application

Noun

1. The act of physically applying or laying on.
   • The application of this cream should reduce the swelling.
2. The substance applied.
   • His body was stripped, laid out upon a table, and covered with a hearsecloth, when some of his attendants perceived symptoms of returning animation, and by the use of warm applications, internal and external, gradually...
3. The act of applying as a means; the employment of means to accomplish an end; specific use.
   • All that I have hitherto contended for, is, that whatsoever rigor is necessary, it is more to be us'd, the younger children are; and having by a due application wrought its effect, it is to be relax'd, and chang'd into...
4. The act of directing or referring something to a particular case, to discover or illustrate agreement or disagreement, fitness, or correspondence.
   • I make the remark, and leave you to make the application.
   • The application of a theory to a set of data can be challenging.
5. A computer program or the set of software that the end user perceives as a single entity as a tool for a well-defined purpose. (Also called: application program; application software.)
   • This application can connect to most social networks.
   • Saeed straightened and held up his phone, directing its camera at the heavens, consulting an application that indicated the names of celestial bodies he did not know. - 2017, Mohsin Hamid, Exit West, Hamish Hamilton,...
6. A verbal or written request for assistance or employment or admission to a school, course or similar.
   • December 31 is the deadline for MBA applications.
7. A petition, entreaty, or other request, with the adposition for denoting the subject matter.
   • Their application for a deferral of the hearing was granted.
8. The act of requesting, claiming, or petitioning something.
9. Diligence; close thought or attention.
10. A kind of needlework; appliqué.
11. The substitution of a specific value for the parameter in the abstraction, in lambda calculus.
12. Compliance.