Entangle - ENTAN'GLE, v.t. [from tangle.] To twist or interweave in such a manner as not to be easily separated; to make confused or disordered; as, thread, yarn or ropes may be entangled; to entangle the hair.
1. To involve in any thing complicated, and from which it is difficult to extricate one's self; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers.
2. To lose in numerous or complicated involutions, as in a labyrinth.
3. To involve in difficulties; to perplex; to embarrass; as, to entangle a nation in alliances.
4. To puzzle; to bewilder; as, to entangle the understanding.
5. To insnare by captious questions; to catch; to perplex; to involve in contradictions.
The Pharisees took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. Mat 22.
6. To perplex or distract, as with cares.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. 2 Tim 2.
7. To multiply intricacies and difficulties.
Equity - EQ'UITY, n. [L. oequitas, from oequus, equal, even, level.]
1. Justice; right. In practice, equity is the impartial distribution of justice, or the doing that to another which the laws of God and man, and of reason, give him a right to claim. It is the treating of a person according to justice and reason.
The Lord shall judge the people with equity. Psa 98.
With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity. Isa 11.
2. Justice; impartiality; a just regard to right or claim; as, we must, in equity, allow this claim.
3. In law, an equitable claim. "I consider the wife's equity to be too well settled to be shaken."
4. In jurisprudence, the correction or qualification of law, when too severe or defective; or the extension of the words of the law to cases not expressed, yet coming within the reason of the law. Hence a court of equity or chancery, is a court which corrects the operation of the literal text of the law, and supplies its defects, by reasonable construction, and by rules of proceeding and deciding, which are not admissible in a court of law. Equity then is the law of reason, exercised by the chancellor or judge, giving remedy in cases to which the courts of law are not competent.
5. Equity of redemption, in law, the advantage, allowed to a mortgager, of a reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, when the estate is of greater value than the sum for which it was mortgaged.
Espouse - ESPOUSE, v.t. espouz'. [L. spondeo, sponsus, the letter n, in the latter, must be casual, or the modern languages have lost the letter. The former is most probable; in which case, spondeo was primarily spodeo, sposus.]
1. To betroth.
When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph. Mat 1.
2. To betroth; to promise or engage in marriage, by contract in writing, or by some pledge; as, the king espoused his daughter to a foreign prince. Usually and properly followed by to, rather than with.
3. To marry; to wed.
4. To unite intimately or indissolubly.
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 2 Cor 11.
5. To embrace; to take to one's self, with a view to maintain; as, to espouse the quarrel of another; to espouse a cause.
Eternal - ETER'NAL, a. [L. oeternus, composed of oevum and ternus, oeviternus, Varro. The origin of the last component part of the word is not obvious. It occurs in diuturnus, and seems to denote continuance.]
1. Without beginning or end of existence.
The eternal God is thy refuge. Deu 33.
2. Without beginning of existence.
To know whether there is any real being, whose duration has been eternal.
3. Without end of existence or duration; everlasting; endless; immortal.
That they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 2 Tim 2.
What shall I do, that I may have eternal life? Mat 19.
Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 7.
4. Perpetual; ceaseless; continued without intermission.
And fires eternal in thy temple shine.
5. Unchangeable; existing at all times without change; as eternal truth.
ETER'NAL, n. An appellation of God.
Eternity - ETER'NITY, n. [L. oeternitas.] Duration or continuance without beginning or end.
By repeating the idea of any length of duration, with the endless addition of number, we come by the idea of eternity.
The high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity. Isa 57.
We speak of eternal duration preceding the present time. God has existed from eternity. We also speak of endless or everlasting duration in future, and dating from present time or the present state of things. Some men doubt the eternity of future punishment, though they have less difficulty in admitting the eternity of future rewards.