiritualiz'd Weaver, the Self-denying Cobler, and the World-renouncing Tinker. 1881 Dec. 210/1 We seem to be in an enchanted house, haunted by the spirits of the solitary brethren and the world-renouncing sisters. a1963 C. S. Lewis (1964) iii. 47 A world-renouncing, ascetic, and mystical character then marked the most eminent Pagans. 2003 M. Meyer v. 76 Before turning to a discussion of such themes as these, we first should observe that they find their place within the generally ascetic, world-renouncing message of the Gospel of Thomas. 1608 Bp. J. King 2 In remembrance of his..world-sauing passion the price of our soules. 1851 R. S. Foster 10 When her hearts, and hands, and means, and influences, are all devoted to God and his cause, her aggressive movements will be mighty, will be world-saving. 2004 Q Sept. 164/3 There's a foursome of disparate characters on a world-saving quest—warrior, scout, magician and gadgeteer. 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas ii. ii. 402 World-shaking Father. 1824 July 16/1 Unless, indeed, some awful world-shaking revolution shall peradventure pass once more over the races of mankind. 1893 Dec. 36/1 The..tragic and world-shaking events which are associated with the history of the..Parliament of Great Britain. 1954 W. Lewis viii. 121 Events of the last twenty years which Robert Kerridge looks upon as world shaking, would not look like that to me. 2003 J. Bowden tr. H. Küng iii. 80 He sharply admonished us to observe particular rules, and preached against world-shaking bad habits like closing lift doors loudly. 1834 T. De Quincey S. T. Coleridge in Sept. 515/1 He was called..the alles-zermalmender , the world-shattering Kant. 1983 M. Hinxman ii. 14 He was probably in the middle of some world-shattering story and wouldn't thank her for the interruption. 1793 W. Russell I. iii. 218 The world-surrounding Neptune, emerging from the depth of his main, urged the Argives to battle and blood. 1945 V. Watkins 26 Catch world-surrounding light and music, reel, Traffic with spun looms, all the mysteries Of the sped seas. d. 1692 J. Evelyn Let. 29 Aug. in S. Pepys (1926) I. 59 I have ben philosophising and world-despising in the solitudes of this place. C5. Instrumental. 1596 C. M. vi. sig. F Children, whose pleasing presence might recreate the melancholie dispositions of their world wearied minds. 1602 W. Warner (rev. ed.) xii. lxxi. 296 Of world-admired Drake..And his braue breeder Hawkins. 1775 17 I will tread..for a delicious repast to the world-wearied wanderer they yield. 1812 G. Crabbe xix. 349 World-entangled men! 1847 A. Helps I. vi. 91 How often has fiction made us sympathize..with the world-despised. 1860 A. Trollope II. xii. 249 That dry time-worn world-used London lawyer. 1861 76 281 Such a world-forgotten village as Raveloe. 1912 T. Hardy (rev. ed.) Pref. p. x An influential article..printed in a world-read journal. 1932 W. B. Yeats 15 Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveller; he Served human liberty. 1941 I. L. Idriess iv. 29 This man's dream was to become a peaceful and world-forgotten patriarch. 1946 Oct. 200 (advt.) ‘Sunnyside’, house of America's first world-recognized man of letters, Washington Irving, is now under the same management as Philipse Castle. 1999 Mar. 38 (caption) The paleontologist has amassed a world-recognized collection of Beringian bones, enough to fill a vast room at the Canadian Museum of Nature. b. 1596*World wearied [see Compounds 5a]. 1599 W. Shakespeare v. iii. 112 This world wearied flesh. View more context for this quotation 1793 G. Butt II. 42 Where the world-wearied flesh of human race Sleeps in sepulchral bed, and holy ground. 1838 E. Bulwer-Lytton I. ii. vi. 193 It was..this singular purity of heart, that made to the world-wearied man the chief charm in Evelyn Cameron. 1922 Feb. 265/2 With a frowning countenance Taiko approached the tea-room under the world-wearied trees by the solitary granite lantern. 2006 J. Strausbaugh 2007 ix. 308 Privileged, young, idiotic, slumming White boys meet poor, aged, world-wearied, slum-dwelling Black man. 1758 VI. 266 Reflection's daughters, sad and world-worn thoughts. 1842 H. E. Manning xxi. 310 The wearied and world-worn spirit. 1911 H. James Let. 2 Dec. in H. James & E. Wharton (1990) iv. 201 Poor dear little world-worn Mitou, qui avait vu tant de choses with those wise, those so disillusioned old eyes of his. 2008 (Nexis) 29 Feb. 4 Borges consistently sounds more world-worn and wise than her age could possibly allow. C6. Similative. (Chiefly literary and poetic.) 1837 A. Bradstreet in Ld. Northampton 133 'Twas Ocean's lowest bed of snow-white sand, Beaten by the world-deep billows into hard And marbled smoothness. 1920 J. C. Powys iv. 84 The complex vision becomes false to itself as soon as it loses touch with this world-deep irrationality. 1837 T. Carlyle I. i. ii. 14 And so,..did this of Royalty,..grow mysteriously,..till it also had grown world-great. 1900 85 832/1 Shakespeare..was ‘world-wide’, while Dante was ‘world-deep’ and ‘world-high’. 1842 H. E. Manning i. 18 Then shall..the world-long growth and gathering of this awful mystery be accomplished. 1934 J. Wisdom i. viii. 123 This form of the Law of Causation is not reconcilable with the finite, though world-long, series of internal determinations. the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > ancient or of early origin 1837 T. Carlyle in Jan. 3/2 Let him but paint it in its actual truth, as it swims there, in such environment; world-old, yet new, and never ending. 1875 J. R. Lowell Wordsworth in (1890) IV. 357 The world-old question of matter and form. 1901 F. Norris ii. i. 307 It was the world-old war between Freedom and Tyranny. 1951 H. C. Goddard xxix. 549 Shakespeare has over and over indicated his adherence to the world-old view that age..coupled with a good life, brings insight and truth. C7. In other adverbial uses. a. With the sense ‘from, to, or towards the world’, ‘in, about, or over the world’, ‘to the end of the world’. (a) 1886 F. Harrison 52 The world-wide and world-abiding masterpieces. 1832 H. Smith I. 115 A becoming awe..tended still farther to elevate a countenance so eminently etherealized by a pervading character of intellect and world-abstracted thought. 1898 i. 7 A world-abstracted monk in his solitary cell. 1999 N. Rescher (rev. ed.) x. 164 Natural science does not address itself to some world-abstracted realm of its own. 1797 T. Park 9 My world-bound bark must course an hardier way. 1884 J. Parker II. 264 He saw us world-bound. 