Natural \Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr.
L. naturalis, fr. natura. See Nature.]
1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the
constitution of a thing; belonging to native character;
according to nature; essential; characteristic; not
artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the
natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of
a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the
natural heat of the body; natural color.
With strong natural sense, and rare force of will.
--Macaulay.
2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature;
consonant to the methods of nature; according to the
stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws
which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or
violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural
consequence of crime; a natural death.
What can be more natural than the circumstances in
the behavior of those women who had lost their
husbands on this fatal day? --Addison.
3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with,
or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and
mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or
experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural
science; history, theology.
I call that natural religion which men might know .
. . by the mere principles of reason, improved by
consideration and experience, without the help of
revelation. --Bp. Wilkins.
4. Conformed to truth or reality; as:
(a) Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or
exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a
natural gesture, tone, etc.
(b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature;
according to the life; -- said of anything copied or
imitated; as, a portrait is natural.
5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to
one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He
wants the natural touch. --Shak.
6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. ``Natural
friends.'' --J. H. Newman.
7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock;
illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as
contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which
is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. --1 Cor. ii.
14.
9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some
system, in which the base is 1; -- said or certain
functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those
commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken
in arcs whose radii are 1.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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