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.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

specifics

[spɪˈsɪfɪks] npl (= particulars) → détails mpl

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

specifics

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

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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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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.

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"Neither slower nor quicker," said Barbicane, wishing to make his two friends agree; "for we float is space, and must no longer consider specific weight."

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We thought the tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and most corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink in an element of a far greater specific gravity than itself.

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If there is any thing exceptionable, it must be sought for in the specific powers upon which this general declaration is predicated.

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Each adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each year, and those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity tests are hidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where the temperature is too low for incubation.

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Quite different from Lake Asphaltite, whose depression is twelve hundred feet below the sea, it contains considerable salt, and one quarter of the weight of its water is solid matter, its specific weight being 1,170, and, after being distilled, 1,000.

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These though generally included in the generic name of free trappers, have the more specific title of skin trappers.