DE, a Latin prefix, denotes a moving from, separation; as in debark, decline, decease, deduct, decamp. Hence it often expresses a negative; as in derange. Sometimes it augments the sense, as in deprave, despoil. It coincides nearly in sense with the French des and Latin dis.
DE'ACON, noun [Gr., a minister or servant.]
1. A person in the lowest degree of holy orders. The office of deacon was instituted by the apostles, Acts 6:1, and seven persons were chosen at first, to serve at the feasts of christians and distribute bread and wine to the communicants, and to minister to the wants of the poor.
In the Romish Church, the office of the deacons is to incense the officiating priest; to lay the corporal on the altar; to receive the cup from the subdeacon and present it to the person officiating; to incense the choir; to receive the pax from the officiating prelate, and carry it to the subdeacon; and at the pontifical mass, to put the miter on the bishop's head.
In the church of England, the office of deacons is declared to be to assist the priest in administering the holy communion; and their office in presbyterian and independent churches is to distribute the bread and wine to the communicants. In the latter, they are elected by the members of the church.
2. In Scotland, an overseer of the poor, and the master of an incorporated company.
DE'ACONESS, noun A female deacon in the primitive church.
DE'ACONRY or DE'ACONSHIP, noun The office, dignity or ministry of a deacon or deaconess.
DEAD,
1. Deprived or destitute of life; that state of a being, animal or vegetable, in which the organs of motion and life have ceased to perform their functions, and have become incapable of performing them, or of being restored to a state of activity.
The men are dead who sought thy life. Exodus 4:19.
It is sometimes followed by of before the cause of death; as, dead of hunger, or of a fever.
2. Having never had life, or having been deprived of vital action before birth; as, the child was born dead
3. Without life; inanimate.
All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press.
4. Without vegetable life; as a dead tree.
5. Imitating death; deep or sound; as a dead sleep.
6. Perfectly still; motionless as death; as a dead calm; a dead weight.
7. Empty; vacant; not enlivened by variety; as a dead void space; a dead plain.
We say also, a dead level, for a perfectly level surface.
8. Unemployed; useless; unprofitable. A man's faculties may lie dead or his goods remain dead on his hands. So dead capital or stock is that which produces no profit.
9. Dull; inactive; as a dead sale of commodities.
10. Dull; gloomy; still; not enlivened; as a dead winter; a dead season.
11. Still; deep; obscure; as the dead darkness of the night.
12. Dull; not lively; not resembling life; as the dead coloring of a piece; a dead eye.
13. Dull; heavy; as a dead sound.
14. Dull; frigid; lifeless; cold; not animated; not affecting; used of prayer.
15. Tasteless; vapid; spiritless; used of liquors.
16. Uninhabited; as dead walls.
17. Dull; without natural force or efficacy; not lively or brisk; as a dead fire.
18. In a state of spiritual death; void of grace; lying under the power of sin.
19. Impotent; unable to procreate.
20. Decayed in grace.
Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead Revelation 3:1.
21. Not proceeding from spiritual life; not producing good works; as, faith without works is dead James 2:17.
22. Proceeding from corrupt nature, not from spiritual life or a gracious principle; as dead works. Hebrews 9:14.
23. In law, cut off from the rights of a citizen:deprived of power of enjoying the rights of property; as one banished or becoming a monk is civilly dead
DEAD language, a language which is no longer spoken or in common use by a people, and known only in writings; as the Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
DEAD rising or rising line, the parts of a ship's floor or bottom throughout her length, where the floor timber is terminated on the lower futtock.
DEAD, noun ded.
1. The dead signifies dead men.
Ye shall not make cuttings for the dead Leviticus 19:28.
2. The state of the dead; or death.
This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead Matthew 14:2.
DEAD, noun ded. The time when there is a remarkable stillness or gloom; depth; as in the midst of winter or of night, are familiar expressions.
DEAD, verb intransitive ded. To lose life or force.
DEAD, verb transitive ded. To deprive of life, force or vigor.
DEAD'-DOING, adjective Destructive; killing.
DEAD'EN, verb transitive ded'n.
1. To deprive of a portion of vigor, force or sensation; to abate vigor or action; as, to deaden the force of a ball; to deaden the natural powers or feelings.
2. To blunt; to render less susceptible or feeling; as, to deaden the motion of a ship or of the wind.
3. To retard; to lessen velocity or motion; as, to deaden the motion of a ship or of the wind.
4. To diminish spirit; to make vapid or spiritless; as, to deaden wine or beer.
DEAD'-EYE, noun ded'-eye. Among seamen, a round flattish wooden block, encircled by a rope, or an iron band, and pierced with holes, to receive the laniard, used to extend the shrouds and stays, and for other purposes.
DEAD'-HEARTED, adjective Having a dull, faint heart.
DEAD'LIHOOD, noun The state of the dead.
DEAD'LINESS, noun ded'liness. The quality of being deadly.
DEAD'LY, adjective ded'ly.
1. That may occasion death; mortal; fatal; destructive; as a deadly blow or wound.
2. Mortal; implacable; aiming to kill or destroy; as a deadly enemy; deadly malice a deadly feud.
DEAD'LY, adverb ded'ly. In a manner resembling death; as deadly pale or wan.
2. Mortally.
With groanings of a deadly wounded man. Ezekiel 30:24.
3. Implacably; destructively.
4. In a vulgar or ludicrous sense, very; extremely; as a deadly cunning man.
DEAD'NESS, noun ded'ness.
1. Want of natural life or vital power, in an animal or plant; as the deadness of a limb, of a body, or of a tree.
2. Want of animation; dullness; languor; as the deadness of the eye.
3. Want of warmth or ardor; coldness; frigidity; as the deadness of the affections.
4. State of being incapable of conception, according to the ordinary laws of nature. Romans 4:19.
5. Indifference; mortification of the natural desires; alienation of heart from temporal pleasures; as deadness to the world.
DEAD'NETTLE, noun A plant of the genus Lamium, and another of the genus Galeopsis.
DEAD'PLEDGE, noun A mortgage or pawning of things, or thing pawned.
DEAD'WATER, noun The eddy water closing in with a ship's stern, as she passes through the water.
DEAD'WOOD, noun Blocks of timber laid on the keel of a ship, particularly at the extremities.
DEAD'WORKS, noun The parts of a ship which are above the surface of the water, when she is balanced for a voyage.
DEAF, noun deef.
1. Not perceiving sounds; not receiving impressions from sonorous bodies through the air; as a deaf ear.
2. Wanting the sense of hearing; having organs which do not perceive sounds; as a deaf man. It is followed by to before that which ought to be heard; as deaf to the voice of the orator.
3. In a metaphorical sense, not listening; not regarding; not moved, persuaded or convinced; rejecting; as deaf to reason or arguments. Men are deaf to the calls of the gospel.
4. Without the ability or will to regard spiritual things; unconcerned; as, hear, ye deaf Is. x1ii.
5. Deprived of the power of hearing; deafened; as deaf with clamor.
6. Stifled; imperfect; obscurely heard; as a deaf noise or murmur.
DEAF, verb transitive to deafen, is used by Dryden, but is obsolete, unless perhaps in poetry.
DE'AFEN, verb transitive dee'fn.
1. To make deaf; to deprive of the power of hearing; to impair the organs of hearing, so as to render them unimpressible to sounds.
2. To stun; to render incapable of perceiving sounds distinctly; as deafened with clamor or tumult.
DE'AFLY, adverb dee'fly. Without sense of sounds; obscurely heard.
DE'AFNESS, noun, dee'fness.
1. Incapacity of perceiving sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impressions which constitute hearing; as the deafness of the ears: hence, applied to persons, want of the sense of hearing.
2. Unwillingness to hear and regard; voluntary rejection of what is addressed to the ear and to the understanding.
DEAL, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive dealt, pronoun delt.
1. To divide; to part; to separate; hence, to divide in portions; to distribute; often followed by out.
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Isaiah 1:8.
And Rome deals out her blessing and her gold.
2. To scatter; to throw about; as, to deal out feathered deaths.
3. To throw out in succession; to give one after another; as, to deal out blows.
4. To distribute the cards of a pack to the players.
DEAL, verb intransitive
1. To traffick; to trade; to negotiate.
They buy and sell, they deal and traffick.
2. To act between man and man; to intervene; to transact or negotiate between men.
He that deals between man and man, raiseth his own credit with both.
3. To behave well or ill; to act; to conduct one's self in relation to others.
Thou shalt not steal, nor deal falsely, not lie. Leviticus 19:11.
4. To distribute cards.
To deal by, to treat, either well or ill; as, to deal well by domestics.
Such an one deals not fairly by his own mind.
To deal in, to have to do with ; to be engaged in; to practice.
They deal in political matters; they deal in low humor.
2. To trade in; as, to deal in silks, or in cutlery.
To deal with, to treat in any manner; to use well or ill.
Now we will deal worse with thee. Genesis 19:9.
Return-and I will deal well with thee. Genesis 32:9.
3. To contend with; to treat with, by way of opposition, check or correction; as, he has turbulent passions to deal with.
4. To treat with by way of discipline, in ecclesiastical affairs; to admonish.
DEAL, n,
1. Literally, a division; a part or portion; hence, an indefinite quantity, degree or extent; as a deal of time and trouble; a deal of cold; a deal of space. Formerly it was limited by some, as some deal; but this is now obsolete or vulgar. In general, we now qualify the word with great, as a great deal of labor; a great deal of time and pains; a great deal of land. In the phrases, it is a great deal better or worse, the words, great deal serve as modifiers of the sense of better and worse. The true construction is, it is, by a great deal better; it is better by a great deal that is, by a great part or difference.
2. The division or distribution of cards; the art or practice of dealing cards.
The deal the shuffle, and the cut.
3. The division of a piece of timber made by sawing; a board or plank; a sense much more used in England than in the U. States.
DEAL'BATE, noun t. To whiten.
DEALBA'TION, noun The act of bleaching; a whitening.
DE'ALER, noun
1. One who deals; one who has to do with any thing, or has concern with; as a dealer in wit and learning.
2. A trader; a trafficker; a shopkeeper; a broker; a merchant; a word of very extensive use; as a dealer in dry goods; a dealer in hardware; a dealer in stocks; a dealer in leather; a dealer in lumber; a dealer in linens or woolens; a small dealer in groceries; a money-dealer.
3. One who distributes cards to the players.
DE'ALING, participle present tense
1. Dividing; distributing; throwing out.
2. Trading; trafficking; negotiating.
3. Treating; behaving.
DE'ALING, noun
1. Practice; action; conduct; behavior; as, observe the dealings of the men who administer the government. But it is now more generally used of the actions of men in private life.
2. Conduct in relation to others; treatment; as the dealings of a father with his children. God's dealings with men are the dispensations of his providence, or moral government.
3. Intercourse in buying and selling; traffick; business; negotiation. American merchants have extensive dealings with the merchants of Liverpool.
4. Intercourse of business or friendship; concern.
The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. John 4:9.
DEAM'BULATE, verb intransitive To walk abroad.
DEAMBULA'TION, noun The act of walking abroad.
DEAM'BULATORY, adjective Pertaining to walks.
DEAM'BULATORY, noun A place to walk in.
DEAN, noun
1. In England, am ecclesiastical dignitary in cathedral and collegiate churches, and the head of a chapter; the second dignitary of a diocese. Ancient deans are elected by the chapter in virtue of a conge d'elire from the king and letters missive of recommendation; but in the chapters founded by Henry VIII., out of the spoils of dissolved monasteries, the deanery is donative, and the installation merely by the kings letters patent.
2. An officer in each college of the universities in England.
3. In the U. States, an officer in a medical school.
DE'ANERY, noun
1. The office or the revenue of a dean.
2. The house of a dean.
3. The jurisdiction of a dean.
Each archdeaconry is divided into rural deaneries, and each deanery is divided into parishes.
Rural dean, or arch-presbyter, had originally jurisdiction over ten churches; but afterwards he became only the bishop's substitute, to grant letters of administration, probate of wills, etc. His office is now lost in that of the archdeacon and chancellor.
Dean of a Monastery, a superior established under the abbot, to ease him in taking care of ten monks. Hence his name.
Dean and Chapter, are the bishop's council, to aid him with their advice in affairs of religion, and in the temporal concerns of his see.
DEAN'SHIP, noun The office of a dean.
DEAR, adjective
1. Scarce; not plentiful.
2. Bearing a high price in comparison of the usual price; more costly than usual; of a higher price than the customary one. Wheat is dear at a dollar a bushel, when the usual price is seventy five cents. This is the effect of scarcity and demand.
3. Of a high value in estimation; greatly valued; beloved; precious.
And the last joy was dearer than the rest.
Be ye followers of God, as dear children. Ephesians 5:1.
DEAR, adjective Hurtful; grievous; hateful.
DEAR, verb transitive To make dear
DEAR, noun A darling; a word denoting tender affection or endearment; as, my dear
DE'ARBOUGHT, adjective Purchased at a high price; as dearbought experience; dearbought blessings.
DE'ARLING, (See Darling)
DE'ARLOVED, adjective Greatly beloved.
DE'ARLY, adverb
1. At a high price; as, he pays dearly for his rashness.
2. With great fondness; as, we love our children dearly; dearly beloved.
DEARN, adjective Lonely; solitary; melancholy.
DE'ARNESS, noun
1. Scarcity; high price, or a higher price than the customary one; as the dearness of corn.
2. Fondness; nearness to the heart or affections; great value in estimation; preciousness; tender love; as the dearness of friendship.
DEARNLY, adverb Secretly; privately.
DEARTH, noun derth.
1. Scarcity; as a dearth of corn.
2. Want; need; famine;
3. Barrenness; sterility; as a dearth of plot.
DEARTIC'ULATE, verb transitive To disjoint.
DEATH, noun deth.
1. That state of a being, animal or vegetable, but more particularly of an animal, in which there is a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions, when the organs have not only ceased to act, but have lost the susceptibility of renewed action. Thus the cessation of respiration and circulation in an animal may not be death for during hybernation some animals become entirely torpid, and some animals and vegetables may be subjected to a fixed state by frost, but being capable of revived activity, they are not dead.
2. The state of the dead; as the gates of death Job 38:17.
3. The manner of dying.
Thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:8.
Let me die the death of the righteous. Numbers 23:10.
4. The image of mortality represented by a skeleton; as a death's head.
5. Murder; as a man of death
6. Cause of death
O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. 2 Kings 4:40.
We say, he caught his death
7. Destroyer or agent of death; as, he will be the death of his poor father.
8. In poetry, the means or instrument of death; as an arrow is called the feathered death; a ball, a leaden death
DEATHs invisible come winged with fire.
9. In theology, perpetual separation from God, and eternal torments; called the second death Revelation 2:10.
10. Separation or alienation of the soul from God; a being under the dominion of sin, and destitute of grace or divine life; called spiritual death
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. 1 John 3:1. Luke I.
Civil death is the separation of a man from civil society, or from the enjoyment of civil rights; as by banishment, abjuration of the realm, entering into a monastery, etc.
DEATH'FUL, adjective Full of slaughter; murderous; destructive.
These eyes behold the deathful scene.
DEATH'FULNESS, noun Appearance of death.
DEATH'LESS, adjective Immortal; not subject to death, destruction or extinction; as deathless beings; deathless fame.
DEATH'LIKE, adjective
1. Resembling death; gloomy; still; calm; quiet; peaceful; motionless; like death in horror or in stillness; as deathlike slumbers.
2. Resembling death; cadaverous.
DEATH'WARD, adverb Toward death.
DEAU'RATE, verb transitive To gild.
DEAU'RATE, adjective Gilded.
DEBAC'LE, noun A breaking or bursting forth.
The geological deluge, which is supposed to have swept the surface of the earth, and to have conveyed the fragments of rocks, and the remains of animals and vegetables, to a distance from their native localities.
DEB'AR, verb transitive To cut off from entrance; to preclude; to hinder from approach, entry or enjoyment; to shut out or exclude; as, we are not debarred from any rational enjoyment; religion debars us from no real pleasure.
DEB'ARK, verb transitive To land from a ship or boat; to remove from on board any water-craft, and place on land; to disembark; as, to debark artillery.
DEBARKA'TION, noun The act of disembarking.
DEB'ARKED, participle passive Removed to land from on board a ship or boat.
DEB'ARKING, participle present tense Removing from a ship to the land; going from on board a vessel.
DEB'ARRED, participle passive Hindered from approach, entrance or possession.
DEB'ARRING, participle present tense Preventing from approach, entrance or enjoyment.
DEBA'SE, verb transitive
1. To reduce from a higher to a lower state or rank, in estimation.
The drunkard debases himself and his character.
Intemperance and debauchery debase men almost to a level with beasts.
2. To reduce or lower in quality, purity, or value; to adulterate; as, to debase gold or silver by alloy.
3. To lower or degrade; to make mean or despicable. Religion should not be debased by frivolous disputes. Vicious habits debase the mind, as well as the character.
4. To sink in purity or elegance; to vitiate by meanness; as, to debase style by the use of vulgar words.
DEBA'SED, participle passive Reduced in estimated rank; lowered in estimation; reduced in purity, fineness, quality or value; adulterated; degraded; rendered mean.
DEBA'SEMENT, noun The act of debasing; degradation; reduction of purity, fineness, quality or value; adulteration; a state of being debased; as debasement of character, of our faculties, of the coin, of style, etc.
DEBA'SER, noun One who debases or lowers in estimation, or in value; one who degrades or renders mean; that which debases.
DEBA'SING, participle present tense
1. Reducing in estimation or worth; adulterating; reducing in purity or elegance; degrading; rendering mean.
2. adjective Lowering; tending to debase or degrade; as debasing vices.
DEBA'TABLE, adjective That may be debated; disputable; subject to controversy or contention; as a debatable question.
DEBATE, noun
1. Contention in words or arguments; discussion for elucidating truth; strife in argument or reasoning, between persons of different opinions, each endeavoring to prove his own opinion right, and that of his opposer wrong; dispute; controversy; as the debates in parliament or in congress.
