EXTRE'ME, a. [L. extremus, last.] Outermost; utmost; farthest; at the utmost point, edge or border; as the extreme verge or point of a thing.

1. Outermost; utmost; furthest; at the utmost point, edge or border; as, the extreme verge or point of a thing.
2. Greatest; most violent; utmost; as, extreme pain, grief or suffering; extreme joy or pleasure.
3. Last; beyond which there is none; as, an extreme remedy.
4. Utmost; worst or best that can exist or be supposed; as, an extreme case.
5. Most pressing; as, extreme necessity. Extreme unction, among the Romanists, is the anointing of a sick person with oil, when decrepit with age or affected with some mortal disease, and usually just before death. It is applied to the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, feet and reins of penitents, and is supposed to represent the grace of God poured into the soul. Encyc. Extreme and mean proportion, in geometry, is when a line is so divided, that the whole line is to the greater segment, as that segment is to the less; or when a line is so divided, that the rectangle under the whole line and the lesser segment is equal to the square of the greater segment. Euclid.

1. The utmost point or verge of a thing; that part which terminates a body; extremity.
2. Utmost point; furthest degree; as, the extremes of heat and cold; the extremes of virtue and vice. Avoid extremes. Extremes naturally beget each other. There is a natural progression from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny. Washington.
3. In logic, the extremes, or extreme terms of a syllogism are the predicate and subject. Thus, “Man is an animal; Peter is a man, therefore Peter is an animal;” the word animal is the greater extreme, Peter the less extreme, and man the medium. Encyc.
4. In mathematics, the extremes are the first and last terms of a proportion; as, when three magnitudes are proportional, the rectangle contained by the extremes is equal to the square of the mean. Euclid.

1. At the utmost point, edge, or border; outermost; utmost; farthest; most remote; at the widest limit.
2. The utmost point or verge; that part which terminates a body; extremity.
3. Last; final; conclusive; -- said of time; as, the extreme hour of life.
4. Utmost limit or degree that is supposable or tolerable; hence, furthest degree; any undue departure from the mean; -- often in the plural: things at an extreme distance from each other, the most widely different states, etc.; as, extremes of heat and cold, of virtue and vice; extremes meet.
   
   

   His parsimony went to the extreme of meanness. Bancroft.

5. The best of worst; most urgent; greatest; highest; immoderate; excessive; most violent; as, an extreme case; extreme folly.
   
   
   "The extremest remedy." Dryden. "Extreme rapidity." Sir W. Scott.

   Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire. Shak.

6. An extreme state or condition; hence, calamity, danger, distress, etc.
   
   
   "Resolute in most extremes." Shak.
7. Radical; ultra; as, extreme opinions.
   
   

   The Puritans or extreme Protestants. Gladstone.

8. Either of the extreme terms of a syllogism, the middle term being interposed between them.
9. Extended or contracted as much as possible; -- said of intervals; as, an extreme sharp second; an extreme flat forth.
   
   

   Extreme and mean ratio (Geom.), the relation of a line and its segments when the line is so divided that the whole is to the greater segment is to the less. -- Extreme distance. (Paint.) See Distance., n., 6. -- Extreme unction. See under Unction.

   * Although this adjective, being superlative in signification, is not properly subject to comparison, the superlative form not unfrequently occurs, especially in the older writers. "Tried in his extremest state." Spenser. "Extremest hardships." Sharp. "Extremest of evils." Bacon. "Extremest verge of the swift brook." Shak. "The sea's extremest borders." Addison.

10. The first or the last term of a proportion or series.
    
    

    In the extreme as much as possible. "The position of the Port was difficult in the extreme." J. P. Peters.