3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

extremity

noun

1: an external body part that projects from the body; "it is important to keep the extremities warm" [syn: {appendage}, {member}]

2: an extreme condition or state (especially of adversity or disease)

3: the greatest or utmost degree; "the extremity of despair"

4: the outermost or farthest region or point

5: that part of a limb that is farthest from the torso

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Extremity \Ex*trem"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Extremities}. [L. extremitas: cf. F. extr['e]mit['e].]

1. The extreme part; the utmost limit; the farthest or remotest point or part; as, the extremities of a country.

They sent fleets . . . to the extremities of Ethiopia. --Arbuthnot.

2. (Zo["o]l.) One of locomotive appendages of an animal; a limb; a leg or an arm of man.

3. The utmost point; highest degree; most aggravated or intense form. ''The extremity of bodily pain.'' --Ray.

4. The highest degree of inconvenience, pain, or suffering; greatest need or peril; extreme need; necessity.

Divers evils and extremities that follow upon such a compulsion shall here be set in view. --Milton.

Upon mere extremity he summoned this last Parliament. --Milton.

Syn: Verge; border; extreme; end; termination.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

339 Moby Thesaurus words for "extremity": Thule, Ultima Thule, abandon, abstract, aching heart, acme, acuteness, agony, agony of mind, all, anguish, animality, apex, apogee, arch, arms, atrocity, bale, barbarity, bitter end, bitterness, bleeding heart, blind alley, bloodlust, border, border line, bottom dollar, bound, boundary, boundary condition, boundary line, boundlessness, bounds, bourn, box, break boundary, breakoff point, broken heart, brow, brutality, butt, butt end, cap, ceiling, circumscription, clear, clear away, climacteric, climax, cloud nine, clubfoot, clutch, compass, confine, convergence of events, corner, crest, crisis, critical juncture, critical point, crossroads, crown, crucial period, crunch, crushing, cul-de-sac, culmen, culmination, cutoff, cutoff point, dead end, dead-end street, deadline, deadlock, death agonies, death groan, death rattle, death struggle, death throes, deathbed, deathwatch, delimitation, deliver, depression, depth of misery, desolation, despair, destructiveness, detach, determinant, difference, differentiate, digit, disburden, discern, discriminate, disembarrass, disembroil, disencumber, disengage, disentangle, disinvolve, distinguish, division line, dog, dying breath, edge, egregiousness, emergency, end, enormousness, exaggeration, excess, excessiveness, exigency, exorbitance, exorbitancy, extravagance, extravagancy, extreme, extreme limit, extremes, extremism, extremities, extricate, fabulousness, fag end, farthest bound, feet, ferociousness, fetlock, fierceness, final extremity, fingers, finish, floor, foot, force, forefoot, forepaw, free, frontier, furiousness, giantism, gigantism, gluttony, grief, halt, hands, harefoot, harshness, heartache, heaven, heavens, heavy heart, hedge, heel, height, high noon, high-water mark, highest degree, highest pitch, highest point, hinge, hole, hoof, hyperbole, hypertrophy, immoderacy, immoderateness, immoderation, impasse, impetuosity, inclemency, incontinence, infelicity, inhumanity, inordinacy, inordinance, inordinateness, instep, intemperance, intemperateness, intensity, interface, jumping-off place, last agony, last breath, last gasp, legs, liberate, limbs, limen, limit, limitation, limiting factor, limits, line, line of demarcation, low-water mark, lower limit, malignity, march, margin, mark, maximum, melancholia, melancholy, mercilessness, meridian, mete, mindlessness, misery, monstrousness, moribundity, mountaintop, murderousness, ne plus ultra, nib, nimiety, no place higher, noon, nth degree, outrageousness, overdevelopment, overgreatness, overgrowth, overindulgence, overlargeness, overmuch, overmuchness, pad, pass, pastern, patte, paw, peak, pedal extremity, pedes, periphery, pes, pied, pinch, pinnacle, pitch, pitilessness, point, pole, prostration, pug, push, radicalism, release, rescue, resolve, ridge, rigor, roughness, rub, sadness, savagery, separate, seventh heaven, sever, severalize, severity, sharpness, sky, sole, spire, splayfoot, stalemate, stand, standstill, start, starting line, starting point, stop, strait, stub, stump, suicidal despair, summit, tag, tag end, tail, tail end, target date, term, terminal date, termination, terminus, terrorism, the whole, threshold, throes of death, time allotment, tip, tip-top, toe, toes, too much, too-muchness, tootsy, top, trotter, trotters, turn, turning point, unconscionableness, undueness, ungentleness, ungula, unravel, unreasonableness, unrestrainedness, unscramble, untangle, untie, untwine, upmost, upper extremity, upper limit, uppermost, utmost, utmost extent, uttermost, vandalism, vehemence, venom, vertex, very top, viciousness, violence, virulence, wings, woe, wretchedness, zenith

  Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information.