2. Strife; contention.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate Isaiah 1:8.
3. The power of being disputed; as, this question is settled beyond debate; the story is true beyond debate
4. debate or debates, the published report of arguments for and against a measure; as, the debates in the convention are printed.
DEBATE, verb transitive To contend for in words or arguments; to strive to maintain a cause by reasoning; to dispute; to discuss; to argue; to contest, as opposing parties; as, the question was debated till a late hour.
DEBATE thy cause with thy neighbor himself. Proverbs 25:9.
DEBATE, verb intransitive
1. To debate on or in, to deliberate; to discuss or examine different arguments in the mind.
2. To dispute.
3. To engage in combat.
DEBA'TED, participle passive Disputed; argued; discussed.
DEBA'TEFUL, adjective
1. Of things, contested; occasioning contention.
2. Of persons, quarrelsome; contentious.
DEBA'TEFULLY, adverb With contention.
DEBA'TEMENT, noun Controversy; deliberation.
DEBA'TER, noun One who debates; a disputant; a controvertist.
DEBA'TING, participle present tense Disputing; discussing; contending by arguments.
DEBAUCH', verb transitive [The general sense of debauch in English, is to lead astray, like seduce.]
1. To corrupt or vitiate; as, to debauch a prince or a youth; to debauch good principles.
2. To corrupt with lewdness; as, to debauch a woman.
3. To seduce from duty or allegiance; as, to debauch an army.
DEBAUCH', noun Excess in eating or drinking; intemperance; drunkenness; gluttony; lewdness.
DEBAUCH'ED, participle passive Corrupted; vitiated in morals or purity of character.
DEBAUCH'EDLY, adverb In a profligate manner.
DEBAUCH'EDNESS, noun Intemperance.
DEBAUCHEE', noun A man given to intemperance, or bacchanalian excesses. But chiefly, a man habitually lewd.
DEBAUCH'ER, noun One who debauches or corrupts others; a seducer to lewdness, or to any dereliction of duty.
DEBAUCH'ERY, noun
1. Excess in the pleasures of the table; gluttony; intemperance. But chiefly, habitual lewdness; excessive unlawful indulgence of lust.
2. Corruption of fidelity; seduction from duty or allegiance.
The republic of Paris will endeavor to complete the debauchery of the army.
DEBAUCH'MENT, noun The act of debauching or corrupting; the act of seducing from virtue or duty.
DEBEL'LATE, verb transitive To subdue.
DEBELLA'TION, noun The act of conquering or subduing.
DEBEN'TURE, noun [Fr. from Latin debeo, to owe.]
1. A writing acknowledging a debt; a writing or certificate signed by a public officer, as evidence of a debt due to some person. This paper, given by an officer of the customs, entitles a merchant exporting goods, to the receipt of a bounty, or a drawback of duties. When issued by a treasurer, it entitles the holder to a sum of money from the state.
2. In the customs, a certificate of drawback; a writing which states that a person is entitled to a certain sum from the government, on the exportation of specified goods, the duties on which had been paid.
DEBEN'TURED, adjective debentured goods are those for which a debenture has been given, as being entitled to drawback.
DEB'ILE, adjective Relaxed; weak; feeble; languid; faint; without strength.
DEBIL'ITATE, verb transitive To weaken; to impair the strength of; to enfeeble; to make faint or languid. Intemperance debilitates the organs of digestion. Excessive indulgence debilitates the system.
DEBIL'ITATED, participle passive Weakened; enfeebled; relaxed.
DEBIL'ITATING, participle present tense Weakening; enfeebling; impairing strength.
DEBILITA'TION, noun The act of weakening; relaxation.
DEBIL'ITY, noun Relaxation of the solids; weakness; feebleness; languor of body; faintness; imbecility; as, morbid sweats induce debility
DEB'IT, noun [Latin debitum, from debeo, to owe.] Debt. It is usually written debt. But it is used in mercantile language, as the debit side of an account.
DEB'IT, verb transitive
1. To charge with debt; as, to debit a purchaser the amount of goods sold.
2. To enter an account on the debtor side of a book; as, to debit the sum or amount of goods sold.
DEB'ITED, participle passive
1. Charged in debt; made debtor on account.
2. Charged to one's debt, as money or goods.
DEB'ITING, participle present tense
1. Making debtor on account, as a person.
2. Charging to the debt of a person, as goods.
DEB'ITOR, noun A debtor.
DEBOISE,
DEBOISH, for debauch.
DEBONNA'IR, adjective Civil; wellbred; complaisant; elegant.
DEBOUCH, verb intransitive To issue or march out of a narrow place, or from defiles, as troops.
DEBRIS, noun debree'. Fragments; rubbish; ruins; applied particularly to the fragments of rocks.
DEBT, noun det. [Latin debitum, contracted.]
1. That which is due from one person to another, whether money, goods, or services; that which one person is bound to pay or perform to another; as the debts of a bankrupt; the debts of a nobleman. It is a common misfortune or vice to be in debt
When you run in debt you give to another power over your liberty.
2. That which any one is obliged to do or to suffer.
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt
Hence death is called the debt of nature.
3. In law, an action to recover a debt This is a customary ellipsis. He brought debt instead of an action of debt
4. In scripture, sin; trespass; guilt; crime; that which renders liable to punishment.
Forgive us our debts. Lord's Prayer.
DEBT'ED, participle passive det'ted. Indebted; obliged to.
DEBTEE', noun dettee'. A creditor; one to whom a debt is due.
DEBT'LESS, adjective det'less. Free from debt.
DEBT'OR, noun det'tor.
1. The person who owes another either money, goods or services.
In Athens an insolvent debtor became slave to his creditor.
2. One who is under obligation to do something.
I am debtor to the Greeks and barbarians. Rom. I.
He is a debtor to do the whole law. Galatians 5:3.
3. The side of an account in which debts are charged.
DEC'ACHORD,
DECACHORD'ON, noun [Gr. ten or string]
1. A musical instrument of ten strings.
2. Something consisting of ten parts.
DEC'ADAL, adjective Pertaining to ten; consisting of tens.
DEC'ADE, noun [Gr., ten.] The sum or number of ten; an aggregate consisting of ten; as a decade of years; the decades of Livy.
DECA'DENCE,
DECA'DENCY, noun Decay.
DEC'AGON, noun [Gr., ten and corner.] In geometry, a plane figure having ten sides and ten angles.
DEC'AGRAM, noun [Gr., ten and a weight.] A French weight of ten grams, or 154 grains, 44 decimals, equal to 6 penny weights, and 10 grains, 44 decimals, equal to 5 grams, 63 decimals, avoirdupoise.
DEC'AGYN, noun [Gr., ten and female.] In botany, a plant having ten pistils.
DECAGYN'IAN, adjective Having ten pistils.
DECAHE'DRAL, adjective Having ten sides.
DECAHE'DRON, noun [Gr., ten and a base.] In geometry, a figure or body having ten sides.
DEC'ALITER, noun [Gr., ten and liter.] A French measure of capacity, containing ten liters, or 610.28 cubic inches, equal to two gallons and 64, 44231 cubic inches.
DECAL'OGIST, noun One who explains the decalogue.
DEC'ALOGUE, noun dec'alog. [Gr., ten and speech.] The ten commandments or precepts given by God to Moses at mount Sinai, and originally written on two tables of stone.
DECAM'ETER, noun [Gr., ten and measure.] A French measure of length, consisting of ten meters, and equal to 393 English inches, and 71 decimals.
DECAMP', verb intransitive To remove or depart from a camp; to march off; as, the army decamped at six o'clock.
DECAMP'MENT, noun Departure from a camp; a marching off.
DEC'ANAL, adjective Pertaining to a deanery.
DECAN'DER, noun [Gr., ten and a male.] In botany, a plant having ten stamens.
DECAN'DRIAN, adjective Having ten stamens.
DECAN'GULAR, adjective [Gr., ten and angular.] Having ten angles.
DECANT', verb transitive [Latin , to sing; literally, to throw.] To pour off gently, as liquor from its sediment; or to pour from one vessel into another; as, to decant wine.
DECANTA'TION, noun The act of pouring liquor gently from its lees or sediment, or from one vessel into another.
DECANT'ED, participle passive Poured off, or from one vessel into another.
DECANT'ER, noun
1. A vessel used to decant liquors, or for receiving decanted liquors. A glass vessel or bottle used for holding wine or other liquors, for filling the drinking glasses.
2. One who decants liquors.
DECANT'ING, participle present tense Pouring off, as liquor from its lees, or from one vessel to another.
DECAPH'YLLOUS, adjective [Gr. ten and a leaf.] Having ten leaves.
DECAP'ITATE, verb transitive [Latin , head.] To behead; to cut off the head.
DECAPITA'TION, noun The act of beheading.
DEC'ARBONIZE, verb transitive To deprive of carbon; as, to decarbonize steel.
DEC'ARBONIZED, participle passive Deprived of carbon.
DEC'ARBONIZING, participle present tense Depriving of carbon.
DEC'ASTICH, noun [Gr. ten and a verse.] A poem consisting of ten lines.
DEC'ASTYLE, noun [Gr. ten and a column.] A building with an ordnance of ten columns in front.
DECA'Y, verb intransitive [Fr. dechoir, from Latin de and cado, to fall, or decedo.]
1. To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to a less perfect state, or towards destruction; to fail; to decline; to be gradually impaired. Our bodies decay in old age; a tree decays; buildings decay; fortunes decay
2. To become weaker; to fail; as, our strength decays, or hopes decay
DECA'Y, verb transitive To cause to fail; to impair; to bring to a worse state.
Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make better the fool.
DECA'Y, noun
1. Gradual failure of health, strength, soundness, prosperity, or any species of excellence or perfection; decline to a worse or less perfect state; tendency towards dissolution or extinction; a state of depravation or diminution. Old men feel the decay of the body. We perceive the decay of the faculties in age. We lament the decay of virtue and patriotism in the state. The northern nations invaded the Roman Empire, when in a state of decay
2. Declension from prosperity; decline of fortune.
If thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay Leviticus 25:35.
3. Cause of decay
He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of the whole age.
DECA'YED, participle passive Having fallen from a good or sound state; impaired; weakened; diminished.
DECA'YEDNESS, noun A state of being impaired; decayed state.
DECA'YER, noun That which causes decay.
DECA'YING, participle present tense Failing; declining; passing from a good, prosperous or sound state, to a worse condition; perishing.
DECA'YING, noun Decay; decline.
DECE'ASE, noun [Latin to depart or to withdraw.] Literally, departure; hence, departure from this life; death; applied to human beings only.
Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke 9:31.
DECE'ASE, verb intransitive To depart from this life; to die.
Gen. Washington deceased, December 14, 1799, in the 68th year of his age.
DECE'ASED, participle passive or adjective Departed from life. This is used as a passive participle. He is deceased for he has deceased; he was deceased for he had deceased This use of the participle of an intransitive verb is not infrequent, but the word omitted is really has. He has deceased It is properly an adjective, like dead.
DECE'ASING, participle present tense Departing from life; dying.
DECE'DENT, noun A deceased person.
DECE'IT,
1. Literally, a catching or ensnaring. Hence, the misleading of a person; the leading of another person to believe what is false, or not to believe what is true, and thus to ensnare him; fraud; fallacy; cheat; any declaration, artifice or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false.
My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit Job 27:4.
2. Stratagem; artifice; device intended to mislead.
They imagine deceits all the day long. Psalms 38:12.
3. In scripture, that which is obtained by guile, fraud or oppression.
Their houses are full of deceit Jeremiah 5:27. Zeph. I.
4. In law, any trick, device, craft, collusion, shift, covin, or underhand practice, used to defraud another.
DECE'ITFUL, adjective
1. Tending to mislead, deceive or ensnare; as deceitful words; deceitful practices.
Favor is deceitful Proverbs 31:30.
2. Full of deceit; trickish; fraudulent; cheating; as a deceitful man.
DECE'ITFULLY, adverb In a deceitful manner; fraudulently; with deceit; in a manner or with a view to deceive.
The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully Genesis 34:13.
DECE'ITFULNESS, noun
1. Tendency to mislead or deceive; as the deceitfulness of sin.
2. The quality of being fraudulent; as the deceitfulness of a man's practices.
3. The disposition to deceive; as, a man's deceitfulness may be habitual.
DECE'ITLESS, adjective Free from deceit.
DECE'IVABLE, adjective
1. Subject to deceit or imposition; capable of being misled or entrapped; exposed to imposture; as, young persons are very deceivable
2. Subject or apt to produce error or deception; deceitful.
Fair promises often prove deceivable
DECE'IVABLENESS, noun
1. Liableness to be deceived.
2. Liableness to deceive.
The deceivableness of unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10.
DECE'IVE, verb transitive [L to take asid, to ensnare.]
1. To mislead the mind; to cause to err; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose on; to delude.
Take heed that no man deceive you. Matthew 24:4.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. 1 John 1:1.
2. To beguile; to cheat.
Your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times.
3. To cut off from expectation; to frustrate or disappoint; as, his hopes were deceived.
4. To take from; to rob.
Plant fruit trees in large borders, and set therein fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees.
DECE'IVED, participle passive Misled; led into error; beguiled; cheated; deluded.
DECE'IVER, noun One who deceives; one who leads into error; a cheat; an impostor.
I shall seem to my father as a deceiver Genesis 27:12.
DECE'IVING, participle present tense Misleading; ensnaring; beguiling; cheating.
DECEM'BER, noun [Latin december from decem, ten; this being the tenth month among the early Romans, who began the year in March.]
The last month in the year, in which the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn, and makes the winter solstice.
DECEMDEN'TATE, adjective [Latin decem, ten, and dentatus, toothed.] Having ten points or teeth.
DEC'EMFID, adjective [Latin decem, ten, and fido, to divide.]
Ten-cleft; divided into ten parts; having ten divisions.
DECEMLOC'ULAR, adjective [Latin decem, ten, and loculus, a little bag or cell.] Having ten cells for seeds.
DEC'EMPEDAL, adjective [Latin decem, ten, and pes, a foot.] Ten feet in length.
DEC'EMVIR, noun [Latin decem, ten, and vir, a man.] One of ten magistrates, who had absolute authority in ancient Rome.
DECEM'VIRAL, adjective Pertaining to the decemvirs in Rome.
DECEM'VIRATE, noun
1. The office or term of office of the decemvirs or ten magistrates in Rome, who had absolute authority for two years.
2. A body of ten men in authority.
DE'CENCY, noun [Latin to be fit or becoming; Gr. to be good, or fit for.]
1. That which is fir, suitable or becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form, in social intercourse, in actions or discourse; proper formality; becoming ceremony. It has a special reference to behavior; as decency of conduct; decency of worship. But it is used also in reference to speech; as, he discoursed with decency
Those thousand decencies, that daily flow
From all her words and actions.
2. Suitableness to character; propriety.
3. Propriety in speech; modesty; opposed to ribaldry, or obscenity.
Want of decency is want of sense.
It may be also used for propriety of speech, opposed to rudeness, or disrespectful language; and for propriety in dress, opposed to raggedness, exposure of nakedness, filthiness, etc.
DEC'ENNARY, noun [Latin from decem, ten, and annus, a year.]
1. A period of years.
2. A tithing consisting of ten freeholders and their families.
DECEN'NIAL, adjective [Latin as above.] Continuing for ten years; consisting of ten years; or happening every ten years; as a decennial period; decennial games.
DEC'ENNOVAL,
DECEN'NOVARY, adjective [Latin decem, ten, and novem, nine.] Pertaining to the number nineteen; designating a period or circle of nineteen years.
DE'CENT, adjective [Latin decens; Fr. decent ]
1. Becoming; fit; suitable, in words, behavior, dress and ceremony; as decent language; decent conduct or actions; decent ornaments or dress.
2. Comely; not gaudy or ostentatious.
A sable stole of Cyprus lawn
O'er the decent shoulders drawn.
3. Not immodest.
4. In popular language, moderate, but competent; not large; as a decent fortune. So a decent person is one not highly accomplished, nor offensively rude.
DE'CENTLY, adverb
1. In a decent or becoming manner; with propriety of behavior or speech.
2. Without immodesty.
Past hope of safety, 'twas his latest care,
Like falling Caesar, decently to die.
DE'CENTNESS, noun Decency.
DECEPTIBIL'ITY, noun The quality or state of being capable or liable to be deceived.
DECEP'TIBLE, adjective That may be deceived.
DECEP'TION, noun
1. The act of deceiving or misleading.
All deception is a misapplication of the established signs used to communicate thoughts.
2. The state of being deceived or misled. Incautious and inexperienced youth is peculiarly exposed to deception
3. Artifice practiced; cheat; as, a scheme is alla deception
DECEP'TIOUS, adjective Tending to deceive; deceitful.
DECEP'TIVE, adjective Tending to deceive; having power to mislead, or impress false opinions; as a deceptive countenance or appearance.
DECEP'TORY, adjective Tending to deceive; containing qualities or means adapted to mislead.
DECERPT, adjective Cropped.
DECERP'TION, noun [Latin to pluck off.] A pulling or plucking off; a cropping.
DECERTA'TION, noun [Latin To strive.] Strife; contest for mastery.
DECES'SION, noun [Latin to pass.] Departure.
DECH'ARM, verb transitive To remove a spell or enchantment; to disenchant.
DECH'ARMED, participle passive Disenchanted.
DECH'ARMING, participle present tense Removing a spell.
DECHRIS'TIANIZE, verb transitive To turn from christianity; to banish christian belief and principles from.
DECI'DABLE, adjective That may be decided.
DECI'DE, verb transitive [Latin To strike, to cut.] Literally, to cut off, and thus to end. Hence,
1. To end; to determine, as a controversy, by verdict of a jury, or by a judgement of court. We say, the court or the jury decided the cause in favor of the plaintiff, or of the defendant.
