<B>security, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>freedom from danger, care, or fear; feeling or condition of being safe. <BR> <I>Ex. You may cross the street in security when a policeman holds up his hand. Insurance is the modern Aladdin's lamp from which flows the power to protect the possessions of man--give security and peace of mind (Newsweek).</I> (SYN) confidence. <DD><B> 2. </B>freedom from doubt; certainty. <DD><B> 3. </B>overconfidence; carelessness. <DD><B> 4. </B>something that secures or makes safe. <BR> <I>Ex. My watchdog is a security against burglars. Rubber soles are a security against slipping.</I> (SYN) safety, protection, defense. <DD><B> 5. </B>something given as a pledge that a person will fulfill some duty or promise. <BR> <I>Ex. A life-insurance policy may serve as security for a loan.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>a person who agrees to be responsible for another; surety. <BR> <I>Ex. Father was security for his partner.</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with the security, as of a country or business. <BR> <I>Ex. a security agent, a security agreement, some security procedure.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>securities,</B> </I>an evidence of debt or of property ownership; bond or stock certificates. <BR> <I>Ex. These public securities can be sold for $5,000.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="securityanalyst">
<B>security analyst,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person who analyzes and evaluates stock and bonds. <BR> <I>Ex. The job of a security analyst is not to report facts, but to evaluate them (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="securityblanket">
<B>security blanket,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a blanket or similar cloth which a child carries for a feeling of security. <BR> <I>Ex. Pails which are distributed to passengers ... contain such items as a handkerchief-size child's security blanket, which the stewardess demonstrates by rubbing it against her cheek (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the censoring of information in order to protect some person or thing. </DL>
<A NAME="securityclearance">
<B>security clearance,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>permission given to a person or group, after official investigation, to enter or work in classified areas, deal with confidential or secret material, or meet with high government officials. <DD><B> 2. </B>the investigation conducted before giving such clearance or permission. <BR> <I>Ex. Although not strictly Government employees, the contract experts have been required ... to undergo security clearance (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="securitycouncil">
<B>Security Council,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a body in the United Nations consisting of five permanent member nations and ten rotating members, concerned primarily with preserving world peace. The Security Council can investigate any situation that might cause international friction, and may ask member nations to furnish troops and order them into areas of international conflict. </DL>
<B>security risk,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person; especially an employee or prospective employee of the Federal government, who is regarded as unreliable or dangerous in positions involving national security, especially because of weakness of character, criminal record, or affiliation with subversive organizations. <DD><B> 2. </B>any condition or development regarded as a risk to national security. </DL>
<A NAME="securitysystem">
<B>security system,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any system for maintaining or safeguarding national or international security. </DL>
<A NAME="secutor">
<B>secutor, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a light-armed gladiator with a square shield and a sword who opposed the retiarius in the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. </DL>
<A NAME="secy">
<B>secy.</B> or <B>sec'y.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> secretary. </DL>
<A NAME="sedan">
<B>sedan, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a type of closed automobile having a front and a rear seat and seating four or more persons. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=sedan chair.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sedanchair">
<B>sedan chair,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a covered chair for one person, carried on poles by two men. Sedan chairs were much used during the 1600's, 1700's, and early 1800's. </DL>
<A NAME="sedate">
<B>sedate</B> (1), adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> quiet, calm, and composed; serious; undisturbed by passion or excitement. <BR> <I>Ex. She is very sedate for a child and would rather read and sew than play. One of those calm, quiet, sedate natures, to whom the temptations of turbulent nerves or vehement passions are things utterly incomprehensible (Harriet Beecher Stowe).</I> (SYN) placid, staid, sober, collected, unruffled. adv. <B>sedately.</B> noun <B>sedateness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="sedate">
<B>sedate</B> (2), transitive verb, <B>-dated,</B> <B>-dating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to treat or calm with sedatives. <BR> <I>Ex. They tried ... to sedate her, and take care of her--and she would not let them (Theodore H. White).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sedation">
<B>sedation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Medicine.) <DD><B> 1. </B>the act of producing a calm or relaxed state, especially through a diminishing of the rate of functional activity; treatment with sedatives. <DD><B> 2. </B>the calm or relaxed state induced by such treatment. </DL>
<A NAME="sedative">
<B>sedative, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a medicine that lessens nervousness, pain, or excitement. <BR> <I>Ex. Drugs called barbiturates and bromides are commonly used sedatives (Solomon Garb).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>anything soothing or calming. (SYN) salve. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>lessening nervousness, pain, or excitement; lowering functional activity; calmative. <BR> <I>Ex. a sedative drug.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>soothing; calming. <BR> <I>Ex. ... soothing the cares of Polynesian life in the sedative fumes of tobacco (Herman Melville).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sedefendendo">
<B>se defendendo,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Law.) in self-defense (a plea offered to justify homicide). </DL>
<A NAME="sedentarily">
<B>sedentarily, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> in a sedentary manner. </DL>
<A NAME="sedentariness">
<B>sedentariness, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state or habit of being sedentary. </DL>
<A NAME="sedentary">
<B>sedentary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>used to sitting still much of the time; inactive. <BR> <I>Ex. Sedentary people get little physical exercise.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>that keeps one sitting still much of the time. <BR> <I>Ex. Bookkeeping is a sedentary occupation.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>moving little and rarely. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Zoology.) <DD><B> a. </B>living in one place, as English sparrows do; not migratory or moving far. <BR> <I>Ex. Pigeons are sedentary birds.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>attached to one spot; not moving. <BR> <I>Ex. a sedentary mollusk.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>spinning a web and lying in wait. <BR> <I>Ex. I discovered that this was no web-spinning, sedentary spider, but a wandering hunter (W. H. Hudson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sedentation">
<B>sedentation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state of having become sedentary. </DL>
<A NAME="seder">
<B>Seder, </B>noun, pl. <B>Seders,</B> <B>Sedarim.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the religious service and feast held in Jewish homes on the first two nights (or first night only) of Passover. </DL>
<A NAME="sederunt">
<B>sederunt, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a sitting; session. <DD><B> 2. </B>the people present at a session. </DL>
<A NAME="sedge">
<B>sedge, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a grasslike plant that grows in wet places. The sedges comprise a large family of monocotyledonous herbs, resembling grasses but having solid, three-sided stems and small, inconspicuous flowers usually in spikes or heads. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of various coarse, grassy, rushlike or flaglike plants growing in wet places. </DL>
<A NAME="sedged">
<B>sedged, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>bordered with sedge. <BR> <I>Ex. sedged brooks.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) made of sedge. </DL>
<A NAME="sedgefamily">
<B>sedge family,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a large group of monocotyledonous herbs resembling grasses but having solid, three-sided stems and small, inconspicuous flowers usually in spikes or heads. The family includes the sedge, papyrus, chufa, and bulrush. </DL>
<A NAME="sedgehen">
<B>sedge hen,</B> <B>=clapper rail.</B></DL>
<A NAME="sedgeland">
<B>sedgeland, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> land between high and low watermarks. </DL>
<A NAME="sedgewarbler">
<B>sedge warbler,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a group of small, Old World birds commonly found in marshy areas. </DL>
<A NAME="sedgy">
<B>sedgy, </B>adjective, <B>sedgier,</B> <B>sedgiest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>abounding in or covered with sedge; bordered with sedge. <BR> <I>Ex. a sedgy brook.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>like sedge. <BR> <I>Ex. a sedgy growth of reeds.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sedile">
<B>sedile, </B>noun, pl. <B>-dilia.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> one of the three seats in the chancel for the use of the clergy officiating in the Eucharist. </DL>
