Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Bible The ten injunctions given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, serving as the basis of Mosaic Law.
Wiktionary
- n. A list of religious and moral imperatives which, according to the Hebrew Bible, were written by God and given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of two stone tablets.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the biblical commandments of Moses
Etymologies
- A translation of Ancient Hebrew עשרת הדברים (`aśéreth hadd'bharím, "(the)-ten-of the-utterances"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Of the use of the jussive future in prohibition we have a conspicuous example in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20: 13-17: Dt. 5: 17-21) - Ou moicheuseis, Ou klepseis ktl.”
“He took a deep breath, and dived, shouting the last of the Ten Commandments so it echoed in his Perspex shell.”
“Boss Platt wrote Roosevelt a letter -- one of the sort inspired more by sorrow than by anger -- to the effect that he had been warned that the Governor was a little loose on the relations of capital and labor, on trusts and combinations, and, in general, on the right of a man to run his business as he chose, always respecting, of course, the Ten Commandments and the Penal Code.”
“Jacob Riis describes Roosevelt's administration as introducing the Ten Commandments into the government at Albany, and we need hardly be told that the young Governor applied his usual methods and promoted his favorite reforms.”
“To write the biography of so remarkable a woman as Ninon de l'Enclos is to incur the animadversions of those who stand upon the dogma, that whoso violates one of the Ten Commandments is guilty of violating them all, particularly when one of the ten is conventionally selected as the essential precept and the most important to be observed.”
“But the missionary will find the work of converting this people more difficult than changing the wildest Patagonian, because they are all Bible-reading heathen -- people who can repeat chapter after chapter, who know by heart the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes and attend religious services regularly.”
“Bill had a theory that the Ten Commandments were suspended while a horse-trade was going on, so he did most of his business with strangers.”
“It is their issues-abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools, intelligent design, Terri Schiavo, the posting of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, home schooling, voucher plans, and the makeup of the Supreme Court-that often dominate the headlines and serve as one of the major fault lines in American politics.”
“Platt and the Machine naturally wished to get rid of this marplot, who could not be manipulated, who held strange and subversive ideas as to the extent to which the Ten Commandments and the Penal Code should be allowed to encroach on politics and Big Business, and who was hopelessly”
“Mr. Waddell says, 'such a hellish firebrand as the' Ten Commandments 'was never circulated in this country.”
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actung Also slang for the ten fingernails, used by women in fighting. Chambers Dictionary. Mar 11, 2012