Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NOTE, n. [L. nota; Fr. note; W. nod; from L. notus, nosco, to know.]

1. A mark or token; something by which a thing may be known; a visible sign. They who appertain to the visible church have all the notes of external profession. – Hooker.
2. A mark made in a book, indicating something worthy of particular notice.
3. A short remark; a passage or explanation in the margin of a book.
4. A minute, memorandum or short writing intended to assist the memory.
5. Notice; heed. Give order to my servants that they take / No note at all of our being absent hence. – Shak.
6. Reputation; consequence; distinction; as, men of note. – Acts xvi.
7. State of being observed. Small matters, continually in use and note. [Little used.] – Bacon.
8. In music, a character which marks a sound, or the sound itself; as a semibreve, a minim, &c. Notes are marks of sounds in relation to elevation or depression, or to the time of continuing sounds.
9. Tune; voice; harmonious or melodious sounds. The wakeful bird tunes her nocturnal note. – Milton. One common note on either lyre did strike. – Dryden.
10. Abbreviation; symbol. – Baker.
11. A short letter; a billet. – Dryden.
12. Annotation; commentary; as, the notes in Scott's Bible; to write notes on Homer.
13. A written or printed paper acknowledging a debt and promising payment; as, a promissory nate; a bank-note; a note of hand; a negotiable note.
14. Notes, plur., a writing; a written discourse; applied equally to minutes or heads of a discourse or argument, or to a discourse fully written. The advocate often has notes to assist his memory, and clergymen preach with notes or without them.
15. A diplomatic communication in writing; an official paper sent from one minister or envoy to another. My note of January 10th still remains unanswered. Gallatin.