The Collaborative International Dictionary
General \Gen"er*al\, a. [F. g['e]n['e]ral, fr. L. generalis. See Genus.]
Relating to a genus or kind; pertaining to a whole class or order; as, a general law of animal or vegetable economy.
Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars; as, a general inference or conclusion.
Not restrained or limited to a precise import; not specific; vague; indefinite; lax in signification; as, a loose and general expression.
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Common to many, or the greatest number; widely spread; prevalent; extensive, though not universal; as, a general opinion; a general custom.
This general applause and cheerful shout Argue your wisdom and your love to Richard.
--Shak. Having a relation to all; common to the whole; as, Adam, our general sire.
--Milton.-
As a whole; in gross; for the most part.
His general behavior vain, ridiculous.
--Shak. -
Usual; common, on most occasions; as, his general habit or method.
Note: The word general, annexed to a name of office, usually denotes chief or superior; as, attorney-general; adjutant general; commissary general; quartermaster general; vicar-general, etc.
General agent (Law), an agent whom a principal employs to transact all his business of a particular kind, or to act in his affairs generally.
General assembly. See the Note under Assembly.
General average, General Court. See under Average, Court.
General court-martial (Mil.), the highest military and naval judicial tribunal.
General dealer (Com.), a shopkeeper who deals in all articles in common use.
General demurrer (Law), a demurrer which objects to a pleading in general terms, as insufficient, without specifying the defects.
--Abbott.General epistle, a canonical epistle.
General guides (Mil.), two sergeants (called the right, and the left, general guide) posted opposite the right and left flanks of an infantry battalion, to preserve accuracy in marching.
--Farrow.General hospitals (Mil.), hospitals established to receive sick and wounded sent from the field hospitals.
--Farrow.General issue (Law), an issue made by a general plea, which traverses the whole declaration or indictment at once, without offering any special matter to evade it.
--Bouvier.
--Burrill.General lien (Law), a right to detain a chattel, etc., until payment is made of any balance due on a general account.
General officer (Mil.), any officer having a rank above that of colonel.
General orders (Mil.), orders from headquarters published to the whole command.
General practitioner, in the United States, one who practices medicine in all its branches without confining himself to any specialty; in England, one who practices both as physician and as surgeon.
General ship, a ship not chartered or let to particular parties.
General term (Logic), a term which is the sign of a general conception or notion.
General verdict (Law), the ordinary comprehensive verdict in civil actions, ``for the plaintiff'' or ``for the defendant''.
--Burrill.General warrant (Law), a warrant, now illegal, to apprehend suspected persons, without naming individuals.
Syn: Syn. General, Common, Universal.
Usage: Common denotes primarily that in which many share; and hence, that which is often met with. General is stronger, denoting that which pertains to a majority of the individuals which compose a genus, or whole. Universal, that which pertains to all without exception. To be able to read and write is so common an attainment in the United States, that we may pronounce it general, though by no means universal.
Usage examples of "general dealer".
Hendrick Tabaka was in the crowded general dealer's shop, watching the tills, but he came to Vicky immediately and she greeted him with the respect due to her husband's eldest brother.
Duff recognized the speaker as a trader who had opened a general dealer's store down at Ferrieras Camp.
Fifteen feet below him was the roof of a bottle store and general dealer's shop, but the alleyway between was ten feet wide and the roof of galvanized corrugated iron.
Sometimes they sat outside the store nearby, the Small Upright General Dealer, and waited for a car or a truck to bump its way past on the pothole-pitted road.
General China opened the armored canopy, jumped lightly to the ground, and turned to face the group of men on the stoep of the general dealer's store.
Wherever he and Anna travelled, there was always a bundle of posters on the back seat of the Fiat or in one of the saddle-bags, and they stuck them SIO on every blank wall of every general dealer's or barroom they passed, they nailed them to tree trunks at desolate crossroads in the deep bush, and with a bribe of a handful of sweets dished them out to black and white and brown urchins they met on the roadside, with instructions to take them to their homestead or kraal or camp and hand them to their elders.
Craig packed them in five cheap canvas haversacks that he had bought from a general dealer in Francistown.
She remembered how, as girl she had worked in the Small Upright General Dealer Store in Mochudi and how thrilled she had been when she had first been allowed to do a stock-taking on her own.