EXTERNAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of External

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɪkstˈərnəl/ Listen

adjective

External adj.

Outward; exterior; relating to the outside, as of a body; being without; acting from without; opposed to internal; as, the external form or surface of a body. "Of all external things,... She (Fancy) forms imaginations, aery shapes."

Outside of or separate from ourselves; (Metaph.) separate from the perceiving mind.

Outwardly perceptible; visible; physical or corporeal, as distinguished from mental or moral. "Her virtues graced with external gifts."

Not intrinsic nor essential; accidental; accompanying; superficial. "The external circumstances are greatly different."

Foreign; relating to or connected with foreign nations; as, external trade or commerce; the external relations of a state or kingdom.

(Anat.) Away from the mesial plane of the body; lateral.

External angles. (Geom.) See under Angle.

noun

External n. Something external or without; outward part; that which makes a show, rather than that which is intrinsic; visible form; usually in the plural. "Adam was then no less glorious in his externals" "God in externals could not place content."

See images of 'External'

Etymology of 'External'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"External" Quotes from Famous Books

... troops through the said State in time of war or in case of the apprehension of immediate war between the Suzerain Power and any Foreign State or Native tribe in South Africa; and (c) the control of the external relations of the said State, including the conclusion of treaties and the conduct of diplomatic intercourse with Foreign Powers, such intercourse to be carried on through Her Majesty's diplomatic and consular ...

— A Century of Wrong • F. W. Reitz

... with the notes of their hymns. The strictness of manners in the inhabitants is not said to be at all equivalent to the warmth of this devotion; but in all countries and climates it is found much easier to perform external acts of reputed piety, than to acquire the internal habits so much more essential. It must be owned, however, that our people did not find the ladies so indulgent as some voyagers ...

— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip

... Newcome, Tom Jones, and a thousand others—who people a world we love, they teach us, possibly, more of high ideals, and of our capacities for service than do the actual lives of some saints, or the biographies of philosophers. And how vivid the action in which his characters take part! In the external circumstances of his life and in his literary art and preferences he was singularly like his elder brother in romance, Robert Louis Stevenson. Both were slight in physique but manly and vigorous in character and mission in life. Both were wanderers over ...

— Harbor Tales Down North - With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D. • Norman Duncan

... heart is not set upon any of those things which depend upon external accidents. I am not hunting for fame: I have no desire to found a sect, after the fashion of heresiarchs; and to look for any private gain from such an undertaking as this I count both ridiculous and base. Enough for me the consciousness of well-deserving, and those real and effectual results ...

— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church

... inspirations to secure the requisite amount of oxygen, which is much less in a given space at Quito than on the coast. This is an instance, observes Prichard, of long-continued habit, and the result of external agencies modifying the structure of the body, and with it the state of the most important functions of life. We tried the experiment of burning a candle one hour at Guayaquil, and another part of the same candle for the same period at Quito. Temperature ...

— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

More quotes...