STYLE, n. [L., Gr., a column, a pen or bodkin; from the root of the Teutonic stellen, to set or place.]

1. Manner of writing with regard to language, or the choirs and arrangement of words; as, a harsh style; a dry style; a tumid or bombastic style; a loose style; a terse style; a laconic or verbose style; a flowing style; a lofty style; an elegant style; an epistolary style. The character of style depends chiefly on a happy selection and arrangement of words. Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of style. – Swift. Let some lord but own the happy lines, / How the wit brightens and the style refines! – Pope.
2. Manner of speaking appropriate to particular characters; or in general, the character of the language used. No style is held for base, where love well named is. – Sidney. According to the usual style of dedications. – Middleton. So we say, a person addresses another in a style of haughtiness, in a style of rebuke.
3. Mode of painting; any manner of painting which is characteristic or peculiar. The ornamental style also possessed its own peculiar merit. – Reynolds.
4. A particular character of music; as, a grave style.
5. Title; appellation; as, the style of majesty. Propitious hear our pray, / Whether the style of Titan please thee more. – Pope.
6. Course of writing. [Not in use.] – Dryden.
7. Style of court, is properly the practice observed by any court in its way of proceeding. – Ayliffe.
8. In popular use, manner; form; as, the entertainment was prepared in excellent style.
9. A pointed instrument formerly used in writing on tables of wax; an instrument of surgery.
10. Something with a sharp point; a graver; the pin of a dial; written also stile.
11. In botany, the middle portion of the pistil, connecting the stigma with the germ; sometimes called the shaft. The styles of plants are capillary, filiform, cylindric, subulate, clavate. – Martyn.
12. In chronology, a mode of reckoning time, with regard to the Julian and Gregorian calendar. Style is Old or New. The Old Style follows the Julian manner of computing the months and days, or the calendar as established by Julius Cesar, in which the year consists of 365 days and 6 hours This is something more than 11 minutes too much, and in the course of time, between Cesar and Pope Gregory XIII this surplus amounted to 11 days. Gregory reformed the calendar by retrenching 10 days; this reformation was adopted by act of parliament in Great Britain in 1751, by which act 11 days in September, 1752, were retrenched and the third day was reckoned the fourteenth. This mode of reckoning is called New Style.

To call; to name; to denominate; to give a title to in addressing. The emperor of Russia is styled autocrat; the king of Great Britain is styled defender of the faith.

1. An instrument used by the ancients in writing on tablets covered with wax, having one of its ends sharp, and the other blunt, and somewhat expanded, for the purpose of making erasures by smoothing the wax.
2. To entitle] to term, name, or call; to denominate.
   
   
   "Styled great conquerors." Milton.

   How well his worth and brave adventures styled. Dryden.

   Syn. -- To call; name; denominate; designate; term; characterize.

3. Hence, anything resembling the ancient style in shape or use.
   
   
   Specifically: --

   (a)

4. Mode of expressing thought in language, whether oral or written; especially, such use of language in the expression of thought as exhibits the spirit and faculty of an artist; choice or arrangement of words in discourse; rhetorical expression.
   
   

   High style, as when that men to kinges write. Chaucer.

   Style is the dress of thoughts. Chesterfield.

   Proper words in proper places make the true definition of style. Swift.

   It is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work. I. Disraeli.

5. Mode of presentation, especially in music or any of the fine arts; a characteristic of peculiar mode of developing in idea or accomplishing a result.
   
   

   The ornamental style also possesses its own peculiar merit. Sir J. Reynolds.

6. Conformity to a recognized standard; manner which is deemed elegant and appropriate, especially in social demeanor; fashion.
   
   

   According to the usual style of dedications. C. Middleton.

7. Mode or phrase by which anything is formally designated; the title; the official designation of any important body; mode of address; as, the style of Majesty.
   
   

   One style to a gracious benefactor, another to a proud, insulting foe. Burke.

8. A mode of reckoning time, with regard to the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
   
   

   * Style is Old or New. The Old Style follows the Julian manner of computing the months and days, or the calendar as established by Julius Cæsar, in which every fourth year consists of 366 days, and the other years of 365 days. This is about 11 minutes in a year too much. Pope Georgy XIII. reformed the calendar by retrenching 10 days in October, 1582, in order to bring back the vernal equinox to the same day as at the time of the Council of Nice, a. d. 325. This reformation was adopted by act of the British Parliament in 1751, by which act 11 days in September, 1752, were retrenched, and the third day was reckoned the fourteenth. This mode of reckoning is called New Style, according to which every year divisible by 4, unless it is divisible by 100 without being divisible by 400, has 366 days, and any other year 365 days.

   Style of court, the practice or manner observed by a court in its proceedings. Ayliffe.

   Syn. -- Diction; phraseology; manner; course; title. See Diction.