Sign \Sign\, n. [F. signe, L. signum; cf. AS. segen, segn,
         a
   sign, standard, banner, also fr. L. signum. Cf. Ensign,
   Resign, Seal
         a stamp, Signal,
         Signet.]
   That by
         which anything is
         made known or represented; that
   which furnishes
         evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a
   proof.
         Specifically:
   (a) A remarkable event, considered by the
         ancients as
       indicating the will of some deity; a
         prodigy; an omen.
   (b) An event considered by the Jews as
         indicating the divine
       will, or as manifesting an
         interposition of the divine
       power for some special
         end; a miracle; a wonder.
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             Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of
             the Spirit of God.                   --Rom. xv. 19.
   
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             It shall come to pass, if they will not believe
             thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first
             sign, that they will believe the voice of the
             latter sign.                         --Ex. iv. 8.
     
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   (c) Something serving to indicate the
         existence, or preserve
       the memory, of a thing; a
         token; a memorial; a monument.
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             What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty
             men, and they became a sign.         --Num. xxvi.
                                                  10.
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   (d) Any symbol or emblem which prefigures,
         typifles, or
       represents, an idea; a type; hence,
         sometimes, a picture.
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             The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely
             significative; but what they represent is as
             certainly delivered to us as the symbols
             themselves.                          --Brerewood.
     
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             Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory.
                                                  --Spenser.
      
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   (e) A word or a character regarded as the
         outward
       manifestation of thought; as, words are the
         sign of
       ideas.
   (f) A motion, an action, or a
         gesture by which a thought is
       expressed, or a
         command or a wish made known.
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             They made signs to his father, how he would have
             him called.                          --Luke i. 62.
    
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   (g) Hence, one of the gestures of
         pantomime, or of a language
       of a signs such as those
         used by the North American
       Indians, or those used by
         the deaf and dumb.
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   Note:
         Educaters of the deaf distinguish between natural
         signs, which serve for communicating ideas, and
         methodical, or systematic, signs, adapted for the
         dictation, or the rendering, of written language, word
         by word; and thus the signs are to be distinguished
         from the manual alphabet, by which words are spelled on
         the fingers.
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   (h) A military emblem carried on a banner
         or a standard.
       --Milton.
   (i) A lettered board,
         or other conspicuous notice, placed
       upon or before a
         building, room, shop, or office to
       advertise the
         business there transacted, or the name of
       the person
         or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed
       token
         or notice.
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             The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted
             signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the
             streets.                             --Macaulay.
      
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   (j) (Astron.) The twelfth part of the
         ecliptic or zodiac.
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   Note: The
         signs are reckoned from the point of intersection
         of the ecliptic and equator at the vernal equinox, and
         are named, respectively, Aries ([Aries]), Taurus
         ([Taurus]), Gemini (II),
         Cancer ([Cancer]), Leo
         ([Leo]), Virgo ([Virgo]),
         Libra ([Libra]),
         Scorpio ([Scorpio]),
         Sagittarius
         ([Sagittarius]),
         Capricornus  ([Capricorn]), Aquarius
         ([Aquarius]),
         Pisces ([Pisces]). These
         names were originally the
         names of the constellations occupying severally the
         divisions of the zodiac, by which they are still
         retained; but, in consequence of the procession of the
         equinoxes, the signs have, in process of time, become
         separated about 30 degrees from these constellations,
         and each of the latter now lies in the sign next in
         advance, or to the east of the one which bears its
         name, as the constellation Aries in the sign Taurus,
         etc.
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   (k) (Alg.) A character indicating the
         relation of quantities,
       or an operation performed
         upon them; as, the sign +
       (plus); the sign --
         (minus); the sign of division /, and
       the like.
  
         (l) (Med.) An objective evidence of disease; that is, one
 
              appreciable by some one other than the patient.
      
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   Note: The terms symptom and and sign
         are often used
         synonymously; but they may be discriminated. A sign
         differs from a symptom in that the latter is perceived
         only by the patient himself. The term sign is often
         further restricted to the purely local evidences of
         disease afforded by direct examination of the organs
         involved, as distinguished from those evidence of
         general disturbance afforded by observation of the
         temperature, pulse, etc. In this sense it is often
         called physical sign.
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   (m) (Mus.) Any character, as a flat,
         sharp, dot, etc.
   (n) (Theol.) That which, being
         external, stands for, or
       signifies, something
         internal or spiritual; -- a term
       used in the Church
         of England in speaking of an ordinance
       considered
         with reference to that which it represents.
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             An outward and visible sign of an inward and
             spiritual grace.                     --Bk. of
                                                  Common Prayer.
   
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   Note: See the Table of {Arbitrary
         Signs}, p. 1924.
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   Sign manual.
   (a) (Eng. Law) The
         royal signature superscribed at the top of
       bills of
         grants and letter patent, which are then sealed
       with
         the privy signet or great seal, as the case may be,
      
         to complete their validity.
   (b) The signature of one's
         name in one's own handwriting.
       --Craig. Tomlins.
         Wharton.
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   Syn: Token; mark;
         note; symptom; indication; signal; symbol;
        type;
         omen; prognostic; presage; manifestation. See
       
         Emblem.
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