2003 H. Lenk ii. 26 Action is in principle world-bound, world impregnated. 1822 302 World-lasting monuments shall rear, That shall endure, till Christ himself appear. 1851 G. Brimley (1858) ii. 107 No marble of which world-lasting statue..may be hewn. 1849 Jan. 22 This was the Pharos of his teaching, the luminous point which led the world-lost soul into the haven of assured peace and conscious adoption. 1941 T. Wolfe iii. 235 He abandoned finally the world-lost fastnesses of Zebulon for the more urban settlement of Libya Hill. 1757 VI. xci. 111 A covetous and world-minded man, when it comes to the trial, is in great danger of quitting his religion. 1945 G. Murphy xvi. 241 What we mean by world-minded education. We mean education for intelligent world citizenship. 2006 C. Tudda ii. 38 The EPC attributed ten characteristics to the world-minded American which bear repeating here. 1886 225 Smith (Eunice)..Some Arguments against World-mindedness [1791 worldly-mindedness]: by way of a dialogue. 1926 Apr. 190 Character is not a cause of world-mindedness, it is a result of world-mindedness and many other attributes. 2001 L. M. Healy vii. 167 New values of world-mindedness and global social work competence must evolve to position the profession for assuming its responsibilities in the global era. 1757 J. Dyer i. 28 Inferior theirs to man's world-roving frame. 1879 J. Kindon 81 O mystery of mysteries, Unvisited By our world-roving reason. 2002 C. Veeser i. 15 The Improvement Company represented the Gilded Age going abroad rather than the cutting edge of a new, aggressive, world-roving finance capitalism. 1612 M. Drayton x. 163 Those poore world-wandring men. 1820 P. B. Shelley i. i. 35 Jove's world-wandering herald, Mercury. 1914 H. James Let. 17 Oct. in H. James & E. Wharton (1990) vi. 313 His way of life, in such a condition, I mean his world-wandering, is all incomprehensible to me. 2000 Jan. 95/1 How does world-wandering soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa stay in tune? (b) c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme xlix. 1 in (1998) II. 44 World-dwellers all. 1868 3 91/2 That deep, still realm of feeling and phantasy which so few comparatively of world-dwellers ever enter. 2003 (Nexis) 21 Oct. 9 a Amnesty International, UNESCO, and other similar organizations don't always get ‘play’ in the press, but these groups care about our fellow world dwellers. b. With the sense ‘over the whole world’, ‘to all the world’. See also world-famous adj. at Compounds 8. 1841 F. H. Hedge 6 All those virtues which flowered in Athenian and Roman history and which embalm the memory of their world-famed men. 1911 Mar. p. I A/2 (advt.) The World Famed ‘Angelus’ Player-Piano. 1993 H. Jacobson xiii. 292 While the others gather for marriage, she retires to a remote corner of her own where she performs the world-famed Prestwich giving-with-one-hand-and-taking-with-the-other plate dance. 1845 S. Phillips tr. I. M. Hahn-Hahn (ed. 2) xxxiii. 151/2 Father Jean Battiste, the worldly-wise and the world-familiar..had happily fulfilled his mission in Paris. 2004 D. McClelland xi World-Familiar Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies. 1839 P. J. Bailey 187 World-known for strangest powers. 1944 M. B. Carroll in H. E. Davis 172 The League first appointed a committee of four world-known economists to examine the problem. 1615 T. Adams 48 Monstrous and world-noted wickednesse. 1858 M. C. Clarke (title) World-noted women: or, types of womanly attributes of all lands and ages. 1912 T. Hardy An influential article..printed in a world-read journal. 1921 Feb. 153 What remains of Grotius, in his lifetime the world-read well-read Arminian theologian? 1596 M. Drayton sig. D4v What time I came from world-renowned Rome. 1831 Carlyle in Oct. 372 The wild, deep, and now world-renowned, Legend of Faust, belongs to a somewhat later date. 2003 S. Brown 93 He wrote to world-renowned Yeatsian researchers..about this marvelous missing poem. 1886 W. J. Tucker 233 Your world-spread language. 1938 20 Aug. 542/3 There are some who believe that broadcasting and all the possible improvements in the technique of world-spread entertainment by electric waves will produce an art of their own. c. With the sense ‘of or in regard to the world’. a1640 W. Fenner (1642) iii. 44 May be thine affections are so strong set on the world, that thou hast been world-sick. 1836 J. H. Newman et al. 222 World-sick, to turn within and image there Some idol dream. 1902 W. James vi. 143 Stoicism and Epicureanism will probably be to all time typical attitudes, marking a certain definite stage accomplished in the evolution of the world-sick soul. 2003 F. Mathewes-Green in L. Sweet 172 We are sick, world-sick, self-sick, and even our ability to comprehend our sickness is damaged. 1818 Nov. 464/2 Amid the many forms that daily flit Before, my world-tired view, have I essayed To realize this image of the soul. 1901 16 Nov. 701/1 Judging him from his somber thoughts, one would imagine Maeterlinck to be a world-tired hermit who had fathomed the depth of all human woe. 2005 S. Ruos xvi. 201 The whistlelike calls of birds sounded like..a serenade of nature to half the world-tired people. d. With the sense ‘around the world’ (cf. round-the-world adj.). 1882 27 May 519/2 The Ceylon, in the course of her round-the-world cruise, reached Manila on February 17th.] 1910 15 Nov. 5/1 Of these vessels, the flagship and the Vermont are sisters to the Connecticut, and with her they took part in the world cruise. 1933 N. Coward ii. iii That world cruise was a fatal mistake. 1977 A. C. H. Smith iv. 54 Let's take a world cruise. 2001 K. Sampson (2002) 33 I don't know what I'd do. Knock her out. Take her on a world cruise. 1836 17 268 The title of the present work, ‘Penultimate World Tour’, indicates that the ultimate tour is yet to come. 1910 17 Jan. 8/6 Mr. Crooks, the Labour candidate, arrived in London on Saturday night from his world tour, and was received both at Charing-cross and at Woolwich with much enthusiasm. 1948 ‘La Meri’ viii. 95 By the time Argentina made her first world tour (1929), concert dancing was a ‘fait accompli’. 1971 ‘G. Black’ v. 84 A very slow world tour from which he returned with reluctance. 2005 Feb. 44/1 If rumours currently setting the woods alight prove to be true then the Rolling Stones are about to announce another world tour, to commence either in late 2005 or early 2006. 