2. To end or determine, as a dispute or quarrel.
3. To end or determine a combat or battle; as, a body of reserve, brought to the charge, decided the contest.
4. To determine; to fix the event of.
The fate of the bill is decided.
5. In general, to end; to terminate.
DECI'DE, verb intransitive To determine; to form a definite opinion; to come to a conclusion.
We cannot decide how far resistance is lawful or practicable.
The court decided in favor of the defendant.
DECI'DED, participle passive Determined; ended; concluded.
DECI'DED, adjective That implies decision; clear; unequivocal; that puts an end to doubt.
I find much cause to reproach myself, that I have lived so long, and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a christian. P. Henry, Wirt's Sketches.
DECI'DEDLY, adverb In a decided or determined manner; clearly; indisputable; in a manner to preclude doubt.
DECI'DENCE, noun A falling off.
DECI'DER, noun One who determines a cause or contest.
DECI'DING, participle present tense Determing; ending; concluding.
DECID'UOUS, adjective [Latin to fall.] Falling; not perennial or permanent. In botany, a deciduous leaf is one which falls in autumn; a deciduous calyx, is that which falls after the corol opens; distinguished from permanent.
DECID'UOUSNESS, noun The quality of falling once a year.
DEC'IGRAM, noun A French weight of one tenth of a gram.
DE'CIL, noun An aspect or position of two planets, when they are distant from each other a tenth part of the zodiac.
DEC'ILITER, noun A French measure of capacity equal to one tenth of a liter.
DEC'IMAL, adjective [Latin decimus, tenth, from decem, ten.]
1. Numbered by ten; as decimal progression.
2. Increasing or diminishing by ten; as decimal numbers; decimal arithmetic; decimal fractions.
3. Tenth; as a decimal part.
DEC'IMALLY, adverb By tens; by means of decimals.
DEC'IMATE, verb transitive [Latin decimo, from decem, ten.]
1. To tithe; to take the tenth part.
2. To select by lot and punish with death every tenth man; a practice in armies, for punishing mutinous or unfaithful troops.
3. To take every tenth.
DECIMA'TION, noun
1. A tithing; a selection of every tenth by lot.
2. The selecting by lot for punishment every tenth man, in a company or regiment, etc.
DEC'IMATOR, noun One who selects every tenth man, in a company or regiment, etc.
DECIM'ETER, noun A French measure of length equal to the tenth part of a meter, or 3 inches and 93710 decimals.
DECI'PHER, verb transitive
1. To find the alphabet of a cipher; to explain what is written in ciphers, by finding what letter each character or mark represents; as, to decipher a letter written in ciphers.
2. To unfold; to unravel what is intricate; to explain what is obscure or difficult to be understood; as, to decipher an ambiguous speech, or an ancient manuscript or inscription.
3. To write out; to mark down in characters.
4. To stamp; to mark; to characterize.
DECI'PHERED, participle passive Explained; unraveled; marked.
DECI'PHERER, noun One who explains what is written in ciphers.
DECI'PHERING, participle present tense Explaining; detecting the letters represented by ciphers; unfolding; marking.
DECIS'ION, noun
1. Determination, as of a question or doubt; final judgment or opinion, in a case which has been under deliberation or discussion; as the decision of the Supreme Court. He has considered the circumstances of the case and come to a decision
2. Determination of a contest or event; end of a struggle; as the decision of a battle by arms.
3. In Scotland, a narrative or report of the proceedings of the Court of Sessions.
4. Report of the opinions and determinations of any tribunal. We say, read the decisions of the Court of King's Bench.
5. Act of separation; devision.
DECI'SIVE, adjective
1. Having the power or quality of determining a question, doubt, or any subject of deliberation; final; conclusive; putting an end to controversy; as, the opinion of the court is decisive of the question.
2. Having the power of determining a contest or event; as, the victory of the allies was decisive
DECI'SIVELY, adverb In a conclusive manner; in a manner to end deliberation, controversy, doubt or contest.
DECI'SIVENESS, noun
1. The power of an argument or of evidence to terminate a difference or doubt; conclusiveness.
2. The power of an event to put an end to a contest.
DECI'SORY, adjective Able to decide or determine.
DECK, verb transitive
1. Primarily, to cover; to overspread; to put on. Hence,
2. To clothe; to dress the person; but usually, to clothe with more than ordinary elegance; to array; to adorn; to embellish.
The dew with spangles decked the ground.
3. To furnish with a deck as a vessel.
DECK, noun
1. The covering of a ship, which constitutes a floor, made of timbers and planks. Small vessels have only one deck; larger ships have two or three decks. A flush deck is a continued floor from stem to stern, on one line.
2. A pack of cards piled regularly on each other.
DECK'ED, participle passive Covered; adorned; furnished with a deck.
DECK'ER, noun
1. One who decks or adorns; a coverer; as a table-decker.
2. Of a ship, we say, she is a two-decker or a three-decker, that is, she has two decks or three decks.
DECK'ING, participle present tense Covering; arraying; adorning.
DECK'ING, noun Ornament; embellishment.
DECLA'IM, verb intransitive [Latin to cry out.]
1. To speak a set oration in public; to speak rhetorically; to make a formal speech, or oration; as, the students declaim twice a week.
2. To harangue; to speak loudly or earnestly, to a public body or assembly, with a view to convince their minds or move their passions.
DECLA'IM, verb transitive
1. To speak in public.
2. To speak in favor of; to advocate.
DECLA'IMANT or DECLA'IMER, noun
1. One who declaims; a speaker in public; one who attempts to convince by a harangue.
2. One who speaks clamorously.
DECLA'IMING, participle present tense Speaking rhetorically; haranguing.
DECLA'IMING, noun A harangue.
DECLAMA'TION, noun
1. A speech made in public, in the tone and manner of an oration; a discourse addressed to the reason or to the passions; a set speech; a harangue. This word is applied especially to the public speaking and speeches of students in colleges, practiced for exercises in oratory. It is applies also to public speaking in the legislature, and in the pulpit. Very often it is used for a noisy harangue, without solid sense or argument; as, mere declamation; empty declamation
2. A piece spoken in public, or intended for the public.
DECLAMA'TOR, noun A declaimer.
DECLAM'ATORY, adjective
1. Relating to the practice of declaiming; pertaining to declamation; treated in the manner of a rhetorician; as a declamatory theme.
2. Appealing to the passions; noisy; rhetorical without solid sense or argument; as a declamatory way or style.
DECLARA'TION, noun
1. An affirmation; an open expression of facts or opinions; verbal utterance; as, he declared his sentiments, and I rely on his declaration
2. Expression of facts, opinions, promises, predictions, etc., in writings; records or reports of what has been declared or uttered.
The scriptures abound in declarations of mercy to penitent sinners.
3. Publication; manifestation; as the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai. Esther 10:2.
4. A public annunciation; proclamation; as the declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
5. In law, that part of the process or pleadings in which the plaintiff sets forth at large his cause of complaint; the narration or count.
DECLAR'ATIVE, adjective
1. Making declaration; explanatory; making show or manifestation; as, the name of a thing may be declarative of its form or nature.
2. Making proclamation, or publication.
DECLAR'ATORILY, adverb By declaration, or exhibition.
DECLAR'ATORY, adjective Making declaration, clear manifestation, or exhibition; expressive; as, this clause is declaratory of the will of the legislature. The declaratory part of a law, is that which sets forth and defines what is right and what is wrong. A declaratory act, is an act or statute which sets forth more clearly and explains the intention of the legislature in a former act.
DECLA'RE, verb transitive [Latin to make clear.]
1. To clear; to free from obscurity; to make plain.
2. To make known; to tell explicitly; to manifest or communicate plainly to others by words.
I will declare what he hath done for my soul. Psalms 66:16.
3. To make known; to show to the eye or to the understanding; to exhibit; to manifest by other means than words.
The heavens declare the glory of God. Psalms 19:1.
4. To publish; to proclaim.
Declare his glory among the heathen. 1 Chronicles 16:24.
Declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. Acts 15:4.
5. To assert; to affirm; as, he declares the story to be false.
To declare one's self, to throw off reserve and avow one's opinion; to show openly what one thinks, or which side he espouses.
DECLA'RE, verb intransitive
1. To make a declaration; to proclaim or avow some opinion or resolution in favor or in opposition; to make known explicitly some determination; with for or against; as, the prince declared for the allies; the allied powers declared against France.
Like fawning courtiers, for success they wait;
And then come smiling, and declare for fate.
2. In law, to recite the causes of complaint against the defendant; as, the plaintiff declares in debt or trespass.
3. To show or manifest the issue or event; to decide in favor of; as, victory had not declared for either party.
DECLA'RED, participle passive Made known; told explicitly; avowed; exhibited; manifested; published; proclaimed; recited.
DECLA'REDLY, adverb Avowedly; explicitly.
DECLA'RER, noun One who makes known or publishes; that which exhibits.
DECLA'RING, participle present tense Making known by words or by other means; manifesting; publishing; affirming; reciting the cause of complaint.
DECLA'RING, noun Declaration; proclamation.
DECLA'TABLE, adjective That may be declared, or proved.
DECLEN'SION, noun
1. Literally, a leaning back or down; hence, a falling or declining towards a worse state; a tendency towards a less degree of excellence or perfection. The declension of a state is manifested by corruption of morals. We speak of the declension of virtue, of manners, of taste, of the sciences, of the fine arts, and sometimes of life or years; but in the latter application, decline is more generally used.
2. Declination; a declining; descent; slope; as the declension of the shore towards the sea.
3. In grammar, inflection of nouns, adjectives and pronouns; the declining, deviation or leaning of the termination of a word from the termination of the nomitive case; change of termination to form the oblique cases. Thus from rex in the nominative case, are formed regis in the genitive, regi in the dative, regem in the accusative, and rege in the ablative.
DECLI'NABLE, adjective That may be declined; changing its termination in the oblique cases; as a declinable noun.
DEC'LINATE, adjective In botany, bending or bent downwards, in a curve; declining.
DECLINA'TION, noun
1. A leaning; the act of bending down; as a declination of the head.
2. A declining, or falling into a worse state; change from a better to a worse condition; decay; deterioration; gradual failure or diminution of strength, soundness, vigor or excellence.
3. A deviation from a right line, in a literal sense; oblique motion; as the declination of a descending body.
4. Deviation from rectitude in behavior or morals; obliquity of conduct; as a declination from the path of integrity.
5. In astronomy, a variation from a fixed point or line. The distance of any celestial object from the equinoctial line, or equator, either northward or southward.
6. declination of the compass or needle, is the variation of the needle from the true meridian of a place.
7. In dialing, the declination of a wall or plane, is an arch of the horizon, contained between the plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, if you reckon from the north or south.
8. In grammar, declension; or the inflection of a noun through its various terminations.
DECLINA'TOR,
DECLIN'ATORY, noun An instrument for taking the declination, or inclination of a plane; an instrument in dialling.
Declinatory plea, in law, a plea before trial or conviction, intended to show that the party was not liable to the penalty of the law, or was specially exempted from the jurisdiction of the court. The plea of benefit of clergy is a declinatory plea.
DECLI'NE, verb intransitive [Latin to lean.]
1. To lean downward; as, the head declines towards the earth.
2. To lean from a right line; to deviate; in a literal sense.
3. To lean or deviate from rectitude, in a moral sense; to leave the path of truth or justice, or the course prescribed.
Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Psalms 119:157.
4. To fall; to tend or draw towards the close; as, the day declines.
5. To avoid or shun; to refuse; not to comply; not to do; as, he declined to take any part in the concern.
6. To fall; to fail; to sink; to decay; to be impaired; to tend to a less perfect state; as, the vigor of youth declines in age; health declines; virtue declines; religion declines; national credit and prosperity decline under a corrupt administration.
7. To sink; to diminish; to fall in value; as, the prices of land and goods decline at the close of a war.
DECLI'NE, verb transitive
1. To bend downward; to bring down.
In melancholy deep, with head declined.
2. To bend to one side; to move from a fixed point or right line.
3. To shun or avoid; to refuse; not to engage in; to be cautious not to do or interfere; not to accept or comply with; as, he declined the contest; he declined the offer; he declined the business or pursuit.
4. To inflect; to change the termination of a word, for forming the oblique cases; as, Dominus, Domini, Domino, Dominum, Domine.
DECLI'NE, noun Literally, a leaning from; hence, a falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; as the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion; the decline of revenues; the decline of agriculture, commerce or manufactures; the decline of learning.
DECLI'NED, participle passive Bent downward or from; inflected.
DECLI'NING, participle present tense Leaning; deviating; falling; failing; decaying; tending to a worse state; avoiding; refusing; inflecting.
DECLIV'ITOUS, adjective Gradually descending; not precipitous; sloping.
DECLIV'ITY, noun [Latin sloping.] Declination from a horizontal line; descent of land; inclination downward; a slope; a gradual descent of the earth, of a rock or other thing: chiefly used of the earth, and opposed to acclivity, or ascent; the same slope, considered as descending, being a declivity and considered as ascending, an acclivity.
DECLI'VOUS,
DECOCT', verb transitive [Latin to boil.]
1. To prepare by boiling; to digest in hot or boiling water.
2. To digest by the heat of the stomach; to prepare as food for nourishing the body.
3. To boil in water, for extracting the principles or virtues of a substance.
4. To boil up to a consistence; to invigorate.
DECOCT'IBLE, adjective That may be boiled or digested.
DECOC'TION, noun
1. The act of boiling a substance in water, for extracting its virtues.
2. The liquor in which a substance has been boiled; water impregnated with the principles of any animal or vegetable substance boiled in it; as a weak or a strong decoction of Peruvian bark.
DECOCT'IVE, adjective That may be easily decocted.
DECOCT'URE, noun A substance drawn by decoction.
DE'COLLATE, verb transitive To behead.
DE'COLLATED, participle passive Beheaded.
DECOLLA'TION, noun [Latin to behead; the neck.] The act of beheading; the act of cutting off the neck of an animal, and severing the head from the body. It is especially used of St. John the Baptist, and of a painting which represents his beheading.
DECOLORA'TION, noun Absence of color.
DE'COMPLEX, adjective Compounded of complex ideas.
DECOMPO'SABLE, adjective That may be decomposed; capable of being resolved into its constituent elements.
DECOMPO'SE, verb transitive To separate the constituent parts of a body or substance; to disunite elementary particles combined by affinity or chimical attraction; to resolve into original elements.
DECOMPO'SED, participle passive Separated or resolved into the constituent parts.
DECOMPO'SING, participle present tense Separating into constituent parts.
DECOMPOS'ITE, adjective Compounded a second time; compounded with things already composite.
DECOMPOSI'TION, noun
1. Analysis; the act of separating the constituent parts of a substance, which are chimically combined. decomposition differs from mechanical division, as the latter effects no change in the properties of the body divided, whereas the parts chimically decomposed have properties very different from those of the substance itself.
2. A second composition.
DECOMPOUND', verb transitive
1. To compound a second time; to compound or mix with that which is already compound; to form by a second composition.
2. To decompose.
DECOMPOUND', adjective
1. Composed of things or words already compounded; compounded a second time.
2. A decompound leaf, in botany, is when the primary petiole is so divided that each part forms a compound leaf. A decompound flower is formed of compound flowers, or containing, within a common calyx, smaller calyxes, common to several flowers.
DECOMPOUND'ABLE, adjective That may be decompounded.
DECOMPOUND'ED, participle passive Compounded a second time; composed of things already compounded.
DECOMPOUND'ING, participle present tense Compounding a second time.
DEC'ORATE, verb transitive [Latin comeliness, grace.]
1. To adorn; to beautify; to embellish; used of external ornaments or apparel; as, to decorate the person; to decorate an edifice; to decorate a lawn with flowers.
2. To adorn with internal grace or beauty; to render lovely; as, to decorate the mind with virtue.
3. To adorn or beautify with any thing agreeable; to embellish; as, to decorate a hero with honors, or a lady with accomplishments.
DEC'ORATED, participle passive Adorned; beautified; embellished.
DEC'ORATING, participle present tense Adorning; embellishing; rendering beautiful to the eye, or lovely to the mind.
DECORA'TION, noun
1. Ornament; embellishment; any thing added which renders more agreeable to the eye or to the intellectual view.
2. In architecture, any thing which adorns and enriches an edifice, as vases, paintings, figures, festoons, etc.
3. In theaters, the scenes, which are changed as occasion requires.
DEC'ORATOR, noun One who adorns or embellishes.
DEC'OROUS, adjective Decent; suitable to a character, or to the time, place and occasion; becoming; proper; befitting; as a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge.
DEC'OROUSLY, adverb In a becoming manner.
DECOR'TICATE, verb transitive [Latin bark.] To strip off bark; to peel; to husk; to take off the exterior coat; as, to decorticate barley.
DECOR'TICATED, participle passive Stripped of bark; peeled; husked.
DECOR'TICATING, participle present tense Stripping off bark or the external coat; peeling.
DECORTICA'TION, noun The act of stripping off bark or husk.
DECO'RUM, noun [Latin to become.]
1. Propriety of speech or behavior; suitableness of speech and behavior, to one's own character, and to the characters present, or to the place and occasion; seemliness; decency; opposed to rudeness, licentiousness, or levity.
To speak and behave with decorum is essential to good breeding.
2. In architecture, the suitableness of a building, and of its parts and ornaments, to its place and uses.
DECOY, noun
1. Any thing intended to lead into a snare; any lure or allurement that deceives and misleads into evil, danger or the power of an enemy.
2. A place for catching wild fowls.
DECOYED, participle passive Lured or drawn into a snare or net; allured into danger by deception.
DECOYING, participle present tense Luring into a snare or net by deception; leading into evil or danger.
DECREASE, verb intransitive [Latin To grow.] To become less; to be diminished gradually, in extent, bulk, quantity, or amount, or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, the days decrease in length from June to December.
He must increase, but I must decrease John 3:30.
