n. [ L. modus a measure, due or proper measure, bound, manner, form; akin to E. mete: cf. F. mode. See Mete, and cf. Commodious, Mood in grammar, Modus. ] 1. Manner of doing or being; method; form; fashion; custom; way; style; as, the mode of speaking; the mode of dressing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The duty of itself being resolved on, the mode of doing it may easily be found. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

A table richly spread in regal mode. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the phrase the mode. [ 1913 Webster ]

The easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Variety; gradation; degree. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Metaph.) Any combination of qualities or relations, considered apart from the substance to which they belong, and treated as entities; more generally, condition, or state of being; manner or form of arrangement or manifestation; form, as opposed to matter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Modes I call such complex ideas, which, however compounded, contain not in them the supposition of subsisting by themselves, but are considered as dependencies on, or affections of, substances. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Logic) The form in which the proposition connects the predicate and subject, whether by simple, contingent, or necessary assertion; the form of the syllogism, as determined by the quantity and quality of the constituent proposition; mood. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Gram.) Same as Mood. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Mus.) The scale as affected by the various positions in it of the minor intervals; as, the Dorian mode, the Ionic mode, etc., of ancient Greek music. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In modern music, only the major and the minor mode, of whatever key, are recognized. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A kind of silk. See Alamode, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Gram.) the value of the variable in a frequency distribution or probability distribution, at which the probability or frequency has a maximum. The maximum may be local or global. Distributions with only one such maximum are called unimodal; with two maxima, bimodal, and with more than two, multimodal. [ PJC ]

Syn. -- Method; manner. See Method. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

a. Suitable to be taken as a model or pattern; as, a model house; a model husband. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. (Fine Arts) To make a copy or a pattern; to design or imitate forms; as, to model in wax. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Modeled r Modelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Modeling or Modelling. ] [ Cf. F. modeler, It. modellare. ] To plan or form after a pattern; to form in model; to form a model or pattern for; to shape; to mold; to fashion; as, to model a house or a government; to model an edifice according to the plan delineated. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. modèle, It. modello, fr. (assumed) L. modellus, fr. modulus a small measure, dim. of modus. See Mode, and cf. Module. ] 1. A miniature representation of a thing, with the several parts in due proportion; sometimes, a facsimile of the same size; as, a 1/100 scale model of the B-52 bomber. [ 1913 Webster ]

In charts, in maps, and eke in models made. Gascoigne. [ 1913 Webster ]

I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the model of that Danish seal. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

You have the models of several ancient temples, though the temples and the gods are perished. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something intended to serve, or that may serve, as a pattern of something to be made; a material representation or embodiment of an ideal; sometimes, a drawing; a plan; as, the clay model of a sculpture; the inventor's model of a machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ The application for a patent ] must be accompanied by a full description of the invention, with drawings and a model where the case admits of it. Am. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

When we mean to build
We first survey the plot, then draw the model. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Anything which serves, or may serve, as an example for imitation; as, a government formed on the model of the American constitution; a model of eloquence, virtue, or behavior. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. That by which a thing is to be measured; standard. [ 1913 Webster ]

He that despairs measures Providence by his own little, contracted model. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Any copy, or resemblance, more or less exact. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A person who poses as a pattern for an artist; as, the artist used his daughter as a model for an Indian maiden. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

7. A person who is employed to wear clothing for the purpose of advertising or display, or who poses with a product for the same purpose; a mannequin{ 1 }; as, a fashion model.
Syn. -- mannequin{ 1 }. [ PJC ]

A professional model. H. James. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A particular version or design of an object that is made in multiple versions; as, the 1993 model of the Honda Accord; the latest model of the HP laserjet printer. For many manufactured products, the model name is encoded as part of the
model number.
Syn. -- modification{ 2 }. [ PJC ]

9. An abstract and often simplified conceptual representation of the workings of a system of objects in the real world, which often includes mathematical or logical objects and relations representing the objects and relations in the real-world system, and constructed for the purpose of explaining the workings of the system or predicting its behavior under hypothetical conditions; as, the administration's model of the United States economy predicts budget surpluses for the next fifteen years; different models of the universe assume different values for the cosmological constant; models of proton structure have grown progressively more complex in the past century. [ PJC ]

Working model, a model of a machine which can do on a small scale the work which the machine itself does, or is expected to do. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. resembling sculpture; as, her finely modeled features.
Syn. -- sculptural, sculptured, sculpturesque. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who models; hence, a worker in plastic art. [ Written also modeller. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Fine Arts) The act or art of making a model from which a work of art is to be executed; the formation of a work of art from some plastic material. Also, in painting, drawing, etc., the expression or indication of solid form. [ Written also modelling. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Modeling plane, a small plane for planing rounded objects. --
Modeling wax, beeswax melted with a little Venice turpentine, or other resinous material, and tinted with coloring matter, usually red, -- used in modeling. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To model. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ by shortening from modulator-demodulator. ] An electronic device that converts electronic signals into sound waves, and sound waves into electronic signals, used to transmit information between computers by the use of ordinary telephone lines; also called modulator-demodulator; as, the latest modems can transmit data at 56, 000 baud over a clear telephone line. The speed of transmission of information by a modem is usually measured in units of baud, equivalent to bits per second. [ PJC ]