World, n.
(wŭrld), n. [A-S. weorold, werold, worold, wiarwld, world, O. Sax. werold, D. wereld, O. L. Ger. werld, weerld, Icel. veröld, Sw. verld, Dan. verden, O. H. Ger. weralt, werall, werolti, worolt, M. H. Ger. werlt, N. H. Ger. welt.]
Sense 1. The earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the sum of human affairs and interests.
That forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe. Milton.
Sense 2. In a more restricted sense, that part of the earth and its concerns which is known to any one, or contemplated by any one; a division of the globe, or of its inhabitants; human affairs as seen from a certain position, or from a given point of view; also, state of existence; scene of life and action; as, the Old World; the New World; the Roman world; the religious world; the Catholic world; the upper world; the future world. “Various idols through the heathen world.” Milton.
Murmuring that now they must be put to make war beyond the world’s end—for so they counted Britain. Milton.
One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my surety. Shak.
Sense 3. In an extended sense, the earth, and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the system of created things; existent creation; universe.
The invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen. Rom. i. 20.
With desire to know, What ne’er might concern him, how this world Of heaven and earth conspicuous first begun. Milton.
Sense 4. Any planet or heavenly body, considered as inhabited, and as the scene of interests analogous with human interests; as, a plurality of worlds. “Lord of the worlds above.” Watts.
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Stars distant, but nigh-hand seemed other worlds. Milton.
There may be other worlds, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their almighty Sovereign. W. B. Sprague.
Sense 5. The customs, practices, and interests of men; general affairs of life; human society; public affairs and occupations; as, a knowledge of the world; the ways of the world.
Happy is she that from the world retires, And carries with her what the world admires. Waller.
His knowledge of the world makes man perfidious. Addison.
Sense 6. Individual experience of, or concern with, life; course of life; sum of the affairs which affect the individual; as, to begin the world with no property; to lose all and begin the world anew.
Sense 7. The inhabitants of the earth; the human race; people in general; the public; mankind.
Since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it. Shak.
Tell me, wench, how will the world repute me For undertaking so unstaid a journey? Shak.
Sense 8. The earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven; concerns of this life as distinguished from those of the life to come; the present existence and its interests; hence, secular affairs; engrossment or absorption in the affairs of this life; worldly corruption; the ungodly or wicked part of mankind.
I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given me. John xvii. 9.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world. 1 John ii. 15, 16.
Sense 9. A great multitude or quantity; a large number. “A world of men.” Chapman. “A world of woes dispatched in little space.” Dryden.
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. Shak.
Charging an army, while All the world wondered. Tennyson.
All in the world, all that exists; all that is possible; as, all the precaution in the world would not save him.—A world to see, a wonder; something as strange to see as the whole world together. [Obs.]
O, you are novices; ’tis a world to see How tame (when men and women are alone) A meacock wretch can make the curtest shrew. Shak.
—For all the world. (a.) Precisely; exactly. [Obs.] (b.) For any consideration.—Seven wonders of the world. See WONDERS.—To go to the world, to be married. [Obs.] “Thus goes every one to the world, but I—I may sit in a corner, and cry, Heigh-ho for a husband.” Shak.—World’s end, the end or most distant part of the world; the remotest regions.—World without end, eternally; everlastingly; as if in a state of existence having no end. “This man, whom nothing will convince, thinks, by talking world without end, to make good his integrity and fair dealing, contradicted by his own hand and seal.” Milton.