(a) Fidelity to one's country, kin, friends, etc., loyalty; allegiance; also, genuine friendship; also, faithfulness; (b) fidelity or constancy in love, devotion; also person.; sincerity in love; also, genuine love; ~ of love; (c) marital fidelity; ~ of mariage; (d) faithfulness to God, piety; religious devotion to God or the Virgin;—sometimes with allusion to (c); also, constancy in adherence to the Christian faith, Muhammad, religious life, etc.; (e) in proverbs and prov. expressions; also in conventional complaints about contemporary morality.

(a) A promise; an undertaking; a commitment; a pledge of loyalty; also, an oath, esp. of fealty; also, a covenant; (b) a marriage or betrothal vow; a promise of marriage; also, an exchange of vows; also, a betrothal; plighten ~; (c) a concrete token of a promise; also, ?a written pledge; (d) in asseverations: have god min ~, let God have my pledge; have) her min ~, you have my word; here min ~, take my pledge; ich sikere min ~, I pledge my word; (e) in combs. and misc. phrases: ~ brekinge, oath-breaking; breach of contract; ~ fast, bound by pledges of friendship; also [quot. c1330], ?betrothed; ?married; on ~, on (one's) word, on parole; leien (plighten) ~ in honde, to confirm a promise with a handshake; (f) in proverb.

(a) Honor, integrity; adherence to one's plighted word; also, nobility of character, knightly honor, adherence to the chivalric ideal; also used metonymically for a person of honor [quot. a1500]; (b) in oaths and asseverations: bi min (thin, etc.) ~, on (upon) min ~, etc., on my (your, etc.) honor; bi ~ of his bodi, on the honor of his person.

(a) Honesty in the conduct of one's business, work, etc.; the practice of honesty in one's occupation, etc.; also person.; also, honest dealing; (b) integrity in the performance of an office or a task; conscientiousness, diligence;—also pl.; (c) used predicatively as quasi-adj., of a way of life or vocation: not entailing deceit or dishonesty, morally legitimate; of goods: honestly obtained.

(a) A vaguely specified but implicitly comprehensive virtue: goodness or rectitude of character; fidelity to principle or moral law; integrity, moral soundness; also with punning ref. to God or Christ as truth [quot. c1450 PPl.B, 2nd occurrence]; ?also, an upright man [quot. c1400, 3rd]; (b) a vaguely specified social virtue entailing constancy, trustworthiness, and decency toward others; also person.; also, a state of affairs conducive to such a virtue [quot. c1400(c1378)]; (c) in proverbs, maxims, and conventional complaints about contemporary morality.

(a) Divine righteousness, esp. as reified as that which governs creation; also, the righteousness attributed to God's actions; (b) character or behavior that conforms to religious or divine standards, righteousness, holiness; goodness, purity.

(a) Confidence, trust; also, conviction; (b) faith, belief, esp. in Christian dogma; also, credence; also, the theological virtue of faith; ~ and dede.

(a) A set of beliefs or doctrines; a faith, religion, creed; a specific religious or ecclesiastical system, religious faith as something having formal or institutional existence; (b) that which is to be adhered to, the true faith;—usu. identified with the Christian religion; cristen (cristes) ~, the ~ of crist, the ~ of holi chirche, etc.; (c) Christianity regarded primarily as true doctrine or a set of true doctrines; the tenets of Christian belief; the creed; (d) a spiritual or revealed truth; a tenet of the faith, an article of true belief or doctrine; also, the orthodox position on an article of the faith; (e) the principles of righteous living, God's law; Christianity regarded as such; also person.; ?also, an action prescribed by God's law in a particular circumstance, the right thing to do [1st quot., 1st occurrence]; also, knowledge of the divine will [quot. c1400(a1376)]; the wei of ~; (f) in oath.

(a) Things as they are, reality, actuality; ultimate or fundamental reality; also, absolute truth, usu. identified with spiritual reality; also, the fundamental nature of something; (b) God or the Godhead; the true God; also, a divine attribute; also, a name for God or Christ; (c) a transcendent knowledge of reality; spirit of ~, the Holy Spirit; (d) a fundamental principle; also, a piece of knowledge fundamental to a science or craft; (e) a proposition, an assertion, a statement of fact; an axiom; also, a postulate; plaine ~.

