Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, a. [L. materialis, fr. materia stuff,
   matter: cf. F. mat['e]riel. See Matter, and cf.
   Mat['e]riel.]
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   1. Consisting of matter; not spiritual; corporeal; physical;
      as, material substance or bodies.
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            The material elements of the universe. --Whewell.
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   2. Hence: Pertaining to, or affecting, the physical nature of
      man, as distinguished from the mental or moral nature;
      relating to the bodily wants, interests, and comforts; as,
      material well-being; material comforts.
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   3. Of solid or weighty character; not insubstantial; of
      consequence; not be dispensed with; important;
      significant.
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            Discourse, which was always material, never
            trifling.                             --Evelyn.
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            I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down
            only such as are most material to our present
            purpose.                              --Locke.
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   4. (Logic.) Pertaining to the matter, as opposed to the form,
      of a thing. See Matter.
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   Material cause. See under Cause.

   Material evidence (Law), evidence which conduces to the
      proof or disproof of a relevant hypothesis. --Wharton.
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   Syn: Corporeal; bodily; important; weighty; momentous;
        essential.
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	Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, v. t.
   To form from matter; to materialize. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
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	Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, n.
   The substance or matter of which anything is made or may be
   made.
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   Raw material, any crude, unfinished, or elementary
      materials that are adapted to use only by processes of
      skilled labor. Cotton, wool, ore, logs, etc., are raw
      material.
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	384 Moby Thesaurus words for "material":
   Adamic, Circean, Formica, Masonite, Philistine, a propos, ab ovo,
   absolute, abundance, accumulation, actual, ad rem, adducible,
   admissible, air, amassment, animal, animalistic, apparatus,
   appertaining, applicable, applying, apposite, appreciable,
   appropriate, apropos, asphalt, atom, atomic particles, atoms,
   attestative, attestive, authentic, backlog, ballpoint pen, basal,
   based on, basic, beastlike, beastly, bedrock, being, belonging,
   bestial, bibliography, big, big-league, big-name, big-time, bigwig,
   bigwigged, blackboard, blacktop, bodily, body of knowledge,
   body of learning, brick, brutal, brute, brute matter, brutish,
   budget, building block, canvas, cardinal, carnal, carnal-minded,
   carpeting, central, certain, chalk, chemical element,
   circumstantial, clapboard, cloth, coarse, cobblestone, collection,
   commissariat, commissary, component, components, conclusive,
   concrete, consequential, considerable, constituent, constituents,
   constitutive, convincing, core, cork tile, cornucopia, corporal,
   corporeal, crayon, cumulation, cumulative, cyclopedia, damning,
   data, decisive, determinative, distillate, distillation,
   documentary, documentation, documented, documents, double-barreled,
   drapery, dump, earth, earthly, earthshaking, earthy, element,
   elemental, elementary, elementary particle, elementary unit,
   elements, elixir, encyclopedia, entity, equipment, eraser, essence,
   essential, etoffe, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte, eye-witness,
   fabric, facts, factual, fallen, felt, fiber glass, figures, final,
   fire, firsthand, flag, flagging, flagstone, fleshly, flooring,
   focal, founded on, fundamental, fundamental particle, gear,
   germane, gist, goods, grand, great, gross, grounded on, gut,
   habiliments, heap, hearsay, heart, heavyweight, high-powered,
   hoard, hyle, hylic, hypostasis, implicit, important, in point,
   incontrovertible, indicative, indispensable, indisputable,
   individual, information, ingredient, ink, inkhorn, inkstand,
   inkwell, inventory, invisible ink, involving, irrefutable,
   irresistible, kernel, lace, lapsed, larder, lay, lead pencil,
   life-and-death, life-or-death, linoleum, literature, lore, macadam,
   machinery, major, marrow, mass, material world, materialistic,
   materiality, materials, materiate, materiel, matter, meaningful,
   means, meat, medium, molecule, momentous, monad, mundane,
   munitions, name, napery, natural world, nature, nib, nonspiritual,
   notes, nub, nuncupative, object, objective, of the essence,
   of vital importance, orgiastic, original, outfit, overwhelming,
   palpable, pantile, paper, papers, paraphernalia, parquet, pavement,
   pavestone, paving, pen, perceptible, pertaining, pertinent,
   phenomenal, physical, physical world, pile, pith, plasterboard,
   plenitude, plenty, plenum, plume, plywood, ponderable,
   postlapsarian, presumptive, primal, primary, primitive, probative,
   provisionment, provisions, publications, quill, quintessence,
   radical, rag, rations, real, reed, relevant, reliable, repertoire,
   repertory, research, resources, rick, roofage, roofing,
   roofing paper, sap, secular, self-important, sensible, sensual,
   serious, shake, sheathing board, sheeting, shingle, siding,
   significant, silk, slate, solid, somatic, soul, spirit, spun glass,
   stack, statistics, stencil, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile,
   stone, store, store of knowledge, stores, stuff, style, stylograph,
   stylus, substance, substantial, substantive, substratum,
   suggestive, sum and substance, superior, supplies, supply on hand,
   sure, swinish, sympathetic ink, symptomatic, system of knowledge,
   table, tablet, tackle, tackling, tangible, tar paper, telling,
   temporal, terrestrial, textile, textile fabric, texture, thatch,
   the four elements, tile, tilestone, tiling, tissu, tissue,
   to the point, to the purpose, treasure, treasury,
   treasury of information, true, underlying, unit of being,
   unspiritual, valid, veneer, vital, wainscoting, wallboard, walling,
   wallpaper, water, weatherboard, weave, web, weft, weighty, wood,
   woof, wool, world-shaking, worldly

