memory
    n 1: something that is remembered; "search as he would, the
         memory was lost"
    2: the cognitive processes whereby past experience is
       remembered; "he can do it from memory"; "he enjoyed
       remembering his father" [syn: memory, remembering]
    3: the power of retaining and recalling past experience; "he had
       a good memory when he was younger" [syn: memory,
       retention, retentiveness, retentivity]
    4: an electronic memory device; "a memory and the CPU form the
       central part of a computer to which peripherals are attached"
       [syn: memory, computer memory, storage, computer
       storage, store, memory board]
    5: the area of cognitive psychology that studies memory
       processes; "he taught a graduate course on learning and
       memory"

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.]
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   1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge
      of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.
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            Memory is the purveyor of reason.     --Rambler.
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   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.
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   3. The actual and distinct retention and recognition of past
      ideas in the mind; remembrance; as, in memory of youth;
      memories of foreign lands.
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   4. The time within which past events can be or are
      remembered; as, within the memory of man.
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            And what, before thy memory, was done
            From the begining.                    --Milton.
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   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.
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            The memory of the just is blessed.    --Prov. x. 7.
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            That ever-living man of memory, Henry the Fifth.
                                                  --Shak.
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            The Nonconformists . . . have, as a body, always
            venerated her [Elizabeth's] memory.   --Macaulay.
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   6. A memorial. [Obs.]
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            These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
                                                  --Shak.
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   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.
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   To draw to memory, to put on record; to record. [Obs.]
      --Chaucer. Gower.
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memory

    These days, usually used synonymously with Random
   Access Memory or Read-Only Memory, but in the general sense
   it can be any device that can hold data in
   machine-readable format.

   (1996-05-25)

MEMORY, TIME OF. According to the English common law, which has been altered 
by 2 & 3 Wm. IV., c. 71, the time of memory commenced from the reign of 
Richard the First, A. D. 1189. 2 Bl. Com. 31. 
     2. But proof of a regular usage for twenty years, not explained or 
contradicted, is evidence upon which many public and private rights are 
held, and sufficient for a jury in finding the existence of an immemorial 
custom or prescription. 2 Saund. 175, a, d; Peake's Ev. 336; 2 Price's R. 
450; 4 Price's R. 198. 

MEMORY. Understanding; a capacity to make contracts, a will, or to commit a 
crime, so far as intention is necessary. 
     2. Memory is sometimes employed to express the capacity of the 
understanding, and sometimes its power; when we speak of a retentive memory, 
we use it in the former sense; when of a ready memory, in the latter. Shelf. 
on Lun. Intr. 29, 30. 
     3. Memory, in another sense, is the reputation, good or bad, which a 
man leaves at his death. This memory, when good, is highly prized by the 
relations of the deceased, and it is therefore libelous to throw a shade 
over the memory of the dead, when the writing has a tendency to create a 
breach of the peace, by inciting the friends and relations of the deceased 
to avenge the insult offered to the family. 4 T. R. 126; 5 Co. R. 125; Hawk. 
b. 1, c. 73, s. 1.