Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of obsecrating; entreaty; supplication.
  • noun In liturgics, one of the suffrages or versicles of the Litany beginning with the word by (or, in Latin, per); a petition of the Litany for deliverance from evil: as, “By thy baptism, fasting, and temptation,” the response being “Good Lord, deliver us.”
  • noun In rhetoric, a figure in which the orator implores the help of God or man.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of obsecrating or imploring
  • noun (Rhet.) A figure of speech in which the orator implores the assistance of God or man.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An earnest supplication made in the name of God

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Thine own sake, O my God_; [256] to this belongs _obsecration_ -- namely, an appeal to sacred things, as when we say: _By Thy Nativity, deliver us, O Lord_!

    On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Aquinas Thomas 1907

  • But it is sufficient to remark that _obsecration_ is not a swearing by, or adjuring of God, as though to compel Him, for this is forbidden, but to implore His mercy.

    On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Aquinas Thomas 1907

  • And _obsecration_ precedes _prayer_, for it is from dwelling upon the Divine

    On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Aquinas Thomas 1907

  • And in the place of these imperial elixirs, beautiful to every sense, gem-hued, flower-scented, dream-compellers: - behold upon the quays at Cette the chemicals arrayed; behold the analyst at Marseilles, raising hands in obsecration, attesting god Lyoeus, and the vats staved in, and the dishonest wines poured forth among the sea.

    The Silverado Squatters 1884

  • Many expletives are ancient religious formulas of objurgation, obsecration, asseveration, anathema, etc.

    Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals William Graham Sumner 1875

  • And in the place of these imperial elixirs, beautiful to every sense, gem-hued, flower-scented, dream - compellers: - behold upon the quays at Cette the chemicals arrayed; behold the analyst at Marseilles, raising hands in obsecration, attesting god Lyoeus, and the vats staved in, and the dishonest wines poured forth among the sea.

    The Silverado Squatters Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

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