Mas"ter*y (?), n.;
pl. Masteries (#). [OF.
maistrie.]
1. The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.
If divided by
mountains, they will fight for the
mastery of the passages of the tops.
Sir W. Raleigh. 2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preëminence.
The voice of
them that shout for mastery.
Ex.
xxxii. 18. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
1 Cor.
ix. 25. O, but to have
gulled him
Had been a mastery.
B.
Jonson. 3. Contest
for superiority.
[Obs.] Holland.
4.
A masterly operation; a feat. [Obs.]
I will do a maistrie ere I go.
Chaucer.
5. Specifically, the philosopher's stone. [Obs.]
6. The act process of mastering; the state of having mastered.
He could attain to a
mastery in all languages.
Tillotson.
The learning
and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be
cumbered with other
difficulties.
Locke.
Hear it pronounced