See Also: text(dictionary)
text blindness(medicine)
Text Image(law)
Full Text(law)
Compression Of Text(law)
text 2, verb(dictionary)
text 1, noun(dictionary)
Text Structure(law)
text message 1, noun(dictionary)
text message 2, verb(dictionary)

text (iou)



text noun & verb. LME.
[Old Northern French tixte, (also mod. French) texte from Latin textus tissue, style of literary work, (in medieval Latin) the Gospel, written character, from text- pa. ppl stem of texere weave.]
A. noun.
a. The wording of something written or printed; the actual words, phrases, and sentences as written. LME.
plain text: see PLAIN adjective1 & adverb.
A. Fraser The herald had difficulty in making out the exact text of the declaration of war.
b. The wording adopted by an editor as the most faithful representation of the author's original work; a book or edition containing this. Also, any form in which a piece of writing exists or is current, as a good text, a corrupt text. M19.
F. H. A. Scrivener The vast importance of preserving a pure text of the sacred writers.
c. A textbook. L19.
Omnibus One of our most important texts on the subjects..directs our attention to the relations of concord and discord.
d. Computing. Data in textual form, esp. as stored, processed, or displayed in a word processor or text editor. M20.
a. The original words of an author or document, spec. (a) in the original language, as opp. to a translation; (b) in the original form and order, as opp. to a revision, paraphrase, or commentary. LME.
parallel text: see PARALLEL adjective.
H. Kissinger The People's Daily printed the entire text of the President's speech.
b. The main body of a book or other printed work as distinct from notes, illustrations, appendices, etc. LME.
Punch The text is complemented by many attractive drawings.
c. Linguistics. (A unit of) connected discourse whose function is communicative and which forms the object of analysis and description. M20.
R. Alter Our minds identify grammatical forms..with the same cultural reflexes..that we use to decipher nonliterary texts.
a. spec. The actual words and sentences of Holy Scripture; the Bible itself; a book of the Bible. Long rare. LME.
b. A copy of the Scriptures, or of a book of the Scriptures; spec. a copy of the four Gospels. obsolete exc. Hist. LME.
a. A short passage from the Scriptures, esp. one quoted as authoritative or illustrative of a point of belief or doctrine, used to point a moral, or chosen as the subject or starting-point of a sermon. LME.
V. S. Reid Pastor says his text comes from St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.
b. A short passage from a book or writer considered as authoritative. Also (now rare), a maxim, a proverb; spec. a maxim used as a copybook heading. LME.
c. The theme or subject of a work or discussion; a statement used as a starting-point for a discussion etc. E17.
Sir W. Scott Is it fit for a heretic..to handle such a text as the Catholic clergy?
In full text-hand. A fine large kind of handwriting, esp. the large and formal hand in which the text of a manuscript was written, as distinct from the smaller or more cursive hand used for the commentary etc. M16.
church text: see CHURCH noun. round text: see ROUND adjective.
The words of a poem etc. set to music; = TESTO 1. L19.
Comb.: text editor Computing a program for modifying text held in a computer or processor; a terminal or keyboard used for this; text file Computing a file used to store data in textual form; the data so stored; text-hand: see sense 5 above; text-letter (now rare or obsolete) a large or capital handwritten letter; text linguistics the linguistic study of texts or discourses as the natural domain of linguistic theory rather than sentences (see sense 2c above); text-man (a) a person learned in scriptural texts and proficient in their apt citation; a textualist; (b) rare the author of a textbook; text message a short written message transmitted electronically to or from a mobile phone, or via the Internet; text messaging the sending of text messages; text paper a newspaper containing serious articles; a quality newspaper; text-pen a pen suitable for writing in text-hand; textphone a telephone developed for the use of the deaf, having a small screen and a keyboard with which one may type a message to be received by another textphone; text-picture an illustration occupying a space in the text of a book; text processing Computing the manipulation of text, esp. the transformation of it from one format to another; word processing; text processor Computing a program for text processing; a word processor; text-writer (a) a professional writer of text-hand, before the introduction of printing; (b) an author of a legal textbook.
b. verb.
verb intrans. & trans. Cite a text or texts (at). M16-E17.
verb trans. Orig., write or print in text-hand or in capital or large letters. Now, set (a poem etc.) to music (see sense A.6 above). L16.
Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing And text underneath, 'Here dwells Benedick the married man.'
b. verb intrans. Write in text-hand. Now rare. M17.
verb trans. Send a text message to. Also, send as a text message. L20.
Publican Newspaper Customers will be invited to text a message..if they want to take part. Leicester Mercury I texted my mother and my friends when I got my results.
textless adjective E20.