"Write it then, quickly," replied Bede; and summoning all his
spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out, he
indited it, and expired.
Fuller.
8. One who is vivacious or lively; one who evinces great activity or
peculiar characteristics of mind or temper; as, a ruling spirit; a
schismatic spirit.
Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my
judges.
Dryden.
9. Temper or disposition of mind; mental condition or disposition;
intellectual or moral state; -- often in the plural; as, to be
cheerful, or in good spirits; to be downhearted, or in bad spirits.
God has . . . made a spirit of building succeed a spirit of pulling
down.
South.
A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the same spirit
that its author writ.
Pope.
10. Intent; real meaning; -- opposed to the letter, or to formal
statement; also, characteristic quality, especially such as is derived
from the individual genius or the personal character; as, the spirit of
an enterprise, of a document, or the like.
11. Tenuous, volatile, airy, or vapory substance, possessed of active
qualities.
All bodies have spirits . . . within them.
Bacon.
12. Any liquid produced by distillation; especially, alcohol, the
spirits, or spirit, of wine (it having been first distilled from wine):
-- often in the plural.
13. pl. Rum, whisky, brandy, gin, and other distilled liquors having
much alcohol, in distinction from wine and malt liquors.
14. (Med.) A solution in alcohol of a volatile principle. Cf. Tincture.
U. S. Disp.
15. (Alchemy) Any one of the four substances, sulphur, sal ammoniac,
quicksilver, or arsenic (or, according to some, orpiment).
The four spirits and the bodies seven.
Chaucer.