Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Experience

Ex·pe′ri·ence (ĕks·pē′rĭ·ens), n. [F. expérience, L. experientia, tr. experiens, -entis, p. pr. of experiri, expertus, to try; ex out + the root of pertus experienced. See Peril, and cf. Expert.] 1. Trial, as a test or experiment. [Obs.]

She caused him to make experience Upon wild beasts. Spenser.

2. The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering. "Guided by other's experiences." Shak.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. P. Henry

To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed. Coleridge.

When the consuls . . . came in . . . they knew soon by experience how slenderly guarded against danger the majesty of rulers is where force is wanting. Holland.

Those that undertook the religion of our Savior upon his preaching, had no experience of it. Sharp.

3. An act of knowledge, one or more, by which single facts or general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive knowledge; hence, implying skill, facility, or practical wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action; as, a king without experience of war.

Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer in one word, from experience. Locke.

Experience may be acquired in two ways; either, first by noticing facts without any attempt to influence the frequency of their occurrence or to vary the circumstances under which they occur; this is observation; or, secondly, by putting in action causes or agents over which we have control, and purposely varying their combinations, and noticing what effects take place; this is experiment. Sir J. Herschel.

Ex·pe′ri·ence, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Experienced (-enst); p. pr. & vb. n. Experiencing (-en-s?ng).] 1. To make practical acquaintance with; to try personally; to prove by use or trial; to have trial of; to have the lot or fortune of; to have befall one; to be affected by; to feel; as, to experience pain or pleasure; to experience poverty; to experience a change of views.

The partial failure and disappointment which he had experienced in India. Thirwall.

2. To exercise; to train by practice.

The youthful sailors thus with early care Their arms experience, and for sea prepare. Harte.

To experience religion (Theol.), to become a convert to the doctrines of Christianity; to yield to the power of religious truth.

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 “?”.