1884 R. F. Burton Introd. p. xiii Their recklessness of all consequences soared worlds-high above the various egotistic systems. C8. the world > the universe > [noun] 1847 J. D. Morell (ed. 2) I. ii. 369 Fichte founded a subjective idealism in which the me was the world-all. 1926 R. G. Bury tr. Plato II. 363 All things are ordered systematically by Him who cares for the World-all with a view to the preservation and excellence of the whole. the mind > language > a language > [noun] > artificial or invented language 1927 E. S. Pankhurst v. 49 The world-auxiliary, used by everyone as a second language, will obviate the need for any other language save the native one. 1948 21 317 Thus the regional language of Indonesia would be Malay, although French would be taught as a world auxiliary. 1993 A. Burgess in 24 Apr. k2 The fact that English has become a world auxiliary is no evidence that it is a better language than Basque or Finnish; its global spread is the result of an historic accident which is based on a fact of geography. 1984 Sept. 192 He concocts his world beat in Austin at Earth and Sky Studios. 1986 (Nexis) 30 Mar. c6 Muldaur..has begun experimenting with another style, ‘world beat’, which she says is a ‘synthesis of African, Caribbean, Latino and funk’. 2002 P. V. Bohlman i. 17 Perhaps no other worldbeat star has better represented the crossroads of traditional and postmodern myths of world music. the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > [noun] > one who or that which is successful > one who > one who wins > an animal, plant, etc. 1860 Nov. 347/1 One cow, named the World Beater, weighed 2,100 lbs., and a Durham ox went up to 2,800 lbs. 1892 Feb. 432/1 In a principal street is a characteristic sign product, ‘My fifteen-cent meals are world-beaters’. 1965 ‘W. Haggard’ i. 1 Over-publicized world beaters which mysteriously disintegrated. 2003 A. Sparks xi. 236 They had so much heart and were so bright. I realized that these kids could be world beaters if they were given a chance. 1949 Jan. 64/3 The British car of today is now genuinely a world car, as suitable for the smooth roads of Britain as for the much rougher conditions of many other territories. 1972 25 Aug. iii. 8/3 A world car, one that could be marketed worldwide with common components and interchangeable parts, would be a sound idea. 1998 Mar. 8/2 Renault could be the next European manufacturer to opt for Latin America as its production base for a world car. society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [noun] > chief town or capital city > cosmopolitan 1848 J. W. Corson App. i. 323 This brings us to..London. Fearful as was the picture drawn of juvenile depravity in Edinburgh, it scarcely reaches in fullness the living one of this world-city. 1933 May 118/1 Mr. James Stevens' article..gives an exaggerated idea of the importance of John Pennell's brothel in the development of Seattle into a world city. 2004 5 Mar. (West End Final ed.) (ES Mag.) 37/1 London may be a great world city, but living here does have a few inconveniences. OE Ælfric 1st Let. to Wulfstan (Corpus Cambr. 201) in B. Fehr (1914) 130 Warniað nu eac, ic bidde, þæt ge beon beteran and wisran on eowrum gastlican cræfte to Cristes þenungum,..þonne þa worldmen sindon on heora worldcræftum. a1681 U. Oakes (1682) 12 Many a man hath this world-craft that yet is a man of no deep or solid Understanding. 1840 A. Strickland I. 87 William Rufus..had an abundant share of world-craft, and well knew how to adapt himself to his father's humour. 1915 G. W. Ogden ix. 143 He was not schooled in worldcraft far enough to raise the point. society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > separation or isolation > [adjective] > separated from the rest of the world the world > space > distance > distance or farness > [adjective] > remote, apart, or separate 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas ii. i. 359 Much more, let us (deere World-deuided Land) Extoll the mercies of Heau'ns mighty hand. 1743 P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace II. iii. v. 3 Since world-divided Britain owns his sway. 1899 Mar. 75 Races world-divided in their range and their social conceptions. OE (2008) 3083 Þæt he ne grette goldweard þone, lete hyne licgean þær he longe wæs, wicum wunian oð woruldende. a1425 (a1400) (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 5142 (MED) Ihesu Crist þat here es uptane Fra yhow til heven, with flessch and bane, Swa sal he com at þe world ende. 1685 23 Be Antichristian and Persecuting to the World end. 1896 R. Kipling (Ded.) p. vii I was born in her gate..Where the world-end steamers wait. 1907 Sept. 315/2 From world-end to world-end I go,..searching wistfully for something vaguely desired. 2003 K. G. Powderly x. 128 I say let them all burn or drown at world-end! society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > exposure to public view > an exhibition > [noun] > types of 1851 Apr. 123/2 Here is one of my last efforts: it will help to leaven the mass of Mammonism in next Spring's World Fair. 1899 C. Stumpf Let. 8 Sept. in R. B. Perry (1935) II. 193 The tumult of a world fair—even the thought of it makes me nervous! 1978 P. Boardman vi. 179 A brief..account of the city [sc. Paris]..from pre-Roman times up to the greatest of world fairs. 2001 Sept. 117/1 William Gibson's imagined Japan was not the shiny future-perfect of yesterday's world fairs. 1832 T. Carlyle in 34 510 How many world-famous victories were gained and lost. 1873 J. A. Symonds xi. 373 One who made the insignificant place of his origin world-famous. 1958 S. Gibbons 222 I shall laugh like a drain if she's world-famous in another five years or so. 2003 F. McAuslan & M. Norman (ed. 2) 25/2 Don't visit Cuba assuming that the country's world-famous free health service extends to foreign visitors. 1860 J. Bleasdell tr. C. Ullmann xi. 67 If Heathenism begets its nature after a distracting worldly manner, and Judaism carries the danger in itself of a life eradicating world-flight, so Christianity gives the Spirit from God. 1910 T. C. Hall viii. ix. 551 The ethics of Pietism shared with monasticism and Puritanism an element of world-flight. 1995 D. W. Stott tr. U. H. J. Körtner iii. 101 World denial may tend toward world flight and the formation of conventicles. OE tr. Bede (Corpus Oxf.) iii. iii. 160 Eall þa woruldgod þa þe him fram cyningum & fram weligum mannum þysse worulde gegyfene wæron, sona he þa gyfende [read gifeonde] þearfum rehte & sealde, þa þe him togenes coman. a1450 in (1902) 109 60 (MED) If þu welde þi wordel goodes..