JUST, a. [L. justus. The primary sense is probably straight or close, from the sense of setting, erecting, or extending.]

1. Regular; orderly; due; suitable. When all / The war shall stand ranged in its just array. – Addison.
2. Exactly proportioned; proper. Pleaseth your lordship / To meet his grace, just distance 'tween our armies? – Shak.
3. Full; complete to the common standard. He was comely personage, a little above just stature. – Bacon.
4. Full; true; a sense allied to the preceding, or the same. So that once the skirmish was like to have come to a just battle. – Knolles.
5. In a moral sense, upright; honest; having principles of rectitude; or conforming exactly to the laws, and to principles of rectitude in social conduct; equitable in the distribution of justice; as, a just judge.
6. In an evangelical sense, righteous; religious; influenced by a regard to the laws of God; or living in exact conformity to the divine will. There is not a just man on earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. – Eccles. vii.
7. Conformed to rules of justice; doing equal justice. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin shall ye have. – Lev. xix.
8. Conformed to truth; exact; proper; accurate; as just thoughts; just expressions; just images or representations; a just description; a just inference.
9. True; founded in truth and fact; as, a just charge or accusation.
10. Innocent; blameless; without guilt. How should man be just with God? – Job ix.
11. Equitable; due; merited; as, a just recompense or reward. Whose damnation is just. – Rom. iii.
12. True to promises; faithful; as, just to one's word or engagements.
13. Impartial; allowing what is due; giving fair representation of character, merit or demerit.

1. Close or closely; near or nearly, in place. He stood just by the speaker, and heard what he said. He stood just at the entrance of the city.
2. Near or nearly in time; almost. Just at that moment he arose and fled.
3. Exactly; nicely; accurately. They remain just of the same opinion. 'Tis with our judgments as our watches; none / Go just alike, yet each believes his own. – Pope.
4. Merely; barely; exactly. And having just enough, not covet more. – Dryden.
5. Narrowly. He just escaped without injury.

A mock encounter on horseback; a combat for sport or for exercise, in which the combatants pushed with lances and swords, man to man, in mock fight; a tilt; one of the exercises at tournaments. – Encyc.

1. To engage in mock fight on horseback.
2. To push; to drive; to justle.

1. Conforming or conformable to rectitude or justice; not doing wrong to any; violating no right or obligation; upright; righteous; honest; true; -- said both of persons and things.
   
   
   "O just but severe law!" Shak.

   There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. Eccl. vii. 20.

   Just balances, just weights, . . . shall ye have. Lev. xix. 36.

   How should man be just with God? Job ix. 2.

   We know your grace to be a man.
   Just and upright. Shak.

2. Precisely; exactly; -- in place, time, or degree; neither more nor less than is stated.
   
   

   And having just enough, not covet more. Dryden.

   The god Pan guided my hand just to the heart of the beast. Sir P. Sidney.

   To-night, at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one. Shak.

3. To joust.
   
   
   Fairfax.
4. A joust.
   
   
   Dryden.
5. Not transgressing the requirement of truth and propriety; conformed to the truth of things, to reason, or to a proper standard; exact; normal; reasonable; regular; due; as, a just statement; a just inference.
   
   

   Just of thy word, in every thought sincere. Pope.

   The prince is here at hand: pleaseth your lordship
   To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies. Shak.

   He was a comely personage, a little above just stature. Bacon.

   Fire fitted with just materials casts a constant heat. Jer. Taylor.

   When all
   The war shall stand ranged in its just array. Addison.

   Their named alone would make a just volume. Burton.

6. Closely; nearly; almost.
   
   

   Just at the point of death. Sir W. Temple.

7. Rendering or disposed to render to each one his due; equitable; fair; impartial; as, just judge.
   
   

   Men are commonly so just to virtue and goodness as to praise it in others, even when they do not practice it themselves. Tillotson.

   Just intonation. (Mus.) (a) The correct sounding of notes or intervals; true pitch. (b) The giving all chords and intervals in their purity or their exact mathematical ratio, or without temperament; a process in which the number of notes and intervals required in the various keys is much greater than the twelve to the octave used in systems of temperament. H. W. Poole.

   Syn. -- Equitable; upright; honest; true; fair; impartial; proper; exact; normal; orderly; regular.

8. Barely; merely; scarcely; only; by a very small space or time; as, he just missed the train; just too late.
   
   

   A soft Etesian gale
   But just inspired and gently swelled the sail. Dryden.

   Just now, the least possible time since; a moment ago.