DECREASE, verb transitive To lessen; to make smaller in dimensions, amount, quality or excellence, etc.; to diminish gradually or by small deductions; as, extravagance decreases the means of charity; every payment decreases a debt; intemperance decreases the strength and powers of life.
DECREASE, noun
1. A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as a decrease of revenue; a decrease of strength.
2. The wane of the moon; the gradual diminution of the visible face of the moon from the full to the change.
DECREASED, participle passive Lessened; diminished.
DECREASING, participle present tense Becoming less; diminishing; waning.
DECREE, noun [Latin To judge; to divide.]
1. Judicial decision, or determination of a litigated cause; as a decree of the court of chancery. The decision of a court of equity is called a decree; that of a court of law, a judgment.
2. In the civil law, a determination or judgment of the emperor on a suit between parties.
3. An edict or law made by a council for regulating any business within their jurisdiction; as the decrees of ecclesiastical councils.
4. In general, an order, edict or law made by a superior as a rule to govern inferiors.
There went a decree from Cesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. Luke 2:1.
5. Established law, or rule.
He made a decree for the rain. Job 28:26.
6. In theology, predetermined purpose of God; the purpose or determination of an immutable Being, whose plan of operations is, like himself, unchangeable.
DECREE, verb transitive
1. To determine judicially; to resolve by sentence; as, the court decreed that the property should be restored; or they decreed a restoration of the property.
2. To determine or resolve legislatively; to fix or appoint; to set or constitute by edict or in purpose.
Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established. Job 22:28.
Let us not be solicitous to know what God has decreed concerning us.
DECREED, participle passive Determined judicially; resolved; appointed; established in purpose.
DECREEING, participle present tense Determining; resolving; appointing; ordering.
DECREMENT, noun
1. Decrease; waste; the state of becoming less gradually.
Rocks and mountains suffer a continual decrement
2. The quantity lost by gradual diminution, or waste.
3. In heraldry, the wane of the moon.
4. In crystalography, a successive diminution of the lamens of molecules, applied to the faces of the primitive form, by which the secondary forms are supposed to be produced.
DECREPIT, adjective [Latin to break.] Broken down with age; wasted or worn by the infirmities of old age; being in the last stage of decay; weakened by age.
DECREPITATE, verb transitive [Latin To break or burst, to crackle.] To roast or calcine in a strong heat, with a continual bursting or crackling of the substance; as, to decrepitate salt.
DECREPITATE, verb intransitive To crackle, as salts when roasting.
DECREPITATED, participle passive Roasted with a crackling noise.
DECREPITATING, participle present tense Crackling; roasting with a crackling noise; suddenly bursting when exposed to heat.
DECREPITATION, noun The act of roasting with a continual crackling; or the separation of parts with a crackling noise, occasioned by heat.
DECREPITNESS,
DECREPITUDE, noun The broken, crazy state of the body, produced by decay and the infirmities of age.
DECREPITUDE, n. The broken, crazy state of the body, produced by decay and the infirmities of age.
DECRESCENT, adjective Decreasing; becoming less by gradual diminution; as a decrescent moon.
DECRETAL, noun
1. A letter of the pope, determining some point or question in ecclesiastical law. The decretals form the second part of the canon law.
2. A book of decrees, or edicts; a body of laws.
3. A collection of the popes decrees.
DECRETION, noun A decreasing.
DECRETIST, noun One who studies or professes the knowledge of the decretals.
DECRETORILY, adverb In a definitive manner.
DECRETORY, adjective
1. Judicial; definitive; established by a decree.
The decretory rigors of a condemning sentence.
2. Critical; determining; in which there is some definitive event; as, critical or decretory days.
DECREW, verb intransitive To decrease.
DECRIAL, noun A crying down; a clamorous censure; condemnation by censure.
DECRIED, participle passive Cried down; descredited; brought into disrepute.
DECRIER, noun One who decries.
DECROWN, verb transitive To deprive of a crown.
DECRY, verb transitive
1. To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean or worthless; to clamor against; to discredit by finding fault; as, to decry a poem.
2. To cry down, as improper or unnecessary; to rail or clamor against; to bring into desrepute; as, to decry the measures of administration.
DECUBATION, noun The act of lying down.
DECUMBENCE,
DECUMBENCY, noun [Latin To lie down.] The act of lying down; the posture of lying down.
DECUMBENCY, n. [L. To lie down.] The act of lying down; the posture of lying down.
DECUMBENT, adjective In botany, declined or bending down; having the stamens and pistils bending down to the lower side; as a decumbent flower.
DECUMBITURE, noun
1. The time at which a person takes to his bed in a disease.
2. In astrology, the scheme or aspect of the heavens, by which the prognostics of recovery or death are discovered.
DECUPLE, adjective [Latin Ten.] Tenfold; containing ten times as many.
DECUPLE, noun A number ten times repeated.
DECURION, noun [Latin Ten] An officer in the Roman army, who commanded a decuria, or ten soldiers, which was a third part of the turma, and a thirtieth of the legion of cavalry.
DECURRENT, adjective [Latin To run down; to run.] Extending downwards. A decurrent leaf is a sessile leaf having its base extending downwards along the stem.
DECURSION, noun [Latin To run.] The act of running down, as a stream.
DECURSIVE, adjective Running down.
DECURSIVEly pinnate, in botany, applied to a leaf, having the leaflets decurrent or running along the petiole.
DECURT, verb transitive To shorten by cutting off.
DECURTATION, noun [Latin To shorten.] Tha act of shortening, or cutting short.
DECURY, noun [Latin Ten.] A set of ten men under an officer called decurio.
DECUSSATE, verb transitive [Latin To cut or strike across.] To intersect at acute angles, thus X; or in general, to intersect; to cross; as lines, rays, or nerves in the body.
DECUSSATED, adjective Crossed; intersected. In botany, decussated leaves and branches, are such as grow in pairs which alternately cross each other at right angles, or in a regular manner.
In rhetoric, a decussated period is one that consists of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other. For example, If impudence could effect as much in courts of justice, as insolence sometimes does in the country, Caesina would now yield to the impudence of Ebutius, as he then yielded to his insolent assault.
DECUSSATING, participle present tense Intersecting at acute angles; crossing.
DECUSSATION, noun The act of crossing at unequal angles; the crossing of two lines, rays or nerves, which meet in a point and then proceed and diverge.
DEDALIAN, adjective Various; variegated; intricate; complex; expert.
DEDALOUS, adjective Having a margin with various windings and turnings; of a beautiful and delicate texture; a term applied to the leaves of plants.
DEDECORATE, verb transitive To disgrace.
DEDECORATION, noun A disgracing.
DEDENTITION, noun The shedding of teeth.
DEDICATE, verb transitive [Latin To vow, promise, devote, dedicate See Class Dg. No. 12, 15, 45. The sense is to send, to throw; hence, to set, to appoint.]
1. To set apart and consecrate to a divine Being, or to a sacred purpose; to devote to a sacred use, by a solemn act, or by religious ceremonies; as, to dedicate vessels, treasures, a temple, an altar, or a church, to God or to a religious use.
Vessels of silver, of gold, and of brass, which king David did dedicate to the Lord. 2 Sam. Viii.
2. To appropriate solemnly to any person or purpose; to give wholly or chiefly to. The ministers of the gospel dedicate themselves, their time and their studies, to the service of Christ. A soldier dedicates himself to the profession of arms.
3. To inscribe or address to a patron; as, to dedicate a book.
DEDICATE, adjective Consecrated; devoted; appropriated.
DEDICATED, participle passive Devoted to a divine Being, or to a sacred use; consecrated; appropriated; given wholly to.
DEDICATING, participle present tense Devoting to a divine Being, or to a sacred purpose; consecrating; appropriating; giving wholly to.
DEDICATION, noun
1. The act of consecrating to a divine Being, or to a sacred use, often with religious solemnities; solemn appropriation; as the dedication of Solomons temple.
2. The act of devoting or giving to.
3. An address to a patron, prefixed to a book, testifying respect and recommending the work to his protection and favor.
DEDICATOR, noun One who dedicates; one who inscribes a book to the favor of a patron.
DEDICATORY, adjective Composing a dedication; as an epistle dedicatory
DEDITION, noun [Latin To yield.] The act of yielding any thing; surrendry.
DEDOLENT, adjective Feeling no compunction.
DEDUCE, verb transitive [Latin To lead, bring or draw.]
1. To draw from; to bring from.
O goddess, say, shall I deduce my rhymes
From the dire nation in its early times?
2. To draw from, in reasoning; to gather a truth, opinion or proposition from premises; to infer something from what precedes.
Reasoning is nothing but the faculty of deducing unknown truths from principles already known.
3. To deduct.
4. To transplant.
DEDUCED, participle passive Drawn from; inferred; as a consequence from principles or premises.
DEDUCEMENT, noun The thing drawn from or deduced; inference; that which is collected from premises.
DEDUCIBLE, adjective That may be deduced; inferable; collectible by reason from premises; consequential.
The properties of a triangle are deducible from the complex idea of three lines including a space.
DEDUCING, participle present tense Drawing from; inferring; collecting from principles or facts already established or known.
DEDUCIVE, adjective Performing the act of deduction.
DEDUCT, verb transitive To take from; to subtract; to separate or remove, in numbering, estimating or calculating. Thus we say, from the sum of two numbers, deduct the lesser number; from the amount of profits, deduct the charges of freight.
DEDUCTED, participle passive Taken from; subtracted.
DEDUCTING, ppt. Taking from; subtracting.
DEDUCTION, noun
1. The act of deducting.
2. That which is deducted; sum or amount taken from another; defalcation; abatement; as, this sum is a deduction from the yearly rent.
3. That which is drawn from premises; fact, opinion, or hypothesis, collected from principles or facts stated, or established data; inference; consequence drawn; conclusion; as, this opinion is a fair deduction from the principles you have advanced.
DEDUCTIVE, adjective Deducible; that is or may be deduced from premises.
All knowledge is deductive
DEDUCTIVELY, adverb By regular deduction; by way of inference; by consequence.
DEED, noun
1. That which is done, acted or effected; an act; a fact; a word of extensive application, including whatever is done, good or bad, great or small.
And Joseph said to them, what deed is this which ye have done? Gen. x1iv.
We receive the due reward of our deeds. Luke 23:41.
2. Exploit; achievement; illustrious act.
Whose deeds some nobler poem shall adorn.
3. Power of action; agency.
With will and deed created free.
4. A writing containing some contract or agreement, and the evidence of its execution; particularly, an instrument on paper or parchment, conveying real estate to a purchaser or donee. This instrument must be executed, and the execution attested, in the manner prescribed by law.
Indeed, in fact; in reality. These words are united and called an adverb. But sometimes they are separated by very, in very deed; a more emphatical expression. Exodus 9:16.
DEED, verb transitive To convey or transfer by deed; a popular use of the word in America; as, he deeded all his estate to his eldest son.
DEEDLESS, adjective Inactive; not performing or having performed deeds or exploits.
DEEM, verb transitive
1. To think; to judge; to be of opinion; to conclude on consideration; as, he deems it prudent to be silent.
For never can I deem him less than god.
The shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country. Acts 27:27.
2. To estimate.
DEEM, noun Opinion; judgment; surmise.
DEEMED, participle passive Thought; judged; supposed.
DEEMING, participle present tense Thinking; judging; believing.
DEEMSTER, noun A judge in the Isle of Man and in Jersey.
DEEP, adjective
1. Extending or being far below the surface; descending far downward; profound ; opposed to shallow; as deep water; a deep pit or well.
2. Low in situation; being or descending far below the adjacent land; as a deep valley.
3. Entering far; piercing a great way. A tree in a good soil takes deep root. A spear struck deep into the flesh.
4. Far from the outer part; secreted.
A spider deep ambushed in her den.
5. Not superficial or obvious; hidden; secret.
He discovereth deep things out of darkness. Job 12:22.
6. Remote from comprehension.
O Lord, thy thoughts are very deep Ps. Xcii.
7. Sagacious; penetrating; having the power to enter far into a subject; as a man of deep thought; a deep divine.
8. Artful; contriving; concealing artifice; insidious; designing; as a friend, deep hollow treacherous.
9. Grave in sound; low; as the deep tones of an organ.
10. Very still; solemn; profound; as deep silence.
11. Thick; black; not to be penetrated by the sight.
Now deeper darkness brooded on the ground.
12. Still; sound; not easily broken or disturbed.
The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. Genesis 2:21.
13. Depressed; sunk low, metaphorically; as deep poverty.
14. Dark; intense; strongly colored; as a deep brown; a deep crimson; a deep blue.
15. Unknown; unintelligible.
A people of deeper speech than thou canst perceive. Isaiah 33:19.
16. Heart-felt; penetrating; affecting; as a deep sense of guilt.
17. Intricate; not easily understood or unraveled; as a deep plot or intrigue.
This word often qualifies a verb, like an adverb.
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring.
DEEP, noun
1. The sea; the abyss of waters; the ocean.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. Job x1i.
2. A lake; a great collection of water.
Lanch out into the deep and let down your nets. Luke 5:4.
3. That which is profound, not easily fathomed, or incomprehensible.
Thy judgments are a great deep Psalms 36:6.
4. The most still or solemn part; the midst; as, in deep of night.
DEEPEN, verb transitive
1. To make deep or deeper; to sink lower; as, to deepen the channel of a river or harbor; to deepen a well.
2. To make dark or darker; to make more thick or gloomy; as, to deepen the shades of night; to deepen gloom.
3. To give a darker hue, or a stronger color; as, to deepen a color; to deepen a red, blue or crimson color.
4. To make more poignant or distressing; as, to deepen grief or sorrow.
5. To make more frightful; as, to deepen the horrors of the scene.
6. To make more sad or gloomy; as, to deepen the murmurs of the flood.
7. To make more grave; as, to deepen the tones of an organ.
DEEPEN, verb intransitive To become more deep; as, the water deepens at every cast of the lead.
DEEPENED, participle passive Made more deep.
DEEPENING, participle present tense Sinking lower; making more deep.
DEEPLY, adverb
1. At or to a great depth; far below the surface; as a passion deeply rooted in our nature; precepts deeply engraven on the heart.
2. Profoundly; thoroughly; as deeply skilled in ethics or anatomy.
3. To or from the inmost recesses of the heart; eith great sorrow; most feelingly.
He sighed deeply in his spirit. Mark 8:12.
He was deeply affected at the sight.
4. To a great degree; as, he has deeply offended.
They have deeply corrupted themselves. Hosea 9.
5. With a dark hye, or strong color; as a deeply red liquor; deeply colored.
6. Gravely; as a deeply toned instrument.
7. With profound skill; with art or intricacy; as a deeply laid plot or intrigue.
This word cannot easily be defined in all its various applications. In general it gives emphasis or intensity to the word which it qualifies.
DEEPNESS, noun
1. Depth; remoteness from the surface in a descending line; interior distance from the surface; profundity.
And forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. Matthew 13:5
2. Craft; insidiousness.
DEER, noun Sing. And plural [Gr. A wild beast. The primary sense is simply roving, wild, untamed; hence, a wild beast.] A quadruped of the genus Cervus, of several species, as the stag, the fallow deer the roe-buck, the rane or rane-deer, etc. These animals are wild and hunted in the forest, or kept in parks. Their flesh called venison, is deemed excellent food.
DEESS, noun A goddess.
DEFACE, verb transitive
1. To destroy or mar the face or surface of a thing; to injure the superficies or beauty; to disfigure; as, to deface a monument; to deface an ediface.
2. To injure any thing; to destroy, spoil or mar; to erase or obliterate; as, to deface letters or writing; to deface a note, deed or bond; to deface a record.
3. To injure the appearance; to disfigure.
DEFACER, noun He or that which defaces; one who injures, mars or disfigures.
DEFACING, participle present tense Injuring the face or surface; marring; disfiguring; erasing.
De facto. [Latin] actually; in fact; existing; as a king de facto, distinguished from a king de jure, or by right.
DEFAILANCE, noun Failure; miscarriage.
DEFALCATE, verb transitive To cut off; to take away or deduct a part; used chiefly of money, accounts, rents, income, etc.
DEFALCATION, . noun
1. The act of cutting off, or deducting a part; deduction; diminution; abatement; as, let him have the amount of his rent without defalcation
2. That which is cut off; as, this loss is a defalcation from the revenue.
DEFALK, verb transitive To defalcate.
DEFAMATION, noun The uttering of slanderous words with a view to injure anothers reputation; the malicious uttering of falsehood respecting another which tends to destroy or impair his good name, character or occupation; slander; calumny. To constitute defamation in law, the words must be false and spoken maliciously. Defamatory words written and published are called a libel.
DEFAMATORY, adjective Calumnious; slanderous; containing defamation; false and injurious to reputation; as defamatory words; defamatory reports or writings.
DEFAME,
1. To slander; falsely and maliciously to utter words respecting another which tend to injure his reputation or occupation; as to say, a judge is corrupt; a man is perjured; a trader is a knave.
2. To speak evil of; to dishonor by false reports; to calumniate; to libel; to impair reputation by acts or words.
Being defamed, we entreat. 1 Cor. Iv.
DEFAMED, participle passive Slandered; dishonored or injured by evil reports.
DEFAMER, noun A slanderer; a detractor; a calumniator.
DEFAMING, participle present tense Slandering; injuring the character by false reports.
DEFAMING, noun Defamation; slander.
DEFATICATE, verb transitive [Latin To tire.] To weary or tire.
DEFATIGABLE, adjective Liable to be wearied.
DEFATIGATION, noun Weariness.
DEFAULT, noun
1. A failing, or failure; an omission of that which ought to be done; neglect to do what duty or law requires; as, this evil has happened through the governors default A default or fault, may be a crime, a vice, or a mere defect, according to the nature of the duty omitted.
2. Defect; want; failure.
Cooks could make artificial birds, in default of real ones.
