from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]),