moral

adjective

1. 1

   Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude.

   moral judgments; a moral poem

   a moral obligation

   She had wandered without rule or guidance in a moral wilderness.

2. 2

   Conforming to a given standard of right behaviour.

   a moral action

3. 3

   Being sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment.

   The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

4. 4

   Capable of right and wrong action.

   a moral agent

5. 5

   Probable but not proved.

   a moral certainty

6. 6

   Positively affecting the mind, confidence, or will.

   a moral victory; moral support

noun

1. 1

   The ethical significance or practical lesson.

   The moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf is that if you repeatedly lie, people won't believe you when you tell the truth.

   We protest against the principle that the world of pure comedy is one into which no moral enters.

2. 2

   Moral practices or teachings: modes of conduct.

   a candidate with strong morals

3. 3

   A depiction of good or heroic actions.

4. 4

   obsoleteA morality play.

5. 5

   datedA moral certainty.

   "You'd better not collar anything now, because it's a moral that old Antonio would nip out behind one of those cases."

   "One thing," added George, after the peculiarities of the situation had been sufficiently admitted, "it's going to be the last time I'm mixed up in what isn't strictly on the level. If we get clear this once with anything like tidy, old girl, it'll be that little cottage with the pigs and poultry for a moral."

6. 6

   datedAn exact counterpart.

verb

1. 1

   To moralize.

Forms

plural

morals

comparative

more moral

superlative

most moral

past tense

moraled, moralled

past participle

moraled, moralled

present participle

moraling, moralling

third person singular

morals