n. a sign language, used in the United States mostly by the deaf or for communication with the deaf, in which gestures made with the hands symbolize words, alphabetical letters, or ideas, permitting rapid communication in the absence of speech.
Syn. -- Ameslan. [ PJC ]

n. 1. (Computers) an artificial computer language with mnemonic codes representing the basic machine-language instructions of a computer, which can be interpreted by an assembler to produce a computer program in machine language. Also informally referred to as assembler. Writing a program in assembly language is very much simpler than writing the machine instructions in binary code, and the use of such a language greatly increases the efficiency of the process of writing computer programs. See also programming language, FORTRAN, BASIC. [ PJC ]

n. (Computers) A computer programming language with an instruction set allowing one instruction to code for several assembly language instructions. The aggregation of several assembly-language instructions into one instruction allows much greater efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs are now written in some higher programming language, such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++, PROLOG, or JAVA. [ PJC ]

. A family of languages, mostly of the isolating type, although some are agglutinative, spoken in the great area extending from northern India in the west to Formosa in the east and from Central Asia in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

(Computers) A programming language used to specify the manner, timing, and other requirements of execution of a task or set of tasks submitted for execution, especially in background, on a multitasking computer; a programming language for controlling job{ 7 } execution. Abbreviated JCL. [ PJC ]

n. [ OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See Tongue, cf. Lingual. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented to the eye by letters, marks, or characters, which form words. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style. [ 1913 Webster ]

Others for language all their care express. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

There was . . . language in their very gesture. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A race, as distinguished by its speech. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. Dan. iii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. Any system of symbols created for the purpose of communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between sentient agents. [ PJC ]

10. Specifically: (computers) Any set of symbols and the rules for combining them which are used to specify to a computer the actions that it is to take; also referred to as a computer lanugage or programming language; as, JAVA is a new and flexible high-level language which has achieved popularity very rapidly. [ PJC ]

☞ Computer languages are classed a low-level if each instruction specifies only one operation of the computer, or high-level if each instruction may specify a complex combination of operations. Machine language and assembly language are low-level computer languages. FORTRAN, COBOL and C are high-level computer languages. Other computer languages, such as JAVA, allow even more complex combinations of low-level operations to be performed with a single command. Many programs, such as databases, are supplied with special languages adapted to manipulate the objects of concern for that specific program. These are also high-level languages. [ PJC ]

Language master, a teacher of languages. [ Obs. ]

Syn. -- Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk. -- Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom, Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo-Saxon term for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties of expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Languaged p. pr. & vb. n. Languaging ] To communicate by language; to express in language. [ 1913 Webster ]

Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a language; skilled in language; -- chiefly used in composition. “ Many-languaged nations.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lacking or wanting language; speechless; silent. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. langue tongue. See Language. ] (Her.) Tongued; having the tongue visible. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lions . . . represented as armed and langued gules. Cussans. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖pos>n. [ F., language of oc yes. ] The dialect, closely akin to French, formerly spoken south of the Loire (in which the word for “yes” was

‖ [ F., language of oïl yes. ] The dialect formerly spoken north of the Loire (in which the word for “yes” was

‖adv. [ It., p. pr. of languire. See Languish. ] (Mus.) In a languishing manner; pathetically. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. languette, dim. of langue tongue, L. lingua. ] 1. Anything resembling the tongue in form or office; specif., the slip of metal in an organ pipe which turns the current of air toward its mouth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That part of the hilt, in certain kinds of swords, which overlaps the scabbard. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. languidus, fr. languere to be faint or languid: cf. F. languide. See Languish. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Drooping or flagging from exhaustion; indisposed to exertion; without animation; weak; weary; heavy; dull. “ Languid, powerless limbs. ” Armstrong. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Slow in progress; tardy. “ No motion so swift or languid.” Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness; as, a languid day. [ 1913 Webster ]

Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon. Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their idleness, aimless flirtations and languid airs. W. Black.

Syn. -- Feeble; weak; faint; sickly; pining; exhausted; weary; listless; heavy; dull; heartless.

-- Lan"guid*ly, adv. -- Lan"guid*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Languished p. pr. & vb. n. Languishing. ] [ OE. languishen, languissen, F. languir, L. languere; cf. Gr. &unr_; to slacken, &unr_; slack, Icel. lakra to lag behind; prob. akin to E. lag, lax, and perh. to E. slack. See -ish. ] 1. To become languid or weak; to lose strength or animation; to be or become dull, feeble or spiritless; to pine away; to linger in a weak or deteriorating condition; to wither or fade. [ 1913 Webster ]

We . . . do languish of such diseases. 2 Esdras viii. 31. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

For the fields of Heshbon languish. Is. xvi. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To assume an expression of weariness or tender grief, appealing for sympathy. Tennyson.

3. To be neglected and unattended to; as, the proposal languished on the director's desk for months. [ PJC ]

Syn. -- To pine; wither; fade; droop; faint. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To cause to droop or pine. [ Obs. ] Shak. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Languishment. [ Obs. or Poetic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

What, of death, too,
That rids our dogs of languish? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who languishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Becoming languid and weak; pining; losing health and strength. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Amorously pensive; indicating melancholy; as, languishing eyes, or look. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Suffering neglect; neglected. [ PJC ]

4. Continuing in a weak or deteriorating state; lingering. [ PJC ]

adv. In a languishing manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The state of languishing. “Lingering languishment.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Tenderness of look or mien; amorous pensiveness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Languishment. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. langour, OF. langour, F. langueur, L. languor. See Languish. ] 1. A state of the body or mind which is caused by exhaustion of strength and characterized by a languid feeling; feebleness; lassitude; laxity. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any enfeebling disease. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sick men with divers languors. Wyclif (Luke iv. 40). [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Listless indolence; dreaminess. Pope. “ German dreams, Italian languors.” The Century.

Syn. -- Feebleness; weakness; faintness; weariness; dullness; heaviness; lassitude; listlessness. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ From Languor: cf. F. langoureux. ] Producing, or tending to produce, languor; characterized by languor. [ Obs. or Poetic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Whom late I left in languorous constraint. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw
The sting from pain. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To languish. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Computers) a set of instructions{ 3 } in a binary form that can be executed directly by the CPU of a computer without translation by a computer program.
Syn. -- machine code, binary code. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. A programming language designed for use on a specific class of computers.
Syn. -- computer language, computer-oriented language, machine language. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. Any language that can be used to describe another language or system of symbols. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Employing too many words; diffuse. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

The peculiar language or phraseology of seamen; sailor's cant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A form of language for communicating by use of gestures made by the hands, rather than by speech. It includes alphabets made by hand gestures, as well as proper languages formed from signs. Among the latter is the American Sign Language (ASL), used by the deaf. See also dactylology. [ PJC ]

n. the language into which a text is to be translated; -- correlative of source language. [ PJC ]

[ 1913 Webster ]