3. In law, a failure of appearance in court at a day assigned, particularly of the defendant in a suit when called to make answer. It may be applied to jurors, witnesses, etc.; but a plaintiffs failing to appear by himself or attorney, is usually called a non-appearance.
To suffer default is to permit an action to be called without appearing or answering; applied to a defendant.
DEFAULT, verb intransitive To fail in performing a contract or agreement.
DEFAULT, verb transitive
1. In law, to call out a defendant, (according to common expression.) To call a defendant officially, to appear and answer in court, and on his failing to answer, to declare him in default and enter judgement against him; as, let the defendant be defaulted.
No costs are to be awarded for such town, if defaulted.
2. To call out a cause, in which the defendant does not appear, and enter judgment on the default; as, the cause was defaulted.
3. To fail in performance.
DEFAULT, verb transitive To offend.
DEFAULTED, participle passive
1. Called out of court, as a defendant or his cause.
2. adjective Having defect.
DEFAULTER, noun
1. One who makes default; one who fails to appear in court when called.
2. One who fails to perform a public duty; particularly, one who fails to account for public money entrusted to his care; a delinquent.
DEFAULTING, participle present tense
1. Failing to fulfil a contract; delinquent.
2. Failing to perform a duty or legal requirement; as a defaulting creditor.
3. Calling out of court, and entering judgment against for non-appearance, as a defendant.
DEFEASANCE, , noun S as z.
1. Literally, a defeating; a rendering null; the preventing of the operation of an instrument.
2. In law, a condition, relating to a deed, which being performed, the deed is defeated or rendered void; or a collateral deed, made at the same time with a feoffment or other conveyance, containing conditions, on the performance of which the estate then created may be defeated. A defeasance on a bond, or a recognizance, or a judgment recovered, is a condition which, when performed, defeats it. A defeasance differs from the common condition of a bond, in being a separate deed, whereas a common condition is inserted in the bond itself.
3. The writing containing a defeasance
4. Defeat.
DEFEASIBLE, adjective S as z. That may be defeated, or annulled; as a defeasible title; a defeasible estate.
DEFEASIBLENESS, noun The quality of being defeasible.
DEFEAT, noun
1. Overthrow; loss of battle; the check, rout, or destruction of an army by the victory of an enemy.
2. Successful resistance; as the defeat of an attack.
3. Frustration; a rendering null and void; as the defeat of a title.
4. Frustration; prevention of success; as the defeat of a plan or design.
DEFEAT, verb transitive
1. To overcome or vanquish, as an army; to check, disperse or ruin by victory; to overthrow; applies to an army, or a division of troops; to a fleet, or to a commander.
The English army defeated the French on the plains of Abraham. Gen. Wolf defeated Montcalm. The French defeated the Austrians at Marengo.
2. To frustrate; to prevent the success of; to disappoint.
Then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. 2 Sam. Xv. And xvii.
We say, our dearest hopes are often defeated.
3. To render null and void; as, to defeat a title or an estate.
4. To resist with success; as, to defeat an attempt or assault.
DEFEATING, participle present tense Vanquishing; subduing; opposing successfully; overthrowing; frustrating; disappointing; rendering null and void.
DEFEATURE, noun
1. Change of feature.
2. Overthrow; defeat.
DEFECATE, verb transitive [Latin Dregs.]
1. To purify; to refine; to clear from dregs or impurities; to clarify; as, to defecate liquor.
2. To purify from admixture; to clear; to purge of extraneous matter.
DEFECATED, participle passive Purtified; clarified; refined.
DEFECATING, participle present tense Purifying; purging of lees or impurities.
DEFECATION, noun The act of separating from lees or dregs; purification from impurities or foreign matter.
DEFECT, noun [Latin To fail; to make or do.]
1. Want or absence of something necessary or useful towards perfection; fault; imperfection.
Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
We say, there are numerous defects in the plan, or in the work, or in the execution.
2. Failing; fault; mistake; imperfection in moral conduct, or in judgment.
A deep conviction of the defects of our lives tends to make us humble.
Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know,
Make use of every friend and every foe.
3. Any want, or imperfection, in natural objects; the absence of any thing necessary to perfection; any thing unnatural or misplaced; blemish; deformity. We speak of a defect in the organs of seeing or hearing, or in a limb; a defect in timber; a defect in an instrument, etc.
DEFECT, verb intransitive To be deficient.
DEFECTIBILITY, noun Deficiency; imperfection.
DEFECTIBLE, adjective Imperfect; deficient; wanting.
DEFECTION, noun
1. Want or failure of duty; particularly, a falling away; apostasy; the act of abandoning a person or cause to which one is bound by allegiance or duty, or to which one has attached himself. Our defection from God is proof of our depravity. The cause of the king was rendered desperate by the defection of the nobles.
2. Revolt; used of nations or states.
DEFECTIVE, adjective
1. Wanting either in substance, quantity or quality, or in any thing necessary; imperfect; as a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or book; a defective account. defective articulation, in speaking, renders utterance indistinct.
2. Wanting in moral qualities; faulty; blamable; not conforming to rectitude or rule; as a defective character.
3. In grammar, a defective noun is one which wants a whole number or a particular case; an indeclinable noun.
4. A defective verb, is one which wants some of the tenses.
DEFECTIVELY, adverb In a defective manner; imperfectly.
DEFECTIVENESS, noun Want; the state of being imperfect; faultiness.
DEFECTUOSITY, noun Defectiveness; faultiness.
DEFECTUOUS, adjective Full of defects.
DEFEDATION, noun Pollution.
DEFEND, verb transitive
1. To drive from; to thrust back; hence, to deny; to repel a demand, charge, or accusation; to oppose; to resist; the effect of which is to maintain ones own claims.
2. To forbid; to prohibit; that is, to drive from, or back. Milton calls the forbidden fruit, the defended fruit.
The use of wine in some places is defended by customs or laws.
3. To drive back a foe or danger; to repel from any thing that which assails or annoys; to protect by opposition or resistance; to support or maintain; to prevent from being injured, or destroyed.
There arose, to defend Israel, Tola the son of Puah. Judges 10:1.
4. To vindicate; to assert; to uphold; to maintain uninjured, by force or by argument; as, to defend our cause; to defend rights and privileges; to defend reputation.
5. To secure against attacks or evil; to fortify against danger or violence; to set obstacles to the approach of any thing that can annoy. A garden may be defended by a wall, a hill or a river.
DEFEND, verb intransitive To make opposition; as, the party comes into court, defends and says.
DEFENDABLE, adjective That may be defended.
DEFENDANT, adjective
1. Defensive; proper for defense.
2. Making defense; being in the character of a defendant
DEFENDANT, noun
1. He that defends against an assailant, or against the approach of evil or danger.
2. In law, the party that opposes a complaint, demand or charge; he that is summoned into court, and defends, denies or opposes the demand or charge, and maintains his own right. It is applied to any party of whom a demand is made in court, whether the party denies and defends, or admits the claim and suffers a default.
DEFENDED, participle passive Opposed; denied; prohibited; maintained by resistance; vindicated; preserved uninjured; secured.
DEFENDER, noun One who defends by oppostition; one who maintains, supports, protects or vindicates; an assertor; a vindicator, either by arms or by arguments; a champion or an advocate.
DEFENDING, participle present tense Denying; opposing; resisiting; forbidding; maintaining uninjured by force or by reason; securing from evil.
DEFENSATIVE, noun Guard; defense; a bandage, plaster, or the like, to secure a wound from external injury.
DEFENSE, noun
1. Any thing that opposes attack, violence, danger or injury; any thing that secures the person, the rights or the possessions of men; fortification; guard; protection; security. A wall, a parapet, a ditch, or a garrison, is the defense of a city or fortress. The Almighty is the defense of the righteous. Psalms 59:16.
2. Vindication; justification; apology; that which repels or disproves a charge or accusation.
Men, brethren, fathers, hear ye my defense Acts 22:1.
3. In law, the defendants reply to the plaintiffs declaration, demands or charges.
4. Prohibition.
5. Resistance; opposition.
6. The science of defending against enemies; military skill.
7. In fortification, a work that flanks another.
DEFENSE, verb transitive To defend by fortification.
DEFENSED, participle passive Fortified.
DEFENSELESS, adjective Being without defense, or without means of repelling assault or injury; applied to a town, it denotes unfortified or ungarrisoned; open to an enemy; applied to a person, it denotes naked; unarmed; unprotected; unprepared to resist attack; weak; unable to oppose; uncovered; unsheltered.
DEFENSELESSNESS, noun The state of being unguarded or unprotected.
DEFENSIBLE, adjective
1. That may be defended; as a defensible city.
2. That may be vindicated, maintained or justified; as a defensible cause.
DEFENSIVE, adjective
1. That serves to defend; proper for defense; as defensive armor, which repels attacks or blows, opposed to offensive arms, which are used in attack.
2. Carried on in resisting attack or aggression; as defensive war, in distinction from offensive war, which is aggressive.
3. In a state or posture to defend.
DEFENSIVE, noun Safeguard; that which defends.
Wars preventive, upon just fears, are true defensives.
To be on the defensive or to stand on the defensive is to be or stand in a state or posture of defense or resistance, in opposition to aggrression or attack.
DEFENSIVELY, adverb In a defensive manner; on the defensive; in defense.
DEFER, verb transitive [Latin To bear.]
1. To delay; to put off; to postpone to a future time; as, to defer the execution of a design.
When thou vowest a vow, defer not to pay it. Ecclesiastes 5:4.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Proverbs 13:1.
2. To refer; to leave to anothers judgment and determination.
[In this sense, refer is now used.]
DEFERENCE, noun
1. A yielding in opinion; submission of judgment to the opinion or judgment of another. Hence, regard; respect. We often decline acting in opposition to those for whose wisdom we have a great deference
2. Complaisance; condescension.
3. Submission.
DEFERENT, adjective Bearing; carrying; conveying.
DEFERENT, noun
1. That which carries or conveys. The deferent of a planet, is an imaginary circle or orb in the Ptolemaic system, that is supposed to carry about the body of the planet.
2. A vessel in the human body for the conveyance of fluids.
DEFERENTIAL, , adjective Expressing deference.
DEFERMENT, noun Delay.
DEFERRER, noun One who delays or puts off.
DEFERRING, participle present tense Delaying; postponing.
DEFIANCE, noun
1. A daring; a challenge to fight; invitation to combat; a call to an adversary to encounter, if he dare. Goliath bid defiance to the army of Israel.
2. A challenge to meet in any contest; a call upon one to make good any assertion or charge; an invitation to maintain any cause or point.
3. Contempt of opposition or danger; a daring or resistance that implies the contempt of an adversary, or of any opposing power. Men often transgress the law and act in defiance of authority.
DEFIATORY, adjective Bidding or bearing defiance.
DEFICIENCE,
DEFICIENCY, noun [Latin To fail to do.]
1. A failing; a falling short; imperfection; as a deficiency in moral duties.
2. Want; defect; something less than is necessary; as a deficiency of means; a deficiency of revenue; a deficiency of blood.
DEFICIENCY, n. [L. To fail to do.]
1. A failing; a falling short; imperfection; as a deficiency in moral duties.2. Want; defect; something less than is necessary; as a deficiency of means; a deficiency of revenue; a deficiency of blood.DEFICIENT, adjective
1. Wanting; defective; imperfect; not sufficient or adequate; as deficient estate; deficient strength.
2. Wanting; not having a full or adequate supply; as, the country may be deficient in the means of carrying on war.
DEFICIENT numbers, in arithmetic, are those numbers, whose parts, added together, make less than the integer, whose parts they are.
DEFICIT, noun Want; deficiency; as a deficit in the taxes or revenue.
DEFIER, noun A challenger; one who dares to combat or encounter; one who braves; one who acts in contempt of opposition, law or authority; as a defier of the laws.
DEFIGURATION, noun A disfiguring.
DEFIGURE, verb transitive To delineate.
DEFILE, verb transitive
1. To make unclean; to render foul or dirty; in a general sense.
2. To make impure; to render turbid; as, the water or liquor is defiled.
3. To soil or sully; to tarnish; as reputation, etc.
He is among the greatest prelates of the age, however his character may be defiled by dirty hands.
They shall defile thy brightness. Ezekiel 28:7.
4. To pollute; to make ceremonially unclean.
That which dieth of itself, he shall not eat, to defile himself therewith. Leviticus 22:8.
5. To corrupt chastity; to debauch; to violate; to tarnish the purity of character by lewdness.
Schechem defiled Dinah. Genesis 34:2.
6. To taint, in a moral sense; to corrupt; to vitiate; to render impure with sin.
DEFILE not yourselves with the idols of Egypt. Ezekiel 20:7.
He hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Numbers 19:20.
DEFILE, verb intransitive [Latin A thread.] To march off in a line, or file by file; to file off.
DEFILE, noun A narrow passage or way, in which troops may march only in a file, or with a narrow front; a long narrow pass, as between hills, etc.
DEFILED, participle passive Made dirty, or foul; polluted; soiled; corrupted; violated; vitiated.
DEFILEMENT, noun
1. The act of defiling, or state of being defiled; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness.
2. Corruption of morals, principles or character; impurity; pollution by sin.
The chaste cannot rake into such filth without danger of defilement
DEFILER, noun One who defiles; one who corrupts or violates; that which pollutes.
DEFILING, participle present tense
1. Polluting; making impure.
2. Marching in a file, or with a narrow front.
DEFINABLE, adjective
1. Literally, that may be limited, or have its limits ascertained. Hence, capable of having its extent ascertained with precision; capable of being fixed and determined. The extent of the Russian empire is hardly definable The limits are hardly definable
2. That may be defined or described; capable of having its signification rendered certain, or expressed with certainty or precision; as definable words.
3. That may be fixed, determined or ascertained; as, the time or period is not definable
DEFINE, verb transitive [Latin To end, to limit, from finis, end.]
1. To determine or describe the end or limit; as, to define the extent of a kingdom or country.
2. To determine with precision; to ascertain; as, to define the limits of a kingdom.
3. To mark the limit; to circumscribe; to bound.
4. To determine or ascertain the extent of the meaning of a word; to ascertain the signification of a term; to explain what a word is understood to express; as, to define the words, virtue, courage, belief, or charity.
5. To describe; to ascertain or explain the distinctive properties or circumstances of a thing; as, to define a line or an angle.
DEFINE, verb intransitive To determine; to decide.
DEFINED, participle passive
1. Determined; having the extent ascertained; having the signification determined.
2. Having the precise limit marked, or having a determinate limit; as, the shadow of a body is well defined
DEFINER, noun He who defines; he who ascertains or marks the limits; he who determines or explains the signification of a word, or describes the distinctive properties of a thing.
DEFINING, participle present tense Determining the limits; ascertaining the extent; explaining the meaning; describing the properties.
DEFINITE, adjective
1. Having certain limits; bounded with precision; determinate; as a definite extent of land; definite dimensions; definite measure.
2. Having certain limits in signification; determinate; certain; precise; as a definite word, term or expression.
3. Fixed; determinate; exact; precise; as a definite time or period.
4. Defining; limiting; determining the extent; as a definite word.
DEFINITE, noun Thing defined.
DEFINITENESS, noun Certainty of extent; certainty of signification; determinateness.
DEFINITION, noun
1. A brief description of a thing by its properties; as a definition of wit or of a circle.
2. In logic, the explication of the essence of a thing by its kind and difference.
3. In lexicography, an explanation of the signification of a word or term, or of what a word is understood to express.
DEFINITIVE, adjective
1. Limiting the extent; determinate; positive; express; as a definitive term.
2. Limiting; ending; determining; final; opposed to conditional, provisional, or interlocutory; as a definitive sentence or decree.
DEFINITIVE, noun In grammar, an adjective used to define or limit the extent of the signification of an appelative or common noun. Such are the Latin hic, ille, ipse; the, this and that, in English; le, la, les, in French; il, la, lo in Italian. Thus tree is an appellative or common noun; the tree, this tree, that tree, designate a particular tree, determinate or known. Homo signifies man; hic homo, ille homo, a particular man, etc. But in some languages, the definitives have lost their original use, in a great degree; as in the Greek and French. Thus La force de la vertu, must be rendered in English, the force of virtue, not the force of the virtue. The first la is a definitive; the last has no definitive effect.
DEFINITIVELY, adverb
1. Determinately; positively; expressly.
2. Finally; conclusively; unconditionally; as, the points between the parties are definitively settled.
DEFINITIVENESS, noun Determinateness; decisiveness; conclusiveness.
DEFIX, verb transitive To fix; to fasten.
DEFLAGRABILITY, noun Combustibility; the quality of taking fire and burning away, as a metallic wire; a chimical term.
DEFLAGRABLE, adjective Combustible; having the quality of taking fire and burning, as alcohol, oils, etc.
DEFLAGRATE, verb transitive [Latin To burn.] To set fire to; to burn; to consume; as, to deflagrate oil or spirit.
DEFLAGRATION, noun A kindling or setting fire to a substance; burning; combustion.
The strength of spirit is proved by deflagration
A rapid combustion of a mixture, attended with much evolution of flame and vapor, as of niter and charcoal.
This term is also applied to the rapid combustion of metals by galvanism.
DEFLAGRATOR, noun A galvanic instrument for producing combustion, particularly the combustion of metallic substances.
DEFLECT, verb intransitive [Latin To turn or bend.] To turn from or aside; to deviate from a true course or right line; to swerve.
The needle deflects from the meridian.
DEFLECT, verb transitive To turn aside; to turn or bend from a right line or regular course.
DEFLECTED, participle passive Turned aside, or from a direct line or course. In botany, bending downward archwise.
DEFLECTING, participle present tense Turning aside; turning from a right line or regular course.
DEFLECTION, noun
1. Deviation; the act of turning aside; a turning from a true line or the regular course.
2. The departure of a ship from its true course.
3. A deviation of the rays of light towards the surface of an opake body; inflection.
DEFLEXURE, noun A bending down; a turning aside; deviation.