þis is þe beste Euere more to þank god of al. a1450 in (1902) 109 61 Þis wordel good xuld in cres and eche man kynde wold be and partyn a bowtyn of here ryches to hem þat arn in pouerte. 1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch 32 Many times Poets abuse this word, calling a man blessed and happie, who is rich in world goods. the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > metaphysics > [noun] > cosmology > reality or principle that underlies the world 1853 W. Pulsford tr. J. Müller III. iv. 139 This primitive essence is the world itself, of course not as this complex whole of finite things, but as immanent principle of the world, as impersonal world-ground [Ger. Weltgrund]. 1898 W. James in July 424 The world is evidently more complex than we are accustomed to think it, the ‘absolute world-ground’, in particular, being farther off (as Mr. F. C. S. Schiller has well pointed out) than it is the wont either of the usual empiricisms or of the usual idealisms to think it. 1948 1 121 The most that science, working with its concepts of causation on a different level, can offer is a world-ground, or mind-energy at work in the world. 2005 R. Bernet et al. 199 Dogmatic metaphysics agrees in principle with the critical philosophy..in positing the relationship of world and world-ground (or the origin-relation) as a ‘transcendent’ relation between the world on one hand and the world-ground on the other. the world > health and disease > [noun] > good health > state of being conducive to > organization 1945 8 Sept. 12/3 The World Health organization, of which Uncle Sam is a member. 1946 28 June 9/1 The vanquished nations..with their large health problems, have acute need of the World Health Organization that the United Nations is creating. 1967 70 645/2 The nomenclature for the immunoglobulins approved by World Health Organization is used. 1977 7 Apr. 3/2 All the more horrendous, then, are the statistics which the World Health Organisation has published to publicise World Health Day, which falls today (7 April). 1991 9 Mar. 573/1 We have identified children..who fulfilled the World Health Organisation definition of CM [cerebral malaria]—ie, they were unable to localise pain, had peripheral parasitaemia, and other causes of coma were excluded. 2000 M. Barrowcliffe i. 7 He tells me I meet the World Health Organisation definition of promiscuous. I tell him he meets the World Health Organisation definition of ‘loser’. 1980 12 July e16/4 The spot, already a national historic park, was the first chosen from 12 possible World Heritage Sites by a special committee of UNESCO. 1993 11 Nov. 11/5 Sect members earlier entered the cathedral—the city's biggest tourist attraction and a Unesco World Heritage site—and let off chemical fire extinguishers. 2007 29 June 28/1 Since 2003, Ubeda has been designated a World Heritage Site, principally for its Renaissance monuments. the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [adjective] > of types of history 1853 2 890 World-historic individuals (to use Hegel's phrase) are those in whom the great world-historic idea is embodied. 1871 J. D. McCabe vi. 243 When I..now see this world-historic act completed, I bow myself before God. 1920 J. E. Courtney 164 Huxley hated humbug of every kind, world-historic or individual. 2005 R. Hirschbein 27 Those world-historic dramas known as international crises do not always bring out the best in decision-makers. the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [adjective] > of types of history 1822 S. T. Coleridge (1990) IV. §4858 Still true to grand Mundane or world-historical distinction. 1879 ‘G. Eliot’ xiv. 255 Something truly Roman and world-historical. 1941 A. St. James tr. S. Zweig 19 Amidst this tumult of passions, such a world-historical event as the discovery of Brazil passes almost unnoticed. 2002 J. Cartwright vi. 44 These forces were world-historical in nature, such as religious persecution, or more mundane, such as bankruptcy. the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [noun] > branches or types of history 1833 T. Carlyle in July 272 This is what someone names ‘the grand sacred Epos, or Bible of World-History’. 1902 Dec. 1006 A philosophy of history and civilisation..which holds its ground as the basis both of World-history and Christian theology. 1966 F. Schurmann i. 50 The Chinese Communists speak of the forces of world history which are universal and cosmic. 2000 21 Sept. 69/2 World history, like world government, is a self-undermining project, shackled by the burden of expectations that it raises. OE (2008) 3180 Cwædon þæt he [sc. Beowulf] wære wyruldcyning [a] manna mildust ond mon[ðw]ærust, leodum liðost ond lofgeornost. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 3154 Hæfde þas wise quene bi hire weoreld-kinge ænne lutelne sune. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 3661 Freoliche we hit haldeð wið alle weoruld-kingen [c1300 Otho worle-kingen]. 1838 July 104 Thus departs Beowulf, the Sea-Goth; of the world-kings the mildest to men. 1863 R. Jamieson et al. II. 627 The gathering of the world-kings with the beast against the Lamb is the signal for Christ's coming. 1977 C. Hauch tr. J. Markale 112 The Celts had never been able to achieve this perfect world..but the myth of a world king [Fr. roi du monde] was common to many of them. 1992 R. F. Hardin 41 Conflicts between the world-king and the heavenly king..develop the Augustinian theme of the two kingdoms, not the supposed sacredness of earthly monarchy. the mind > language > a language > [noun] > international universal language 1855 R. C. Trench i. 39 In truth the English language..may with all right be called a world-language. 1867 W. D. Whitney xii. 469 If we expect..that our tongue become one day a world-language, understood and employed on every continent.., then it is our bounden duty [etc.]. 1889 24 Aug. 256/3 The two classical and four great modern ‘world-languages’. 1921 E. P. Foster (title) Roap. English key to Ro, the World Language. 1962 27 Sept. 467/1 The more pidginised the language becomes, obviously the less useful English can be as a world language. 2002 D. M. Taylor ii. 26 The dichotomous division into English and non-English does not capture the fact for some groups non-English refers to a world language such as, for example, Japanese. 1837 Jan. 391 We say not the life and business of a statesman and world-leader, but say of the poorest laceman and tape-seller. 