COMPARISON, n.

1. The act of comparing; the act of considering the relation between persons or things, with a view to discover their agreement or resemblance, or their disagreement or difference. We learn to form a correct estimate of men and their actions by comparison. – Anon.
2. The state of being compared. If we rightly estimate what we call good and evil, we shall find it lies much in comparison. – Locke.
3. Comparative estimate; proportion. Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Hag. ii.
4. In grammar, the formation of an adjective in its several degrees of signification; as, strong, stronger, strongest; greenish, green, greener, greenest; glorious, more glorious, most glorious. In English, there are strictly four degrees of comparison.
5. A simile; similitude, or illustration by similitude. Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark iv.
6. In rhetoric, a figure by which two things are considered with regard to a third, which is common to them both; as, a hero is like a lion in courage. Here courage is common to hero and lion, and constitutes the point of resemblance. – Encyc. The distinction between similitude and comparison is, that the former has reference to the quality; the latter, to the quantity. Comparison is between more and less; similitude is between good and bad. Hannibal … hung like a tempest on the declivities of the Alps … is a likeness by similitude. The sublimity of the Scriptural prophets exceeds that of Homer, as much as thunder is louder than a whisper … is a likeness by comparison. – J.Q. Adams, Lect. ix. But comparison has reference to quality as well as quantity.

1. The act of comparing; an examination of two or more objects with the view of discovering the resemblances or differences; relative estimate.
   
   

   As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them.
   Macaulay.

   The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.
   Trench.

2. To compare.
   
   
   [Obs.] Wyclif.
3. The state of being compared; a relative estimate; also, a state, quality, or relation, admitting of being compared; as, to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them.
4. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
   
   

   Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?
   Mark iv. 30.

5. The modification, by inflection or otherwise, which the adjective and adverb undergo to denote degrees of quality or quantity; as, little, less, least, are examples of comparison.
6. A figure by which one person or thing is compared to another, or the two are considered with regard to some property or quality, which is common to them both; e.g., the lake sparkled like a jewel.
7. The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.
   
   

   Beyond comparison, so far superior as to have no likeness, or so as to make comparison needless. -- In comparison of, In comparison with, as compared with; in proportion to. [Archaic] "So miserably unpeopled in comparison of what it once was." Addison. -- Comparison of hands (Law), a mode of proving or disproving the genuineness of a signature or writing by comparing it with another proved or admitted to be genuine, in order to ascertain whether both were written by the same person. Bouvier. Burrill.