Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dignity

Dig′ni·ty, n.; pl. Dignities (#). [OE. dignete, dignite, OF. digneté, dignité, F. dignité, fr. L. dignitas, from dignus worthy. See Dainty, Deign.] 1. The state of being worthy or honorable; elevation of mind or character; true worth; excellence.

2. Elevation; grandeur.

The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings. Shak.

3. Elevated rank; honorable station; high office, political or ecclesiastical; degree of excellence; preferment; exaltation. Macaulay.

And the king said, What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Esth. vi. 3.

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, . . . the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Gen. xlix. 3.

4. Quality suited to inspire respect or reverence; loftiness and grace; impressiveness; stateliness; — said of mien, manner, style, etc.

A letter written with singular energy and dignity of thought and language. Macaulay.

5. One holding high rank; a dignitary.

These filthy dreamers . . . speak evil of dignities. Jude. 8.

6. Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim. [Obs.]

Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves. Sir T. Browne.

Syn. — See Decorum.

To stand upon one's dignity, to have or to affect a high notion of one's own rank, privilege, or character.

They did not stand upon their dignity, nor give their minds to being or to seeming as elegant and as fine as anybody else. R. G. White.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.