Sign manual

sign manual
    n 1: the signature of a sovereign on an official document
    

Sign \Sign\, n. [F. signe, L. signum; cf. AS. segen, segn, a
   sign, standard, banner, also fr. L. signum. Cf. {Ensign},
   {Resign}, {Seal} a stamp, {Signal}, {Signet}.]
   That by which anything is made known or represented; that
   which furnishes evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a
   proof. Specifically:
   (a) A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as
       indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen.
   (b) An event considered by the Jews as indicating the divine
       will, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine
       power for some special end; a miracle; a wonder.
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             Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of
             the Spirit of God.                   --Rom. xv. 19.
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             It shall come to pass, if they will not believe
             thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first
             sign, that they will believe the voice of the
             latter sign.                         --Ex. iv. 8.
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   (c) Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve
       the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument.
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             What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty
             men, and they became a sign.         --Num. xxvi.
                                                  10.
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   (d) Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or
       represents, an idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture.
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             The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely
             significative; but what they represent is as
             certainly delivered to us as the symbols
             themselves.                          --Brerewood.
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             Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory.
                                                  --Spenser.
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   (e) A word or a character regarded as the outward
       manifestation of thought; as, words are the sign of
       ideas.
   (f) A motion, an action, or a gesture by which a thought is
       expressed, or a command or a wish made known.
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             They made signs to his father, how he would have
             him called.                          --Luke i. 62.
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   (g) Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language
       of a signs such as those used by the North American
       Indians, or those used by the deaf and dumb.
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   Note: Educaters of the deaf distinguish between natural
         signs, which serve for communicating ideas, and
         methodical, or systematic, signs, adapted for the
         dictation, or the rendering, of written language, word
         by word; and thus the signs are to be distinguished
         from the manual alphabet, by which words are spelled on
         the fingers.
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   (h) A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard.
       --Milton.
   (i) A lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed
       upon or before a building, room, shop, or office to
       advertise the business there transacted, or the name of
       the person or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed
       token or notice.
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             The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted
             signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the
             streets.                             --Macaulay.
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   (j) (Astron.) The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.
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   Note: The signs are reckoned from the point of intersection
         of the ecliptic and equator at the vernal equinox, and
         are named, respectively, {Aries} ([Aries]), {Taurus}
         ([Taurus]), {Gemini} (II), {Cancer} ([Cancer]), {Leo}
         ([Leo]), {Virgo} ([Virgo]), {Libra} ([Libra]),
         {Scorpio} ([Scorpio]), {Sagittarius} ([Sagittarius]),
    

Manual \Man"u*al\ (m[a^]n"[-u]*al), a. [OE. manuel, F. manuel,
   L. manualis, fr. manus hand; prob. akin to AS. mund hand,
   protection, OHG. munt, G. m["u]ndel a ward, vormund guardian,
   Icel. mund hand. Cf. {Emancipate}, {Legerdemain}, {Maintain},
   {Manage}, {Manner}, {Manure}, {Mound} a hill.]
   1. Of or pertaining to the hand.
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   2. Performed by a person using physical as contrasted with
      {mental} effort; as, manual labor.
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   3. Done or made by the hand. In some contexts, contrasted
      with {automatic} or {mechanical}. "Manual and ocular
      examination." --Tatham.
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   {Manual exercise} (Mil.) the exercise by which soldiers are
      taught the use of their muskets and other arms.

   {Seal manual}, the impression of a seal worn on the hand as a
      ring.

   {Sign manual}. See under {Sign}.
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