Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Memory \Mem"o*ry\, n.; pl. {Memories}. [OE. memorie, OF.
   memoire, memorie, F. m['e]moire, L. memoria, fr. memor
   mindful; cf. mora delay. Cf. {Demur}, {Martyr}, {Memoir},
   {Remember}.]
   1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge
      of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.

            Memory is the purveyor of reason.     --Rambler.

   2. The reach and positiveness with which a person can
      remember; the strength and trustworthiness of one's power
      to reach and represent or to recall the past; as, his
      memory was never wrong.

   3. The actual and distinct retention and recognition of past
      ideas in the mind; remembrance; as, in memory of youth;
      memories of foreign lands.

   4. The time within which past events can be or are
      remembered; as, within the memory of man.

            And what, before thy memory, was done From the
            begining.                             --Milton.

   5. Something, or an aggregate of things, remembered; hence,
      character, conduct, etc., as preserved in remembrance,
      history, or tradition; posthumous fame; as, the war became
      only a memory.

            The memory of the just is blessed.    --Prov. x. 7.

            That ever-living man of memory, Henry the Fifth.
                                                  --Shak.

            The Nonconformists . . . have, as a body, always
            venerated her [Elizabeth's] memory.   --Macaulay.

   6. A memorial. [Obs.]

            These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
                                                  --Shak.

   Syn: {Memory}, {Remembrance}, {Recollection}, {Reminiscence}.

   Usage: Memory is the generic term, denoting the power by
          which we reproduce past impressions. Remembrance is an
          exercise of that power when things occur spontaneously
          to our thoughts. In recollection we make a distinct
          effort to collect again, or call back, what we know
          has been formerly in the mind. Reminiscence is
          intermediate between remembrance and recollection,
          being a conscious process of recalling past
          occurrences, but without that full and varied
          reference to particular things which characterizes
          recollection. ``When an idea again recurs without the
          operation of the like object on the external sensory,
          it is remembrance; if it be sought after by the mind,
          and with pain and endeavor found, and brought again
          into view, it is recollection.'' --Locke.

   {To draw to memory}, to put on record; to record. [Obs.]
      --Chaucer. Gower.