All 10 Uses of
principle
in
David Copperfield
- He's a pleasant wretch, but he wants principle.'†
Chpt 22-24
- As I have grown older, I think I have had experience of some other houses doing business on the principle of Spenlow and Jorkins!†
Chpt 22-24
- He considered it the principle of a gentleman to take things as he found them; and he had no doubt the Prerogative Office would last our time.†
Chpt 31-33
- I warmed the ale and made the toast on the usual infallible principles.†
Chpt 34-36 *
- Miss Mills replied, on general principles, that the Cottage of content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and that where love was, all was.†
Chpt 37-39
- Not so much for the sake of principle, I believe, as because she happened not to like him.†
Chpt 37-39
- In search of the principle on which joints ought to be roasted, to be roasted enough, and not too much, I myself referred to the Cookery Book, and found it there established as the allowance of a quarter of an hour to every pound, and say a quarter over.†
Chpt 43-45
- But the principle always failed us by some curious fatality, and we never could hit any medium between redness and cinders.†
Chpt 43-45
- In the taking of legal oaths, for instance, deponents seem to enjoy themselves mightily when they come to several good words in succession, for the expression of one idea; as, that they utterly detest, abominate, and abjure, or so forth; and the old anathemas were made relishing on the same principle.†
Chpt 52-54
- …which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt's service when she came back to Dover, had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle, by aiding and abetting the bride, and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence; were among our topics — already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had.†
Chpt 58-60
Definition:
-
(principle) a basic rule or beliefThe exact meaning of principle can depend upon its context. For example:
- "our guiding principles" -- basic moral beliefs that guide decisions and behavior
- "electromagnetic principles" -- rules describing how the world works
- "She lacks principles." -- lacks moral guidelines
- "We agree in principle." -- about important basic beliefs