superior

Mother, your baby is silly!
She is so absolutely childish!

She does not knoe the difference between
the lights in the streets and the stars.

When we play at eating pebble,
she thinks they are real food, and
tries to put them into her mouth.

When I open a book before her and 
ask her to learn her a,b,c, she tears the leaves
with her hand and roars for joy at nothing;
this is your baby's way of doing her lesson.

When I shake my head at her in anger and scold her
and call her naughty, she laughs and 
thinks it great fun.

Everybody knows that father is away,
but if in play I call aloud "Father,"
she looks about her in excitement
and thinks that father is near.

When I hold my class with the donkey that our washerman
brings to carry away the clothes and I warn her that
I am the schoolmaster, she will scream 
for no reason and call me dada.

Your baby wants to catch the moon.
She is so funny; she calls Ganesh Ganush.

Mother, your baby is silly!
She is so absurdly childish!

Su*pe"ri*or (?), a. [L., compar. of superus being above, fr. super above, over: cf. F. sup'erieur. See Super-, and cf. Supreme.]

1.

More elevated in place or position; higher; upper; as, the superior limb of the sun; the superior part of an image.

2.

Higher in rank or office; more exalted in dignity; as, a superior officer; a superior degree of nobility.

3.

Higher or greater in excellence; surpassing others in the greatness, or value of any quality; greater in quality or degree; as, a man of superior merit; or of superior bravery.

4.

Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; -- with to.

There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings. Spectator.

5.

More comprehensive; as a term in classification; as, a genus is superior to a species.

6. Bot. (a)

Above the ovary; -- said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part; also of an ovary when the other floral organs are plainly below it in position, and free from it.

Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem; posterior.

Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending; -- said of the radicle.

Superior conjunction, Superior planets, etc. See Conjunction, Planet, etc. -- Superior figure, Superior letter Print., a figure or letter printed above the line, as a reference to a note or an index of a power, etc; as, in x2 + yn, 2 is a superior figure, n a superior letter. Cf. Inferior figure, under Inferior.<-- = superscripted number, letter -->

© Webster 1913.

Su*pe"ri*or, n.

1.

One who is above, or surpasses, another in rank, station, office, age, ability, or merit; one who surpasses in what is desirable; as Addison has no superior as a writer of pure English.

2. Eccl.

The head of a monastery, convent, abbey, or the like.

© Webster 1913.