From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
State \State\ (st[=a]t), n. [OE. stat, OF. estat, F. ['e]tat,
fr. L. status a standing, position, fr. stare, statum, to
stand. See Stand, and cf. Estate, Status.]
1. The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any
given time.
[1913 Webster]
State is a term nearly synonymous with "mode," but
of a meaning more extensive, and is not exclusively
limited to the mutable and contingent. --Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
Declare the past and present state of things.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Keep the state of the question in your eye. --Boyle.
[1913 Webster]
2. Rank; condition; quality; as, the state of honor.
[1913 Webster]
Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous
circumstances; social importance.
[1913 Webster]
She instructed him how he should keep state, and yet
with a modest sense of his misfortunes. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
Can this imperious lord forget to reign,
Quit all his state, descend, and serve again?
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
4. Appearance of grandeur or dignity; pomp.
[1913 Webster]
Where least of state there most of love is shown.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
5. A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais;
a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
His high throne, . . . under state
Of richest texture spread. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
When he went to court, he used to kick away the
state, and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl.
--Swift.
[1913 Webster]
6. Estate; possession. [Obs.] --Daniel.
[1913 Webster]
Your state, my lord, again is yours. --Massinger.
[1913 Webster]
7. A person of high rank. [Obs.] --Latimer.
[1913 Webster]
8. Any body of men united by profession, or constituting a
community of a particular character; as, the civil and
ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal
and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf. Estate, n., 6.
[1913 Webster]
9. The principal persons in a government.
[1913 Webster]
The bold design
Pleased highly those infernal states. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
10. The bodies that constitute the legislature of a country;
as, the States-general of Holland.
[1913 Webster]
11. A form of government which is not monarchial, as a
republic. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Well monarchies may own religion's name,
But states are atheists in their very fame.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
12. A political body, or body politic; the whole body of
people who are united under one government, whatever may
be the form of the government; a nation.
[1913 Webster]
Municipal law is a rule of conduct prescribed by
the supreme power in a state. --Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]
The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from
their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they
found a state without a king, and a church without
a bishop. --R. Choate.
[1913 Webster]
13. In the United States, one of the commonwealths, or bodies
politic, the people of which make up the body of the
nation, and which, under the national constitution, stand
in certain specified relations with the national
government, and are invested, as commonwealths, with full
power in their several spheres over all matters not
expressly inhibited.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The term State, in its technical sense, is used in
distinction from the federal system, i. e., the
government of the United States.
[1913 Webster]
14. Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity
between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between
the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
[Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Note: When state is joined with another word, or used
adjectively, it denotes public, or what belongs to the
community or body politic, or to the government; also,
what belongs to the States severally in the American
Union; as, state affairs; state policy; State laws of
Iowa.
[1913 Webster]
Nascent state. (Chem.) See under Nascent.
Secretary of state. See Secretary, n., 3.
State bargea royal barge, or a barge belonging to a
government.
State bed, an elaborately carved or decorated bed.
State carriage, a highly decorated carriage for officials
going in state, or taking part in public processions.
State paper, an official paper relating to the interests or
government of a state. --Jay.
State prison, a public prison or penitentiary; -- called
also State's prison.
State prisoner, one in confinement, or under arrest, for a
political offense.
State rights, or States' rights, the rights of the
several independent States, as distinguished from the
rights of the Federal government. It has been a question
as to what rights have been vested in the general
government. [U.S.]
State's evidence. See Probator, 2, and under Evidence.
State sword, a sword used on state occasions, being borne
before a sovereign by an attendant of high rank.
State trial, a trial of a person for a political offense.
States of the Church. See under Ecclesiastical.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: State, Situation, Condition.
Usage: State is the generic term, and denotes in general the
mode in which a thing stands or exists. The situation
of a thing is its state in reference to external
objects and influences; its condition is its internal
state, or what it is in itself considered. Our
situation is good or bad as outward things bear
favorably or unfavorably upon us; our condition is
good or bad according to the state we are actually in
as respects our persons, families, property, and other
things which comprise our sources of enjoyment.