1910 95 Sweden stands next to Russia, the world leader, in wood exports. 1945 Mar. 107/3 Heroically scaled individuals are wanting among the world leaders of today. 1999 May 7/3 Stork is a world leader in textile printing and pre-print solutions. 2006 (National ed.) 13 July a23 (advt.) ‘Energy security’ is on the agenda of world leaders gathering this week for the G-8 Summit. the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > present life OE (Julius) 29 July 162 Ond he self lifde on gneaðum woroldlife for Gode: an tunece wæs his gegerela, ond þæt wæs hæren; ond beren hlaf wæs his gereorde. OE (1932) ciii. 33 And þa fyrenfullan frecne forweorðaþ.., þæt hio ne wunian on worldlife. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 2980 All þiss weorelld lif iss full Off sinness þeossterrnesse. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 16012 Þu uindest ænne pape..he þe scal scriuen of þine weorld-lifen. 1840 tr. W. Menzel in Feb. 157/1 Beyond these limits, however, are spread immeasurable space and infinite time, and in them reigns an inexhaustible world-life [Ger. Weltleben]. 1949 R. M. French tr. N. Berdyaev ix. 129 Emancipation from slavery, that is the fundamental fact of world life. 2005 W. James viii. 305 During these three and a half centuries a complete transformation of world-life had been effected. the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > theoretical scientific philosophy > [noun] > spatialism > elements of the world > matter > physics > relativity > space-time > [noun] > point in > succession occupied by particle 1914 20 Nov. 725/1 Every point in space, even if at rest, describes a world line, which may be referred to and is contained between the two extremities of the time axis. 1962 27 Dec. 1095/3 Objects which appear to be responding to the pull of gravity..are simply following the shortest available world-line through the space-time continuum. 1992 K. S. Robinson (1993) ii. 50 In human affairs, individual world lines form a thick tangle, curling out of the darkness of prehistory and stretching through time. 2003 M. Roos (ed. 3) ii. 28 A body at a fixed location in space follows a world line parallel to the time axis and, of course, in the direction of increasing time. society > leisure > the arts > literature > [noun] > recognized throughout the world society > leisure > the arts > literature > [noun] > recognized throughout the world > sum of 1831 Carlyle in 105 179 Instead of isolated, mutually repulsive National Literatures, a World Literature may one day be looked for? 1908 P. E. More V. 140 Longfellow brought from Germany the ideal of a world literature which should absorb the best of all lands. 1949 R. Wellek & E. A. Warren v. 41 The term ‘world literature’, a translation of Goethe's Weltliteratur, is perhaps needlessly grandiose. 1963 44 148 He has noted the widespread occurrence of the bond-story of The Merchant of Venice in world-literature. 2006 M. Dirda Pref. p. xiii Early on I found myself reading just about anything that came my way, from Green Lantern comics to the great classics of world literature. OE Ælfric (Royal) (1997) xxxiv. 472 Se cwyrnstan þe tyrnð singallice & nænne færeld ne þurhtihð getacnað woruldlufe. 1637 S. Rutherford Let. 4 Jan. in (1671) 205 Pride, & self love, & Idol-love, & world-love. 1870 W. Warren vi. xxii. 354 This world-love is the opposite of love for this world, in the common and natural sense. 1975 K. Wright tr. V. Solovyev & M. Scheler iv. 152 [His conception]..is very like Solovyev's ‘world-love’ flowing out of the ground root of a similarly ‘organological view of the world’. 1934 9 33 It may seem at first sight that if we construct a world-model with the same relation of each particle to the rest, then it must extend indefinitely through infinite space. 1970 1 225 The next scene analyzer will have to include a new class of objects called ‘doors’ and will make a richer use of the robot's world model. 1981 A. Kent et al. XXXI. 39 Although the world model cannot be altered by the LS [sc. learning system] that uses it, the designer can alter its contents in order to improve LS performance. 2002 (Royal Soc.) A. 360 2092 The under-acknowledged role of X-ray astronomy in defining the cosmological world model to which we have been led. society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > pop music > [noun] > other pop music 1969 June 96 The music of Pharoah Sanders..is a laudable mixture of Arab folk-music, rhythm and blues elements, and ‘avant-garde jazz’. Tauhid is..a record of particular distinction, it is an excellent showcase for a maturing creative talent and an exploration of communicative world music. 1980 (Nexis) 3 Jan. b2 Keith Terry, the drummer for the group, also plays with the Berkeley Gamelan, an Indonesian percussion ensemble, and brings his knowledge of world music, especially rhythm, to the group. 1987 24 Oct. 19/5 ‘World music’, a loose generic term invented to describe popular music from all over the globe that doesn't already fall into an existing category such as jazz, rock, reggae. 1991 (U.K. ed.) b6/2 The one ‘world music’ Brits do have admiration for is Bhangra and Asian pop, since it reminds them of late night delights in Indian restaurants. 2002 P. V. Bohlman i. 13 The complex aesthetic embeddedness of world music is one of the ways in which it differs radically from Western music. the world > relative properties > order > [noun] > established order or system > in the or a world 1797 tr. J. S. Beck ii. ii. 265 He hopes too, that nature, contemplated as a whole and in relation to its substratum, is a moral world-order. 1846 R. C. Trench Introd. v. 68 There is a nobler world-order than that in which we live and move. 1894 H. Drummond 38 The Struggle for the Life of Others..[is] engrained in the world-order as profoundly as the Struggle for Life. 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ x. 190 The world-order which he has known begins to crumble. 2006 Aug. 84/2 Globe-trotting terrorists are a bigger threat to the world order than hostile nations are. 1988 (Nexis) 19 Feb. (heading) Science writer's worldphone prediction is achievable. 1998 (U.K. ed.) 7 July 19/3 The Swedish telco plans to launch a ‘world phone’ that will allow subscribers to roam between Europe and North America next year. 2006 Nov. 148/1 (advt.) An ultra-sleek, full-featured world phone exclusively from T-Mobile. the world > matter > physics > relativity > space-time > [noun] > point in the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > theoretical scientific philosophy > [noun] > spatialism > elements of 1914 L. Silberstein v. 129 Minkowski calls a space-point at an instant of time..a world-point. 