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Institute

1. The act of instituting; institution. Water sanctified by Christ's institute.

2. That which is instituted, established, or fixed, as a law, habit, or custom.

3. Hence: An elementary and necessary principle; a precept, maxim, or rule, recognised as established and authoritative; usually in the plural, a collection of such principles and precepts; especially, a comprehensive summary of legal principles and decisions; as, the institutes of Justinian; Coke's institutes of the laws of England. Cf. Digest, They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy. (Burke) To make the stoics institutes thy own. (Dryden)

4. An institution; a society established for the promotion of learning, art, science, etc.; a college; as, the institute of Technology; also, a building owned or occupied by such an institute; as, the Cooper institute.

5. The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation. Institutes of medicine, theoretical medicine; that department of medical science which attempts to account philosophically for the various phenomena of health as well as of disease; physiology applied to the practice of medicine.

Origin: L. Institutum: cf. F. Institut. See institute, &.