A. adj. (Opposed to internal.)
1. Situated or lying outside; pertaining to, or connected with, the outside or outer portion of anything. External angle: one made by producing outwardly a side of a figure. External contact: (see quot. 1867).
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. v. 3. Her vertues graced with externall gifts. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 349. If they had swallow’d poyson, ’twould appeare By externall swelling.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. vii. 163. Externall I call those parts which are without the Spheare it selfe.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), External angles.
1796. Hutton, Math. Dict., s.v. Angle, The external angle of a triangle is equal to both the internal opposite ones taken together.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 227. Having those organs free on the external edge.
1840. Lardner, Geom., 83. All the external angles of the polygon must also be equal to four right angles.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M., 335. The External or Cellular coat is dense and resisting.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., External contact. In a transit of Mercury or Venus over the sun’s disc, this expression means the first touch of the planet’s and sun’s edges, before any part of the former is projected on the disc of the luminary.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 58. External Glands may be … divided into stalked … or not stalked.
b. Anat. Of veins, nerves, etc.: Lying towards the outer surface of the body.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 489. External descending branches … are four or five in number … furnishing to the same parts an equal quantity of twigs.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M., 342. The External Jugular Vein. Ibid., 418. The External Cutaneous Nerve.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 389. The external meatus.
c. Of remedies, treatment, etc.: Outward, applied to the exterior of the body.
1706. in Phillips (ed. Kersey), External Digestives are such as ripen a Swelling or breed good and laudable Matter in a Wound, and prepare it for Mundification or cleansing.
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 300. He recommends external warmth … but not internal stimulants.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 87. This man hath cured me by an external process.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys., 72. The application of external heat.
2. Pertaining to the outward or bodily form as opposed to the inner nature or spirit; outwardly visible or perceptible; consisting in outward acts or appearances.
1556. Calvin’s Bk. Com. Prayer, in Phenix (1708), II. 233. The external Face of the same is polluted.
1564. Brief Exam., C ij. The externall partes of the sacramentes.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. I. III. xxviii. They … Appear in thickned Aire with shape externall.
1676. Stillingfl., Def. Disc. Rom. Idol., 281 (J.). A man that commits only the external act of Idolatry, is as guilty as [etc.].
1736. Butler, Anal., II. i. Wks. 1874, I. 167. The external worship of God.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Milton, Wks. II. 142. Religion … will glide … out of the mind, unless it be invigorated … by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 120. The external qualities of this striking style.
3. Situated outside, not included within the limits of, the object under consideration. Const. to.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 571. Maids … having no externall thing to loose But the word Maid.
1801. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 84. The external air.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 359. All who were external to Christianity were doomed to eternal damnation.
1885. Leudesdorf, Cremona’s Proj. Geom., 209. F and G are both external to the conic.
† b. Situated in or belonging to foreign countries; foreign. Obs.
1577–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1805), II. 54. Singular prowesse shewed by him (in external battell).
1599. Life Sir T. More, in Wordsw., Eccl. Biog. (1853), II. 96. His externall friends were these: Budeus, a learned Frenchman; [etc.].
c. Metaph. Belonging or pertaining to the world of things or phenomena, considered as outside of the perceiving mind. External world: the totality of objects existing outside the conscious subject; the objective world; the ‘non-ego.’
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 103. All External things Which the five … senses represent.
1762. Kames, Elem. Crit. (1855), 11. Nothing external is perceived till it first makes an impression.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Milton, Wks. II. 95. The knowledge of external nature.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Metaph., 445. Our mental life is aroused anew at every moment by sensations which the external world excites.
4. Arising or acting from without, originating from something outside. External evidence: evidence derived from circumstances or considerations outside or independent of the thing discussed.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxix. 167. Not by externall violence, but intestine disorder.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, V. § 5 (1723), 255. These Shells … being … exposed … to many external Accidents are … worn, fretted, and broken to Pieces.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), p. iv. Without the Aid of external Violence.
1812–6. Playfair, Nat. Phil. (1819), I. 43. The motion of a body … must be ascribed to the action of an external cause or force.
1814. Chalmers, Evid. Chr. Revel., Advt. 5. The external testimony of Christianity … leaves infidelity without excuse.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., v. (1852), 124. The idea that the punishment of sin is solely some external evil brought upon us.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, i. (1870), 20. The external evidence to a contrary effect … is considerable.
5. Connected with, or having reference to, what is outside; having an outside object or sphere of operation. External perception: the perception of external objects, as opposed to internal perception, the perception of what takes place within the mind. So External senses.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxii. (1859), II. 43. And as this [the Acquisitive] faculty is again subdivided into two, according as it is conversant either about the phænomena of matter, or about the phænomena of mind, the non-ego or the ego, I gave precedence to the former of these,—the faculty known under the name of External Perception.
Mod. It is necessary to consider the subject in its external relations. The external affairs of the society were managed by the secretary.
b. spec. Having reference to dealings with foreign countries.
1770. Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. 1842, I. 139. The persons now in the external administration.
1891. Law Reports, Weekly Notes, 138/2. The external debt of the Republic of Chili.
B. sb.
1. sing. The outside; the exterior.
1792. Munchausen’s Trav., xxii. 95. The external of the chariot.
1814. Southey, Roderick, X. 202. Deformity and hollowness beneath The rich external.
2. That which is external. In pl. a. Outward features or aspect; bodily qualifications; outward ceremonies or observances. b. Things lying outside or distinct from a person or object; external or outward circumstances or conditions; also, nonessentials.
a. a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 15. A time in which (as for externals) she was full blown.
a. 1662. Gauden, Lett. to Chas. II., 6. The externals of decent forms.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1737), I. ii. 67. Adam was … glorious in his externals; he had a beautiful body.
1751. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. i. 15. The Externals of religion.
a. 1764. Lloyd, The Puff, Wks. (1774), I. 171. Externals have the gift of striking, And lure the fancy into liking.
1853. Marsden, Early Purit., 24. An agreement in externals ought to prevail amongst all the reformed without exception.
1857. Buckle, Hist. Civiliz., I. xiv. 793. He [Condillac] found it utterly impossible to escape from those tendencies towards the external which governed his own age.
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 188. The system has all the externals, and much of the reality, of constitutional government.
b. 1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 80. Why should the Planets have such influences upon externalls, and accidentalls; that had none upon the internalls [printed intervalls], and essentialls?
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 431. Fractures … are divisions of bones, caused, by externals violently forced on them.
1676. Hale, Contempl., I. 280. Such a state of externals, as might be suitable to the exigence and nature of my condition in this life.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 66. God in Externals could not place Content.
1883. Athenæum, 10 Feb., 178/3. The concluding remarks on … the subordination of externals to essentials.