(a) Correspondence to reality, accuracy, exactitude; also, perceptiveness, wisdom; (b) agreement with a standard, correctness; also, as attributed to a person or thing: fidelity to his or its own nature, correspondence to its intended or ideal form, etc., genuineness [last quot.]; also [1st quot.], faithfulness of grammatical agreement between rel. pron. and antecedent;—with punning ref. to human accord with God.

(a) A fact; a factual statement; a veridical prophecy; a piece of factual information; (b) factual information; the fact or facts of the matter, the actual state of the case; the matter, situation, or circumstance as it really is, or the event as it really occurred; the ~ of the geste (matere, thing, etc.); (c) that which accurately and completely represents a true state of affairs; also, a full and accurate account; (d) import, significance; the true meaning or correct interpretation of a dream, portent, etc.; also, the underlying significance of a custom [last quot.]; (e) used predicatively as a quasi-adj.: true, factual; also, valid; ?also, genuine, sincere [1st quot.]; of a prophecy: veridical; (f) in personifications of factual truth or its revelation; (g) in proverbs and prov. expressions.

(a) In prep. phrases: in (after, o, of, on) ~, in truth, indeed, assuredly, verily; in fact, really;—sometimes used parenthetically; (b) in inf. phrases: to (for to) seien (tellen) ~, to seien (fraisten) the ~, for to tellen of ~, etc., to tell you the truth, frankly, indeed, assuredly, etc.;—often with diminished force; (c) in parenthetical finite clauses: I tel (hote) the in ~, the ~ ich (you) tel, ~ ich shal the tel, etc., to tell you the truth, you may be sure, indeed;—often as tag; tel me (the) ~, tell me the truth.

(a) Used predicatively in asseverative or emphatic phrases: this is ~, this the ~, this ~, etc., this is true; hit is ~, it is so; is hit ~, is not this ~, is it (not) true; (b) in other asseverative and emphatic phrases: affermen for (of) ~, to affirm solemnly (that sth. is the case); certifien (tellen) for ~, assure (sb. that sth. is the case); knouen (understonden) for ~, know surely (that sth. is the case); taken for ~, know surely; witnessen for ~, swear to the truth of (sth.); ~ hath, truth has it (that sth. is the case); the ~ is, the fact is (sth. is the case); (c) in misc. tag.

(a) The practice of speaking truly and without deceit; the disposition to speak so, veracity; sincerity, simplicity; plain-spokenness, candor; bi ~, in sincerity, without ulterior motive; (b) in adv. constructions: in (with) ~, honestly; (c) in proverbs and prov. expression; to ~ ward.

(a) The state of being in the right in a dispute or of being innocent of an offense, rightness, justness, innocence; also person.; also with punning ref. to sense 2.(b) [quot. c1450 (c1400)]; also, the right of a matter [quot. a1420]; (b) the execution of justice, fair treatment, equitable judgment; justice as a state of affairs, just rule; also person.; ?also, just redress [quot. a1500]; (c) that to which just judgment or rule conforms, the principle of justice; also person.; also, moral reason;—used as person.; (d) the quality of someone whose actions are just; impartiality, fairness, evenhandedness; (e) in proverbs.

As a stock allegorical figure: (a) a character or characters in PPl., to be identified ult. with God or God's indwelling presence, but also usu. representing the personification of vaguely or severally specified principles, spiritual conditions, etc., often with punning intent; (b) one of the daughters of God in morality plays, generally representing divine justice or fidelity to principle.

(a) In proverbs and maxims not readily assignable to a particular sense; (b) as term of association; (c) a species of the virtue of truth.

In misc. senses: (a) the 'Thummim' or priestly lots [rendering the Vulgate L veritas, itself rendering Septuagint Gk. alētheia]; (b) ?a promise, commitment; ?error for treu(e n.(1); (c) as surname.