Simple

7 definitions found

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

  Simple \Sim"ple\, a. [Compar. {Simpler}; superl. {Simplest}.]
     [F., fr. L. simplus, or simplex, gen. simplicis. The first
     part of the Latin words is probably akin to E. same, and the
     sense, one, one and the same; cf. L. semel once, singuli one
     to each, single. Cg. {Single}, a., {Same}, a., and for the
     last part of the word cf. {Double}, {Complex}.]


     1. Single; not complex; not infolded or entangled;
        uncombined; not compounded; not blended with something
        else; not complicated; as, a simple substance; a simple
        idea; a simple sound; a simple machine; a simple problem;
        simple tasks.
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     2. Plain; unadorned; as, simple dress. "Simple truth."
        --Spenser. "His simple story." --Burns.
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     3. Mere; not other than; being only.
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              A medicine . . . whose simple touch
              Is powerful to araise King Pepin.     --Shak.
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     4. Not given to artifice, stratagem, or duplicity;
        undesigning; sincere; true.
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              Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I
              stand here, and I trust them.         --Marston.
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              Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue? --Byron.
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              To be simple is to be great.          --Emerson.
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     5. Artless in manner; unaffected; unconstrained; natural;
        inartificial;; straightforward.
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              In simple manners all the secret lies. --Young.
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     6. Direct; clear; intelligible; not abstruse or enigmatical;
        as, a simple statement; simple language.
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     7. Weak in intellect; not wise or sagacious; of but moderate
        understanding or attainments; hence, foolish; silly. "You
        have simple wits." --Shak.
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              The simple believeth every word; but the prudent man
              looketh well to his going.            --Prov. xiv.
                                                    15.
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     8. Not luxurious; without much variety; plain; as, a simple
        diet; a simple way of living.
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              Thy simple fare and all thy plain delights.
                                                    --Cowper.
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     9. Humble; lowly; undistinguished.
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              A simple husbandman in garments gray. --Spenser.
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              Clergy and laity, male and female, gentle and simple
              made the fuel of the same fire.       --Fuller.
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     10. (BOt.) Without subdivisions; entire; as, a simple stem; a
         simple leaf.
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     11. (Chem.) Not capable of being decomposed into anything
         more simple or ultimate by any means at present known;
         elementary; thus, atoms are regarded as simple bodies.
         Cf. {Ultimate}, a.
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     Note: A simple body is one that has not as yet been
           decomposed. There are indications that many of our
           simple elements are still compound bodies, though their
           actual decomposition into anything simpler may never be
           accomplished.
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     12. (Min.) Homogenous.
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     13. (Zool.) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; as, a
         simple ascidian; -- opposed to compound.
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     {Simple contract} (Law), any contract, whether verbal or
        written, which is not of record or under seal. --J. W.
        Smith. --Chitty.
  
     {Simple equation} (Alg.), an equation containing but one
        unknown quantity, and that quantity only in the first
        degree.
  
     {Simple eye} (Zool.), an eye having a single lens; -- opposed
        to {compound eye}.
  
     {Simple interest}. See under {Interest}.
  
     {Simple larceny}. (Law) See under {Larceny}.
  
     {Simple obligation} (Rom. Law), an obligation which does not
        depend for its execution upon any event provided for by
        the parties, or is not to become void on the happening of
        any such event. --Burrill.
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     Syn: Single; uncompounded; unmingled; unmixed; mere;
          uncombined; elementary; plain; artless; sincere;
          harmless; undesigning; frank; open; unaffected;
          inartificial; unadorned; credulous; silly; foolish;
          shallow; unwise.
  
