Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

World \World\, n. [OE. world, werld, weorld, weoreld, AS.
   weorold, worold; akin to OS. werold, D. wereld, OHG. weralt,
   worolt, werolt, werlt, G. welt, Icel. ver["o]ld, Sw. verld,
   Dan. verden; properly, the age of man, lifetime, humanity;
   AS. wer a man + a word akin to E. old; cf. AS. yld lifetime,
   age, ylde men, humanity. Cf. {Werewolf}, {Old}.]
   1. The earth and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the
      system of created things; existent creation; the universe.

            The invisible things of him from the creation of the
            world are clearly seen.               --Rom. 1. 20.

            With desire to know, What nearer might concern him,
            how this world Of heaven and earth conspicuous first
            began.                                --Milton.

   2. Any planet or heavenly body, especially when considered as
      inhabited, and as the scene of interests analogous with
      human interests; as, a plurality of worlds. ``Lord of the
      worlds above.'' --I. Watts.

            Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Star distant,
            but high-hand seemed other worlds.    --Milton.

            There may be other worlds, where the inhabitants
            have never violated their allegiance to their
            almighty Sovereign.                   --W. B.
                                                  Sprague.

   3. The earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the
      sum of human affairs and interests.

            That forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought
            death into the world, and all our woe. --Milton.

   4. In a more restricted sense, that part of the earth and its
      concerns which is known to any one, or contemplated by any
      one; a division of the globe, or of its inhabitants; human
      affairs as seen from a certain position, or from a given
      point of view; also, state of existence; scene of life and
      action; as, the Old World; the New World; the religious
      world; the Catholic world; the upper world; the future
      world; the heathen world.

            One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be
            my surety.                            --Shak.

            Murmuring that now they must be put to make war
            beyond the world's end -- for so they counted
            Britain.                              --Milton.

   5. The customs, practices, and interests of men; general
      affairs of life; human society; public affairs and
      occupations; as, a knowledge of the world.

            Happy is she that from the world retires. --Waller.

            If knowledge of the world makes man perfidious, May
            Juba ever live in ignorance.          --Addison.

   6. Individual experience of, or concern with, life; course of
      life; sum of the affairs which affect the individual; as,
      to begin the world with no property; to lose all, and
      begin the world anew.

   7. The inhabitants of the earth; the human race; people in
      general; the public; mankind.

            Since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to
            any purpose that the world can say against it.
                                                  --Shak.

            Tell me, wench, how will the world repute me For
            undertaking so unstaid a journey?     --Shak.

   8. The earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven;
      concerns of this life as distinguished from those of the
      life to come; the present existence and its interests;
      hence, secular affairs; engrossment or absorption in the
      affairs of this life; worldly corruption; the ungodly or
      wicked part of mankind.

            I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
            hast given me; for they are thine.    --John xvii.
                                                  9.

            Love not the world, neither the things that are in
            the world. If any man love the world, the love of
            the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
            world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
            eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
            but is of the world.                  --1 John ii.
                                                  15, 16.

   9. As an emblem of immensity, a great multitude or quantity;
      a large number. ``A world of men.'' --Chapman. ``A world
      of blossoms for the bee.'' --Bryant.

            Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. --Shak.

            A world of woes dispatched in little space.
                                                  --Dryden.

   {All . . . in the world}, all that exists; all that is
      possible; as, all the precaution in the world would not
      save him.

   {A world to see}, a wonder to see; something admirable or
      surprising to see. [Obs.]

            O, you are novices; 't is a world to see How tame,
            when men and women are alone, A meacock wretch can
            make the curstest shrew.              --Shak.

   {For all the world}.
      (a) Precisely; exactly.
      (b) For any consideration.

   {Seven wonders of the world}. See in the Dictionary of Noted
      Names in Fiction.

   {To go to the world}, to be married. [Obs.] ``Thus goes every
      one to the world but I . . .; I may sit in a corner and
      cry heighho for a husband!'' --Shak.

   {World's end}, the end, or most distant part, of the world;
      the remotest regions.

   {World without end}, eternally; forever; everlastingly; as if
      in a state of existence having no end.

            Throughout all ages, world without end. --Eph. iii.
                                                  21.