Definition of "application"
noun
countable and uncountable, plural applications
The substance applied.
Quotations
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 restored him to life.
1857, John Eadie, John Francis Waller, William John Macquorn Rankine, The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography
The act of applying as a means; the employment of means to accomplish an end; specific use.
Quotations
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 a milder sort of government.
1693, [John Locke], “§43”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […]