_Ground_, the earth, generally as opposed to the air or water. He swam till he reached _ground_. The bird fell to the _ground_.
Then follows the accidental or consequential signification in which _ground_ implies any thing that lies under another; as, he laid colours upon a rough _ground_. The silk had blue flowers on a red _ground_.
Then the remoter or metaphorical signification; as, the _ground_ of his opinion was a false computation. The _ground_ of his work was his father's manuscript.
After having gone through the natural and figurative senses, it will be proper to subjoin the poetical sense of each word, where it differs from that which is in common use; as _wanton_, applied to any thing of which the motion is irregular without terrour; as,
To the poetical sense may succeed the familiar; as of _toast_, used to imply the person whose health is drunk; as,
The wise man's passion, and the vain man's _toast_. POPE.
The familiar may be followed by the burlesque; as of _mellow_, applied to good fellowship:
In all thy humours, whether grave or _mellow_. ADDISON.
--More a dupe than wit, Sappho can tell you how this man was _bit_. POPE.
And, lastly, may be produced the peculiar sense, in which a word is found in any great author: as _faculties_, in Shakespeare, signifies the powers of authority:
--This Duncan Has borne his _faculties_ so meek, has been So clear in his great office, that, &c.
The signification of adjectives may be often ascertained by uniting them to substantives; as, _simple swain, simple sheep_. Sometimes the sense of a substantive may be elucidated by the epithets annexed to it in good authors; as, the _boundless ocean_, the _open lawns_: and where such advantage can be gained by a short quotation, it is not to be omitted.
The difference of signification in words generally accounted synonymous, ought to be carefully observed; as in _pride, haughtiness, arrogance_: and the strict and critical meaning ought to be distinguished from that which is loose and popular; as in the word _perfection_, which, though in its philosophical and exact sense it can be of little use among human beings, is often so much degraded from its original signification, that the academicians have inserted in their work, _the perfection of a language_, and, with a little more licentiousness, might have prevailed on themselves to have added the _perfection of a dictionary_.