tradition

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation,…

   A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays.

   • After breakfast, Charles Macdoodle told Lady Mary that it was a tradition in the family that those rumbling carriages on the terrace betokened death.
   • Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, "tradition" should positively be discouraged.
   • Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity.
2. 2

   A commonly held system.

   • They followed the tradition of lighting candles for special occasions.
3. 3

   An established or distinctive style or method

   • Following tradition, the victorious athlete runs a lap around the track.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      The act of delivering into the hands of another

      The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery.

      • A deed takes effect only from this tradition or delivery; for, if the date be false or impossible, the delivery ascertains the time of it.
   2. 5

      The entirety of a text's transmission

      The entirety of a text's transmission; all the versions of a work.

   3. 6

      To transmit by way of tradition

      To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down.

      • The following story is […] traditioned with very much credit amongst our English Catholics.

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