1975 R. Adler et al. (ed. 2) iv. 122 An event is a point in four-space: a world-point. 2007 48 053507–2 Two world points are simultaneous if the time-lapse between them is zero. society > authority > rule or government > politics > [adjective] > relating to types of politics 1915 20 Aug. 5/7 In that direction German energy will find its long-marked-out and natural goal and its world-political success. 1936 30 Nov. 12/4 (Report of speech by H. Hess) He [sc. Hitler] had lessened this grave, permanent danger to the nation by an act of such world-political significance as the anti-Comintern alliance concluded between Germany and Japan. 1958 S. Spender vii. 133 He was the first world-political, international, intellectual man. 2002 K. J. Christiano et al. iii. ix. 267 When the state-of-Israel concept was discussed in political circles, it was not advanced as a religious cause but an efficient political solution to a world-political problem of refugee peoples. society > authority > rule or government > politics > politician > [noun] > concerned with specific types or branches 1898 3 Dec. 11/4 To use a German expression now much in vogue amongst his fellow-countrymen,..he was never a Welt-politiker—a world-politician. 1905 27 May 3/2 Our Future is on the Sea? Critical Inquiries and Deductions by a German World Politician. 2003 M. Power vi. 117 Much has been written about the emergence of a ‘Third Way’ among many contemporary world politicians such as Tony Blair. society > authority > rule or government > politics > [noun] > branches of politics 1857 24 Mar. 12/4 With such agencies abroad it is no wonder that the American name suffers, and its influences in world-politics flags. 1905 24 June 4/3 The considerable measure of success which the Kaiser's intervention in Morocco has attained is an instructive lesson in the solidarity of world-politics. 1951 J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) 160 The place in ‘world politics’ of the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts of will,..forgotten in the places of the Wise and Great (good as well as evil). 2003 S. Sandler in E. Karsh IV. 304 With the end of the Cold War, the world-politics approach has evolved into what came to be known as institutionalism. 1956 19 Dec. 22/1 He is arranging for a Jan. 15 title bout between the Orient featherweight champion..and [the] world ranked featherweight contender. 2008 (Nexis) 26 July 43 Former world-ranked player Chris Small, who had to quit the game due to a serious spinal condition, coaches, advises and guides Leslie. 1921 A. B. Maurice tr. A. Demangeon iii. 67 Japanese..production of steamers increased from 49,000 tons (average of 1910–1914), to..490,000 in 1918, a world-ranking of third. 1922 18 Sept. 11/4 The result will undoubtedly be to place Tilden, Johnston and Richards once more Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in a world ranking. 1933 1 Aug. 8/4 Austin and Perry are right up there close to the top in world rankings. 1996 (Nexis) 3 June 12 Spain... FIFA world ranking: 6. 2000 Mar. 24/3 (heading) A series of competitions across Europe that brought her name to the top end of the world rankings. the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective] > very excellent or first-rate 1921 22 May 14/1 During the past year there has been more good music heard in this city than at any other period of time, tho quite some years ago world ranking artists made appearances from time to time. 1970 19 Aug. 10/4 Here in Britain we have two world-ranking centres of radio astronomy. 2008 R. Leleux ii. 16 She had contempt for men, and didn't trust women, and I was a world-ranking sissy, and we were both isolated out on Nana and Papa's ranch. society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > change 1832 T. Carlyle (1881) I. 60 The great world-revolutions send in their disturbing billows to the remotest creek. 1911 G. Elliot Smith i. 6 The great world-revolution inaugurated by the advent of the Age of Metals. 2007 C. Chase-Dunn & E. Reese in K. Sehm-Patomaki & M. Ulvila iv. 55 World revolutions occur when local and national revolutions bunch together in time, and result in transformations of the institutions of global governance. OE (1992) xviii. 303 Þæt he næfre nænigum woruldricum men ne cyninge sylfum þurh lease olihtunge swiðor onbugan wolde þonne hit riht wære. OE 113 Magon we nu geheran [secg]gean be [sumum welegum men] & worldricum; ahte he on þysse worlde mycelne welan & swiðe modelico gestreon & manigfealde. a1425 (?a1387) W. Langland (Huntington HM 143) (1978) C. xvi. 16 Ȝut is wynter for hem [sc. the poor] worse, for weet-shoed þey gone, Afurste and afyngered and foule rebuked Of this world-ryche men. OE (1942) 219 Ic wylle mine æþelo eallum gecyþan, þæt ic wæs on Myrcon miccles cynnes; wæs min ealda fæder Ealhelm haten, wis ealdorman, woruldgesælig.] c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 5508 Þa comen to-somne weorld-seli men. society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > game > series 1886 22 Nov. 8/1 Every one of the St. Louis Brown Stocking team, including Kemmler and Nicol, each received $530.50 as his share of the gate money taken in at the world series. 1903 14 Oct. 7/4 President Pulliam has been in attendance at every game played between Boston and Pittsburg in the world series. 1913 4 Oct. 5/1 In this next impending world-series carnival between Giants and Athletics we have had the hunch [etc.]. 1951 12 Mar. 59 For Norwegians..the Holmenkollen is the World Series, and stars such as Hoel and Björnstad are Norway's Di Maggios and Musials. 1973 M. Woodhouse iii. 20 ‘We could have played half the World Series by now.’.. ‘Yes, we take three days to play a game of cricket.’ 2002 25 Nov. 60/2 All week long, I'd been trying to decide which of these two lively clubs deserved to win the World Series, on history and mojo. society > communication > broadcasting > radio broadcasting > [noun] > radio service > specific 1936 27 Mar. 11/4 The organization of a world service of directly televised news was a formidable and, at present, quite impossible project.] 1939 5 Oct. 3/2 The B.B.C. should not be judged by their home service alone. They were maintaining two overseas services—the world service running for 22 hours, and the European service running for 19 hours a day. 1966 83 The World Service addresses itself to those who understand English, wherever they happen to be—listeners throughout the Commonwealth and English-speaking people in other countries. 