Bible Dictionaries
Voluntary

King James Dictionary

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Voluntarily

Next Entry
Vomit

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

Additional Links

Dictionaries
King James Dictionary
• Voluntary
Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Voluntary
Webster Dictionary
• Voluntaries
• Voluntariness
• Voluntary
Encyclopedias
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
• Voluntary
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Poverty, Voluntary
• Voluntary
• Voluntary Associations
•   (only first 3 shown)
The Catholic Encyclopedia
• Right of Voluntary Association
• Voluntary
Lexicons
• נְדָבָה

VOL'UNTARY, a. L. voluntarius, from voluntas, will, from volo.

1. Acting by choice or spontaneously acting without being influenced or impelled by another.

2. Free, or having power to act by choice not being under restraint as, man is a voluntary agent.

3. Proceeding from choice or free will.

That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action, is the true principle of orthodoxy.

4. Willing acting with willingness.

She fell to lust a voluntary prey.

5. Done by design purposed intended. If a man kills another by lopping a tree, here is no voluntary murder.

6. Done freely, or of choice proceeding from free will. He went into voluntary exile. He made a voluntary surrender.

7. Acting of his own accord spontaneous as the voluntary dictates of knowledge.

8. Subject to the will as the voluntary motions of an animal. Thus the motion of a leg or an arm is voluntary, but the motion of the heart is involuntary.

A voluntary escape, in law, is the escape of a prisoner by the express consent of the sheriff.

Voluntary jurisdiction, is that which is exercised in doing that which no one opposes as in granting dispensations, &c.

Voluntary affidavit or oath, is one made in an extra-judicial matter.

Voluntary waste, is that which is committed by positive acts.

VOL'UNTARY, n.

1. One who engages in any affair of his own free will a volunteer. In this sense, volunteer is now generally used.

2. In music, a piece played by a musician extemporarily, according to his fancy. In the Philosophical Transactions, we have a method of writing voluntaries, as fast as the musician plays the notes. This is by a cylinder turning under the keys of the organ.

3. A composition for the organ.