ARBITRARY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Arbitrary

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/ˈɑrbətrˌɛri/ /ˈɑrbɪtrˌɛri/ Listen

adjective

Arbitrary adj.

Depending on will or discretion; not governed by any fixed rules; as, an arbitrary decision; an arbitrary punishment. "It was wholly arbitrary in them to do so." "Rank pretends to fix the value of every one, and is the most arbitrary of all things."

Exercised according to one's own will or caprice, and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power. "Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused licentiousness."

Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical; as, an arbitrary prince or government.

Arbitrary constant, Arbitrary function (Math.), a quantity of function that is introduced into the solution of a problem, and to which any value or form may at will be given, so that the solution may be made to meet special requirements.

Arbitrary quantity (Math.), one to which any value can be assigned at pleasure.

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Etymology of 'Arbitrary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Arbitrary" Quotes from Famous Books

... "it's difficult to obey a purely arbitrary rule of conduct. Several of the philosophers seem to have decided that the origin of virtue ...

— Vane of the Timberlands • Harold Bindloss

... of this spur to personal pride, the standard lessened in a few years, but not until certain weavers had won a fame that thrills even at this distance. Unfortunately, a great client was considered as important as a weaver, and it was often his arbitrary sign that was woven. And sometimes a dealer, wishing glory through his dealings, ordered his sign in the galloon. And thus comes a long array of signs which are not identifiable always. In general, one or ...

— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee

... Force. A vagrant may not take a sheaf of your wheat, a fowl from your hen-house: if he do so, the law protects you and punishes him. A syndicate of rich men, of powerful men, may take the whole of your land, and the State will compel you to accept any arbitrary price which it may choose to put upon your loss. According as you are rich or poor yourself, so great or so small will be the amount awarded to you. All the sub-prefects, all the syndics, all the officials in this province, ...

— The Waters of Edera • Louise de la Rame, a.k.a. Ouida

... most considerable degree of all the people is that of the FREEMEN, anciently called Frilingi, [Footnote: This is a Teutonic, not an ANGLO-SAXON term; the ANGLO-SAXON word is Thane.] or Free-born, or such as are born free from all yoke of arbitrary power, and from all law of compulsion, other than what is made by their voluntary consent, for all FREEMEN have votes in the making and executing of the general laws of the kingdom. In the first, they differed from the Gauls, of whom it is noted ...

— Landholding In England • Joseph Fisher

... well summed up the whole question: "The selection of the soil and site for the apple orchard is not governed by any arbitrary rule," he says. "All farms do not afford the best soils or exposures for orchards. The owners of such as do not are unfortunate, yet they should not feel discouraged to the extent of not planting trees and caring for them afterward." There are a number of factors which influence not only a person ...

— Apple Growing • M. C. Burritt

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