nature

plural natures · alternative obsolete natuer

1. capitalizedoftenuncountableThe way things are, the totality of all things in the physical universe and their order, especially the physical world in contrast to spiritual realms and flora and fauna as distinct from human conventions, art, and technology.

   Nature has caprices which art cannot imitate.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

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   I oft admire How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit Such disproportions.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   In the works of nature we find, in many instances, beauty and sublimity involved among circumstances, which are either indifferent, or which obstruct the general effect: and it is only by a train of experiments, that we can separate those circumstances from the rest... Accordingly, the inexperienced artist, when he copies nature, will copy her servilely... and the beauties of his performances will be encumbered with a number of superfluous or disagreeable concomitants. Experience and observation alone can enable him to make this determination: to exhibit the principles of beauty pure and unadulterated, and to form a creation of his own, more faultless, than ever fell under the observation of his senses.

   1808, Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, pages 315–6

   Most persons in striving after effect lose the likeness when they should go together to produce a good effect you must copy Nature: leave Nature for an imaginary effect & you lose all. Nature as Nature cannot be exceeded, and as your object it [is] to copy Nature twere the hight of folly to look at any thing else to produce that copy.

   1816, Matthew Harris Jouett, Notes... on Painting with Gilbert Stuart Esqr

   Nothing was more common, in those days, than to interpret all meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena, that occurred with less regularity than the rise and set of sun and moon, as so many revelations from a supernatural source... But what shall we say, when an individual discovers a revelation, addressed to himself alone, on the same vast sheet of record! In such a case, it could only be the symptom of a highly disordered mental state, when a man, rendered morbidly self-contemplative by long, intense, and secret pain, had extended his egotism over the whole expanse of nature, until the firmament itself should appear no more than a fitting page for his soul's history and fate.

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, pages 186–7

   Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects.

   1891, Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

2. The particular way someone or something is, especially
   1. countableuncountableThe essential or innate characteristics of a person or thing which will always tend to manifest, especially in contrast to specific contexts, reason, religious duty, upbringing, and personal pretense or effort.

      Nature passes norture.

      1641, David Fergusson, Scottish proverbs, D4

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      Vliss.: ... One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all with one consent praise new-borne gaudes, Though they are made and moulded of things past, And goe to dust, that is a little guilt, More laud then guilt ore-dusted.

      c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, scene iii], page iii

      Lady. ...Glamys thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promis'd: yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o'th' Milke of humane kindnesse, To catch the neerest way.

      c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

      Men may change their Climate, but they cannot their Nature.

      1709, Robert Steele, Tatler, number 93

      Domestic animals of a base nature and not fit for food, are not the subjects of theft. This rule includes dogs and cats.

      1834, Criminal Law Commission, First Report... on Criminal Law, page 21

      His own better nature which... was magnanimous and heroic, moved and won him.

      1848, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Harold, volume III, page 375

      Synonyms: essence

   2. countableuncountableThe distinguishing characteristic of a person or thing, understood as its general class, sort, type, etc.

      What was the nature of your relationship with the deceased?

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      For the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature.

      1626 July 12, Charles I, Instructions

      A dispute of this nature caused mischief.

      1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

      Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.

      1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

      And yet, though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature.

      1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 56

      The extent and nature of Bach's influence on Haydn is now due for further reassessment.

      1988 April, Music and Letters, Vol. 69, p. 463

   3. UKcountableobsoleteuncountablegovernmentSynonym of caliber: the class of a gun.

      ...One Hundred of each Nature of Case-Shot...

      1828, James Morton Spearman, The British Gunner, page 130

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      B.L. cartridges have lubricators choked inside the cartridges of 40-pr. and lower natures.

      1879, War Office, Manual of Siege and Garrison Artillery Exercises, page 37

      Synonyms: caliber

3. countableuncountableThe vital functions or strength of someone or something, especially (now dialect) as requiring nourishment or careful maintenance or (medicine) as a force of regeneration without special treatment.

   The prison allowance will not support nature.

   1843, George Borrow, The Bible in Spain, London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.

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   Any such corrasiue, sharpe or eager medicine... as the said H. shal think his nature is vnable to suffer...