DEFLORATE, adjective [Latin To deflour.] In botany, having cast its farin, pollen, or fecundating dust.
DEFLORATION, noun
1. The act of deflouring; the act of depriving of the flower or prime beauties; particularly, the act of taking away a womans virginity.
2. A selection of the flower, or of that which is most valuable.
The laws of Normandy are, in a great measure, the defloration of the English laws.
DEFLOUR, verb transitive [Latin A flower.]
1. To deprive a woman of her virginity, either by force or with consent. When by force, it may be equivalent to ravish or violate.
2. To take away the prime beauty and grace of any thing.
The sweetness of his soul was defloured.
3. To deprive of flowers.
DEFLOURED, participle passive Deprived of maidenhood; ravished; robbed or prime beauty .
DEFLOURER, noun One who deprives a woman of her virginity.
DEFLOURING, participle present tense Depriving of virginity or maidenhood; robbing of prime beauties.
DEFLOW, verb intransitive To flow down.
DEFLUOUS, adjective [Latin To flow.] Flowing down; falling off.
DEFLUX, noun A flowing down; a running downward; as a deflux of humors.
DEFLUXION, noun [Latin To flow down.]
1. A flowing, running or falling of humors or fluid matter, from a superior to an inferior part of the body; properly, an inflammation of a part, attended with increased secretion.
2. A discharge of flowing off of humors; as a defluxion from the nose or head in catarrh.
DEFLY, adverb Dextrously; skilfully.
DEFOLIATION, noun [Latin Foliage; a leaf.] Literally, the fall of the leaf or shedding of leaves; but technically, the time or season of shedding leaves in autumn; applied to trees and shrubs.
DEFORCE, verb transitive To disseize and keep out of lawful possession of an estate; to withhold the possession of an estate from the rightful owner; applies to any possessor whose entry was originally lawful, but whose detainer is become unlawful.
DEFORCED, participle passive Kept out of lawful possession.
DEFORCEMENT, noun
1. The holding of lands or tenements to which another person has a right; a general term including abatement, intrusion, disseisin, discontinuance, or any other species of wrong, by which he that hath a right to the freehold is kept out of possession.
2. In Scotland, a resisting of an officer in the execution of law.
DEFORCIANT, noun He that keeps out of possession the rightful owner of an estate; he against whom a fictitious action is brought in fine and recovery.
DEFORCING, participle present tense Keeping out of lawful possession.
DEFORM, verb transitive [Latin Form.]
1. To mar or injure the form; to alter that form or disposition of parts which is natural and esteemed beautiful, and thus to render it displeasing to the eye; to disfigure; as, a hump on the back deforms the body.
2. To render ugly or displeasing, by exterior applications or appendages; as, to deform the face by paint, or the person by unbecoming dress.
3. To render displeasing.
Wintry blasts deform the year.
4. To injure and render displeasing or disgusting; to disgrace; to disfigure moral beauty; as, all vices deform the character of rational beings.
5. To dishonor; to make ungraceful.
DEFORM, adjective Disfigured; being of an unnatural, distorted, or disproportioned form; displeasing to the eye.
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold?
DEFORMATION, noun A disfiguring or defacing.
DEFORMED, participle passive
1. Injured in the form; disfigured; distorted; ugly; wanting natural beauty, or symmetry.
2. Base; disgraceful.
DEFORMEDLY, adverb In an ugly manner.
DEFORMEDNESS, noun Ugliness; a disagreeable or unnatural form.
DEFORMER, noun One who deforms.
DEFORMING, participle present tense Marring the natural form or figure; rendering ugly or disppleasing; destroying beauty.
DEFORMITY, noun
1. Any unnatural state of the shape or form; want of that uniformity or symmetry which constitutes beauty; distortion; irregularity of shape or features; disproportion of limbs; defect; crookedness, etc. Hence, ugliness; as bodily deformity
2. Any thing that destroys beauty, grace or propriety; irregularity; absurdity; gross deviation from order, or the established laws of propriety. Thus we speak of deformity in an edifice, or deformity of character.
DEFORSER, noun One that casts out by force.
DEFRAUD, verb transitive [Latin To cheat.]
1. To deprive of right, either by obtaining something by deception or artifice, or by taking something wrongfully without the knowledge or consent of the owner; to cheat; to cozen; followed by of before the thing taken; as, to defraud; a man of his right.
We have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. 2 Corinthians 7:2.
The agent who embezzles public property, defrauds the state.
The man who by deception obtains a price for a commodity above its value, defrauds the purchaser.
2. To withhold wrongfully from another what is due to him. defraud not the hireling of his wages.
3. To prevent one wrongfully from obtaining what he may justly claim.
A man of fortune who permits his son to consume the season of education in hunting, shooting, or in frequenting horse-races, assemblies, etc., defrauds the community of a benefactor, and bequeaths them a nuissance.
4. To defeat or frustrate wrongfully.
By the duties deserted-by the claims defrauded.
DEFRAUDED, participle passive Deprived of property or right by trick, artifice or deception; injured by the withholding of what is due.
DEFRAUDER, noun One who defrauds; one who takes from another his right by deception, or withholds what is his due; a cheat; a cozener; an embezzler; a peculator.
DEFRAUDING, participle present tense Depriving another of his property or right by deception or artifice; injuring by withholding wrongfully what is due.
DEFRAUDMENT, noun Tha act of defrauding.
DEFRAY, verb transitive
1. To pay; to discharge, as cost or expense; to bear, as charge, cost or expense. It is followed chiefly by expense, charge or cost. The acquisitions of war seldom defray the expenses. The profits of a voyage will not always defray the charges, or even the cost of the first outfits.
2. To satisfy; as, to defray anger.
3. To fill; as, to defray a bottle.
DEFRAYED, participle passive Paid; discharged; as expense, or cost.
DEFRAYER, noun One who pays or discharges expenses.
DEFRAYING, participle present tense Paying; discharging.
DEFRAYMENT, noun Payment.
DEFT, adjective Neat; handsome; spruce; ready; dextrous; fit; convenient.
DEFTLY, adverb Neatly; dextrously; in a skilful manner.
DEFTNESS, noun Neatness; beauty.
DEFUNCT, adjective [Latin To perform and discharge.] Having finished the course of life; dead; deceased.
DEFUNCT, noun A dead person; one deceased.
DEFUNCTION, noun Death.
DEFY, verb transitive
1. To dare; to provoke to combat or strife, by appealing to the courage of another; to invite one to contest; to challenge; as, Goliath defied the armies of Israel.
2. To dare; to brave; to offer to hazard a conflict by manifesting a contempt of opposition, attack or hostile force; as, to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy the power of the magistrate.
Were we to abolish the common law, it would rise triumphant above its own ruins, deriding and defying its impotent enemies.
3. To challenge to say or do any thing.
DEFY, noun A challenge.
DEFYER, [See defier.]
DEGARNISH, verb transitive
1. To unfurnish; to strip of furniture, ornaments or apparatus.
2. To deprive of a garrison, or troops necessary for defense; as, to degarnish a city or fort. Washingtons Letter. Nov. 11, 1778.
DEGARNISHED, participle passive Stripped of furniture or apparatus; deprived of troops for defense.
DEGARNISHING, participle present tense Stripping of furniture, dress, apparatus or a garrison.
DEGARNISHMENT, noun The act of depriving of furniture, apparatus or a garrison.
DEGENDER, verb intransitive To degenerate.
DEGENERACY, noun
1. A growing worse or inferior; a decline in good qualities; or a state of being less valuable; as the degeneracy of a plant.
2. In morals, decay of virtue; a growing worse; departure from the virtues of ancestors; desertion of that which is good. We speak of the degeneracy of men in modern times, or of the degeneracy of manners, of the age, of virtue, etc., sometimes without reason.
3. Poorness; meanness; as a degeneracy of spirit.
DEGENERATE, verb intransitive [Latin Grown worse, ignoble, base.]
1. To become worse; to decay in good qualities; to pass from a good to a bad or worse state; to lose or suffer a diminution of valuable qualities, either in the natural or moral world. In the natural world, plants and animals degenerate when they grow to a less size than usual, or lose a part of the valuable qualities which belong to the species. In the moral world, men degenerate when they decline in virtue, or other good qualities. Manners degenerate when they become corrupt. Wit may degenerate into indecency or impiety.
DEGENERATE, adjective
1. Having fallen from a perfect or good state into a less excellent or worse state; having lost something of the good qualities possessed; having declined in natural or moral worth.
The degenerate plant of a strange vine. Jeremiah 2:21.
2. Low; base; mean; corrupt; fallen from primitive or natural excellence; having lost the good qualities of the species. Man is considered a degenerate being. A coward is a man of degenerate spirit.
DEGENERATELY, adverb In a degenerate or base manner.
DEGENERATENESS, noun A degenerate state; a state in which the natural good qualities of the species are decayed or lost.
DEGENERATION, noun
1. A growing worse, or losing of good qualities; a decline from the virtue and worth of ancestors; a decay of the natural good qualities of the species; a falling from a more excellent state to one of less worth, either in the natural or moral world.
2. The thing degenerated.
DEGENEROUS, adjective
1. Degenerated; fallen from a state of excellence, or from the virtue and merit of ancestors. Hence,
2. Low; base; mean; unworthy; as a degenerous passion.
DEGENEROUSLY, adverb In a degenerous manner; basely; meanly.
DEGLUTINATE, , verb transitive [Latin To glue.] To unglue; to loosen or separate substances glued together.
DEGLUTITION, noun [Latin To swallow.]
1. The act of swallowing; as, deglutition is difficult.
2. The power of swallowing; as, deglutition is lost.
DEGRADATION, noun
1. A reducing in rank; the act of depriving one of a degree of honor, of dignity, or of rank; also, deposition; removal or dismission from office; as the degradation of a peer, of a knight, or of a bishop, in England.
2. The state of being reduced from an elevated or more honorable station, to one that is low in fact or in estimation; baseness; degeneracy.
Deplorable is the degradation of our nature.
3. Diminution or reduction of strength, efficacy or value.
4. In painting, a lessening and obscuring of the appearance of distant objects in a landscape, that they may appear as they would do to an eye placed at a distance.
5. Diminution; reduction of altitude or magnitude.
DEGRADE, verb transitive [Latin A step, a degree.]
1. To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to deprive one of any office or dignity, by which he loses rank in society; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, an archbishop or a general officer.
2. To reduce in estimation; to lessen the value of ; to lower; to sink. Vice degrades a man in the view of others; often in his own view. Drunkenness degrades a man to the level of a beast.
3. To reduce in altitude or magnitude.
Although the ridge is still there, the ridge itself has been degraded.
DEGRADED, participle passive Reduced in rank; deprived of an office or dignity; lowered; sunk; reduced in estimation or value.
DEGRADEMENT, noun Deprivation of rank or office.
DEGRADING, participle present tense
1. Reducing in rank; depriving of honors or offices; reducing in value or estimation; lowering.
2. adjective Dishonoring; disgracing the character; as degrading obsequiousness.
The inordinate love of money and of fame are base and degrading passions.
DEGRADINGLY, adverb In a degrading manner, or in a way to depreciate.
DEGREE, noun
1. A step; a distinct portion of space of indefinite extent; a space in progression; as, the army gained the hill by degrees; a balloon rises or descends by slow degrees; and figuratively, we advance in knowledge by slow degrees. Men are yet in the first degree of improvement. It should be their aim to attain to the furthest degree or the highest degree There are degrees of vice and virtue.
2. A step or portion of progression, in elevation, quality, dignity or rank; as a man of great degree
We speak of men of high degree or of low degree; of superior or inferior degree It is supposed there are different degrees or orders of angels.
They purchase to themselves a good degree 1 Timothy 3:13.
3. In genealogy, a certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; as a relation in the third or fourth degree
4. Measure; extent. The light is intense to a degree that is intolerable. We suffer an extreme degree of heat or cold.
5. In geometry, a division of a circle, including a three hundred and sixtieth part of its circumference. Hence a degree of latitude is the 360th part of the earths surface north or south of the equator, and a degree of longitude, the same part of the surface east or west of any given meridian.
6. In music, an interval of sound, marked by a line on the scale.
7. In arithmetic, a degree consists of three figures; thus, 270, 360, compose two degrees.
8. A division, space or interval, marked on a mathematical or other instrument; as on a thermometer, or barometer.
9. In colleges and universities, a mark of distinction conferred on students, as a testimony of their proficiency in arts and sciences; giving them a kind of rank, and entitling them to certain privileges. This is usually evidenced by a diploma. Degrees are conferred pro meritis on the alumni of a college; or they are honorary tokens of respect, conferred on strangers of distinguished reputation. The first degree is that of Bachelor of Arts; the second, that of Master of Arts. Honorary degrees are those of Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Laws, etc. Physicians also receive the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
By degrees, step by step; gradually; by little and little; by moderate advances. Frequent drinking forms by degrees a confirmed habit of intemperance.
DEGUSTATION, noun A tasting.
DEHISCENCE, noun [Latin To gape.] A gaping. In botany, the opening of capsules; the season when capsules open.
DEHISCENT, adjective Opening, as the capsule of a plant.
DEHORT, verb transitive [Latin To dissuade; to advise.] To dissuade; to advise to the contrary; to counsel not to do nor to undertake.
DEHORTATION, noun Dissuasion; advice or counsel against something.
DEHORTATORY, adjective Dissuading; belonging to dissuasion
DEHORTER, noun A dissuader; an adviser to the contrary.
DEHORTING, participle present tense Dissuading.
DEICIDE, noun [Latin God and to slay.]
1. The act of putting to death Jesus Christ, our Savior.
2. One concerned in putting Christ to death.
DEIFIC, adjective [Latin To make.]
1. Divine; pertaining to the gods.
2. Making divine.
DEIFICATION, noun The act of deifying; the act of exalting to the rank of, or enrolling among the heathen deities.
DEIFIED, participle passive Exalted or ranked among the gods; regarded or praised as divine.
DEIFIER, noun One that deifies.
DEIFORM, adjective [Latin A god, and form.] Like a god; of a godlike form.
These souls exhibit a deiform power.
DEIFY, verb transitive [Latin A god, and to make.]
1. To make a god; to exalt to the rank of a heathen deity; to enroll among the deities; as, Julius Cesar was deified.
2. To exalt into an object of worship; to treat as an object of supreme regard; as a covetous man deifies his treasures.
3. To exalt to a deity in estimation; to reverence or praise as a deity.
The pope was formerly extolled and deified by his votaries.
DEIFYING, participle present tense Exalting to the rank of a deity; treating as divine.
DEIGN, verb intransitive Dane. To think worthy; to vouchsafe; to condescend.
O deign to visit our foraken seats.
DEIGN, verb transitive dane. To grant or allow; to condescend to give to.
Nor would we deign him burial of his men.
DEIGNING, participle present tense Daning. Vouchsafing; thinking worthy.
DEINTGRATE, verb transitive To disintegrate.
DEIPAROUS, adjective Bearing or bringing forth a god; an epithet applied the Virgin Mary.
DEIPNOSOPHIST, noun [Gr. A feast; a sophist.] One of an ancient sect of philosophers, who were famous for their learned conversation at meals.
DEISM, noun [Latin God.] The doctrine or creed of a deist; the belief or system of religious opinions of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation: or deism is the belief in natural religion only, or those truths, in doctrine and practice, which man is to discover by the light of reason, independent and exclusive of any revelation from God. Hence deism implies infidelity or a disbelief in the divine origin of the scriptures.
The view which the rising greatness of our country presents to my eyes, is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of deism which, with me, is but another name for vice and depravity. P. Henry, Wirys Sketches.
DEIST, noun One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion, but follows the light of nature and reason, as his only guides in doctrine and practice; a freethinker.
DEISTIC,
DEISTICAL, adjective Pertaining to deism or to deists; embracing deism, as a deistical writer; or containing deism, as a deistical book.
DEISTICAL, a. Pertaining to deism or to deists; embracing deism, as a deistical writer; or containing deism, as a deistical book.
DEITY, noun
1. Godhead; divinity; the nature and essence of the Supreme Being; as, the deity of the Supreme Being is manifest in his works.
2. God; the Supreme Being, or infinite self-existing Spirit.
3. A fabulous god or goddess; a superior being supposed, by heathen nations, to exist, and to preside over particular departments of nature; as Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Diana, etc.
4. The supposed divinity or divine qualities of a pagan god.
DEJECT, verb transitive [Latin To throw.]
1. To cast down; usually, to cast down the countenance; to cause to fall with grief; to make to look sad or grieved, or to express discouragement.
But gloomy were his eyes, dejected was his face.
2. To depress the spirits; to sink; to dispirit; to discourage; to dishearten.
Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind.
DEJECT, adjective Cast down; low-spirited.
DEJECTED, participle passive Cast down; depressed; grieved; discouraged.
DEJECTEDLY, adverb In a dejected manner; sadly; heavily.
DEJECTEDNESS, noun The state being cast down; lowness of spirits.
DEJECTING, participle present tense Casting down; depressing; dispiriting.
DEJECTION, noun
1. A casting down; depression of mind; melancholy; lowness of spirits, occasioned by grief or misfortune.
2. Weakness; as dejection of appetite.
3. The act of voiding the excrements; or the matter ejected.
DEJECTLY, adverb In a downcast manner.
DEJECTORY, adjective Having power or tending to cast down, or to promote evacuations by stool.
DEJECTURE, noun That which is ejected; excrements.
DELACRYMATION, noun [Latin A weeping.] A preternatural discharge of watery humors from the eyes; waterishness of the eyes.
DELACTABLE, adjective [Latin To delight.] Delightful; highly pleasing; that gives great joy or pleasure; as a delectable garden.
DELACTATION, noun A weaning.
DELAPSATION, noun A falling down.
DELAPSE, verb intransitive [Latin To slide. ] To fall or slide down.
DELAPSED, participle passive Fallen down.
DELAPSION, noun A falling down of the uterus, anus, etc.
