SIGN

Definitions

1. 1. That by which anything is made known or represented; that which furnishes evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a proof. Specifically:
2. 2. A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen.
3. 3. An event considered by the Jews as indicating the divine will, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine power for some special end; a miracle; a wonder. Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. Rom. xv. 19. It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. Ex. iv. 8.
4. 4. Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument. What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign. Num. xxvi. 10.
5. 5. Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or represents, an idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture. The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely significative; but what they represent is as certainly delivered to us as the symbols themselves. Brerewood. Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory. Spenser.
6. 6. A word or a character regarded as the outward manifestation of thought; as, words are the sign of ideas.
7. 7. A motion, an action, or a gesture by which a thought is expressed, or a command or a wish made known. They made signs to his father, how he would have him called. Luke i. 62.
8. 8. Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language of a signs such as those used by the North American Indians, or those used by the deaf and dumb.
9. 9. A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard. Milton.
10. 10. A lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed upon or before a building, room, shop, or office to advertise the business there transacted, or the name of the person or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed token or notice. The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the streets. Macaulay.
11. 11. The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.