1981 22 Jan. 8/7 The embassy press officer..was waiting for news from the World Service of the BBC. 2003 ‘S. Pax’ Weblog Diary 4 June in 189 But the BBC World Service killed in one move a favourite Iraqi pastime: searching for perfect reception. eOE tr. Bede (Tanner) iv. xxi. 318 Bæd heo swiðe longe þone cyning, þæt heo moste weoruldsorge & gemænne forlætan, & heo forlete in mynstre þæm soðan cyninge Criste þeowian. lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) iii. 8 Gewitaþ nu awirgede woruldsorga of mines þegenes mode. 1858 S. F. Dunlap xii. 344 The deepest feeling of the discerning wise man is a great general world-sorrow. 1928 H. Flanagan 83 The rich fabric of their lives, passionate, yearning, tragic with world sorrow. 2002 (Nexis) 14 Apr. 17 You have to admire someone who fought so hard against a world-sorrow entirely opaque to those around him. the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun] 1828 tr. J. Paul in 8 464 Fancy or the creative power is something higher; it is the world-soul [Ger. Welt-Seele] of the soul, the element-spirit of the other powers. 1848 P. J. Bailey (ed. 3) 202 I am the world-soul, nature's spirit I. 1856 R. A. Vaughan I. iii. 27 The philosophers who believe themselves organs of the world-soul. 1920 L. Spence 141/1 By this union a world-soul was created which vitalises and regulates all things. 2005 D. Skrbina iii. ii. 71 It is clear that soul, in the form of the world-soul, penetrates all levels of being. society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > unspirituality > [noun] > world characterized by the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun] 1654 J. Ellistone & J. Sparrow tr. J. Böhme ii. xlii. 297 The world-spirit [Ger. Welt-Geist] understands not the mysteries of God. 1828 tr. J. Paul in 8 464 There are persons who..receive in their open soul the great world-spirit. 1850 F. W. Robertson 3rd Ser. xxi The world-spirit can rebuke as sharply as the Spirit which was in John. 1909 W. R. Inge viii. 129 This World-Spirit was once incarnated in a human life. 1984 F. A. Schaeffer v. 111 A large section of evangelicalism is confusing the kingdom of God with a socialistic program. This..is sheer accommodation to the world spirit around us. 2001 C. Coker iii. 50 The contradiction between the freedom of mankind (World Spirit) and a particular social structure (such as the nation state, or in this case modern war) is not in evidence. society > authority > rule or government > a or the state > [noun] > comprising the whole world society > authority > rule or government > a or the state > [noun] > possessing dominant or world power 1855 W. B. Pope & J. Fulton tr. E. R. Steir II. 251 Lange well observes in his interpretative manner: As the mustard-seed even changes its species, passing from a herb to a sort of tree, so does the kingdom of heaven pass into the species and likeness of a great world-state. 1890 B. F. C. Costelloe (1892) 25 She prophesies of a World-State, and laughs at the little fences statesmen draw upon the map. 1902 1 Nov. 3/1 However desirable may be the lot of a small State among small States, the conditions are changed in a world of world-States. 2004 23 Mar. 19/4 It is what a Benthamite world-state would look like. 1917 B. Kline xii. 101 The good ladies had come to dignify what would have been otherwise a dull formality [sc. electing a Society president] with a reception, a lecture by someone of note, before this final world-stopping function of fitting the old head to an ever youthful body. 1981 20 July a13/5 It is not a world-stopping anti-crime effort, but Superman can't be everywhere at once. 2006 27 Mar. 89/1 Britten's song cycles very often end with a world-stopping cry from the heart. eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory (Hatton) (1871) xviii. 129 Sua hit gebyreð, ðonne he fægnað ðæt he sie abisgod mid woroldðingum, ðæt he ne conn oðre læran ða godcundan wisan ðe he læran scolde. eOE tr. Orosius (BL Add.) (1980) vi. xxx. 148 He wæs hwon giernende þissa woroldþinga & micelra onwalda. OE Ælfric (Julius) (1881) I. 360 Gif we forleosað þas lænan woruldðingc, þonne sceole we witan þæt ure wunung nis na her ac is on heofonum. OE tr. Chrodegang of Metz (Corpus Cambr. 191) xxiv. 221 Sume preostas..beoð abysgode þar na ymbe godcundlice þing, ac ymbe woroldþing. a1225 (c1200) (1888) 3 (MED) Ðes awerȝede gast, hie makeð ðane religiuse man, ðe alle woreld-þing for godes luue hafð forlaten, sari and drieri. c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Otho) l. 14040 Nolleþ hii hit bi-gynne for none worle-þinge. the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > mental attitude, point of view > [noun] > of the world 1848 Aug. 125/2 He [sc. Dante] prosecuted his studies in the Latin classics,..with such energy and spirit as to make this foreign material his own inmost property, and to work out of these single elements of culture an independent organic world-view. 1858 J. Martineau 321 The deep penetration of his [sc. Paul's] mistaken world-view. 1906 D. S. Cairns v. 233 Christianity, alike in its Central Gospel, and in its World-view, must come to terms with Hellenism. 2000 A. Bourdain (2001) 4 A sometimes peculiar world-view, which I hope my fellow chefs and cooks will recognize. the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > mental attitude, point of view > [noun] > of the world > holder of 1862 Gen. P. Thompson in 20 Dec. 6/1 More instances will occur to the thoughtful world-viewer. 1976 P. Angeles in J. L. Christian 193 The multi‐ epistemic world viewer does run the risk of ‘seeing through’ in the manner of the outsider (i.e., becoming alienated), thereby exposing himself to the risks of seeing too much. 2000 B. Moore 82 What's interesting to a world viewer, a Weltanschauunger, is the rigidity of the Hindu caste system. the mind > mental capacity > understanding > wisdom, sagacity > worldly wisdom > [adjective] OE King Ælfred tr. (Paris) (2001) xlviii. 8 And næfð nænne forðanc be his deaðe, þonne he gesyhð þa welegan, and þa weoruldwisan sweltan. OE (Corpus Cambr. 196) 28 Nov. 258 Þone hys yldran befæston on his cnyhthade to Alexandrea ceastre sumum woruldwysan men þæt he æt þam leornode þa seofon cræftas on þam beoð gemeted ealle weoruldwysdomas. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 6847 Þa weorlde-wis [c1300 Otho worle-wise] mon þa oðere childre bi-wusten. 