condition

condition n 1 Condition, stipulation, terms, provision, proviso, reservation, strings are comparable when meaning something that is established or is regarded as the prerequisite of a promise or agreement being fulfilled or taking effect.

Condition implies the laying down of something as a prerequisite which must be observed or satisfied if the validity of the whole agreement, promise, dispensation, or gift is not to be destroyed

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he was to go to Oxford or Cambridge ... if he succeeded in gaining a scholarship

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That was the condition his father had laid down— Archibald Marshall

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though they regarded the diplomatic service as a preserve for their younger sons, they attached to it the condition that no youth should be eligible for it without a private income of four hundred a year— Shaw

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just had to keep writing—writing was a profession, a way of life, a condition of his survival— Anderson

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Stipulation differs from condition chiefly in implying a formal, explicit, and often written statement (as a contract) binding a party thereto to a specified course

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he made the stipulation that payments be in gold

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one consequence of this contract by the law that governed it and by the stipulation of the lessor was that if the lessee held over he held over for a year— Justice Holmes

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a stipulation is a statement of conditions that are agreed to in the conduct of some affair— Kaufmann

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Terms indicates conditions offered or agreed upon by one or both parties to a contract, agreement, or deal; thus, two parties may come to terms (i.e., may agree upon such a matter as work to be done, prices to be paid, or a division of property)

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only a general of repute could get recruits, and for that service he could make his own terms— Buchan

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the terms of the lease are not harsh— Montague

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a certain despair of her ever understanding . . . the terms of a contract— Mary Austin

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Provision applies chiefly to a documentary statement which provides measures for the treatment of certain matters legally

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the admission of Arkansas with a provision in its constitution forbidding the abolition of slavery without the consent of the slaveowners— L. B. Evans

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according to the provisions of the constitution the state courts have no jurisdiction in this controversy

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It may be specifically used of a clause or of a part of such a document or of a document that is comparable in laying down a condition or making a stipulation

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into his will he wrote a provision that all of his children should accept his decision regarding the disposal of his property on pain of being disinherited

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Proviso denotes a condition or a stipulation, especially one that is clearly stated and binding passionate feeling is desirable, provided it is not destructive; intellect is desirable, with the same proviso— Russell

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it is because the practical businessman always forgets this proviso that he is such a hopeless idiot politically— Shaw

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Reservation indicates a qualification or modification of the terms of an agreement or statement, often to cover contingencies. It may become a stipulation or proviso if the other party or parties concerned agree or acquiesce

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she [Spain] had already in the treaty of Madrid promised to leave the Valtelline, but with such reservations that she could still hold on— Belloc

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or it may be avowed only to oneself (mental reservation) in evading the generally understood sense of a promise or an oath or other statement that one is impelled to make for reasons of necessity or expediency

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the issues that won him most votes were issues that, at bottom, he didn't believe in; there was always a mental reservation in his rhetoric— Mencken

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Strings suggests strands which the maker of a promise, a proposal, or an offer keeps in his hands so that he may pull them back if what he lays down as a condition or imposes as a stipulation is not kept; the term usually denotes conditions or provisos, often unexpected or concealed, that may radically alter or even annul an agreement

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make me a cash offer, with no strings

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Analogous words: prerequisite, requisite, *requirement

2 *state, situation, mode, posture, status

Analogous words: circumstance, *occurrence, event: occasion, antecedent, *cause: *phase, aspect, side, facet, angle

3 *disease, disorder, affection, ailment, malady, complaint, distemper, syndrome

condition vb *prepare, fit, qualify, ready