     Usage: {Simple}, {Silly}. One who is simple is sincere,
            unaffected, and inexperienced in duplicity, -- hence
            liable to be duped. A silly person is one who is
            ignorant or weak and also self-confident; hence, one
            who shows in speech and act a lack of good sense.
            Simplicity is incompatible with duplicity, artfulness,
            or vanity, while silliness is consistent with all
            three. Simplicity denotes lack of knowledge or of
            guile; silliness denotes want of judgment or right
            purpose, a defect of character as well as of
            education.
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                  I am a simple woman, much too weak
                  To oppose your cunning.           --Shak.
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                  He is the companion of the silliest people in
                  their most silly pleasure; he is ready for every
                  impertinent entertainment and diversion. --Law.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Simple \Sim"ple\, n. [F. See {Simple}, a.]
     1. Something not mixed or compounded. "Compounded of many
        simples." --Shak.
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     2. (Med.) A medicinal plant; -- so called because each
        vegetable was supposed to possess its particular virtue,
        and therefore to constitute a simple remedy.
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              What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked
              simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
                                                    --Sir W.
                                                    Temple.
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     3. (Weaving)
        (a) A drawloom.
        (b) A part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a
            drawloom.
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     4. (R. C. Ch.) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Simple \Sim"ple\, v. i.
     To gather simples, or medicinal plants.
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           As simpling on the flowery hills she [Circe] strayed.
                                                    --Garth.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  simple
       adj 1: having few parts; not complex or complicated or involved; "a
              simple problem"; "simple mechanisms"; "a simple
              design"; "a simple substance" [ant: {complex}]
       2: easy and not involved or complicated; "an elementary problem
          in statistics"; "elementary, my dear Watson"; "a simple
          game"; "found an uncomplicated solution to the problem"
          [syn: {elementary}, {uncomplicated}, {unproblematic}]
       3: apart from anything else; without additions or
          modifications; "only the bare facts"; "shocked by the mere
          idea"; "the simple passage of time was enough"; "the
          simple truth" [syn: {bare(a)}, {mere(a)}, {simple(a)}]
       4: exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity; "childlike
          trust"; "dewy-eyed innocence"; "simple courtesy" [syn: {childlike},
           {wide-eyed}, {dewy-eyed}]
       5: lacking mental capacity and devoid of subtlety [syn: {dim-witted},
           {half-witted}, {simple-minded}]
       6: (botany) of leaf shapes; of leaves having no divisions or
          subdivisions [syn: {unsubdivided}] [ant: {compound}]
       7: not elaborate in style; unornamented; "a simple country
          schoolhouse"; "her black dress--simple to austerity"
       n 1: any herbaceous plant having medicinal properties
       2: a person lacking intelligence or common sense [syn: {simpleton}]

