1. The doctrine or practice of the duties of life; manner of living as regards right and wrong; conduct; behavior; —
usually in the plural.
Corrupt in their morals as vice could make them.
South. 2. The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narrative, an occurrence, an experience, etc.; the practical
lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a
maxim.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself.
Shak.
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
Johnson.
We protest against the principle that the world of pure comedy is one into which no moral enters.
Macaulay. 3. A morality play. See Morality, 5.
Moral
(Mor"al), v. i. To moralize. [Obs.] Shak.
Morale
(||Mo`rale") n. [F. See Moral, a.] The moral condition, or the condition in other respects, so far
as it is affected by, or dependent upon, moral considerations, such as zeal, spirit, hope, and confidence; mental
state, as of a body of men, an army, and the like.
Moraler
(Mor"al*er) n. A moralizer. [Obs.] Shak.
Moralism
(Mor"al*ism) n. A maxim or saying embodying a moral truth. Farrar.
Moralist
(Mor"al*ist), n. [Cf. F. moraliste.]
1. One who moralizes; one who teaches or animadverts upon the duties of life; a writer of essays intended
to correct vice and inculcate moral duties. Addison.
2. One who practices moral duties; a person who lives in conformity with moral rules; one of correct deportment
and dealings with his fellow-creatures; — sometimes used in contradistinction to one whose life is controlled
by religious motives.
The love (in the moralist of virtue, but in the Christian) of God himself.
Hammond. Morality
(Mo*ral"i*ty) n.; pl. Moralities [L. moralitas: cf. F. moralité.]
1. The relation of conformity or nonconformity to the moral standard or rule; quality of an intention, a
character, an action, a principle, or a sentiment, when tried by the standard of right.
The morality of an action is founded in the freedom of that principle, by virtue of which it is in the agent's
power, having all things ready and requisite to the performance of an action, either to perform or not
perform it.
South. 2. The quality of an action which renders it good; the conformity of an act to the accepted standard of
right.
Of moralitee he was the flower.
Chaucer.
I am bold to think that morality is capable of demonstration.
Locke.
