LEGITIMATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Legitimate

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/lədʒˈɪtəmət/ Listen

adjective

Legitimate adj.

Accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements; lawful; as, legitimate government; legitimate rights; the legitimate succession to the throne; a legitimate proceeding of an officer; a legitimate heir.

Lawfully begotten; born in wedlock.

Authorized; real; genuine; not false, counterfeit, or spurious; as,$legitimate poems of Chaucer; legitimate inscriptions.

Conforming to known principles, or accepted rules; as, legitimate reasoning; a legitimate standard, or method; a legitimate combination of colors. "Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate English classic."

Following by logical sequence; reasonable; as, a legitimate result; a legitimate inference.

verb

Legitimate v. t. (past & past part. legitimated; pres. part. legitimating) To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; esp., to put in the position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means; as, to legitimate a bastard child. "To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate vice."

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Etymology of 'Legitimate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Legitimate" Quotes from Famous Books

... 3.20 that the fertility of the two legitimate unions to that of the two illegitimate together is as 100 to 35, judged by the proportion of flowers which produced fruit; and as 100 to 32, judged by the average number of seeds per fruit. But the small number of fruit yielded ...

— The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species • Charles Darwin

... of baths in sacred waters. By making a gift of a cow of the Kapila species, one becomes cleansed of all one's sins. Verily, by giving away even a single cow of the Kapila species that has been acquired by legitimate means, one becomes cleansed of all the sins one may have committed. There is nothing higher (in point of tastes) than the milk which is yielded by kine. The gift of a cow is truly regarded as a very superior gift. Kine by yielding milk, rescue ...

— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... boots. Cheer up, Jasper, boy," he continued, rising and placing a hand on my shoulder. "We have been fools, and have paid for it. You thought you could find your enemy in London, and find the hiding-place too big. I thought I could write, and find I cannot. As for legitimate work, sixteen and eightpence halfpenny, even with economy, will hardly carry us on ...

— Dead Man's Rock • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... between Morphology and Teleology reconciled by Darwinism, and the Latter reinstated—Character of the New Teleology.—Purpose and Design distinguished—Man has no Monopoly of the Latter.—Inference of Design from Adaptation and Utility legitimate; also in Hume's Opinion irresistible—The Principle of Design, taken with Specific Creation, totally insufficient and largely inapplicable; but, taken with the Doctrine of the Evolution of Species in Nature, applicable, pertinent, and, moreover, necessary.—Illustrations from ...

— Darwiniana - Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism • Asa Gray

... gods! how he is cajoling you. Step aside, that I may have a word with you. Your uncle is getting the better of you, my poor friend.[369] The law will not allow you an obolus of the paternal property, for you are a bastard and not a legitimate child. ...

— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al

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