interposition


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in·ter·pose

 (ĭn′tər-pōz′)
v. in·ter·posed, in·ter·pos·ing, in·ter·pos·es
v.tr.
1.
a. To insert or introduce between parts: The ice interposes a barrier between the harbor and the islands.
b. To place (oneself) between others or things.
2. To introduce or interject (a comment, for example) during discourse or a conversation. See Synonyms at introduce.
3. To exert (influence or authority) in order to interfere or intervene: interpose one's veto.
v.intr.
1. To come between things; assume an intervening position.
2. To come between the parties in a dispute; intervene.
3. To insert a remark, question, or argument.

[French, from Old French interposer, to intervene, alteration (influenced by poser, to put, place) of Latin interpōnere, to put between : inter-, inter- + pōnere, to put; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]

in′ter·pos′al n.
in′ter·pos′er n.
in′ter·po·si′tion (-pə-zĭsh′ən) n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

interposition

(ˌɪntəpəˈzɪʃən)
n
1. something interposed
2. the act of interposing or the state of being interposed
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•ter•po•si•tion

(ˌɪn tər pəˈzɪʃ ən)

n.
1. the act of interposing or the state of being interposed.
2. something interposed.
3. the doctrine that an individual state of the U.S. may oppose any federal action it believes encroaches on its sovereignty.
[1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin interpositiō=interposi-, variant s. of interpōnere to place between]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.interposition - the action of interjecting or interposing an action or remark that interrupts
disruption, interruption, gap, break - an act of delaying or interrupting the continuity; "it was presented without commercial breaks"; "there was a gap in his account"
2.interposition - the act or fact of interposing one thing between or among others
locating, positioning, emplacement, location, placement, position - the act of putting something in a certain place
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
Nothing but a signal interposition of Providence could have preserved us from being bitten by them, or perishing either by weariness or thirst, for sometimes we were a long time without water, and had nothing to support our strength in this fatigue but a little honey, and a small piece of cows' flesh dried in the sun.
At Athens too the disposition of the citizens is not the same, for those who live in the Piraeus are more attached to a popular government than those who live in the city properly so called; for as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches, and so on in order, one cause having more influence than another; one of which that I last mentioned.
I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotisti- cal, in regarding this event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor.
I walked awhile among the rocks: the sky was perfectly clear, and the sun so hot, that I was forced to turn my face from it: when all on a sudden it became obscure, as I thought, in a manner very different from what happens by the interposition of a cloud.
If the interposition of the State legislatures be necessary to give effect to a measure of the Union, they have only NOT TO ACT, or TO ACT EVASIVELY, and the measure is defeated.
What strikes one in it is that it is a phenomenon to the best of my knowledge--and you know what my knowledge is--unprecedented and unique in the history of mankind; the arrival of a nation at an ultimate stage of evolution without having passed through the mediate one; the passage of the fruit, in other words, from crudity to rottenness, without the interposition of a period of useful (and ornamental) ripeness.
At this point of his career Jo seemed to be getting a long way from the condition of orphanage; the interposition of a multitude of parents between himself and that woeful state promised him a long immunity from its disadvantages.
As Mr Allworthy, therefore, had declared to the doctor that he never intended to take a second wife, as his sister was his nearest relation, and as the doctor had fished out that his intentions were to make any child of hers his heir, which indeed the law, without his interposition, would have done for him; the doctor and his brother thought it an act of benevolence to give being to a human creature, who would be so plentifully provided with the most essential means of happiness.
Or if there be a man whose propensity to condemn is susceptible of no control, let me then ask what sentence he has in reserve for the twelve States who USURPED THE POWER of sending deputies to the convention, a body utterly unknown to their constitutions; for Congress, who recommended the appointment of this body, equally unknown to the Confederation; and for the State of New York, in particular, which first urged and then complied with this unauthorized interposition?
At this time there was an interposition by the savage-minded lieutenant, who was obliged to vent some of his inward dissatisfaction upon his men.
Susan tried to be useful, where she could only have gone away and cried; and that Susan was useful she could perceive; that things, bad as they were, would have been worse but for such interposition, and that both her mother and Betsey were restrained from some excesses of very offensive indulgence and vulgarity.
"All I know of Miss Jethro is that, but for her interposition, my brother might have fallen into the hands of the police.