[ad. L. concīsiōn-em cutting up, n. of action f. concīdĕre to cut up. With sense 3 cf. precision.]

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  1.  The action of cutting to pieces or cutting away: mutilation.

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1382.  Wyclif, Joel iii. 14. Peplis in the valley of concisioun, or sleaynge to gydre.

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1609.  Bible (Douay), ibid. The day of our Lord is nigh in the valley of concision.

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1611.  Bible, ibid., marg.

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1668.  Elborowe, Ep. Polycarp & Ign., 78. The violence of beasts, scattering of bones, concision or chewing of members.

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1805.  G. S. Faber, Dissert. Proph. (1806), I. 51. Then will the wine-press of God’s wrath begin to be trodden in the valley of concision.

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  2.  In Phil. iii. 2. (from the Geneva version of 1557 onward) it translates Gr. κατατομή ‘cutting off, cutting up,’ used there instead of περιτομή ‘circumcision,’ and applied contemptuously to the Judaizing Christians.

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1557.  N. T. (Genev.), Phil. iii. 2. Beware of the concision [so Rhem., 1611 and 1881: Gr. Βλέπετε τὴν κατατομήν, Vulg. videte concisionem, Wycl. dyuysioun; Tindale, Cranmer dissencion].

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1607.  Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. i. 45. Peter preached against the abuse of the Iewish ceremonies, to which the Concision turned them.

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1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 10. (1619), 219. So of such Christians as turn Iewes againe; beware of the concision, and betake vs to the circumcision.

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1879.  Farrar, St. Paul, II. 432, note. Concision means circumcision regarded as a mere mutilation.

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  † b.  Hence, a rending or division (of the church); a schism. Obs.

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1557.  N. T. (Genev.), Phil. iii. 2, note. The false apostles gloried in their Circumcision, wher vnto S. Paul here alludeth, calling them concision, which is cutting of and tearing asunder of the Churche.

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1642.  Answ. Observ. agst. King, 16. Whether this observer hath decided any thing who hath promoted the concision.

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a. 1716.  South, Serm., III. Ep. Ded. (R.). Those of the concision who made it [the division] would do well to consider … the likeliest way to settle and support a church.

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  3.  = CONCISENESS. [so F. concision.]

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[Not in Johnson or Todd, 1755–1818.]

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1774.  W. Hooper, Rational Recreat. (1794), I. Advt. 2. The whole … will … be delivered with more perspicuity and concision.

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1824.  Byron, Juan, XV. xxii.

        No doubt, if I had wish’d to pay my court
  To critics, or to hail the setting sun
Of tyranny of all kinds, my concision
Were more.

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1865.  Lewes, in Fortn. Rev., II. 692. Concision gives energy, but it also adds restraint.

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1882.  Morley, Cobden, II. vi. 101. Lord John Russell described the state of things with characteristic concision.

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