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Webster 1913 Edition


Appertain

Apˊper-tain′

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Appertained
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Appertaining
.]
[OE.
apperteinen
,
apertenen
, OF.
apartenir
, F.
appartenir
, fr. L.
appertinere
;
ad
+
pertinere
to reach to, belong. See
Pertain
.]
To belong or pertain, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate.
Things
appertaining
to this life.
Hooker.
Give it unto him to whom it
appertaineth
.
Lev. vi. 5.

Webster 1828 Edition


Appertain

APPERTA'IN

,
Verb.
I.
[L. ad and pertineo, to pertain, of per and teneo, to hold. Pertineo is to reach to, to extend to, hence to belong. See Tenant.]
To belong, whether by right, nature or appointment.
Give it to him to whom it appertaineth. Lev. 6.
[See Pertain.]

Definition 2024


appertain

appertain

English

Verb

appertain (third-person singular simple present appertains, present participle appertaining, simple past and past participle appertained)

  1. To belong to or be a part of, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate to.
  2. To belong as a part, right, possession, attribute, etc..
    • 1551, James A.H. Murray, editor, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society., volume 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1888, Part 1, page 217:
      Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber.
    • 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, “On the Great Alkali Plain”, in A Study in Scarlet, New York: D. Appleton and Company, published 1902, The Country of the Saints, page 115:
      In this great stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life. There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earthabove all, there is absolute silence. Listen as one may, there is no shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but silencecomplete and heart-subduing silence.

Usage notes

  • Appertain is followed by to (or formerly by unto, as in The King James Version of The Bible and in the plays of Shakespeare, although to is used in these works as well).

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