[1913 Webster]
I do not, brother,
Infer as if I thought my sister's state
Secure without all doubt or controversy.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
We hoped to enjoy with ease what, in our
situation, might be called the luxuries of life.
--Cook.
[1913 Webster]
And, O, what man's condition can be worse
Than his whom plenty starves and blessings
curse? --Cowley.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
State \State\, n.
A statement; also, a document containing a statement. [R.]
--Sir W. Scott.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
State \State\ (st[=a]t), a.
1. Stately. [Obs.] --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
2. Belonging to the state, or body politic; public.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
State \State\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stated; p. pr. & vb. n.
Stating.]
1. To set; to settle; to establish. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
I myself, though meanest stated,
And in court now almost hated. --Wither.
[1913 Webster]
Who calls the council, states the certain day.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
2. To express the particulars of; to set down in detail or in
gross; to represent fully in words; to narrate; to recite;
as, to state the facts of a case, one's opinion, etc.
[1913 Webster]
To state it. To assume state or dignity. [Obs.] "Rarely
dressed up, and taught to state it." --Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Argillaceous \Ar`gil*la"ceous\, a. [L. argillaceus, fr.
argilla.]
Of the nature of clay; consisting of, or containing, argil or
clay; clayey.
[1913 Webster]
Argillaceous sandstone (Geol.), a sandstone containing much
clay.
Argillaceous iron ore, the clay ironstone.
Argillaceous schist or state. See Argillite.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
state
n 1: the territory occupied by one of the constituent
administrative districts of a nation; "his state is in the
deep south" [syn: state, province]
2: the way something is with respect to its main attributes;
"the current state of knowledge"; "his state of health"; "in
a weak financial state"
3: the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign
state; "the state has lowered its income tax"
4: a politically organized body of people under a single
government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African
nations"; "students who had come to the nation's capitol";
"the country's largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized
land" [syn: state, nation, country, land,
commonwealth, res publica, body politic]
5: (chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids
(fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped
by the container) and gases (filling the container); "the
solid state of water is called ice" [syn: state of matter,
state]
6: a state of depression or agitation; "he was in such a state
you just couldn't reason with him"
7: the territory occupied by a nation; "he returned to the land
of his birth"; "he visited several European countries" [syn:
country, state, land]
8: the federal department in the United States that sets and
maintains foreign policies; "the Department of State was
created in 1789" [syn: Department of State, {United States
Department of State}, State Department, State, DoS]
v 1: express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her";
"tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion";
"state your name" [syn: state, say, tell]
2: put before; "I submit to you that the accused is guilty"
[syn: submit, state, put forward, posit]
3: indicate through a symbol, formula, etc.; "Can you express
this distance in kilometers?" [syn: express, state]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
state
<storage, architecture, jargon, theory> How something is; its
configuration, attributes, condition, or information content.
The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes
with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some
initial state if the system is switched off).
A state may be considered to be a point in some space of all
possible states. A simple example is a light, which is either
on or off. A complex example is the electrical activation in
a human brain while solving a problem.
In computing and related fields, states, as in the light
example, are often modelled as being discrete (rather than
continuous) and the transition from one state to another is
considered to be instantaneous. Another (related) property of
a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit.
This may be finite or infinite. A common model for a system
with a finite number of discrete state is a {finite state
machine}.
[Jargon File]
(1996-10-13)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
state
n.
1. Condition, situation. "What's the state of your latest hack?" "It's
winning away." "The system tried to read and write the disk
simultaneously and got into a totally wedged state." The standard
question "What's your state?" means "What are you doing?" or "What are
you about to do?" Typical answers are "about to gronk out", or
"hungry". Another standard question is "What's the state of the
world?", meaning "What's new?" or "What's going on?". The more terse
and humorous way of asking these questions would be "State-p?".
Another way of phrasing the first question under sense 1 would be
"state-p latest hack?".
2. Information being maintained in non-permanent memory (electronic or
human).