v. [f. CONTRA- 1 + DISTINGUISH.] trans. To distinguish (two things, or one thing from another) by contrasting or opposing their differences.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., II. § 1. 84. Soon after, the very terms were contra-distinguished, both by the substance of their charge, and by the property of their Titles.
1673. Marvell, Reh. Transp., II. 230. Whensoever those come to be contradistinguished, not man but God is to be obey’d.
1824. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 410. We do not know exactly when the common law and statute law began to be contra-distinguished.
1825. Coleridge, Aids Refl. (1848), I. 165. Doctrines … not only essential to the Christian religion, but … which contra-distinguish the religion as Christian.
b. with from, also to (now unusual); † against.
1622. Bp. Hall, Serm., Wks. 1837, V. 127. The reasonable part of the soul … being contradistinguished to the sensitive. Ibid. (1640), Episc., III. § 1. 220. He is faine to contradistinguish them from teaching Elders.
1656. [? J. Sergeant], trans. T. White’s Peripat. Inst., 193. Substance, as ’tis contradistinguish’t against Quantity.
1705. Berkeley, Commpl. Bk., Wks. IV. 438. In revealed Theology, as contradistinguish’d from natural.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. v. 187. Instinct, as contradistinguished to the higher faculties of the intellect.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 2. The development which contradistinguishes the Hellene from the barbarian.
Hence Contradistinguished ppl. a. = CONTRADISTINCT; Contradistinguishing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1636. Abp. J. Williams, Holy Table (1637), 103. These foure contradistinguished Tenets or Positions.
1642. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 21 June, D iv. Two several contradistinguished functions.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 149. Poetry of the highest kind may exist without metre, and even without the contradistinguishing objects of a poem.
1875. Poste, Gaius, II. (ed. 2), 160. Gaius … wishes us … to make Obligation … and even some forms of Dominion, members of the contra-distinguished branch, res incorporalis.
