"person" - meanings, definitions, synonyms, thesaurus and antonyms

\Per"son\, n. [OE. persone, persoun, person, parson, OF.
persone, F. personne, L. persona a mask (used by actors), a
personage, part, a person, fr. personare to sound through;
per + sonare to sound. See {Per-}, and cf. {Parson}.]
1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or
   manifestation of individual character, whether in real
   life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an
   assumed character. [Archaic]

         His first appearance upon the stage in his new
         person of a sycophant or juggler.     --Bacon.

         No man can long put on a person and act a part.
                                               --Jer. Taylor.

         To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst
         thou known thyself aright.            --Milton.

         How different is the same man from himself, as he
         sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a
         friend!                               --South.

2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward
   appearance; as, of comely person.

         A fair persone, and strong, and young of age.
                                               --Chaucer.

         If it assume my noble father's person. --Shak.

         Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined.
                                               --Milton.

3. A living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal
   or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or
   child.

         Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is
         a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and
         reflection.                           --Locke.

4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any
   person present.

5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

6. (Theol.) Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions
   of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost);
   an hypostasis. ``Three persons and one God.'' --Bk. of
   Com. Prayer.

7. (Gram.) One of three relations or conditions (that of
   speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being
   spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence
   also to the verb of which it may be the subject.

Note: A noun or pronoun, when representing the speaker, is
      said to be in the first person; when representing what
      is spoken to, in the second person; when representing
      what is spoken of, in the third person.

8. (Biol.) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the
   compound Hydrozoa Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in
   the narrowest sense, among the higher animals. --Haeckel.

         True corms, composed of united person[ae] . . .
         usually arise by gemmation, . . . yet in sponges and
         corals occasionally by fusion of several originally
         distinct persons.                     --Encyc. Brit.

{Artificial}, or {Fictitious}, {person} (Law), a corporation
   or body politic. --blackstone.



{Natural person} (Law), a man, woman, or child, in
   distinction from a corporation.

{In person}, by one's self; with bodily presence; not by
   representative. ``The king himself in person is set
   forth.'' --Shak.

{In the person of}, in the place of; acting for. --Shak.

\Per"son\, v. t.
To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
[Obs.] --Milton.