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- Arbitrary
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Definitions of arbitrary
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Exercised according to one's own will or caprice, and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power.
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Arbitrarily.
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Not fixed by rule or law; capricious; unreasonable; despotic.
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ARBITRARINESS.
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Despotic; tyrannical; guided by will only.
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Depending on will or discretion; not governed by any fixed rules; as, an arbitrary decision; an arbitrary punishment.
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based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice; " an arbitrary decision"; " the arbitrary rule of a dictator";" an arbitrary penalty"; " of arbitrary size and shape"; " an arbitrary choice"; " arbitrary division of the group into halves"
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Depending on the will ( as of an arbiter): not bound by rules: despotic: absolute.
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Dictated by will; despotic.
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Determined solely by one's own judgment or good pleasure; exercised according to one's own discretion; subject to the will or control of no other; absolute; despotic; capricious.
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Fixed, made, or done capriciously; absolute; despotic.
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Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical; as, an arbitrary prince or government.
Antonyms for arbitrary
principled, condign, law-abiding, unimpeachable, set, established, nonarbitrary, equal, constitutional, conditional, democratic, due, merited, gentle, unbiased, lawful, honorable, restrained, continuous, conscious, ductile, responsible, humble, purposeful, competent, yielding, reasonable, organized, ordered, circumscribed, stable, Managed, equitable, orchestrated, contingent, square, methodical, aware, republican, compliant, prescribed, steady, thoughtful, deliberate, justified, willful, candid, right, mild, restricted, moral, disinterested, indifferent, regular, objective, planned, nonrandom, fair, limited, lowly, meek, nonpartisan, systematized, warranted, arranged, lenient, just, docile, complaisant, even, dispassionate, systematic, impartial, constant, submissive, ethical, unarbitrary, rightful, balanced, unprejudiced, accountable, rational, irreproachable, evenhanded, fixed, deserved, orderly, understanding.
Quotes of arbitrary
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Standards of beauty are arbitrary Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look.
– Martha Beck -
The decree of a coercive tribunal would not need to conform to the true standard of wages, the final productivity of social labor. It would introduce into distribution a genuinely arbitrary element, with a very large ultimate power to pervert the natural system.
– John Bates Clark -
It took us a long time to find out that we had been lied to by our parents' generation. The moralities that were followed during our parents' generation were basically arbitrary This caused a rift between the two generations, which was brought on by the beatniks.
– Peter Fonda -
Usually I am on a work for a long stretch, until a moment arrives when the air of the arbitrary vanishes, and the paint falls into positions that feel destined.
– Philip Guston -
The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
– Stephen Hawking -
Jackson went from the professor's chair to the officer's saddle. He carried with him the very elements of character which made him odious as a teacher; but I never saw him in an arbitrary mood.
– Daniel H. Hill -
Not to be offensive, not to be capricious, not to be arbitrary not to be neurotic, not to be an actor outer, you're just trying to get in and you're given so little time to get in gently, but it's always hard.
– William Hurt -
While we have entertained the contention that a deed may make more propaganda than hundreds of speeches, thousands of articles, and tens of thousands of pamphlets, we have held that an arbitrary act of violence will not necessarily have such an effect.
– Johann Most -
Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
– George Jean Nathan -
I don't know who decided that skinny was more appealing than not skinny. It seems arbitrary
– Gwyneth Paltrow -
The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.
– John Rawls -
Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.
– Charles de Secondat -
It is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is true it was acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the whole nation. But we hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it.
– William H. Seward -
Any Congressional agreement of an arbitrary time table to bring our troops home before we have accomplished our mission is unacceptable and could potentially increase the risk to our soldiers.
– James T. Walsh -
I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be.
– Edmund White
Usage examples for arbitrary
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“ This was no arbitrary punishment, but the natural consequence. ”
– Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors by James Freeman Clarke -
“ At meal times, the men would file in and take their places at the tables; anon, the meal over, they would rise and file out- men whom I knew, creatures like myself, slaves of an arbitrary power acting in accordance with principles long since known to be false and mischievous. ”
– The Subterranean Brotherhood by Julian Hawthorne -
“ It was designed originally to secure a person from being detained in prison without due process of law, and it served as a mighty check upon arbitrary power. ”
– Studies in Civics by James T. McCleary -
“ In some things method is arbitrary and it matters not which go before, or which follow after, but here they become essential, and so a great part of the matter itself. ”
– The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning by Hugh Binning -
“ The interest of the house must decide, not the arbitrary inclination of the individual. ”
– The Origin of the Family Private Property and the State by Frederick Engels -
“ " Filial duty is a pretty arbitrary thing when a man who can really think looks into it. ”
– The Son of his Father by Ridgwell Cullum -
“ True punishment is never arbitrary nor vindictive. ”
– The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Richard B. Westbrook -
“ A noise was made of arbitrary sway; But, in revenge, you whigs have found a way An arbitrary duty now to pay. ”
– The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian by John Dryden -
“ Neither was of the least consequence, as the new line was conventional and arbitrary but the discoveries caused a great deal of unreasonable excitement. ”
– Daniel Webster by Henry Cabot Lodge -
“ Truly etiquette is a curious and arbitrary thing, and differs in every country. ”
– Manners and Social Usages by Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood -
“ But it is quite arbitrary thus to conceive the Ego as the sole type of substance. ”
– Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey -
“ The division into chapters is partly arbitrary although the periods indicated are quite clearly marked by the different directions which Professor Dewey's interests took from time to time. ”
– John Dewey's logical theory by Delton Thomas Howard -
“ The demands of Napoleon, arbitrary and oppressive as they were, by no means expressed his full intentions towards Portugal. ”
– History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 by C. A. Fyffe -
“ As for Butcher Donnan himself, as soon as he got over dwelling upon the thrashing he meant to give Nipper when he caught him, the outlines of a broader, farther reaching, less arbitrary settlement began to form themselves in his mind. ”
– Sweethearts at Home by S. R. Crockett -
“ The fact that the Commission had filed no report in September, the generous increase in salaries of its deputies, alleged instances of arbitrary conduct of its representatives, resulted in a resolution being introduced by Assemblyman Harry Polsley, demanding that the Commission be made the subject of legislative inquiry. ”
– Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 by Franklin Hichborn -
“ His parents, both poor musicians,- the mother a singer- died while he was yet a baby, and he was left to the care of an arbitrary uncle who resolved to make a priest of him. ”
– Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather -
“ However arbitrary may be the use or application of words, their connexion with ideas is so necessary, that they cannot be words without it. ”
– The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown -
“ Its arrangement, of course, is altogether arbitrary and cannot admit of any theory. ”
– The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown -
“ With regard to the others, who have been sent home, we have only very vague particulars, and the interpretation of their condition is quite arbitrary ”
– Mentally Defective Children by Alfred Binet Théodore Simon -
“ This assertion was arbitrary because we have just as much right to admit the existence of a human organism, not subject to observation, as we have to admit the existence of any other invisible, fantastic being. ”
– On the Significance of Science and Art from What to Do? by Count Lyof N. Tolstoi