| behavior | Manner of behaving, whether good or bad; mode of conducting one's self; conduct; deportment; carriage; used also of inanimate objects; as, the behavior of a ship in a storm; the behavior of the magnetic needle. "A gentleman that is very singular in his behavior." (Steele) To be upon one's good behavior, To be put upon one's good behavior, to be in a state of trial, in which something important depends on propriety of conduct. During good behavior, while (or so long as) one conducts one's self with integrity and fidelity or with propriety. Synonym: Bearing, demeanor, manner. Behavior, Conduct. Behavior is the mode in which we have or bear ourselves in the presence of others or toward them; conduct is the mode of our carrying ourselves forward in the concerns of life. Behavior respects our manner of acting in particular cases; conduct refers to the general tenor of our actions. We may say of soldiers, that their conduct had been praiseworthy during the whole campaign, and their behavior admirable in every instance when they met the enemy. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| instinctive | Of or pertaining to instinct; derived from, or prompted by, instinct; of the nature of instinct; determined by natural impulse or propensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous. "Instinctive motion." . "Instinctive dread." "With taste instinctive give Each grace appropriate." (Mason) "Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends?" (Bp. Hall) The terms instinctive belief, instinctive judgment, instinctive cognition, are expressions not ill adapted to characterise a belief, judgment, or cognition, which, as the result of no anterior consciousness, is, like the products of animal instinct, the intelligent effect of (as far as we are concerned) an unknown cause. Synonym: Natural, voluntary, spontaneous, original, innate, inherent, automatic. Origin: Cf. F. Instinctif. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |