specifics

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spe·cif·ic

(spĭ-sĭf′ĭk)

adj.

a. Explicitly set forth; definite: wrote specific instructions. See Synonyms at explicit.

b. Clear or detailed in communicating: Be specific when telling us what you need.

a. Limited, distinctive, or unique: problems specific to small colleges.

b. Intended for, applying to, or acting on a particular thing: a specific remedy for warts.

c. Concerned particularly with the subject specified. Often used in combination: "age-specific voting patterns" (A. Dianne Schmidley).

3. Relating to, characterizing, or distinguishing a species: a specific name.

a. Designating a disease produced by a particular microorganism or condition.

b. Having a remedial influence or effect on a particular disease.

5. Immunology Having an affinity limited to a particular antibody or antigen.

a. Designating a customs charge levied on merchandise by unit or weight rather than according to value.

b. Designating a commodity rate applicable to the transportation of a single commodity between named points.

a. Something particularly fitted to a use or purpose.

b. A remedy intended for a particular ailment or disorder.

a. A distinguishing quality or attribute.

b. specifics Distinct items or details; particulars.

[Medieval Latin specificus : Latin speciēs, kind, species; see species + Latin -ficus, -fic.]

spe·cif′i·cal·ly adv.

spec′i·fic′i·ty (spĕs′ə-fĭs′ĭ-tē) n.

Translations

specifics

[spɪˈsɪfɪks] npl (= particulars) → détails mpl

specifics

[spəˈsɪfɪks] npl the specifics → i dettagli, i particolari

References in classic literature ?

Mohegan heard this disquisition quite patiently, and, when Richard concluded, he held out the basket which contained his specifics, indicating, by a gesture, that he might hold it.

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For those who have some specific habit may be said also, in virtue of that habit, to be thus or thus disposed; but those who are disposed in some specific way have not in all cases the corresponding habit.

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No Dunsey had come back: people had made up their minds that he was gone for a soldier, or gone "out of the country", and no one cared to be specific in their inquiries on a subject delicate to a respectable family.

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As the sequel to what has already been said, we must proceed to consider what the poet should aim at, and what he should avoid, in constructing his plots; and by what means the specific effect of Tragedy will be produced.

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This feeling of reality, related to the memory-image, and referred to the past by the specific kind of belief-feeling that is characteristic of memory, seems to be what constitutes the act of remembering in its pure form.

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The writers of universal histories and of the history of culture are like people who, recognizing the defects of paper money, decide to substitute for it money made of metal that has not the specific gravity of gold.

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By a curious effect of specific gravity, these blocks, lighter than water, fled, so to speak, to the vault of the tunnel, that increased in thickness at the top in proportion as it diminished at the base.