DELATE, verb transitive [Latin To bear.]
1. To carry; to convey.
2. To accuse; to inform against; that is, to bear a charge against.
DELATION, noun
1. Carriage; conveyance; as the delation of sound.
2. To accuse; to inform against; that is, to bear a charge against.
DELATOR, noun An accuser; an informer.
DELAY, verb transitive
1. To prolong the time of acting, or proceeding; to put off; to defer.
My lord delayeth his coming. Matthew 14:1.
2. To retard; to stop, detain or hinder for a time; to restrain motion, or render it slow; as, the mail is delated by bad roads.
Thyrsis, whose artful strains have oft delayed
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal.
3. To allay.
DELAY, verb intransitive To linger; to move slow; or to stop for a time.
There are certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of ideas, beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten.
DELAY, noun
1. A lingering; stay; stop.
2. A putting off or deferring; procrastination; as, the delay of trial is not to be imputed to the plaintiff.
3. Hinderance for a time.
DELAYED, participle passive Deferred; detained; hindered for a time; retarded.
DELAYER, noun One who defers; one who lingers.
DELAYING, participle present tense Putting off; deferring; procrastinating; retarding; detaining.
DELAYMENT, noun Hinderance.
DELE, verb transitive Blot out; erase.
DELEBLE, adjective That can be blotted out.
DELECTABLENESS, noun Delightfulness.
DELECTABLY, adverb Delightfully.
DELECTATION, noun Great pleasure; delight.
DELEGACY, noun A number of persons delegated.
DELEGATE, verb transitive [Latin To send.]
1. To send away; appropriately, to send on an embassy; to send with power to transact business, as a representative. The President delegated three commissioners to the court of St. Cloud.
2. To entrust; to commit; to deliver to anothers care and exercise; as, to delegate authority or power to an envoy, representative or judge.
DELEGATE, noun
1. A person appointed and sent by another with powers to transact business as his representative; a deputy; a commissioner; a vicar. In the United States, a person elected or appointed to represent a state or a district, in the Congress, or in a Convention for forming or altering a constitution.
2. In Great Britain, a commissioner appointed by the king, under the great seal, to hear and determine appeals from the ecclesiastical court. Hence the Court of Delegates is the great court of appeal in all ecclesiastical causes. It is used also for the court of appeals from that of the admiralty.
3. A layman appointed to attend an ecclesiastical council.
DELEGATE, adjective Deputed; sent to act for or represent another; as a delegate judge.
DELEGATED, participle passive Deputed; sent with a trust or commission to act for another; appointed a judge; committed, as authority.
DELEGATING, participle present tense Deputing; sending with a commission to act for another; appointing; committing; entrusting.
DELEGATION, noun
1. A sending away; the act of putting in commission, or investing with authority to act for another; the appointment of a delegate.
The duties of religion cannot be performed by delegation
2. Th persons deputed to act for another, or for others. Thus, the representatives of Massachusetts in Congress are called the delegation or whole delegation
3. In the civil law, the assignment of a debt to another, as when a debtor appoints his debtor to answer to the creditor in his place.
DELETE, verb transitive To blot out.
DELETERIOUS, adjective [Latin To blot out or destroy.]
1. Having the quality of destroying, or extinguishing life; destructive; poisonous; as a deleterious plant or quality.
2. Injurious; pernicious.
DELETERY, adjective Destructive; poisonous.
DELETION, noun [Latin To blot out.]
1. The act of blotting out or erasing.
2. Destruction.
DELETORY, noun That which blots out.
DELF, noun
1. A mine; a quarry; a pit dug.
2. Earthern ware, covered with enamel or white glazing in imitation of China ware or porcelain, made at Delft in Holland; properly, Delft-ware.
DELIBATE, verb transitive [Latin To taste.] To taste; to take a sip.
DELIBATION, noun A taste; an essay.
DELIBERATE, verb intransitive [Latin To weigh.] To weigh in the mind; to consider and examine the reasons for and against a measure; to estimate the weight or force of arguments, or the probable consequences of a measure, in order to a choice or decision; to pause and consider. A wise prince will deliberate before he wages war.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
DELIBERATE, verb transitive To balance in the mind; to weigh; to consider.
DELIBERATE, adjective
1. Weighing facts and arguments with a view to a choice or decision; carefully considering the probable consequences of a step; circumspect; slow in determining; applies to persons; as a deliberate judge or counselor.
2. Formed with deliberation; well advised or considered; not sudden or rash; as a deliberate opinion; a deliberate measure, or result.
3. Slow; as a deliberate death or echo.
DELIBERATELY, adverb With careful consideration, or deliberation; circumspectly; not hastily or rashly; slowly. This purpose was deliberately formed.
DELIBERATENESS, noun Calm consideration; circumspection; due attention to the arguments for and against a measure; caution.
DELIBERATION,
1. The act of deliberating; the act of weighing and examining the reasons for and against a choice or measure; consideration. We say, a measure has been taken with deliberation
2. Mutual discussion and examination of the reasons for and against a measure; as the deliberations of a legislative body or council.
DELIBERATIVE, adjective
1. Pertaining to deliberation; proceeding or acting by deliberation, or by mutual discussion and examination; as, the legislature is a deliberative body.
2. Having a right or power to deliberate or discuss.
In councils, the bishops have a deliberative voice.
3. Apt or disposed to consider.
DELIBERATIVE, noun A discourse in which a question is discussed or weighed and examined. A kind of rhetoric employed in proving a thing and convincing others of its truth, in order to persuade them to adopt it.
DELIBERATIVELY, adverb By deliberation.
DELICACY, noun In a general sense, that which delights or pleases. Hence,
1. Fineness of texture; smoothness; softness; tenderness; as the delicacy of the skin; and nearly in the same sense, applicable to food; as the delicacy of flesh, meat or vegetables. Hence,
2. Daintiness; pleasantness to the taste.
3. Elegant or feminine beauty; as delicacy of form.
4. Nicety; minute accuracy; as the delicacy of coloring in painting.
5. Neatness in dress; elegance proceeding from a nice selection and adjustment of the several parts of dress.
6. Softness of manners; civility or politemess proceeding from a nice observance of propriety, and a desire to please; as delicacy of behavior.
7. Indulgence; gentle treatment; as delicacy of education.
8. Tenderness; scrupulousness; the quality manifested in nice attention to right, and care to avoid wrong, or offense.
9. Acute or nice perception of what is pleasing to the sense of tasting; hence figuratively, a nice perception of beauty and deformity, or the faculty of such nice perception.
DELICACY of taste tends to invigorate the social affections, and moderate those that are selfish.
10. That which delights the senses, particularly the taste; applied to eatables; as, the peach is a great delicacy
11. Tenderness of constitution; weakness; that quality or state of the animal body which renders it very impressible to injury; as delicacy of constitution or frame.
12. Smallness; fineness; slenderness; tenuity; as the delicacy of a thread, or fiber.
13. Tenderness; nice susceptibility of impression; as delicacy of feeling.
DELICATE, adjective [Latin Connected with delight; to delight.]
1. Of a fine texture; fine; soft; smooth; clear, or fair; as a delicate skin.
2. Nice; pleasing to the taste; of an agreeable flavor; as delicate food; a delicate dish.
3. Nice in perception of what is agreeable; dainty; as a delicate taste; and figuratively, nice and discriminating in beauty and deformity.
4. Nice; accurate; fine; soft to the eye; as a delicate color.
5. Nice in forms; regulated by minute observance of propriety, or by condescension and attention to the wishes and feelings of others; as delicate behavior or manners; a delicate address.
6. Pleasing to the senses; as a delicate flavor.
7. Fine; slender; minute; as a delicate thread.
8. That cannot be handled without injury or danger; that must be touched with care; as a delicate point or topic; a delicate question.
9. Composed of fine threads, or nicely interwoven; as a delicate texture; hence, soft and smooth to the touch; as delicate silk.
10. Tender; effeminate; not able to endure hardship; very impressible to injury; as a delicate frame or constitution.
11. Feeble; not sound or robust; as delicate health.
DELICATE, noun Any thing nice; a nicety.
DELICATELY, adverb
1. In a delicate manner; with nice regard to propriety and the feelings of others.
2. Daintily; luxuriously.
They that live delicately are in kings courts. Luke 7:25.
3. With soft elegance; as an expression delicately turned.
4. Tenderly; with indulgence in ease, elegance and luxury. Proverbs 29:21.
DELICATENESS, noun The state of being delicate; tenderness; softness; effeminacy. Deuteronomy 28:56.
DELICIOUS, adjective
1. Highly pleasing to the taste; most sweet or grateful to the senses; affording exquisite pleasure; as a delicious viand; delicious fruit or wine.
2. Most pleasing to the mind; very grateful; yielding exquisite delight; as, this poem affords a delicious entertainment.
DELICIOUSLY, adverb In a delicious manner; in a manner to please the taste or gratify the mind; sweetly; pleasantly; delightfully; as, to feed deliciously; to be deliciously entertained.
DELICIOUSNESS, noun
1. The quality of being delicious, or very grateful to the taste or mind; as the deliciousness of a repast.
2. Delight; great pleasure.
DELIGATION, noun [Latin To bind.] In surgery, a binding up; a bandaging.
DELIGHT, noun
1. A high degree of pleasure, or satisfaction of mind; joy.
His delight is in the law of the Lord. Psalms 1:2.
2. That which gives great pleasure; that which affords delight
Titus was the delight of human kind.
I was daily his delight Proverbs 8:30.
DELIGHT is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.
DELIGHT, verb transitive
1. To affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy; as, a beautiful landscape delights the eye; harmony delights the ear; the good conduct of children, and especially their piety, delights their parents.
I will delight myself in thy statutes. Psalms 1:219.
2. To receive great pleasure in.
I delight to do thy will. Psalms 40:8.
DELIGHT, verb intransitive To have or take great pleasure; to be greatly pleased or rejoiced; followed by in.
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Romans 7:22.
DELIGHTED, participle passive
1. Greatly pleased; rejoiced; followed by with.
That ye may be delighted with the abundance of her glory. Isaiah 66:11.
2. adjective Full of delight.
DELIGHTER, noun One who takes delight.
DELIGHTFUL, adjective Highly pleasing; affording great pleasure and satisfaction; as a delightful thought; a delightful prospect.
DELIGHTFULLY, adverb
1. In a manner to receive great pleasure; very agreeable; as, we were delightfully employed, or entertained.
2. In a delightful manner; charmingly; in a manner to afford great pleasure; as, the lady sings and plays delightfully
DELIGHTFULNESS, noun
1. The quality of being delightful, or of affording great pleasure; as the delightfulness of a prospect, or of scenery.
2. Great pleasure; delight.
DELIGHTLESS, adjective Affording no pleasure or delight.
DELIGHTSOME, adjective Very pleasing; delightful.
DELIGHTSOMELY, adverb Very pleasantly; in a delightful manner.
DELIGHTSOMENESS, noun Delightfulness; pleasantness in a high degree.
DELINEAMENT, noun Representation by delineation.
DELINEATE, verb transitive [Latin A line.]
1. To draw the lines which exhibit the form of a thing; to mark out with lines; to make a draught; to sketch or design; as, to delineate the form of the earth, or a diagram.
2. To paint; to represent in picture; to draw a likeness of; as, to delineate Nestor like Adonis, or time with Absaloms head.
3. Figuratively, to describe; to represent to the mind or understanding; to exhibit a likeness in words; as, to delineate the character of Newton, or the virtue of Aristides.
DELINEATED, participle passive Drawn; marked with lines exhibiting the form or figure; sketched; designed; painted; described.
DELINEATING, participle present tense Drawing the form; sketching; painting; describing.
DELINEATION, noun
1. First draught of a thing; outline; representation of a form or figure by lines; sketch; design.
2. Representation in words; description; as the delineation of a character.
DELINEATURE, noun Delineation.
DELINIMENT, noun Mitigation.
DELINQUENCY, noun [Latin To fail or omit duty; to leave.] Failure or omission of duty; a fault; a misdeed; and positively, an offense; a crime. It is particularly, but not exclusively applied to neglect of duty in officers of public trust.
DELINQUENT, adjective Failing in duty; offending by neglect of duty.
DELINQUENT, noun One who fails to perform his duty, particularly a public officer who neglects his duty; an offender; one who commits a fault or crime.
A delinquent ought to be cited in the place or jurisdiction where the delinquency was committed.
DELIQUATE, verb transitive or I. [Latin To melt.] To melt or be dissolved.
DELIQUATION, noun A melting.
DELIQUESCE, verb intransitive [Latin To melt; to melt or become soft.] To melt gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air; as certain salts, acids and alkalies.
DELIQUESCENCE, noun Spontaneous liquefaction in the air; a gradual melting or becoming liquid by absorption of water from the atmosphere.
DELIQUESCENT, adjective Liquefying in the air; capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere and becoming liquid; as deliquescent salts.
DELIQUIATE, verb intransitive To melt and become liquid by imbibing water from the air.
DELIQUIATION, noun A melting by attracting water from the air.
DELIQUIUM, noun
1. In chimistry, a melting or dissolution in the air, or in a moist place.
2. A liquid state; as, a salt falls into a deliquium
3. In medicine, a swooning or fainting; called also syncope.
DELIRAMENT, noun A wandering of the mind; foolish fancy.
DELIRIOUS, adjective Roving in mind; light-headed; disordered in intellect; having ideas that are wild, irregular and unconnected.
DELIRIOUSNESS, noun The state of being delirious; delirium.
DELIRIUM, noun [Latin To wander in mind, to rave; to make balks in plowing, that is, to err, wander, miss.]
A state in which the ideas of a person are wild, irregular and unconnected, or do not correspond with the truth or with external objects; a roving or wandering of the mind; disorder of the intellect. Fevers often produce delirium
An alienation of mind connected with fever.
Symptomatic derangement, or that which is dependent on some other disease, in distinction from idiopathic derrangement or mania.
DELITESCENCE, noun Retirement; obscurity.
DELIVER, verb transitive [Latin Free, disengaged; to free, to peel.]
1. To free; to release, as from restraint; to set at liberty; as, to deliver one from captivity.
2. To rescue, or save.
DELIVER me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked. Psalms 71:4.
3. To give, or transfer; to put into anothers hand or power; to commit; to pass from one to another.
Thou shalt deliver Pharoahs cup into his hand. Genesis 40:11
So we say, to deliver goods to a carrier; to deliver a letter; to deliver possession of an estate.
4. To surrender; to yield; to give up; to resign; as, to deliver a fortress to an enemy. It is often followed by up; as, to deliver up the city; to deliver up stolen goods.
Th exalted mind
All sense of woe delivers to the wind.
5. To disbuden of a child.
6. To utter; to pronounce; to speak; to send forth in words; as, to deliver a sermon, an address, or an oration.
7. To exert in motion.
To deliver to the wind, to cast away; to reject.
To deliver over, to transfer; to give or pass from one to another; as, to deliver over goods to another.
2. To surrender or resign; to put into anothers power; to commit to the discretion of; to abandon to.
DELIVER me not over to the will of my enemies. Psalms 27:12.
To deliver up, to give up; to surrender.
DELIVER, adjective Free; nimble.
DELIVERABLE, adjective That may be or is to be delivered.
A bill of lading may state that the goods are deliverable to a particular person therein named.
DELIVERANCE, noun
1. Release from captivity, slavery, oppression, or any restraint.
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Luke 4:18.
2. Rescue from danger or any evil.
God sent me to save your lives by a great deliverance Genesis 45:7.
3. The act of bringing forth children.
4. The act of giving or transferring from one to another.
5. The act of speaking or pronouncing; utterance. [In the three last senses, delivery is now used.]
6. Acquittal of a prisoner, by the verdict of a jury. God send you a good deliverance
DELIVERED, participle passive Freed; released; transferred or transmitted; passed from one to another; committed; yielded; surrendered; rescued; uttered; pronounced.
DELIVERER, noun
1. One who delivers; one who releases or rescues; a preserver.
The Lord raised up a deliverer to Israel. Judges 3:9.
2. One who relates, or communicates.
DELIVERING, participle present tense Releasing; setting free; rescuing; saving; surrendering; giving over; yielding; resigning.
DELIVERY, noun
1. The act of delivering.
2. Release; rescue; as from slavery, restraint, oppression or danger.
3. Surrender; a giving up.
4. A giving or passing from one to another; as the delivery of goods, or of a deed.
5. Utterance; pronunciation; or manner of speaking. He has a good delivery I was charmed with his graceful delivery
6. Childbirth. Isaiah 26:17.
7. Free motion or use of the limbs.
DELL, noun A pit, or a hollow place; a cavity or narrow opening.
DELPH, [See Delf. No. 2.]
DELPHIA or DELPHINIA, noun A vegetable alkali lately discovered in the Delphinium staphysagria. It is crystaline when wet, but it becomes opake when exposed to air. Its taste is bitter and acrid. When heated it melts, but on cooling becomes hard and brittle like resin.
DELPHIAN or DELPHIC, adjective Relating to Delphi, and to the celebrated oracle of that place.
DELPHINE, adjective
1. Pertaining to the dolphin, a genus of fishes.
2. Pertaining to the dauphin of France; as the delphine edition of the classics.
DELPHINITE, noun A mineral called also pistacite and epidote.
DELTOID, noun
1. Triangular; an epithet applied to a muscle of the shoulder which moves the arm forwards, upwards and backwards.
2. In botany, shaped somewhat like a delta or rhomb, having four angles, of which the lateral ones are less distant from the base than the others; as a deltoid leaf.
Trowel-shaped, having three angles, of which the terminal one is much further from the base than the lateral ones.
DELUDABLE, adjective That may be deluded or deceived; liable to be imposed on.
DELUDE, verb transitive
1. To deceive; to impose on; to lead from truth or into error; to mislead the mind or judgement; to beguile. Cheat is generally applied to deception in bargains; delude to deception in opinion. An artful man deludes his followers. We are often deluded by false appearances.
