nature

noun

1. (capitalized, often, uncountable)The way things are, the totality of all things in the physical universe and their order, especially the physical world in contrast to spiritual realms and flora and fauna as distinct from human conventions, art, and technology.

   “I oft admire How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit Such disproportions.”

   “Most persons in striving after effect lose the likeness when they should go together to produce a good effect you must copy Nature: leave Nature for an imaginary effect & you lose all. Nature as Nature cannot be exceeded, and as your object it [is] to copy Nature twere the hight of folly to look at any thing else to produce that copy.”

   “Nature has caprices which art cannot imitate.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The particular way someone or something is, especially

   “Vliss.: ... One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all with one consent praise new-borne gaudes, Though they are made and moulded of things past, And goe to dust, that is a little guilt, More laud then guilt ore-dusted.”

   “Lady. ...Glamys thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promis'd: yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o'th' Milke of humane kindnesse, To catch the neerest way.”

   “Nature passes norture.”

   “Men may change their Climate, but they cannot their Nature.”

   “Domestic animals of a base nature and not fit for food, are not the subjects of theft. This rule includes dogs and cats.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The particular way someone or something is, especially

   “For the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature.”

   “A dispute of this nature caused mischief.”

   “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.”

   “And yet, though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature.”

   “The extent and nature of Bach's influence on Haydn is now due for further reassessment.”

4. (UK, countable, obsolete, uncountable)The particular way someone or something is, especially

   “...One Hundred of each Nature of Case-Shot...”

   “B.L. cartridges have lubricators choked inside the cartridges of 40-pr. and lower natures.”

5. (countable, uncountable)The vital functions or strength of someone or something, especially (now dialect) as requiring nourishment or careful maintenance or (medicine) as a force of regeneration without special treatment.

   “Any such corrasiue, sharpe or eager medicine... as the said H. shal think his nature is vnable to suffer...”

   “For nature creſſant does not grovve alone / In thevvs and bulkes, but as this temple vvaxes, / The invvard ſervice of the minde and ſoule / Grovves vvide vvithal, […]”

   “I returned hungry... and had only snow to supply the calls of nature.”

   “The timber... is found to be brittle and effete; or, to use the workman's expression, 'its nature is gone'.”

   “Nature is unable to repair the extensive injury.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially

   “He withdrew from the Company to ease Nature.”

   “The women tell you to stop because they's feeling the call of nature. If you don't stop they pee in your lorry.”

   “I hear the call of nature.”

7. (countable, uncountable)A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially

   “She marvelled "What he saw in such a baby "As that prim, silent, cold Aurora Raby?" ...Why Adeline had this slight prejudice ...For me appears a question far too nice, Since Adeline was liberal by Nature; But Nature’s Nature, and has more caprices Than I have time, or will to take to pieces...”

   “He had placed a spell on her by means of a cunjer bag... Its effect was to rob her of connubial allure—in her words, ‘it stole her nature’.”

   “Every time I felt nature for her, she would rub something on her hands and face to take away my nature.”

   “Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature. Moreland: Pitiful. Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.”

8. (countable, uncountable)A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially

   “Lady. ... Come you Spirits, That tend on mortall thoughts, vnsex me here, ...make thick my blood, Stop vp th'accesse, and passage to Remorse, That no compunctious visitings of Nature Shake my fell purpose...”

   “Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed) The murd'ring son ascend his parent's bed, Thro' violated Nature force his way, And stain the sacred womb where once he lay?”

   “She had no nature, nor indeed any passion but that of money.”

   “...I could bear much. I'd not move nor scream While you wrote the red stripes: But there's no nature in you...”

9. (archaic, countable, uncountable)A product of the body's physical form, especially semen and vaginal fluids, menstrual fluid, and (obsolete) feces.

   “If a man want to break his wife from some man, he steals this dishcloth... an' he ketches her nachure in this dishcloth...”

10. (archaic, countable, uncountable)A part of the body's physical form, especially (obsolete) the female genitalia.

    “... offer her the Horse, and... wash her Nature with cold Water ...”

verb

1. (obsolete)To endow with natural qualities.

name

1. The sum of natural forces reified and considered as a sentient being, will, or principle.

   “To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man.”

   “The human genius is creative when it copies Nature, and imitative when it aims to invent.”

   “Within was a small chamber, chilly as an ice-house, and walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat.”

   “Then he commenced to talk, really talk, and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.”

   “She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.”