資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
7. Amount; quantity; portion; space; -- often indefinite.
Away he goes, . . . a matter of seven miles. --L'
Estrange.
I have thoughts to tarry a small matter. --Congreve.
No small matter of British forces were commanded
over sea the year before. --Mi
--lton.
8. Substance excreted from living animal bodies; that which
is thrown out or discharged in a tumor, boil, or abscess;
pus; purulent substance.
9. (Metaph.) That which is permanent, or is supposed to be
given, and in or upon which changes are effected by
psychological or physical processes and relations; --
opposed to {form}. --Mansel.
10. (Print.) Written manuscript, or anything to be set in
type; copy; also, type set up and ready to be used, or
which has been used, in printing.
{Dead matter} (Print.), type which has been used, or which is
not to be used, in printing, and is ready for
distribution.
{Live matter} (Print.), type set up, but not yet printed
from.
{Matter in bar}, {Matter of fact}. See under {Bar}, and
{Fact}.
{Matter of record}, anything recorded.
{Upon the matter}, or {Upon the whole matter}, considering
the whole; taking all things into view.
Waller, with Sir William Balfour, exceeded in horse,
but were, upon the whole matter, equal in foot.
--Clarendon.
Fact \Fact\, n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf.
{Feat}, {Affair}, {Benefit}, {Defect}, {Fashion}, and {-fy}.]
1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of
fucus, paint for ladies. --B. Jonson.
2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that
comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am
not able to conjecture. --Evelyn.
He who most excels in fact of arms. --Milton.
3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all
the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing;
sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer
of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a
thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds
with false facts.
I do not grant the fact. --De Foe.
This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not
true. --Roger Long.
Note: TheTerm fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in
contrast with low; as, attorney at low, and attorney in
fact; issue in low, and issue in fact. There is also a
grand distinction between low and fact with reference
to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the
latter generally determining the fact, the former the
low. --Burrill Bouvier.
{Accessary before}, or {after}, {the fact}. See under
{Accessary}.
{Matter of fact}, an actual occurrence; a verity; used
adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic;
unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.
Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence;
circumstance.
資料來源 : WordNet®
matter of fact
n 1: a disputed factual contention that is generally left for a
jury to decide [syn: {question of fact}]
2: a matter that is an actual fact or is demonstrable as a fact