DEFINITIONS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 841, 19 April 1906, Page 21

DEFINITIONS.

. Garrick’s definit on of Kitty Clive is a touch of genius. “Madam, I have heard of tartar and of brimstone, but you are th" cream of the one and the flower of th - * other.”. The meaning of a term, according to the dictionary, is generally devoid of wit and humour; but, that it is possible to nfuse a little of these qualities into a definition, without obscuring its meaning, or detracting from its value, the followng examples make sufficiently evident: —“A gentleman” has been defined as a “man who can wear a clean collar without looking consp cuous” ; “a lineal descendant” is “one who has to fall back o i some praiseworthy ancestor for his own importance”; while “a second marriage” is sa d to be “the triumph of hope over experience.” Bishop Wilberforce, being asked to define the difference between a good and a bad speaker, gav this definition “The good speaker has something to say; the bad has to say something.” A speaker who opened a debate on the relative merits of burial and cremation as methods of disposing of the dead, characterised the subject of discuss on as a “grave and burning question.” Another is credited with having described water as “a clear, colourless fluid, very useful foi washing purposes. Some people are said to drink it.” Some definitions are little more than amusing, as witness the following : “A muff: An article that holds a lady’s hands without squeezing them.” “A lover: A man who, in his anxiety to obtain possess on of another, loses possession of himself.”