CONTINENT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Continent

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/kˈɑntənənt/ Listen

noun

Continent n.

1.

That which contains anything; a receptacle. (Obs.) "The smaller continent which we call a pipkin."

2.

One of the grand divisions of land on the globe; the main land; specifically (Phys. Geog.), a large body of land differing from an island, not merely in its size, but in its structure, which is that of a large basin bordered by mountain chains; as, the continent of North America. Note: The continents are now usually regarded as six in number: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. But other large bodies of land are also reffered to as continents; as, the Antarctic continent; the continent of Greenland. Europe, Asia, and Africa are often grouped together as the Eastern Continent, and North and South America as the Western Continent.

The Continent, the main land of Europe, as distinguished from the islands, especially from England.

adjective

Continent adj.

1.

Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. (Obs.)

2.

Exercising restraint as to the indulgence of desires or passions; temperate; moderate. "Have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower."

3.

Abstaining from sexual intercourse; exercising restraint upon the sexual appetite; esp., abstaining from illicit sexual intercourse; chaste. "My past life" "Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true," "As I am now unhappy."

4.

Not interrupted; connected; continuous; as, a continent fever. (Obs.) "The northeast part of Asia is, if not continent with the west side of America, yet certainly it is the least disoined by sea of all that coast."

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Etymology of 'Continent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Continent" Quotes from Famous Books

... trust in religion, another in philanthropy, a third in written constitutions, a fourth in universal suffrage, a fifth in popular education. In the Epoch of the Restoration, as it is called, the favourite panacea all over the Continent was secret political association. Very soon after the overthrow of Napoleon the peoples who had risen in arms to obtain political independence discovered that they had merely changed masters. The Princes reconstructed Europe according to their ...

— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace

... one line of cable which runs to Cuba, Mexico, Panama and the coasts of the South American continent, and another which connects the island with St. Thomas, Jamaica, and thus the rest of ...

— Porto Rico - Its History, Products and Possibilities... • Arthur D. Hall

... result of recent alternate probabilities. For instance, I've just come from the Europo-American Sector of the Fourth Level, an area of about ten thousand parayears in depth, in which the dominant civilization developed on the North-West Continent of the Major Land Mass, and spread from there to the Minor Land Mass. The line on which I was operating is also part of a sub-sector of about three thousand parayears' depth, and a belt developing from ...

— Police Operation • H. Beam Piper

... holidays are the crowning device of modern thought, and I hold that no thesis can be so easily proven as mine. How did our grandfathers take holiday? Alas, the luxury was reserved for the great lords who scoured over the Continent, and for the pursy cits who crawled down to Brighthelmstone! The ordinary Londoner was obliged to endure agonies on board a stuffy Margate hoy, while the people in Northern towns never thought of taking a holiday at all. The marvellous cures wrought by Doctor Ozone were not then known, and ...

— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman

... assembled to transact business in Lombard-street, among the Lombard Jews, from whom the street derives its name, and who were then the bankers of all Europe. Here too they probably kept their benches or banks, as they were wont to do in the market-places of the continent, for transacting pecuniary matters; and thus drew around them all those of whose various pursuits money is the ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 395, Saturday, October 24, 1829. • Various

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