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Webster 1913 Edition


Method

Meth′od

,
Noun.
[F.
méthode
, L.
methodus
, fr. Gr.
μεθοδοσ
method, investigation following after;
μετά
after +
ὁδόσ
way.]
1.
An orderly procedure or process; regular manner of doing anything; hence, manner; way; mode;
as, a
method
of teaching languages; a
method
of improving the mind.
Addison.
2.
Orderly arrangement, elucidation, development, or classification; clear and lucid exhibition; systematic arrangement peculiar to an individual.
Though this be madness, yet there’s
method
in it.
Shakespeare
All
method
is a rational progress, a progress toward an end.
Sir W. Hamilton.
3.
(Nat. Hist.)
Classification; a mode or system of classifying natural objects according to certain common characteristics;
as, the
method
of Theophrastus; the
method
of Ray; the Linnaean
method
.
Syn. – Order; system; rule; regularity; way; manner; mode; course; process; means.
Method
,
Mode
,
Manner
. Method implies arrangement; mode, mere action or existence. Method is a way of reaching a given end by a series of acts which tend to secure it; mode relates to a single action, or to the form which a series of acts, viewed as a whole, exhibits. Manner is literally the handling of a thing, and has a wider sense, embracing both method and mode. An instructor may adopt a good method of teaching to write; the scholar may acquire a bad mode of holding his pen; the manner in which he is corrected will greatly affect his success or failure.

Webster 1828 Edition


Method

METH'OD

,
Noun.
[L. methodus; Gr. with, and way.]
1.
A suitable and convenient arrangement of things, proceedings or ideas; the natural or regular disposition of separate things or parts; convenient order for transacting business, or for comprehending any complicated subject. Without method, business of any kind will fall into confusion. To carry on farming to advantage, to keep accounts correctly, method is indispensable.
2.
Way; manner. Let us know the nature of the disease, and the method of cure.
3.
Classification; arrangement of natural bodies according to their common characteristics; as the method of Theophrast; the method of Ray; the Linnean method.
In natural arrangements a distinction is sometimes made between method and system. System is an arrangement founded, throughout all its parts, on some one principle. Method is an arrangement less fixed and determinate, and founded on more general relations. Thus we say, the natural method, and the artificial or sexual system of Linne, though the latter is not a perfect system.

Definition 2024


method

method

English

Noun

method (plural methods)

  1. A process by which a task is completed; a way of doing something (followed by the adposition of, to or for before the purpose of the process):
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close [] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
    One method of exercising a cat consist of making it follow the spot generated by a laser pointer.
    If one method doesn't work, you should ask a friend to help you.
  2. A type of theatrical acting wherein the actor utilizes his personal emotions from personal experience to portray a scripted scene.
  3. (object-oriented programming) A subroutine or function belonging to a class or object.
  4. (slang) Marijuana.

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Verb

method (third-person singular simple present methods, present participle methoding, simple past and past participle methoded)

  1. (transitive) to apply a method
  2. (casting, by extension, transitive) to apply particular treatment methods to a mold
    The company employs extensive use of 3D modelling combined with solidification simulation to ensure that critical castings are properly methoded.

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