When I write out my invoice to my contractor, so that I may be paid and then buy what I need to survive, I am moulding words in an established grammatic order, though I may not, exactly, be forming sentences. This is, of course, necessary, and unavoidable, if I am to live in the world, which IS where I am. And so much of what I do is of this sort of thing, for all of us.

And speaking with people, this is the case, too. Though sometimes, often, in person, we can see beyond the words to something else. But, sometimes, we may be deluded in this.

When writing, however, there is that time when I may be expressing ideas and thoughts, but I see something, and it is that something that expresses itself through me. If I do it right, then the intoxication I feel at the sight of the vision is conveyed through the words I use, probably NOT in too established a form.

Write (?), v. t. [imp. Wrote (?); p. p. Written (?); Archaic imp. & p. p. Writ (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Writing.] [OE. writen, AS. writan; originally, to scratch, to score; akin to OS. writan to write, to tear, to wound, D. rijten to tear, to rend, G. reissen, OHG. rizan, Icel. rita to write, Goth. writs a stroke, dash, letter. Cf. Race tribe, lineage.]

1.

To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.

2.

To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter.

Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves. Shak.

I chose to write the thing I durst not speak To her I loved. Prior.

3.

Hence, to compose or produce, as an author.

I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time within the memory of men still living. Macaulay.

4.

To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave; as, truth written on the heart.

5.

To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; -- often used reflexively.

He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine. Milton.

To write to, to communicate by a written document to. -- Written laws, laws deriving their force from express legislative enactment, as contradistinguished from unwritten, or common, law. See the Note under Law, and Common law, under Common, a.

 

© Webster 1913.


Write, v. i.

1.

To form characters, letters, or figures, as representative of sounds or ideas; to express words and sentences by written signs.

Chaucer.

So it stead you, I will write, Please you command. Shak.

2.

To be regularly employed or occupied in writing, copying, or accounting; to act as clerk or amanuensis; as, he writes in one of the public offices.

3.

To frame or combine ideas, and express them in written words; to play the author; to recite or relate in books; to compose.

They can write up to the dignity and character of the authors. Felton.

4.

To compose or send letters.

He wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry concerning their freedom. 1 Esdras iv. 49.

 

© Webster 1913.

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