Ex*ist" (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Existed;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Existing.]
[L. existere,
exsistere, to step out or forth,
emerge, appear, exist; ex out + sistere to cause to stand, to set,
put, place, stand still, fr. stare to stand: cf. F. exister. See Stand.] 1. To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have
an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual.
Who now, alas!
no more is
missed
Than if he never did
exist.
Swift. To conceive the world . . . to have existed from eternity.
South. 2. To be manifest in any manner; to continue to be; as, great evils existed in his reign.
3. To live; to have
life or the
functions of vitality; as, men can not exist in water, nor
fishes on land.
Syn. -- See Be.
Hear it pronounced