| n. | 1. | An orderly procedure or process; regular manner of doing anything; hence, manner; way; mode; |
| 2. | Orderly arrangement, elucidation, development, or classification; clear and lucid exhibition; systematic arrangement peculiar to an individual. | |
| 3. | (Nat. Hist.) Classification; a mode or system of classifying natural objects according to certain common characteristics; | |
| 4. | A technique used in acting in which the actor tries to identify with the individual personality of the specific character being portrayed, so as to provide a realistic rendering of the character's role. Also called |
| Noun | 1. | method - a way of doing something, especially a systematic way; implies an orderly logical arrangement (usually in steps) |
METHOD. The mode of operating or the means of attaining an object.
2. It has been questioned whether the method of making a thing can be
patented. But it has been considered that a method or mode may be the
subject of a patent, because, when the object of two patents or effects to
be produced is essentially the same, they may both be valid, if the modes of
attaining the desired effect are essentially different. Dav. Pat. Cas. 290;
2 B. & Ald. 350; 2 H. Bl. 492; 8 T. R. 106; 4 Burr. 2397; Gods. on Pat. 85;
Perpigna, Manuel des Inventeurs, &c., c. 1, sect. 5, Sec. 1, p. 22.
| (programming) | method - The name given in Smalltalk and other
object-oriented languages to a procedure or routine
associated with one or more classes. An object of a
certain class knows how to perform actions, e.g. printing
itself or creating a new instance of itself, rather than the
function (e.g. printing) knowing how to handle different types
of object. Different classes may define methods with the same name (i.e. methods may be polymorphic). The term "method" is used both for a named operation, e.g. "PRINT" and also for the code which a specific class provides to perform tha t operation. Most methods operate on objects that are instances of a certain class. Some object-oriented languages call these "object methods" to distinguish then from "class methods". In Smalltalk, a method is defined by giving its name, documentation, temporary local variables and a sequence of expressions separated by "."s. |