nature

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The material world and its phenomena.
• noun The forces and processes that produce and control these phenomena.
• noun The world of living things and the outdoors.
• noun A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or social constraints.
• noun The basic character or qualities of humanity.
• noun The fundamental character or disposition of a person; temperament: synonym: disposition.
• noun The set of inherent characteristics or properties that distinguish something.
• noun A kind or sort.
• noun The processes and functions of the body, as in healing.
• noun Heredity.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To endow with distinctive natural qualities.
• noun Birth; origin; parentage; original stock.
• noun The forces or processes of the material world, conceived of as an agency intermediate between the Creator and the world, producing all organisms and preserving the regular order of things: as, in the old dictum, “nature abhors a vacuum.” In this sense nature is often persouified.
• noun The metaphysical principle of life; the power of growth; that which causes organisms to develop each in its predeterminate way.
• noun Cel. Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune. … Those that she makes fair she scarce mates honest, and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-favouredly.
• noun . Cause; occasion; that which produces anything.
• noun The material and spiritual universe, as distinguished from the Creator; the system of things of whieh man forms a part; creation, especially that part of it which more immediately surrounds man and affects his senses, as mountains, seas, rivers, woods, etc.: as, the beauties of nature; in a restricted sense, whatever is produced without artificial aid, and exists unchanged by man, and is thus opposed to art.
• noun Hence That which is conformed to nature or to truth and reality, as distinguished from that which is artificial, forced, conventional, or remote from actual experience; naturalness.
• noun Inherent constitution, property, or quality: essential character, quality, or kind; the qualities or attributes whieh constitute a being or thing what it is, and distinguish it from all others; also, kind; sort; species; category: as, the nature of the soul; the divine nature; it is the nature of fire to burn; the compensation was in the nature of a fee.
• noun An original, wild, undomesticated condition, as of an animal or a plant; also, the primitive condition of man antecedent to institutions, especially to political institutions: as, to live in a state of nature.
• noun The primitive aboriginal instincts, qualities, and tendencies common to mankind of all races and in all ages, as unchanged or uninfluenced by civilization; especially, the instinctive or spontaneous sense of justice, benevolence, affection, self-preservation, love of show, etc., common to mankind; naturalness of thought, feeling, or action; humanity.
• noun The physical or moral constitution of man; physical or moral being; the personality.
• noun Inborn or innate character, disposition, or inclination; inherent bent or disposition; individual constitution or temperament; inbred or natural endowments, as opposed to acquired; hence, by metonymy, a person so endowed: as, we instinctively look up to a superior nature.
• noun The vital powers of man; vitality; vital force; life; also, natural course of life; lifetime.
• noun In theology, the natural unregenerate state of the soul; moral character in its original condition, unaffected by grace.
• noun Conscience.
• noun Spontaneity. abandon; felicity; truth; naturalness.
• noun Kindly disposition: a natural disposition such that one does not readily take or give offense; an easy, indulgent spirit.
• noun In theology, in a state of sin; unregencrated.
• noun The regular course of human life.
• noun See law, 3
• Natural; growing spontaneously: as, nature grass; nature hay.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb obsolete To endow with natural qualities.
• noun The existing system of things; the universe of matter, energy, time and space; the physical world; all of creation. Contrasted with the world of mankind, with its mental and social phenomena.
• noun The personified sum and order of causes and effects; the powers which produce existing phenomena, whether in the total or in detail; the agencies which carry on the processes of creation or of being; -- often conceived of as a single and separate entity, embodying the total of all finite agencies and forces as disconnected from a creating or ordering intelligence.
• noun The established or regular course of things; usual order of events; connection of cause and effect.
• noun Conformity to that which is natural, as distinguished from that which is artificial, or forced, or remote from actual experience.
• noun The sum of qualities and attributes which make a person or thing what it is, as distinct from others; native character; inherent or essential qualities or attributes; peculiar constitution or quality of being.
• noun Kind, sort; character; quality.
• noun Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life.
• noun Natural affection or reverence.
• noun Constitution or quality of mind or character.
• noun see under Good and Ill.
• noun Untamed; uncivilized.
• noun a process of printing from metallic or other plates which have received an impression, as by heavy pressure, of an object such as a leaf, lace, or the like.
• noun the worship of the personified powers of nature.
• noun to die.