From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
mastery
n 1: great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or
activity; "a good command of French" [syn: command,
control]
2: power to dominate or defeat; "mastery of the seas" [syn:
domination, supremacy]
3: the act of mastering or subordinating someone [syn:
subordination]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Mastery \Mas"ter*y\, n.; pl. Masteries. [OF. maistrie.]
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1. The position or authority of a master; dominion; command;
supremacy; superiority.
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If divided by mountains, they will fight for the
mastery of the passages of the tops. --Sir W.
Raleigh.
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2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph;
preeminence.
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The voice of them that shout for mastery. --Ex.
xxxii. 18.
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Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate
in all things. --1 Cor. ix.
25.
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O, but to have gulled him
Had been a mastery. --B. Jonson.
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3. Contest for superiority. [Obs.] --Holland.
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4. A masterly operation; a feat. [Obs.]
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I will do a maistrie ere I go. --Chaucer.
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5. Specifically, the philosopher's stone. [Obs.]
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6. The act process of mastering; the state of having
mastered.
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He could attain to a mastery in all languages.
--Tillotson.
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The learning and mastery of a tongue, being
unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with
other difficulties. --Locke.
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