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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

General

Gĕn'er-al, a.

adjective

a. [Lat. generalis, Fr. général, Pr. & Sp. general, It. generale, Pg. geral. See GENUS.]

  1. Relating to a genus or kind; pertaining to a whole class or order; belonging to a whole rather than to a part; as, a general law of the animal or vegetable economy.
  2. Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars; as, a general inference or conclusion.
  3. Not restrained or limited to a precise or detailed import; not specific; lax in signification; as, a loose and general expression.
  4. Common to many, or the greatest number; widely spread; prevalent; extensive, though not universal; as, a general opinion; a general custom.

This general applause and cheerful shout Argue your wisdom and your love to Richard. Shak. 5. Having a relation to all; common to the whole; as, Adam, our general sire. Milton. Adjutant-general (Mil.), an officer who assists the general of an army, distributes orders, receives returns, and the like; the chief adjutant.—Attorney-general, or solicitor-general (Law), an officer who conducts suits and prosecutions for the king, or for a nation or state, and whose authority is general in the state or kingdom.—Brigadier-general, a general who commands a brigade.—General assembly, an assembly of a whole body, in fact or by representation; hence, a legislature.—General court, a legislature.—General issue (Law), an issue made by a general plea, which traverses the whole declaration or indictment at once, without offering any special matter to evade it. Bouvier. Burrill.—General officer (Mil.), an officer having a rank above that of colonel. Campbell.—General ship, a ship employed as a general carrier; a ship in which the goods of several merchants, unconnected with each other, are conveyed to her place of destination.—General term (Logic), a term which is the sign of a general conception or notion.—Lieutenant-general, the general next in rank to the commander-in-chief, and commanding an army or the whole military power of a country.—Major-general, a general who commands a division of an army.—Postmaster-general, the chief officer of the post-office service of a country.—Surveyor-general, a chief surveyor, or one to whom the surveying of the public lands is intrusted.—Vicar-general, one who has authority as vicar or substitute over a whole territory or jurisdiction. The word general, annexed to a name of office, usually denotes chief or superior; as, a commissary-general, quartermaster-general. Syn.—GENERAL, COMMON, UNIVERSAL. Common denotes primarily that in which many share; and hence, that which is often met with. General is stronger, denoting that which pertains to a majority of the individuals which compose a genus, or whole. Universal, that which pertains to all without exception. To be able to read and write is so common an attainment in this country, that we may pronounce it general, though by no means universal.

Gĕn'er-al, n.

noun

n. [Fr. général, Sp. general, It. generale. See supra.] 1. The whole; the total; that which comprehends or relates to all, or the chief part; opposed to a particular object or relation;—used in the plural, or in the singular with the definite article; as, in the general. In particulars our knowledge begins, and so spreads itself by degrees to generals. Locke.

  1. The chief or superior officer in an administration; one who is head of a department, and superintends the other officers of it; especially, one of the chief military officers of a government or country; the commander of an army, or of a division or brigade.
  2. (Mil.) A particular beat of drum, which, in the morning, gives notice to the whole army to be in readiness to march.
  3. (Eccl.) The chief of an order of monks, or of all the houses or congregations established under the same rule.
  4. The public; the interest of the whole; the vulgar. [Obs.] Shak.

In general, in the main; for the most part; not always or universally.