profession (profeshon)

[ Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Religion that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profe ion . Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Third Sunday after [Easter. I hold it [christening] a good and gracious woorke, for the generall profe ion which they then take upon them of the Cro and faythe of Christ. Spenser , State of Ireland. 2. That which is profe ed; a declaration; a representation or protestation; pretense; specifically, an open and formal avowal of Christian faith and purpose. It is natural in absence to make profe ions of an inviolable constancy. Steele , Tatler, No. 104. Perhaps, though by profe ion ghostly pure, He too [the priest) may have his vice. Cowper , Task, iv. 603. What would he [Balaam] have given if words and feelings might have pa ed for deeds! See how religious he was so far as profe ion goes! J. H. Newman , Parochial Sermons, i. 169. 3. The calling or occupation which one profe es to understand and to follow; vocation; specifically, a vocation in which a profe ed knowledge of some department of science or learning is used by its practical application to affairs of others, either in advising, guiding, or teaching them, or in serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art founded on it. Formerly theology, law, and medicine were specifically known as the profe ions; but, as the applications of science and learning are extended to other departments of affairs, other vocations also receive the name. The word implies profe ed attainments in special knowledge, as distinguished from mere skill; a practical dealing with affairs, as distinguished from mere study or investigation; and an application of such knowledge to uses for others as a vocation, as distinguished from its pursuit for one's own purposes. In profe ions strictly so called a preliminary examination as to qualifications is usually demanded by law or usage, and a license or other official authority founded thereon required. In law the significance of the word has been contested under statutes imposing taxes on persons pursuing any "occupation, trade, or pro fe ion," and under statutes authorizing arrest in civil actions for misconduct in a "profe ional employment"; and it has been, in the former use, held clearly to include the vocation of an attorney, and upon the same principle would doubtle include physicians, unle the mention of trade, etc., in the same clause of the statute be ground for interpreting the statute as relating busine vocations. Profe ional employment, in statutes allowing arrest, is regarded as not including a private agency like that of a factor or a real-estate broker, which can be taken up and laid down at pleasure. Being mechanical, you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign Of your profe ion . Speak, what trade art thou? Shak ., J. C., i. 1. 5. I hold every man a debtor to his profe ion . Bacon, Maxims of the Law, Pref. New profe ions have come into existence, and the old profe ions are more esteemed. It was formerly a poor and beggarly thing to belong to any other than the three learned profe ions . W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, p. 262. 4. The collective body of persons engaged in a calling: as, practices disgraceful to the profes sion ; to be at the head of one's profe ion .-5. The act by which a novice enters into a religious order and takes its vows. In the Roman Catholic Church he or she must be at least sixteen years of age and must have completed a year of probation. He... yalt (yieldeth himself] into som me covente [con- vent]. If he there make his mansioun [abiding-place] For to abide profe ioun . Rom . of the Rose , 1. 4910. A religious or regular profe ion is "a promise freely made and lawfully accepted, whereby a person of the full age required, after the completion of a year of probation, binds him- (or her-) self to a particular religious institute approved by the Church." Rom . Cath . Dict . 6. Character; nature. And shortte to saise the profe ion Of every vyne, and wherin thai myscheve As counter it by goode disc rec i on. Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 63. =Syn. 3. Vocation, Busine , etc. See occupation. wages should be a sufficient object to her. Dickens , Edwin Drood, xxii. Monk (or nun) profe ed, one who by promise freely made and accepted has, after a year of probation, been received in and bound to a religious order. Thare come the prior of the plas, and profe ide monnkes. Morte Arthure (E. E. T, S.), 1. 4014. fe ion + -al. ] I. a. 1. Pertaining or appropriate to a profe ion or calling: as, profes sional studies; profe ional skill. With his quick profe ional eye, he [an Italian organ-boy] took note of the two faces watching him from the arched window, and, opening his instrument, began to scatter its melodies abroad. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, xi. profe or His brother, Pale from long pulpit studies, alternating between A decent and profe ional gravity And an irreverent mirthfulne . Whittier, Bridal of Penna cook, Int. 2. Engaged in a profe ion; being such by profe ion. Such marks of confidence must be very gratifying to a profe ional man. Dickens , Pickwick, lv. The economic resistance to militant action,.. leading to. fixed money payments in place of personal services, results in the growth of a revenue which serves to pay profe ional soldiers. H. Spencer , Prin. of Sociol., § 520. There has been a great upward movement of the pro fe ional cla . W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, p. 262. The modern schoolmaster should change his name, for he has become a kind of standing or profe ional parent. J. R. Seeley , Nat. Religion, p. 128. 3. Undertaken or engaged in for money or as a means of subsistence: opposed to amateur: said of sports and amusements: as, a profes sional base-ball match; a profe ional performance of a play. - Profe ional education. See edu cation, 1. II. n . 1. One who regularly pursues any profe ion or art. 2. Specifically, a person who makes his living by an art, game, or sport in which amateurs are accustomed to engage for amusement or recreation. The term thus more specifically designates profe ional musicians, actors, ballplayers, oarsmen, boxers, etc. "Try. cricket, for instance. The players generally beat the gentlemen, don't they?" "Yes; but they are profe ionals ." T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, I. xii. profe ionalism (pro-fesh'on-al-izm), n. [ profe ional + -ism .] The characteristics, ideas. or methods of profe ional persons; that which savors of a profe ional, especially when so marked as to become objectionable or offensive: specifically used of athletic sports, etc., opposed to the methods or work of amateurs. We need more manhood and le profe ionalism. H. W. Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1st ser., p. 40. Profe ionalism in cricket is divested of any obnoxious influences that may surround it in other amusements. Philadelphia Times, May 17, 1886. [