Expression

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Expression \Ex*pres"sion\ ([e^]ks*pr[e^]sh"[u^]n), n. [L.
     expressio: cf. F. expression.]
     1. The act of expressing; the act of forcing out by pressure;
        as, the expression of juices or oils; also, of extorting
        or eliciting; as, a forcible expression of truth.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. The act of declaring or signifying; declaration;
        utterance; as, an expression of the public will.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              With this tone of philosophy were mingled
              expressions of sympathy.              --Prescott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Lively or vivid representation of meaning, sentiment, or
        feeling, etc.; significant and impressive indication,
        whether by language, appearance, or gesture; that manner
        or style which gives life and suggestive force to ideas
        and sentiments; as, he reads with expression; her
        performance on the piano has expression.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The imitators of Shakespeare, fixing their attention
              on his wonderful power of expression, have directed
              their imitation to this.              --M. Arnold.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. That which is expressed by a countenance, a posture, a
        work of art, etc.; look, as indicative of thought or
        feeling. "The expression of an eye." --Tennyson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It still wore the majesty of expression so
              conspicuous in his portraits by the inimitable
              pencil of Titian.                     --Prescott.
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     5. A form of words in which an idea or sentiment is conveyed;
        a mode of speech; a phrase; as, a common expression; an
        odd expression.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Math.) The representation of any quantity or relation by
        appropriate characters or symbols, usually in a specific
        order.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     7. (Genetics) the production of products by a gene that cause
        the appearance of the corresponding protein or phenotype;
        -- of a gene or of an organism with a specific gene; as,
        the expression the beta-galactosidase positive phenotype,
        [PJC]
  
     8. (Computers) a combination of characters linked by
        operators, occurring as part of the code of a computer
        program, which must be evaluated according to the rules of
        the computer language in order to produce a resulting
        value.
        [PJC]
  
     Note: In most programming languages, (a + b) is an expression
           indicating simple arithmetic addition, if the variables
           a and b are real numbers. Many other types of operation
           may be used in programs, and each set of symbols
           indicating an operation is an expression in that
           program.
           [PJC]
  
     {Past expression}, {Beyond expression}, beyond the power of
        description. "Beyond expression bright." --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  expression
       n 1: the expression on a person's face; "a sad expression"; "a
            look of triumph"; "an angry face" [syn: {look}, {aspect},
             {facial expression}, {face}]
       2: expression without words; "tears are an expression of
          grief"; "the pulse is a reflection of the heart's
          condition" [syn: {manifestation}, {reflection}, {reflexion}]
       3: the communication (in speech or writing) of your beliefs or
          opinions; "expressions of good will"; "he helped me find
          expression for my ideas"
       4: a word or phrase that particular people use in particular
          situations; "pardon the expression" [syn: {saying}, {locution}]
       5: the style of expressing yourself; "he suggested a better
          formulation"; "his manner of expression showed how much he
          cared" [syn: {formulation}]
       6: a group of symbols that make a mathematical statement [syn:
          {formula}]
       7: (genetics) the process of expressing a gene
       8: a group of words that form a constituent of a sentence and
          are considered as a single unit; "I concluded from his
          awkward constructions that he was a foreigner" [syn: {construction},
           {grammatical construction}] [ant: {misconstruction}]
       9: the act of forcing something out by squeezing or pressing;
          "the expression of milk from her breast"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  292 Moby Thesaurus words for "expression":
     Christophany, Parthian shot, Satanophany, accent, adage, address,
     adjectival phrase, affirmation, air, airing, allegation, ana,
     analects, angelophany, announcement, answer, antonym, aphorism,
     apostrophe, apothegm, appearance, ardor, articulateness,
     articulation, aspect, assertion, asseveration, avatar, averment,
     avulsion, axiom, byword, cantando, cast, catchword,
     characterization, choice of words, clause, collected sayings,
     command of language, command of words, comment, communication,
     composition, concentration, construction, countenance, crack,
     current saying, cutting out, declaration, decoction, delivery,
     demilegato, demonstration, denomination, denotation, depth,
     deracination, designation, dialect, dictate, diction, dictum,
     differentiation, disclosure, disentanglement, dissemination,
     distich, distillation, drawing, drawing out, dredging, drilling,
     effective style, eloquence, eloquent tongue, embodiment, emotion,
     enucleation, enunciation, epigram, epiphany, eradication, evidence,
     evincement, evolvement, evulsion, excavation, excision,
     exclamation, execution, expressiveness, exsection, extirpation,
     extraction, extrication, face, facundity, feeling, felicitousness,
     felicity, fingering, formulation, free form, gesture,
     gift of expression, gift of gab, glibness, glissando, gnome,
     golden saying, grammar, graphicness, greeting, headed group, hint,
     homograph, homonym, homophone, identification, idiom, idiotism,
     incarnation, indication, indicativeness, infusion, intensity,
     interjection, intonation, issue, language, legato, lexeme,
     linguistic form, locution, logos, look, loudness, manifestation,
     manner of speaking, materialization, maxim, meaning,
     meaningfulness, mention, metonym, mezzo staccato, mien,
     minimum free form, mining, monosyllable, moral, mot, motto,
     music-making, naming, note, noun phrase, nuance, observation,
     oracle, oratory, paragraph, parlance, parlando, passion, pathos,
     peculiar expression, performance, period, phrasal idiom, phrase,
     phraseology, phrasing, pianism, picking out, pithy saying,
     pizzicato, pneumatophany, pointing, pointing out, pointing to,
     polysyllable, position, precept, prescript, pressing, pressing out,
     pronouncement, proof, proverb, proverbial saying, proverbs,
     publication, pulling, quarrying, question, reflection, remark,
     reminder, removal, rendering, rendition, repercussion,
     representation, revelation, rhetoric, ripping out, rubato, saw,
     say, saying, selection, sensitivity, sentence,
     sententious expression, set phrase, shading, show, showing, sign,
     signification, silver tongue, slickness, sloka, slur, smoothness,
     soaking, softness, specification, speech, spiccato, spirit,
     squeezing, squeezing out, staccato, standard phrase, statement,
     steeping, stock saying, style, subjoinder, suggestion, sutra,
     syllable, symbol, symptomaticness, synonym, syntactic structure,
     talk, teaching, term, text, theophany, thought, token, tone, touch,
     turn of expression, turn of phrase, unrooting, uprooting, usage,
     use of words, usus loquendi, utterance, vent, verb complex,
     verb phrase, verbalism, verbalization, verbiage, verbum, verse,
     visage, vividness, vocable, voice, voicing, way of speaking,
     wisdom, wisdom literature, wise saying, withdrawal, witticism,
     word, word-group, wordage, wording, words of wisdom,
     wresting out
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  expression
       
           Any piece of program code in a {high-level
          language} which, when (if) its execution terminates, returns a
          value.  In most programming languages, expressions consist of
          constants, variables, operators, functions, and {parentheses}.
          The operators and functions may be built-in or user defined.
          Languages differ on how expressions of different {types} may
          be combined - with some combination of explicit {casts} and
          implicit {coercions}.
       
          The {syntax} of expressions generally follows conventional
          mathematical notation, though some languages such as {Lisp} or
          {Forth} have their own idiosyncratic syntax.
       
          (2001-05-14)
       
       

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  EXPRESSION. The term or use of language employed to explain a thing. 
       2. It is a general rule, that expressions shall be construed, when they 
  are capable of several significations, so as to give operation to the 
  agreement, act, or will, if it can be done; and an expression is always to 
  be understood in the sense most agreeable to the nature of the contract. 
  Vide Clause; Construction; Equivocal; Interpretation; Words.