Both Uses of
cipher
in
Middlemarch
- Thus while I tell the truth about loobies, my reader's imagination need not be entirely excluded from an occupation with lords; and the petty sums which any bankrupt of high standing would be sorry to retire upon, may be lifted to the level of high commercial transactions by the inexpensive addition of proportional ciphers.†
Chpt 4 *
- When Lydgate was taking part in the conversation, she never looked towards him any more than if she had been a sculptured Psyche modelled to look another way: and when, after being called out for an hour or two, he re-entered the room, she seemed unconscious of the fact, which eighteen months before would have had the effect of a numeral before ciphers.†
Chpt 7
Definitions:
-
(1)
(cipher as in: a secret cipher) to write a message in a secret code; or such a message; or a substitution table or other system used to encode and decode such a message
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
At one time, cipher frequently referenced the act of doing mathematical calculations or a person capable of such calculations.
A cipher can also refer to a person without power or influence. It can also refer to the mathematical digit, zero.
A comprehensive dictionary will describe other less common senses of cipher.