	

	MATERIALS. Everything of which anything is made.
     2. When materials are furnished to a workman he is bound to use them 
according to his contract, as a tailor is bound to employ the cloth I 
furnish him with, to make me a coat that shall fit me, for if he so make it 
that I cannot wear it, it is not a proper employment of the materials. But 
if the undertaker use ordinary skill and care, he will not be responsible, 
although the materials may be injured; as, if a gem be delivered to a 
jeweler, and it is broken without any unskillfulness, negligence or rashness 
of the artisan, he will not be liable. Poth. Louage, n. 428. 
     3. The workman is to use ordinary diligence in the care of the 
materials entrusted with him, or to exercise that caution which a prudent 
man takes of his own affairs, and he is also bound to preserve them from any 
unexpected danger to which they may be exposed. 1 Gow. R. 30; 1 Camp. 138. 
     4. When there is no special contract between the parties, and the 
materials perish while in the possession of the workman or undertaker, 
without his default, either by inevitable casualty, by internal defect, by 
superior force, by robbery or by any peril not guarded against by ordinary 
diligence, he is not responsible. This is the case only when the material 
belongs to the employer and the workman only undertakes to put his work upon 
it. But a distinction must be observed in the case when the employer has 
engaged a workman to make him an article out of his own materials, for in 
that case the employer has no property in it, until the work be completed, 
and the article be delivered to him; if, in the mean time, the thing 
perishes, it is the loss of the workman, who is wholly its owner, according 
to the maxim res perit domino. In the former case the employer is the owner; 
in the latter the workman; in the first case it is a bailment, in the second 
a sale of the thing in futuro. Domat. B. 1, t. 4, Sec. 7, n. 3; Id. B. 1, t. 
4, Sec. 8, n. 10. 
     5. Another distinction must be made in the case when the thing given by 
the employer was to become the property of the workman, and an article was 
to be made out of similar materials, and before its completion it perished. 
In this case the title to the thing having passed to the workman, the loss 
must be his. 1 Blackf. 353; 7 Cowen, 752, 756, note; 21 Wend. 85; 3 Mason, 
478; Dig. 19, 2, 31; 1 Bouv. Inst. 1006-7. 
     6. In some of the states by their laws persons who furnish materials 
for the construction of a building, have a lien against such building for 
the payment of the value of such materials. See Lien of Mechanics. 
	

	MATERIAL, adj.  Having an actual existence, as distinguished from an
imaginary one.  Important.

    Material things I know, or fell, or see;
    All else is immaterial to me.
                                                      Jamrach Holobom