Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-SID-ER-A'TION, n. [L. consideratio. See Consider.]

1. The act of considering; mental view; regard; notice; as, let us take into consideration the consequences of a hasty decision.
2. Mature thought; serious deliberation. Let us think with consideration. – Sidney.
3. Contemplation; meditation. The love you bear to Mopsa hath brought you to the consideration of her virtues. – Sidney.
4. Some degree of importance; claim to notice, or regard; a moderate degree of respectability. Lucan is an author of consideration among the Latin poets. – Addison.
5. That which is considered; motive of action; influence; ground of conduct. He was obliged, antecedent to all other considerations, to search an asylum. – Dryden.
6. Reason; that which induces to a determination; as, he was moved by the considerations set before him.
7. In law, the reason which moves a contracting party to enter into an agreement; the material cause of a contract; the price or motive of a stipulation. In all contracts, each party gives something in exchange for what he receives. A contract is an agreement, upon sufficient consideration. This consideration is express or implied; express, when the thing to be given or done is specified; implied, when no specific consideration is agreed upon, but justice requires it and the law implies it; as, when a man labors for another, without stipulating for wages, the law infers that he shall receive a reasonable consideration. A good consideration is that of blood, or natural love; a valuable consideration is such as money, marriage, &c. Hence a consideration is an equivalent or recompense; that which is given as of equal estimated value with that which is received.

CON-SID'ER-A-TIVE, a.

Taking into consideration. [Little used.]

CON-SID'ER-ED, pp.

Thought of with care; pondered; viewed attentively; deliberated on; examined.

CON-SID'ER-ER, n.

A thinker; one who considers; a man of reflection. [Considerator is not in use.]

CON-SID'ER-ING, n.

The act of deliberating, or carefully attending to; hesitation; as, many mazed considerings. – Shak.

CON-SID'ER-ING, ppr.

Fixing the mind on; meditating on; pondering; viewing with care and attention; deliberating on. Note. We have a peculiar use of this word, which may be a corruption for considered, or which may be a deviation from analogy by an insensible change in the structure of the phrase. “It is not possible for us to act otherwise, considering the weakness of our nature.” As a participle, this word must here refer to us, or the sentence can not be resolved by any rule of English syntax. It would be correct to say, “It is not possible for us to act otherwise, the weakness of our nature being considered;” or “We, considering the weakness of our nature, can not act otherwise.” But the latter phrase is better grammar, than it is sense. We use other participles in like manner; as, “Allowing for tare, the weight could not be more than a hundred pounds.” These and similar phrases are anomalous. But considering is no more a kind of conjunction, in such a phrase, than it is a noun.

CON-SID'ER-ING-LY, adv.

With consideration or deliberation. – Whole Duty of Man.

CON-SIGN', v.i. [consi'ne.]

To submit to the same terms with another; also, to sign; to agree or consent. [Obs.] – Shak.

CON-SIGN', v.t. [consi'ne; L. consigno, to seal or sign; con and signo, to seal or stump; signum, a sign, seal or mark; It. consegnare, to deposit, deliver, consign; Sp. consignar; Fr. consigner. See Sign. The sense is, to set to, to thrust or send.]

1. To give, send, or set over; to transfer or deliver into the possession of another, or into a different state, with the sense of fixedness in that state, or permanence of possession; as, at death the body is consigned to the grave. At the day of general account, good men are to be consigned over to another state. Atterbury.
2. To deliver or transfer, as a charge or trust; to commit; as, to consign a youth to the care of a preceptor; to consign goods to a factor.
3. To set over or commit, for permanent preservation; as, to consign a history to writing. – Addison.
4. To appropriate. – Dryden.

CON-SIG-NA'TION, n.

The act of consigning; the act of delivering or committing to another person, place or state. Despair is a certain consignation to eternal ruin. – Taylor. Park. [Little used. See Consignment.]

CON-SIG'NA-TURE, n.

Full signature; joint signing or stamping.

CON-SIGN'ED, pp.

Delivered; committed for keeping, or management; deposited in trust.

CON-SIG-NEE', n.

The person to whom goods or other things are delivered in trust, for sale or superintendence; a factor.

CON-SIGN'ER, or CON-SIGN'OR, n.

The person who consigns; one who sends, delivers, or commits goods to another for sale, or to ship for superintendence, bills of lading, papers, &c.

CON-SIG-NI-FI-CA'TION, n. [See Signify.]

Joint signification. – Harris.

CON-SIG-NIF'I-CA-TIVE, a. [See Signify.]

Having a like signification, or jointly significative. – Vallancey, Gram. 57.

CON-SIGN'ING, ppr.

Delivering to another in trust; sending or committing, as a possession or charge.

CON-SIGN-MENT, n.

1. The act of consigning; consignation; the act of sending or committing, as a charge for safe keeping or management; the act of depositing with, as goods for sale.
2. The thing consigned; the goods sent or delivered to a factor for sale; as, A received a large consignment of goods from B.
3. The writing by which any thing is consigned.

CON-SIM'I-LAR, a.

Having common resemblance. [Little used.]

CON-SI-MIL'I-TUDE, n.

Resemblance. [Little used.]

CON-SIST', v.i. [L. consisto; con and sisto, to stand; Sp. consistir; It. consistere; Fr. consister.]

1. To stand together; to be in a fixed or permanent state, as a body composed of parts in union or connection. Hence, to be; to exist; to subsist; to be supported and maintained. He was before all things, and by him all things consist. Col. i.
2. To stand or be; to lie; to be contained; followed by in; as, the beauty of epistolary writing consists in ease and freedom.
3. To be composed; followed by of; as, a landscape should consist of a variety of scenery. To consist together, to coexist; to have being concurrently. Necessity and election can not consist together in the same act. – Bramhall. To consist with, to agree; to be in accordance with; to be compatible. Health consists with temperance alone. – Pope.

CON-SIST'ENCE, or CON-SIST'EN-CY, n.

1. A standing together; a being fixed in union, as the parts of a body, that state of a body, in which its component parts remained fixed. The consistency of bodies is divers; dense, rare, tangible, pneumatical, volatile, &c. – Bacon.
2. A degree of density or spissitude, but indefinite. Let the juices or liquor be boiled into the consistency of sirup. – Arbuthnot.
3. Substance; make; firmness of constitution; as, friendship of a lasting consistency; resolutions of durable consistence. – South. Hammond.
4. A standing together, as the parts of a system, or of conduct, &c.; agreement or harmony of all parts of a complex thing among themselves, or of the same thing with itself at different times; congruity; uniformity; as, the consistency of laws, regulations or judicial decisions; consistency of opinions; consistency of behavior or of character. There is harmony and consistency in all God's works. – J. Lathrop.
5. A standing; a state of rest, in which things capable of growth or decrease, remain for a time in a stand. – Chambers.

CON-SIST'ENT, a. [L. consistens. See Consist.]

1. Fixed; firm; not fluid; as, the consistent parts of a body, distinguished from the fluid. – Harvey.
2. Standing together or in agreement; compatible; congruous; uniform; not contradictory or opposed; as, two opinions or schemes are consistent; let a man be consistent with himself; the law is consistent with justice and policy. So two consistent motions act the soul. – Pope.

CON-SIST'ENT-LY, adv.

In a consistent manner; in agreement; agreeably; as, to command confidence a man must act consistently.

CON-SIS-TO'RI-AL, or CON-SIST'O-RY, a. [See Consistory.]

Pertaining or relating to a consistory, or ecclesiastical court of an archbishop or bishop. – Ayliffe. Every archbishop and bishop of a diocese hath a consistory court. – Encyc.