   1592, William West, Symbolaeography, Pt. I, §102b

   For nature creſſant does not grovve alone / In thevvs and bulkes, but as this temple vvaxes, / The invvard ſervice of the minde and ſoule / Grovves vvide vvithal, […]

   For a human being's vital functions, increasing, do not grow alone / In physical development and bulk, but as this "temple" [i.e., the body] waxes, / The inward operation of the mind and soul / Grows wide with them.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   I returned hungry... and had only snow to supply the calls of nature.

   1807, Zebulon Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Source of the Mississippi..., volume II, page 182

   The timber... is found to be brittle and effete; or, to use the workman's expression, 'its nature is gone'.

   1820, Thomas Tredgold, Elementary Principles of Carpentry, page 165

   Nature is unable to repair the extensive injury.

   1826 April 1, Lancet, p. 32

4. A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially
   1. countableuncountableThe need to urinate and defecate.

      I hear the call of nature.

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      He withdrew from the Company to ease Nature.

      1701, William Wotton, The History of Rome, page 328

      The women tell you to stop because they's feeling the call of nature. If you don't stop they pee in your lorry.

      1965, Wole Soyinka, Road, page 26

   2. countableuncountablenow chiefly African-American VernacularSexual desire.

      Every time I felt nature for her, she would rub something on her hands and face to take away my nature.

      1974 July 25, Daily Telegraph, page 3

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      She marvelled "What he saw in such a baby "As that prim, silent, cold Aurora Raby?" ...Why Adeline had this slight prejudice ...For me appears a question far too nice, Since Adeline was liberal by Nature; But Nature’s Nature, and has more caprices Than I have time, or will to take to pieces...

      1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Draft, Canto XV, St. xlix & lii

      He had placed a spell on her by means of a cunjer bag... Its effect was to rob her of connubial allure—in her words, ‘it stole her nature’.

      1941, William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, page 305

      Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature. Moreland: Pitiful. Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.

      2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06

   3. countableuncountablenow chiefly UK regional and African-American VernacularSpontaneous love, affection, or reverence, especially between parent and child.

      She had no nature, nor indeed any passion but that of money.

      1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, volume I, page 136

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      Lady. ... Come you Spirits, That tend on mortall thoughts, vnsex me here, ...make thick my blood, Stop vp th'accesse, and passage to Remorse, That no compunctious visitings of Nature Shake my fell purpose...

      c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

      Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed) The murd'ring son ascend his parent's bed, Thro' violated Nature force his way, And stain the sacred womb where once he lay?

      1712, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius's Thebais”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, page 25

      ...I could bear much. I'd not move nor scream While you wrote the red stripes: But there's no nature in you...

      1937, Robinson Jeffers, “Thurso's Landing”, in Selected Poetry, page 312

5. archaiccountableuncountableA product of the body's physical form, especially semen and vaginal fluids, menstrual fluid, and (obsolete) feces.

   If a man want to break his wife from some man, he steals this dishcloth... an' he ketches her nachure in this dishcloth...

   c. 1938, spell cited in Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo Conjuration Witchcraft Rootwork, Vol. I, p. 534

6. archaiccountableuncountableA part of the body's physical form, especially (obsolete) the female genitalia.

   ... offer her the Horse, and... wash her Nature with cold Water ...

   1743 May, William Ellis, Modern Husbandman, No. xiv, p. 137

present singular third person natures · participle present naturing · participle past natured · past natured · alternative obsolete natuer

1. obsoletetransitiveTo endow with natural qualities.

1. The sum of natural forces reified and considered as a sentient being, will, or principle.

   The human genius is creative when it copies Nature, and imitative when it aims to invent.

   1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[[Book XIII. Vesuvius and the plain of Naples.] Chap[ter] IV.] The extempore effusion of Corinna on the Plain of Naples.”, in Corinna; or, Italy. […], volume III, London: […] Corri, […]; and sold by Colburn, […], and Mackenzie, […], →OCLC, page 235

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   To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man.

   1798, William Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early Spring

   Within was a small chamber, chilly as an ice-house, and walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 219

   Then he commenced to talk, really talk, and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

   1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court