† 1. trans. To instruct by example, set a (good) example to. Also absol. Obs.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. xxxv. Priestes … should the worlde exemplefye With good doctryne of perfection.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2299. To instructe and informe and to exemplyfy.
† 2. trans. To make an example of (a person).
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, III. v. (1640), 40. Or your exemplified Malefactors, That have surviv’d their infamy, and punishment.
1642. D. Rogers, Matrim. Honour, 337. A just and jealous God, not sparing to exemplifie … his best servants.
† 3. To set an example of, exhibit a model of.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., II. xiii. (1739), 69. A thing that none of his Predecessors ever exemplified to him.
1673. Ladies Call., I. § 3. 51. If the poor happen not to have more Charity then they exemplify to them.
† 4. To fashion after an example or model. Obs.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 475. They make the body of Christ, both the exemplar, and the thing exemplified.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 576. Those outward Images, which they exemplified from the Similitudes which they fram’d of him in their own Fancies.
† 5. To adduce, allege, quote, use as an example. To exemplify to: to compare to by way of example or specimen. To exemplify to be: to quote by way of example as being. Obs.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XI. xiii. For whych poetes hym so exemplyfied.
1592. Daniel, Compl. Ros., Wks. (1717), 39. Exemplify my Frailty.
1593. Nashe, 4 Lett. Confut., 54. Canst thou exemplifie vnto mee … one minnum of the particular deuice of his play that I purloind?
a. 1618. Raleigh, in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 82–3. The emphyteusis or feudum … for understanding sake may be exemplified to an estate at this day allowed.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. (1851), 63. Not to exemplifie the malapert insolence of our owne Bishops.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. lxii. (1739), 121. Glanvil … exemplifies Sedition and destruction of the Kingdom, to be in equal degree a Wound of Majesty.
1794. G. Wakefield, Exam. Paine’s Age of Reason, 24. To exemplify their morality in contradistinction to that of the gospel.
† b. absol. To find precedents, excuse oneself by example. Obs.
1597. Daniel, Civ. Wares, I. xcvii. That our times might not have t’ exemplifie with aged staines.
6. (The current sense.) a. To illustrate by examples; to find or furnish an example or instance of. Occas. with sentence as obj.
c. 1430. Lydg., in Pol., Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 46. I exemplifye by kyndly prouidence Bewte wyll shew thow hornys be away.
1588. Fraunce (title), Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the præcepts of Logike by the practice of the common Lawe.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 214. His desire of … armes and war wherby to exemplifie his valour.
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., II. iii. 18. I will really examplify that which I say.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. vi. 22. How far they exceeded, may be exemplified from Palæphatus, in his book of fabulous narrations.
1668. Barrow, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 48. The rules I sent you concerning the hyperbola, I cannot well exemplify.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 208, ¶ 3. I have rarely exemplified my assertions by living characters.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. viii. 683. A completeness never before exemplified.
1864. Bp. of Lincoln, Charge, 8. Its Principal … has exemplified to its pupils how labor best prospers when it is the labor of love.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., ii. 31. Nor is it the earliest style of wall … exemplified in Mycenæ.
b. To be or serve as an example of.
1793. Beddoes, Math. Evid., 147. The mode of expression of children and Africans frequently exemplifies this remark.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, II. vi. (1852), 277. The roads in the Highlands exemplify the correctness of this statement.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxx. 406. The third action is exemplified by the state of the rails near a station [etc.].
1878. C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, i. 31. The principle which the ancient payment of tithes exemplified.
c. intr. To quote examples or instances by way of illustration. † To exemplify in, of: = ‘to instance in,’ i.e., to cite (something) as an instance.
1582. G. Martin, in Fulke, Def. (1843), 213. Suppose he had exemplified of the two condemned heretics, Jovinian and Vigilantius also.
1587. Harrison, England, II. v. (1877), I. 136. I could exemplifie also in manie other.
1598. R. Haydocke, trans. Lomazzo on Painting, II. 157. And thus, if I woulde inlarge my discourse, I might exemplifie in the light passing through a glasse ful of red wine.
1619. N. Brent, trans. Sarpi’s Counc. Trent (1676), 590. He exemplified in Darius, w[h]o [etc.].
1641. Bp. Hall, Misch. Faction, Rem. Wks. (1660), 66. It were to no purpose to exemplifie, where the instances are numberlesse.
7. To make an official copy of; esp. to make an attested copy of (a legal document) under an official seal.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 20 b. Any partie … may … haue a copye … exemplyfied vnder the seale of offyce of the same place.
1581. Act 23 Eliz., c. 3 § 3. Fines … shall be exemplified under the Great Seal of England.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 928. [He proposed] that their tragœdies should be exemplified and engrossed faire.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2277/4. The Laws for the preservation of the Spawn and Spatt of Oysters … were Signed and Exemplified under the Seal of the High Court of Admiralty. Ibid. (1710), No. 4735/4. Which Recovery was exemplified under the Great Seal.
1884. Roscoe’s Law of Evidence (ed. 15), 91. An exemplification produced from the proper custody and purporting to exemplify a commission from the crown is evidence though the seal has been lost.
† 8. To copy (a document); to quote in writing.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 221. The storie of King Vortigers Wassailing … I have already exemplified. Ibid. (1581), Eiren., II. iv. (1588), 149. This last Statute I have exemplified the more at large.
1629. A. Hamilton, in Ussher’s Lett. (1686), 405. If your Grace … hath a mind to exemplify, write out, or collect any thing out of any of the said Books.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 85. That Inscription … mentioned by Camden … and by him exemplified.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. ii. 58. Which because it is a Private Act, and unprinted, I exemplify it in the Appendix.
