Adjacent Words

Sophister definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOPH'ISTER, n. [supra.]
1. A disputant fallaciously subtil; an artful but insidious logician; as an atheistical sophister. Not all the subtil objection of sophisters and rabbies against the gospel, so much prejudiced the reception of it, as the reproach of those crimes with which they aspersed the assemblies of Christians.
2. A professor of philosophy; a sophist.
SOPH'ISTER, v.t. To maintain by a fallacious argument. [Not in use.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sophister Soph"ist*er, n. 1. A sophist. See Sophist. [Obs.] --Hooker. 2. (Eng. Univ.) A student who is advanced beyond the first year of his residence. Note: The entire course at the university consists of three years and one term, during which the students have the titles of first-year men, or freshmen; second-year men or junior sophs or sophisters; third-year men, or senior sophs or sophisters; and, in the last term, questionists, with reference to the approaching examination. In the older American colleges, the junior and senior classes were originally called, and in some of them are still called, junior sophisters and senior sophisters.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sophister Soph"ist*er, v. t. To maintain by sophistry, or by a fallacious argument. [Obs.] --obham.