general

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Concerned with, applicable to, or affecting the whole or every member of a class or category: "subduing all her impressions as a woman, to something more general” ( Virginia Woolf).
2. adj. Affecting or characteristic of the majority of those involved; prevalent: general discontent.
3. adj. Of or affecting the entire body: general paralysis.
4. adj. Being usually the case; true or applicable in most instances but not all: the general correctness of her decisions.
5. adj. Not limited in scope, area, or application: as a general rule.
6. adj. Not limited to or dealing with one class of things; diversified: general studies.
7. adj. Involving only the main features rather than precise details: a general grasp of the subject.
8. adj. Highest or superior in rank: the general manager.
9. n. A commissioned rank in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above lieutenant general.
10. n. One who holds this rank or a similar rank in another military organization.
11. n. A general officer.
12. n. A statement, principle, or fact that embraces or is applicable to the whole.
13. n. General anesthesia.
14. n. Archaic The public.
15. idiom. in general Generally.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pertaining or applicable to or predicable of all objects of a given class, or all of a number of resembling individuals; universal within the limits of the class or group of things considered: as, a general law of nature; a statute general in its application; a general principle; a general idea; the general interest or safety of a nation; to labor for the general good. In logic a name, as, for example, “cockatrice,” is considered to be general even though there is no real individual to which it can be applied; and it may also be general though there is but one individual to which it is actually applied. On the other hand, a disjunctive expression, as “William Shakspere, William Harvey, or Francis Bacon,” though predicable of each individual of the group, is not considered to be general. See nominalism, realism, and conceptualism.
2. Pertaining or applicable to, or predicable or true of, many or most of a class indefinitely, but by implication not to every member of it without exception; common to the majority or an indefinite number, or to a large but indefinite extent; prevalent; usual; common: as, a general custom; to differ from the general opinion; hence, indefinite; vague; not precise: as, to evade a point by general statements. Specifically, in mathematics, true except in certain limiting cases, when certain quantities vanish. Thus, it is true as a general proposition that three equations suffice to determine three unknown quantities; yet this is not the case if the resultant vanishes.
3. Comprising or pertaining to the whole; collective: opposed to partial: as, a general settlement of accounts; a general departure of guests; a general involucre (that is, one which subtends the whole inflorescence); also, pertaining to, predicable of, or occupied with a great variety of different objects having common characters.
4. Pertaining to the main features of the object; regarded in the gross, with neglect of details and unimportant exceptions: as, his general attainments are excellent; a general survey.
5. Having to do with all; public; common; vulgar.
6. Not specifically limited in scope, operation, or function; not restricted to special details, particulars, or occasions: used of authority conferred, or of office or employment exercised: as, a general power of attorney; a general officer of the army; a general mechanic. [General in this sense, in designations of rank or office taken or imitated from the French, usually follows, according to French idiom, the noun which it qualifies; and the two words are in English usually treated as a compound noun, as adjutant-general, attorney-general, etc.]
7. n. That which is general or common to all of a given class or group; a general statement, principle, truth, etc.
8. n. A genus or class embracing all objects having certain characters, and especially including species under it. Now only in the phrase in general (which see, below).
9. n. Milit., an officer holding a general command (whence the title); the commander of an army, or of any organization of troops larger than a regiment: as an official title, used either alone for the highest or next to the highest rank, or with an adjunct designating the particular grade. See lieutenant-general, major-general, and brigadier-general. In modern European armies the specific rank of general is usually the highest under that of marshal or field-marshal. In the United States the title, when used, is that of the acting commander-in-chief of the whole army (the President being the titular commander-in-chief). The rank has been held, under temporary laws, only by Generals Washington, Grant, and Sherman, and for a short time before his death in 1888 by General Sheridan, whose previous title as commander-in-chief was lieutenant-general. In address and common speech any general officer is called general simply. Abbreviated Gen.
10. n. A particular beat of drum or march, being that which, in the morning, gives notice to infantry to be in readiness to march.
11. n. Eccles., the chief of an order of monks or priests, or of all the houses or congregations established under the same rule: as, the general of the Dominicans, or of the Jesuits. In most orders the office is held for three years, but in that of the Jesuits it is held for life. The general, being subject to the immediate juris diction of the pope, is exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, but has the right to sit and vote with the bishops in a general council of the church.
12. n. The public; the community; the vulgar.
13. n. Inclusively; without exception.
14. n. In all things.
15. n. In mathematics, in all cases except possibly in limiting cases or in case of some additional condition being fulfilled.
16. Same as generally.
17. To command as a general; marshal.

Wiktionary

1. n. Commander of an army.
2. n. military A rank in the army and air force that is higher than colonel or brigadier, and is usually the highest rank group next to commander in chief, except in countries that use the rank of field marshal.
3. n. military a commissioned rank in the British Army and Royal Marines, above lieutenant general and below field marshal.
4. n. military a commissioned general officer in the United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force superior to a lieutenant general. A general is equal in rank or grade to a four star admiral. In the US Army, a general is junior to a general of the army. In the US Marine Corps, a general is the highest rank of commissioned officer. In the US Air Force, a general is junior to a general of the air force.
5. n. Short for general anaesthetic or general anaesthesia.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Relating to a genus or kind; pertaining to a whole class or order.
2. adj. Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars.
3. adj. Not restrained or limited to a precise import; not specific; vague; indefinite; lax in signification.
4. adj. Common to many, or the greatest number; widely spread; prevalent; extensive, though not universal
5. adj. Having a relation to all; common to the whole.
6. adj. As a whole; in gross; for the most part.
7. adj. Usual; common, on most occasions.
8. n. The whole; the total; that which comprehends or relates to all, or the chief part; -- opposed to particular.
9. n. (Mil.) One of the chief military officers of a government or country; the commander of an army, of a body of men not less than a brigade. In European armies, the highest military rank next below field marshal.
10. n. (Mil.) The roll of the drum which calls the troops together.
11. n. (Eccl.) The chief of an order of monks, or of all the houses or congregations under the same rule.
12. n. obsolete The public; the people; the vulgar.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a general officer of the highest rank
2. n. a fact about the whole (as opposed to particular)
3. adj. of worldwide scope or applicability
4. adj. somewhat indefinite
5. adj. applying to all or most members of a category or group
6. adj. prevailing among and common to the general public
7. adj. not specialized or limited to one class of things
8. n. the head of a religious order or congregation
9. v. command as a general
10. adj. affecting the entire body