condition
Pronunciation
  • enPR: kəndĭshʹən, IPA: /kənˈdɪʃən/
Noun

condition

  1. A logical clause or phrase that a conditional statement uses. The phrase can either be true or false.
  2. A requirement or requisite.
    Environmental protection is a condition for sustainability.   What other planets might have the right conditions for life?   The union had a dispute over sick time and other conditions of employment.
  3. (legal) A clause in a contract or agreement indicating that a certain contingency may modify the principal obligation in some way.
  4. The health status of a medical patient.
    My aunt couldn't walk up the stairs in her condition.
  5. The state or quality.
    National reports on the condition of public education are dismal.   The condition of man can be classified as civilized or uncivilized.
  6. A particular state of being.
    Hypnosis is a peculiar condition of the nervous system.   Steps were taken to ameliorate the condition of slavery.   Security is defined as the condition of not being threatened.   Aging is a condition over which we are powerless.
  7. (obsolete) The situation of a person or persons, particularly their social and/or economic class, rank.
    A man of his condition has no place to make request.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:
      |||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
      This zeal was now inflamed by Lady Bellaston, who had told her the preceding evening, that she was well satisfied from the conduct of Sophia, and from her carriage to his lordship, that all delays would be dangerous, and that the only way to succeed was to press the match forward with such rapidity that the young lady should have no time to reflect, and be obliged to consent while she scarce knew what she did; in which manner, she said, one-half of the marriages among people of condition were brought about.
Synonyms
  • (the health or state of something) fettle
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

condition (conditions, present participle conditioning; past and past participle conditioned)

  1. To subject to the process of acclimation.
    I became conditioned to the absence of seasons in San Diego.
  2. To subject to different conditions, especially as an exercise.
    They were conditioning their shins in their karate class.
  3. (transitive) To place conditions or limitations upon.
    • 1884, Alfred Tennyson, The Golden Year
      Seas, that daily gain upon the shore, / Have ebb and flow conditioning their march.
  4. To shape the behaviour of someone to do something.
  5. (transitive) To treat (the hair) with hair conditioner.
  6. (transitive) To contract; to stipulate; to agree.
    • 1633 May 11 (licensing date), John Fletcher; James Shirley, “The Night-Walker, or The Little Thief. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 2, scene 8:
      Pay me back my credit, / And I'll condition with ye.
    • 1614, Walter Raleigh, Historie of the World
      It was conditioned between Saturn and Titan, that Saturn should put to death all his male children.
  7. (transitive) To test or assay, as silk (to ascertain the proportion of moisture it contains).
  8. (US, colleges, transitive) To put under conditions; to require to pass a new examination or to make up a specified study, as a condition of remaining in one's class or in college.
    to condition a student who has failed in some branch of study
  9. To impose upon an object those relations or conditions without which knowledge and thought are alleged to be impossible.
    • To think of a thing is to condition.
Translations Translations Translations


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