1670 D. Cable tr. B. Valentinus iii. 50 Those who are highly conceited, illuminated, and world-wise, hate, envy, scandalize, defame and persecute this Mystery to the utmost Rind. 1862 E. Bulwer-Lytton II. xxvii. 192 Silently thinking, I walked by the side of the world-wise woman. 1926 C. A. Macartney iii. 58 Berchthold, the world-wise diplomat. 2004 (Nexis) 4 Sept. 4 I can talk to her about everything and anything because she's so street savvy and world wise. OE Ælfric (Julius) (1881) I. 26 Ða befæste se fæder Philippus to lare, þæt heo on woruldwysdome wære getogen, æfter greciscre uðwytegunge, and lædenre getingnysse. OE (Corpus Cambr. 196) 28 Nov. 258 Þa seofon cræftas on þam beoð gemeted ealle weoruldwysdomas. 1745 E. Young 70 World-Wisdom Much has done, and More may do. 1899 T. Watts-Dunton ii. iv The narrow world-wisdom of this Welsh aunt. 1976 C. F. H. Henry I. ix. 154 The New Testament judges the world-wisdom of secular philosophy no less adversely than it does the idolatry of nonbiblical religions. society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > low or vulgar person > [noun] a1625 J. Fletcher Mad Lover ii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher (1647) sig. B4/1 Away thou world worme, Thou win a matchles beautie? 1826 E. Irving II. 429 Rear your children to be men, not to be world-worms; to be saints, not to be drudges. 1853 C. Kingsley II. v. 105 Ah, sweetest Empress! you forget sometimes that I, too, world-worm as I am, am a Greek. the world > time > period > cycle of time > [noun] > astronomical cycle > cycles of celestial bodies 1845 M. Fuller 168 Suppose, at the end of your cycle, your great world-year, all will be completed, whether I exert myself or not. 1888 1 589 Heraclitus assumed a world-year or world-period, the beginning of which was the flood, and whose end was to be a universal conflagration, the whole to be periodically repeated forever. 1959 G. B. Ladner i. i. 11 The Neopythagoreans..expected that the beginning of a new world year would bring about a general renewal of the world. c2001 H. Hotson 75 The Platonic ‘world year’..will end when all the planets simultaneously return to the places which they occupied when the world was created. C9. Compounds with world’s. Specific examples in senses corresponding to those at Compounds 3b and Compounds 8. a. 1870 10 Sept. 4/2 Edward Payson Weston..enjoyed the high honor of the world's championship, until Mr. O'Leary snatched the laurel from his brow. 1912 18 Sept. 2/1 Among the many events to be featured at the Round-Up this year is the world's championship wild steer bull-dogging contest. 1954 24 Aug. 7/3 Running first won the world's championship at a ‘roleo’ in 1942 and has held the title ever since. 2007 J. K. Millard iii. 127 In their third attempt at Louisville, Millard and Tippy place third in the qualifying round and seventh in the World's Championship. 1941 July 13/1 By accomplishing a ‘world's first’, the Corps of Engineers were able to start paving six months after the runway base was pumped into position. 2004 H. Shaver vii. 154 In what might be a world's first, doctors..transfused a woman suffering from Leukemia with the umbilical cord blood of her baby. 1886 31 Aug. 8/2 All the competitors succeeded in beating the world's record. 1893 22 154/2 He has..held the world's record in the pole vault for distance. 1934 Nov. 316/2 This railcar recently set up a world's record for long-distance running. 2004 B. Bunch & A. Hellemans 678/1 1988..Manfred Padberg..and Giovanni Rinaldi solve the traveling salesman problem for 2392 cities, setting a new world's record. 1887 15 Oct. 5/3 President Von der Abe..treats newspaper men with the utmost consideration, and on the present world's series he pays all the expenses of several representatives of St. Louis journals. 1888 29 Sept. 3/4 (headline) The World's Series. 1905 7 Oct. 3/1 Jack Sheridan and Hank O'Day have been appointed to umpire the world's series. 1925 F. S. Fitzgerald iv. 88 He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919. 1965 F. O. Du Pre 58/1 He won the Schneider Cup Race—the World's Series of seaplane racing—in 1925, with an average speed of 232 mph. 2003 W. Speck 84 He [sc. Roger Bresnahan] was a player/manager for the Cardinals and the Cubs and played in the 1905 World's Series. 1901 7 Sept. 7/1 Jack Roberts, the English feather-weight champion, is to come to America and meet Terry McGovern for the world's title. 1941 47 181 Each new achievement of a Negro—whether it be the winning of a world's title, or a new appointive position in the city government—is hailed by the Negro press as a step forward. 2006 B. Watts & S. Williams vii. 100 I just thought the world's title needed to have a certain class that elevated the sport. b. society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > exposure to public view > an exhibition > [noun] > types of 1850 2 413 The State Board of Agriculture are making up a collection of samples of Indian corn for the World's Fair. 1908 E. Terry xii. 280 I had loved the Chicago of the Lake with the white buildings of the World's Fair shining on it. 1982 J. S. Borthwick iv. 193 Like those rides at world's fairs..where you sit in a little car that draws you through different habitats. 2001 F. Popcorn & A. Hanft 241 Bluetooth is the ultimate enabler of the smart house that has been the darling of futurists since the 1939 World's Fair. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022). worldv. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: world n. rare. society > inhabiting and dwelling > furnishing with inhabitants > [verb (transitive)] 1589 W. Warner (new ed.) vi. xxxi. 140 Zamois, when Troy must perish, shall send downe her Floods a Fleete, And world it where our Father rulde... But long time hence,..that World shall world an Ile. the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > confine or deliver [verb (transitive)] > give birth 1596 R. Johnson i. xvii. 195 [Proserpine] ascended from her regiment to worlde this Ladies deliuerie. 1628 O. Felltham lix. sig. S5v Like Lightening, it can strike the childe in the wombe, and kill it ere 'tis worlded. a1973 W. H. Auden (1994) 889 For us who, from the moment we first are worlded, lapse into disarray. 1993 S. W. Churchill & L. R. Churchill in G. P. McKenny & J. R. Sande (1994) 196 Baby finds itself biochemically ready to exit and, like it or not, there it is, worlded. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021). <  n.eOE v.1589 |
