Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Continence

Con′ti·nence, Con′ti·nen·cy, n. [F. continence, L. continentia. See Continent, and cf. Countenance.] 1. Self-restraint; self-command.

He knew what to say; he knew also, when to leave off, — a continence which is practiced by few writers. Dryden.

2. The restraint which a person imposes upon his desires and passions; the act or power of refraining from indulgence of the sexual appetite, esp. from unlawful indulgence; sometimes, moderation in sexual indulgence.

If they [the unmarried and widows] have not continency, let them marry. 1 Cor. vii. 9 (Rev. Ver. ).

Chastity is either abstinence or continence: abstinence is that of virgins or widows; continence, that of married persons. Jer. Taylor.

3. Uninterrupted course; continuity. [Obs.] Ayliffe.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.