memory

MEM'ORY, noun [Latin memoria; Gr. to remember, from mind, or the same root. See Mind.] 1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of past events, or ideas which are past. A distinction is made between memory and recollection. memory retains past ideas without any, or with little effort; recollection implies an effort to recall ideas that are past. Memory is the purveyor of reason. 2. A retaining of past ideas in the mind; remembrance. Events that excite little attention are apt to escape from memory 3. Exemption from oblivion. That ever-living man of memory Henry the fifth. 4. The time within which past events can be remembered or recollected, or the time within which a person may have knowledge of what is past. The revolution in England was before my memory; the revolution in America was within the author's memory 5. Memorial; monumental record; that which calls to remembrance. A monument in London was erected in memory of the conflagration in 1666. 6. Reflection; attention. MEM'ORY, verb transitive To lay up in the mind or memory [Not used.]