argument

noun

1. (also, countable, figuratively)A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.

   “There is no greater, at leaſt no more palpable and convincing Argument of the Exiſtence of a Deity than the admirable Art and Wiſdom that diſcovers itſelf in the make and conſtitution, the order and diſpoſition, the ends and uſes of all the parts and members of this ſtately fabrick of Heaven and Earth.”

   “Says Plowdon [i.e., Edmund Plowden], the whale so caught belongs to the King and Queen, “because of its superior excellence.” And by the soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument in such matters.”

2. (also, countable, figuratively, uncountable)A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.
3. (countable)A process of reasoning; argumentation.

   “Indeed, I cannot commend my life; for I am conſcious to my ſelf of many failings: therein, I know alſo that a man by his converſation, may ſoon overthrow what by argument or perſwaſion he doth labour to faſten upon others for their good: […]”

   “For if the Idea be not agreed on, betwixt the Speaker and Hearer, for which the Words ſtand, the Argument is not about Things, but Names.”

   “I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent; but I felt that there was some justice in his argument.”

   “Meanwhile, the authoritarianism, which has turned left-liberalism into a movement for sneaks and prudes, was always going to play into the hands of the right. Free citizens have stopped listening to those who respond to the challenge of argument by screaming for the police to arrest the politically incorrect or for universities to ban speakers who depart from leftish orthodoxy.”

4. (countable)An abstract or summary of the content of a literary work such as a book, a poem or a major section such as a chapter, included in the work before the content itself; (figuratively) the contents themselves.

   “If I would broach the veſſels of my loue, / And try the argument of hearts, by borrowing, / Men, and mens fortunes, could I frankely vſe / As I can bid thee ſpeake.”

5. (countable)A verbal dispute; a quarrel.

   “The neighbours got into an argument about the branches of the trees that extended over the fence.”

   “Ar[mado]. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin. Boy. By ſaying that a Coſtard was broken in a ſhin, Then cald you for the Lenuoy [i.e. l'envoy]. Clow[ne; i.e., Costard]. True, and I for a Plantan, thus came your argument in, Then the boyes fat Lenuoy, the Gooſe that you bought, and he ended the market.”

   “In argument with men a woman ever / Goes by the worſe, whatever be her cauſe.”

6. (broadly, countable, euphemistic, humorous, uncountable)Any dispute, altercation, or collision.

   “Steve got in a physical argument with his neighbor and came away with a black eye.”

   “While biking home, he got in an argument with the pavement.”

   “D5131 has received extensive cab damage, having been in an argument with Class 37 D6855 at Inverness in August 1971 - one of two accidents that occurred there on August 20.”

7. (countable)Any of the phrases that bear a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.

   “In numerous works over the past two decades, beginning with the pioneering work of Gruber (1965), Fillmore (1968a), and Jackendoff (1972), it has been argued that each Argument (i.e. Subject or Complement) of a Predicate bears a particular thematic role (alias theta-role, or θ-role to its Predicate), and that the set of thematic functions which Arguments can fulfil are drawn from a highly restricted, finite, universal set.”

8. (countable, uncountable)The independent variable of a function.
9. (countable, uncountable)The phase of a complex number.
10. (also, countable, uncountable)A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.

    “The altitude is the argument of the refraction.”

11. (countable, uncountable)A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function.

    “Parameters are like labelled fillable blanks used to define a function whereas arguments are passed to a function when calling it, filling in those blanks.”

12. (countable, uncountable)A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.
13. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A matter in question; a business in hand.

    “As neere as I could ſift him on that argument, On ſome apparent danger ſeene in him, Aimde at your highnes, no inueterate malice.”

    “On, on, you Nobliſh Engliſh, / Whoſe blood is fet from Fathers of Warre-proofe: / Fathers, that like ſo many Alexanders, / Haue in theſe parts from Morne till Euen fought, / And ſheath’d their Swords, for lack of argument.”

14. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The subject matter of an artistic representation, discourse, or writing; a theme or topic.

    “[I]n vttering the ſtuffe ye receiued of the one, in declaring the order ye tooke with the other, ye ſhall neuer lacke, neither matter, nor maner, what to write, nor how to write in this kinde of Argument.”

    “Belike this ſhow imports the argument of the play.”

    “O know ſweet loue I alwaies write of you, And you and loue are ſtill my argument: […]”

    “[N]earer view / Briſtl'd with upright beams innumerable / Of rigid Spears, and Helmets throng'd, and Shields / Various, with boaſtful Argument portraid, / The banded Powers of Satan haſting on / With furious expedition; […]”

    “The abstract, or argument of the piece, is shortly as follows.”

15. (archaic, uncountable)Evidence, proof; (countable) an item of such evidence or proof.

    “[F]or louing me, by my troth it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her follie, for I will be horribly in loue with her, […]”

verb

1. (intransitive, nonstandard, obsolete)To put forward as an argument; to argue.

   “[I]t is moſt certaine, that after Herodotus and other auncient writers, it is ſafer to call theſe [elephants' tusks] teeth, then hornes; and I will breefly ſet downe the reaſons of Philoſtratus, that will haue them to be teeth, and afterward of Grapaldus [i.e., Francesco Mario Grapaldi], Aelianus, and Pauſanias, that would make them horns, and ſo leaue the reader to conſider whether opinion he thinketh moſt agreeable to truth. […] Thus they argument for the horns of Elephants.”

   “Both kneeling, and all the reſt of the Popiſh Ceremonies, may well be compared to the Brazen Serpent. […] I. Rainoldes [i.e., John Rainolds] argumenteth, from Hezekiah his breaking downe of the Brazen Serpent, to the plucking downe of the ſigne of the Croſſe.”

   “[…] And Lord Lanſdown, in his Preface to the Britiſh Enchanters, exclaims againſt that Species of Dramatic Dialogue, which (inſtead of being free, natural, and eaſy, as Converſation ſhould be) is preciſe, or formal, argumenting pro and con, like Diſputants in a School; […]”

   “But, can this be alleged of him who has oft been heard to speak of faith and of works together—and who, after argumenting the utter worthlessness of the latter, has confined most rigidly to the former all of power and of efficacy that there is in the business of salvation?”

   “Here, in Milan, is an ancient tumble-down ruin of a church, is the mournful wreck of the most celebrated painting in the world—"The Last Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci. […] And the first thing that occurred was the infliction on us of a placard fairly reeking with wretched English. […] And then Peter is described as "argumenting in a threatening and angrily condition at Judas Iscariot."”

2. (intransitive, obsolete)To adduce evidence, to provide proof.

   “Albeit that it apperteneth to the apoſtolis, be the puiſtoun of God to tak ordour in all materis off debait cõcernyng ye faith, & ſpecialie to iterprete ye ſcripturis, as yat quhilkis had yͤ ſpreit of god, & wer yͤ trew kirk: It argumẽtis [argumentis] not yat vtheris, quha hes ꝯuenit [conuenit] ſenſyne in generale ꝯſales [consales] had the ſpreit of GOD, or wer the trew kirk: […]”