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

  476 Moby Thesaurus words for "simple":
     Attic, Bohemian, Ciceronian, Mickey Mouse, Spartan, a certain,
     absolute, aesthetic, affable, amateur, an, any, any one, arrested,
     artistic, artless, ascetic, asinine, atomic, austere, authentic,
     awkward, babbling, backward, bald, bare, base, basic, blankminded,
     blithering, bluff, blunt, bona fide, born yesterday, bovine,
     brainless, burbling, butt, callow, candid, card-carrying, casual,
     chaste, cheerful, childish, childlike, choice, chump, classic,
     classical, clean, clean-cut, clear, clear as crystal, clear as day,
     clear-cut, coherent, comfortable, common, commonplace,
     comprehensible, confiding, connected, consistent, cordial, cozy,
     crackbrained, cracked, crass, crazy, creamy, credulous,
     cretinistic, cretinous, crisp, crystal-clear, crystalline,
     cullible, cushy, deceivable, defined, definite, degage, delicate,
     deludable, dense, dim-witted, dinkum, direct, discreet, distinct,
     dithering, dopey, doting, driveling, drooling, dry, dull,
     dull-witted, dumb, dupable, dupe, easily understood, easy,
     easy as pie, easygoing, effortless, eggshell, either, elegant,
     elemental, elementary, empty, empty-headed, essential, everyday,
     excellent, exclusive, explicit, exploitable, express, facile,
     fall guy, familiar, fatuous, feebleminded, finished, flat, folksy,
     following the letter, foolable, foolish, forthright, frank,
     free and easy, friendly, fundamental, garden, garden-variety,
     gauche, genuine, glib, gloss, good, graceful, gracile, gracious,
     green, groping, guileless, gull, gullible, half-baked, half-witted,
     haymish, hoaxable, homelike, homely, homespun, homey, homish,
     homogeneous, honest, honest-to-God, hoodwinkable, household,
     humble, humble-looking, humble-visaged, humblest, humbugable,
     idiotic, ignorant, illiterate, imbecile, imbecilic, in good taste,
     inane, inartificial, incomplex, individual, indivisible,
     inexperienced, inexpert, inferior, informal, ingenu, ingenuous,
     inglorious, innocent, innocuous, insensate, integral, intelligible,
     intimate, iridescent, irreducible, irregular, know-nothing, lawful,
     lean, least, legitimate, lifelike, light, limpid, literal, lone,
     loose, loud and clear, low, lowest, lowliest, lowly, lucid,
     luminous, mark, matter-of-fact, maundering, mean, mellow,
     mentally defective, mentally deficient, mentally handicapped,
     mentally retarded, mere, mindless, modest, monadic, mongoloid,
     monistic, monolithic, moronic, mother-of-pearl, nacreous, naive,
     naked, natural, naturalistic, neat, nescient, nitwitted,
     nondescript, not all there, nothing to it, oafish, obtuse,
     of a piece, of choice, of quality, offhand, offhanded, one,
     opalescent, open, openhearted, ordinary, original, outspoken,
     painless, pale, pastel, patinaed, peaceful, pearly, pellucid,
     perfect, perspicuous, persuadable, pigeon, plain, plain-speaking,
     plain-spoken, pleasing, polished, poor, primal, primary, prosaic,
     prosing, prosy, pure, pure and simple, quiet, raw, real, realistic,
     refined, relaxed, restrained, retarded, righteous, rightful, round,
     royal, rustic, sad, sap, seduceable, semigloss, senseless, severe,
     sheer, silly, simon-pure, simple as ABC, simple-speaking,
     simplehearted, simpleminded, simpletonian, sincere, single,
     single-hearted, single-minded, singular, slobbering, slow,
     slow-witted, small, smooth, snug, sober, sociable, soft,
     soft-colored, soft-hued, softened, sole, solid, solitary, somber,
     spare, square, stark, sterling, straightforward, strange to,
     stupid, subdued, subnormal, subordinate, subservient, subtle,
     sucker, sure-enough, sweet, tasteful, teachable, tender, tentative,
     terse, thick, thickheaded, translucent, transparent, transpicuous,
     trim, true to life, true to nature, true to reality, trustful,
     trusting, unacquainted, unadorned, unadulterated, unaffected,
     unalloyed, unambiguous, unanalyzable, unapprized, unartificial,
     unassumed, unassuming, unburdensome, unceremonious, uncluttered,
     uncolored, uncomplicated, uncompounded, uncomprehending,
     unconcocted, unconfused, unconstrained, uncontrived,
     unconventional, unconversant, uncopied, uncounterfeited,
     undecorated, understandable, understated, undesigning,
     undifferenced, undifferentiated, undisguised, undisguising,
     undistinguished, undistorted, undivided, uneducated, unelaborate,
     unembellished, unenhanced, unenlightened, unequivocal,
     unexaggerated, unexperienced, unfabricated, unfamiliar, unfanciful,
     unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, unguarded,
     uniform, unilluminated, unimaginative, unimagined, unimitated,
     unimportant, uninformed, uninitiated, unintelligent, uninvented,
     uninvolved, unique, unitary, univocal, unknowing, unlabored,
     unmistakable, unmitigated, unmixed, unobtrusive, unofficial,
     unornamented, unostentatious, unpoetical, unposted, unpretended,
     unpretending, unpretentious, unqualified, unreserved, unripe,
     unromantic, unschooled, unsimulated, unsophisticated, unspecious,
     unstudied, unsure, unsuspicious, unsynthetic, untaught,
     untroublesome, unvarnished, unversed, unwary, unwitty, upright,
     vacuous, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, victimizable,
     weak-minded, well-chosen, well-defined, whole, witless,
     word-for-word, workaday, workday
  
  

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

  SIMPLE
       
          1. Early system on Datatron 200 series.  Listed in CACM
          2(5):16 (May 1959).
       
          2. Simulation of Industrial Management Problems with Lots of
          Equations.  R.K. Bennett, 1958.  Predecessor to DYNAMO, for
          IBM 704.
       
       

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

  SIMPLE. Not compounded, alone; as, simple interest, which is interest on the 
  principal sum lent only and not interest on the interest; simple contract, 
  &c.