rudiment

4 definitions found

rudiment - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Rudiment \Ru"di*ment\, v. t.
     To furnish with first principles or rules; to insrtuct in the
     rudiments. --Gayton.
     [1913 Webster]

  Rudiment \Ru"di*ment\ (r[udd]"d[i^]*ment), n. [L. rudimentum,
     fr. rudis unwrought, ignorant, rude: cf. F. rudiment. See
     Rude.]
     1. That which is unformed or undeveloped; the principle which
        lies at the bottom of any development; an unfinished
        beginning.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              but I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit
              Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes
              The monarchies of the earth.          --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              the single leaf is the rudiment of beauty in
              landscape.                            --I. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence, an element or first principle of any art or
        science; a beginning of any knowledge; a first step.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              This boy is forest-born,
              And hath been tutored in the rudiments
              of many desperate studies.            --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              There he shall first lay down the rudiments
              Of his great warfare.                 --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Biol.) An imperfect organ or part, or one which is never
        developed.
        [1913 Webster]

rudiment - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  rudiment
      n 1: the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural); "he
           mastered only the rudiments of geometry" [syn: rudiment,
           first rudiment, first principle, alphabet, ABC,
           ABC's, ABCs]
      2: the remains of a body part that was functional at an earlier
         stage of life; "Meckel's diverticulum is the rudiment of the
         embryonic yolk sac"

rudiment - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  60 Moby Thesaurus words for "rudiment":
     Anlage, base, basement, basic, basis, bearing wall, bed, bedding,
     bedrock, blastula, bud, egg, element, elements, embryo, fetus,
     floor, flooring, fond, footing, foundation, fundament, fundamental,
     fundamentals, germ, germen, grammar, ground, grounds, groundwork,
     hardpan, larva, loins, nucleus, nymph, ovum, part and parcel,
     pavement, principle, principles, radical, riprap, rock bottom,
     seat, seed, sill, solid ground, solid rock, spermatozoon,
     stereobate, stylobate, substratum, terra firma, underbuilding,
     undercarriage, undergirding, underpinning, understruction,
     understructure, zygote