MEM'ORY, n. [L. memoria; Gr. to remember, from mind, or the same root. See Mind.] 1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of past events, or ideas which are past. A distinction is made between memory and recollection. Memory retains past ideas without any, or with little effort; recollection implies an effort to recall ideas that are past. Memory is the purveyor of reason.2. A retaining of past ideas in the mind; remembrance. Events that excite little attention are apt to escape from memory.3. Exemption from oblivion. That ever-living man of memory, Henry the fifth.4. The time within which past events can be remembered or recollected, or the time within which a person may have knowledge of what is past. The revolution in England was before my memory; the revolution in America was within the author's memory.5. Memorial; monumental record; that which calls to remembrance. A monument in London was erected in memory of the conflagration in 1666.6. Reflection; attention.MEM'ORY, v.t. To lay up in the mind or memory. [Not used.]
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