2. To frustrate or disappoint.
DELUDED, participle passive Deceived; misled; led into error.
DELUDER, noun One who deceives; a deceiver; an imposter; one who holds out false pretenses.
DELUDING, participle present tense Deceiving; leading astray; misleading the opinion or judgment.
DELUDING, noun The act of deceiving; falsehood.
DELUGE, noun [Latin To wash.]
1. Any overflowing of water; an inundation; a flood; a swell of water over the natural banks of a river or shore of the ocean, spreading over the adjacent land. But appropriately, the great flood or overflowing of the earth by water, in the days of Noah; according to the common chronology, Anno Mundi, 1656. Genesis 6:1.
2. A sweeping or overwhelming calamity.
DELUGE, verb transitive
1. To overflow with water; to inundate; to drown. The waters deluged the earth and destroyed the old world.
2. To overwhelm; to cover with any flowing or moving, spreading body. The Northern nations deluged the Roman empire with their armies.
3. To overwhelm; to cause to sink under the weight of a general or spreading calamity; as, the land is deluged with corruption.
DELUGED, participle passive Overflowed; inundated; overwhelmed.
DELUGING, participle present tense Overflowing; inundating; overwhelming.
DELUSION, noun S as z.
1. The act of deluding; deception; a misleading of the mind. We are all liable to the delusions of artifice.
2. False representation; illusion; error or mistake proceeding from false views.
And fondly mournd the dear delusion gone.
DELUSIVE, adjective Apt to deceive; tending to mislead the mind; deceptive; beguiling; as delusive arts; delusive appearances.
DELUSIVENESS, noun The quality of being delusive; tendency to deceive.
DELUSORY, adjective Apt to deceive; deceptive.
DELVE, verb transitive Delv. [Latin A mole, perhaps the delver.]
1. To dig; to open the ground with a spade.
DELVE of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
2. To fathom; to sound; to penetrate.
I cannot delve him to the root.
DELVE, noun Delv. A place dug: a pit; a pitfall; a ditch; a den; a cave.
DELVE of coals, a quantity of fossil coals dug.
DELVER, noun One who digs, as with a spade.
DELVING, participle present tense Digging.
DEMAGOGUE, noun Demagog. [Gr. The populas, and to lead.]
1. A leader of the people; an orator who pleases the populace and influences them to adhere to him.
2. Any leader of the populace; any factious man who has great influence with the great body of people in a city or community.
DEMAIN, noun
1. A manor-house and the land adjacent or near, which a lord keeps in his own hands or immediate occupation, for the use of his family, as distinguished from his tenemental lands, distributed among his tenants, called book-land, or charter-land, and folk-land, or estates held in villenage, from which sprung copyhold estates.
2. Estate in lands.
DEMAND, verb transitive [Latin To command; to send; hence, to commit or entrust. To ask is to press or urge.]
1. To ask or call for, as one who has a claim or right to receive what is sought; to claim or seek as due by right. The creditor demands principal and interest of his debt. Here the claim is derived from law or justice.
2. To ask by authority; to require; to seek or claim an answer by virtue of a right or supposed right in the interrogator, derived from his office, station, power or authority.
The officers of the children of Israel-were beaten, and demanded, wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick. Exodus 5:14.
3. To require as necessary or useful; as, the execution of this work demands great industry and care.
4. To ask; to question; to inquire.
The soldiers also demanded of him, saying, what shall we do? Luke 3:14.
5. To ask or require, as a seller of goods; as, what price do you demand?
6. To sue for; to seek to obtain by legal process; as, the plaintiff, in his action, demands unreasonable damages.
In French, demander generally signifies simply to ask, request, or petition, when the answer or thing asked for, is a matter of grace or courtesy. But in English, demand is now seldom used in that sense, and rarely indeed can the French demander be rendered correctly in English by demand except in the case of the seller of goods, who demands, [asks, requires, ] a certain price for his wares. The common expression, a king sent to demand another kings daughter in marriage, is improper.
DEMAND, noun An asking for or claim made by virtue of a right or supposed right to the thing sought; an asking with authority; a challenging as due; as, the demand of the creditor was reasonable; the note is payable on demand
He that has confidence to turn his wishes into demands, will be but a little way from thinking he ought to obtain them.
2. The asking or requiring of a price for goods offered for sale; as, I cannot agree to his demand
3. That which is or may be claimed as due; debt; as, what are your demands on the estate?
4. The calling for in order to purchase; desire to possess; as, the demand for the Bible has been great and extensive; copies are in great demand
5. A desire or a seeking to obtain. We say, the company of a gentleman is in great demand; the lady is in great demand or request.
6. In law, the asking or seeking for what is due or claimed as due, either expressly by words, or by implication, as by seizure of goods, or entry into lands.
DEMANDABLE, adjective That may be demanded, claimed, asked for, or required; as, payment is demandable at the expiration of the credit.
DEMANDANT, noun One who demands; the plaintiff in a real action; any plaintiff.
DEMANDED, participle passive Called for; claimed; challenged as due; requested; required; interrogated.
DEMANDER, noun One who demands; one who requires with authority; one who claims as due; one who asks; one who seeks to obtain.
DEMANDING, participle present tense Claiming or calling for as due, or by authority; requiring; asking; pursuing a claim by legal process; interrogating.
DEMANDRESS, noun A female demandant.
DEMARCH, noun March; walk; gait.
DEMARKATION, noun
1. The act of marking, or of ascertaining and setting a limit.
2. A limit or bound ascertained and fixed; line of separation marked or determined.
The speculative line of demarkation where obedience ought to end and resistance begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
DEMEAN, verb transitive
1. To behave; to carry; to conduct; with the reciprocal pronoun; as, it is our duty to demean ourselves with humility.
2. To treat.
DEMEAN, verb transitive To debase; to undervalue.
DEMEAN, noun
1. Behavior; carriage; demeanor.
2. Mien.
DEMEANOR, noun Behavior; carriage; deportment; as decent demeanor; sad demeanor
DEMEANURE, noun Behavior.
DEMENCY, noun Madness.
DEMENTATE, adjective Mad; infatuated.
DEMENTATE, verb transitive To make mad.
DEMENTATION, noun The act of making frantic.
DEMEPHITIZATION, noun The act of purifying from mephitic or foul air.
DEMEPHITIZE, verb transitive To purify from foul unwholesome air.
DEMEPHITIZED, participle passive Purified; freed from foul air.
DEMEPHITIZING, participle present tense Purifying from foul air.
DEMERIT, noun [ Latin To earn or deserve.]
1. That which deserves punishment, the opposite of merit; an ill-deserving; that which is blamable or punishable in moral conduct; vice or crime.
2. Anciently, merit; desert; in a good sense.
DEMERIT, verb transitive To deserve blame or punishment.
DEMERSED, adjective Plunged; situated or growing under water.
DEMERSION, noun [Latin To plunge or drown.]
1. A plunging into a fluid; a drowning.
2. The state of being overwhelmed in water or earth.
3. The putting of a medicine in a dissolving liquor.
DEMESNE, [See Demain.]
DEMI, a prefix, Fr. demi from the Latin Dimidium, signifies half. It is used only in composition.
DEMIGRATE or DEMIGRATION, [Not used. See Migrate.]
DEMIREP, noun A woman of suspicious chastity. [Demi-reputation.]
DEMISABLE, adjective S sa z. That may be leased; as an estate demisable by copy of court roll.
DEMISE, noun S as z. [Latin Literally, a laying down, or sending from; a removing.]
1. In England, a laying down or removal, applied to the crown or royal authority. The demise of the crown, is a transfer of the crown, royal authority or kingdom to a successor. Thus when Edward fourth was driven from his throne for a few months by the house of Lancaster, this temporary transfer of his dignity was called a demise Hence the natural death of a king or queen came to be denominated a demise as by that event, the crown is transferred to a successor.
2. A conveyance or transfer of an estate, by lease or will.
DEMISE and redemise, a conveyance where there are mutual leases made from one to another of the same land, or something out of it.
DEMISE, verb transitive S as z.
1. To transfer or convey; to lease.
2. To bequeath; to grant by will.
DEMISSION, noun A lowering; degradation; depression.
DEMISSIVE or DEMISS, adjective Humble.
DEMISSLY, adverb In a humble manner.
DEMIT, verb transitive To let fall; to depress; to submit.
DEMIURGE, noun [Gr., a public servant, and work.] In the mythology of Eastern Philosophers, an eon employed in the creation of the world; a subordinate workman.
DEMIURGIC, adjective Pertaining to a demiurge, or to creative power.
DEMOCRACY, noun [Gr. People, and to possess, to govern.] Government by the people; a form of government, in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively, or in which the people exercise the powers of legislation. Such was the government of Athens.
DEMOCRAT, noun One who adheres to a government by the people, or favors the extension of the right of suffrage to all classes of men.
DEMOCRATIC,
DEMOCRATICAL, adjective Popular; pertaining to democracy or government by the people; as a democratical form of government.
DEMOCRATICAL, a. Popular; pertaining to democracy or government by the people; as a democratical form of government.
DEMOCRATICALLY, adverb In a democratical manner.
DEMOLISH, verb transitive [Latin To build.] To throw or pull down; to raze; to destroy, as a heap or structure; to separate any collected mass, or the connected parts of a thing; to ruin; as, to demolish an edifice, or a mound; to demolish a wall or fortification.
DEMOLISHED, participle passive Pulled down; thrown down; razed; destroyed, as a fabric or structure.
DEMOLISHER, noun One who pulls or throws down; one who destroys or lays waste; as a demolisher of towns.
DEMOLISHING, participle present tense Pulling or throwing down; destroying.
DEMOLISHMENT, noun Ruin; overthrow.
DEMOLITION, noun The act of overthrowing, pulling down or destroying a pile or structure; ruin; destruction; as the demolition of a house, or of military works.
DEMON, noun A spirit, or immaterial being, holding a middle place between men and the celestial deities of the Pagans. The ancients believed that there were good and evil demons, which had influence over the minds of men, and that these beings carried on an intercourse between men and gods, conveying the addresses of men to the gods, and divine benefits to men. Hence demons became the objects of worship. It was supposed also that human spirits, after their departure from the body, became demons, and that the souls of virtuous men, if highly purified, were exalted from demons into gods. The demons of the New Testament were supposed to be spiritual beings which vexed and tormented men. And in general , the word, in modern use, signifies an evil spirit or genius, which influences the conduct or directs the fortunes of mankind.
DEMONESS, noun A female demon.
DEMONIAC or DEMONIACAL or DEMONIAN, adjective
1. Pertaining to demons or evil spirits.
2. Influenced by demons; produced by demons or evil spirits.
DEMONIAC phrensy.
DEMONIAC, noun A human being possessed by a demon; one whose volition and other mental faculties are overpowered, restrained, or disturbed, in their regular operation, by an evil spirit, or by a created spiritual being of superior power.
DEMONIACS, noun In church history, a branch of the Anabaptists, whose distinguishing tenet is, that at the end of the world the devil will be saved.
DEMONOCRACY, noun [Gr. Demon and to hold.] The power or government of demons.
DEMONOLATRY, noun [Gr. Demon and worship.] The worship of demons, or of evil spirits.
DEMONOLOGY, noun [Gr. Demon and discourse.] A discourse on demons; a treatise on evil spirits. So King James entitled his book concerning witches.
DEMONOMIST, noun [Gr. Demon and law.] One that lives in subjection to the devil, or to evil spirits.
DEMONOMY, noun The dominion of demons, or of evil spirits.
DEMONSHIP, noun The state of a demon.
DEMONSTRABLE, adjective That may be demonstrated; that may be proved beyond doubt or contradiction; capable of being shown by certain evidence, or by evidence that admits of no doubt; as, the principles of geometry are demonstrable
DEMONSTRABLENESS, noun The quality of being demonstrable.
DEMONSTRABLY, adverb In a manner to preclude doubt; beyond the possibility of contradiction.
DEMONSTRATE, verb transitive [Latin To show.]
1. To show or prove to be certain; to prove beyond the possibility of doubt; to prove in such a manner as to reduce the contrary position to evident absurdity. We demonstrate a problem in geometry, or a proposition in ethics, by showing that the contrary is absurd or impossible.
2. In anatomy, to exhibit the parts when disected.
DEMONSTRATED, participle passive Proved beyond the possibility of doubt; rendered certain to the mind.
DEMONSTRATING, participle present tense Proving to be certain; evincing beyond the possibility of doubt.
DEMONSTRATION, noun
1. The act of demonstrating, or of exhibiting certain proof.
2. The highest degree of evidence; certain proof exhibited, or such proof as establishes a fact or proposition beyond a possibility of doubt, or as shows the contrary position to be absurd or impossible.
3. Indubitable evidence of the senses, or of reason; evidence which satisfies the mind of the certainty of a fact or proposition. Thus we hold that the works of nature exhibit demonstration of the existence of a God.
4. In logic, a series of syllogisms, all whose premises are either definitions, self-evident truths, or propositions already established.
5. Show; exhibition.
6. In anatomy, the exhibition of parts dissected.
DEMONSTRATIVE, adjective
1. Showing or proving by certain evidence; having the power of demonstration; invincibly conclusive; as a demonstrative argument, or demonstrative reasoning.
2. Having the power of showing with clearness and certainty; as a demonstrative figure in painting.
DEMONSTRATIVELY, adverb With certain evidence; with proof which cannot be questioned; certainly; clearly; convincingly.
DEMONSTRATOR, noun
1. One who demonstrates; one who proves any thing with certainty, or with indubitable evidence.
2. In anatomy, one who exhibits the parts when dissected.
DEMONSTRATORY, adjective Tending to demonstrate; having a tendency to prove beyond a possibility of doubt.
DEMORALIZATION, noun The act of subverting or corrupting morals; destruction of moral principles.
DEMORALIZE, verb transitive To corrupt or undermine the morals of ; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt in morals.
The effect would be to demoralize mankind.
The native vigor of the soul must wholly disappear, under the steady influence and the demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime.
DEMORALIZED, participle passive Corrupted in morals.
DEMORALIZING, participle present tense
1. Corrupting or destroying morals or moral principles.
2. adjective Tending to destroy morals or moral principles.
DEMULCE, verb transitive Demuls. To sooth; to soften or pacify.
DEMULCENT, adjective [Latin To stroke, to soften; allied perhaps to mollis, mellow.] Softening; mollifying; lenient; as, oil is demulcent
DEMULCENT, noun Any medicine which lessens acrimony, or the effects of stimulus on the solids; that which softens or mollifies; as gums, roots of marsh-mallows, and other mucilaginous substances.
DEMUR, verb intransitive [Latin To stay or delay.]
1. To stop; to pause; to hesitate; to suspend proceeding; to delay determination or conclusion.
On receiving this information, the minister demurred, till he could obtain further instructions.
2. In law, to stop at any point in the pleadings, and rest or abide on that point in law for a decision of the cause. Thus, the defendant may demur to the plaintiffs declaration, alledging it to be insufficient in law; the plaintiff may demur to the defendants plea, for a like reason.
DEMUR, verb transitive To doubt of.
DEMUR, noun Stop; pause; hesitation as to the propriety of proceeding; suspense of proceeding or decision.
All my demurs but double his attacks.
DEMURE, adjective Sober; grave; modest; downcast; as a demure countenance; a demure abasing of the eye.
DEMURE, verb intransitive To look with a grave countenance.
DEMURELY, adverb With grave, solemn countenance; with a fixed look; with a solemn gravity.
Esops damsel sat demurely at the boards end.
DEMURENESS, noun Gravity of countenance; soberness; a modest look.
DEMURRAGE, noun An allowance made to the master of a trading vessel, for delay or detention in port beyond the appointed time of departure. This expense is paid by the merchant who causes the detention.
DEMURRER, noun
1. One who demure.
2. In law, a stop at some point in the pleadings, and a resting of the decision of the cause on that point; an issue on matter of law. A demurrer confesses the fact or facts to be true, but denies the sufficiency of the facts in point of law to support the claim or defense. A demurrer may be tendered to the declaration, to the plea, to the replication, to the rejoinder, etc.
DEMURRING, participle present tense Stopping; pausing; suspending proceedings or decision; resting or abiding on a point in law.
DEMY,
1. A particular size of paper; a kind of paper of small size.
2. A half fellow at Magdalen college, Oxford.
DEN, noun
1. A cave or hollow place in the earth; usually applied to a cave, pit, or subterraneous recess, used for concealment, shelter, protection or security; as a lions den; a den of robbers or thieves.
The beasts go into dens. The children of Israel made themselves dens. Job 37:8. Judges 6:2.
2. As a termination, in names of places, it denotes the place to be in a valley or near a wood.
DEN, verb intransitive To dwell as in a den
DENARCOTIZE, verb transitive [de and narcotic.] To deprive of the narcotic principle or quality; as, to denarcotize opium.
DENARY, adjective Containing ten.
DENARY, noun The number ten.
DENATIONALIZE, verb transitive To divest of national character or rights, by transferrence to the service of another nation. A ship built and registered in the United States, is denationalized by being employed in the service of another nation and bearing its flag.
DENAY, noun Denial; refusal.
DENAY, verb transitive To deny.
DENDRACHATE, noun [Gr. A tree, and agate.] Arborescent agate; agate containing the figures of shrubs or parts of plants.
DENDRITE, noun [Gr. A tree.] A stone or mineral on or in which are the figures of shrubs or trees; an arborescent mineral.
DENDRITIC,
DENDRITICAL, adjective Containing the figures of shrubs or trees.
DENDRITICAL, a. Containing the figures of shrubs or trees.
DENDROID, adjective [Gr. A tree, and form.] Resembling a shrub.
DENDROIT, noun A fossil which has some resemblance in form to the branch of a tree.
DENDROLITE, noun [Gr. A tree and a stone.] A petrified or fossil shrub, plant, or part of a plant.
DENDROLOGY, noun [Gr. A tree and a discourse.] A discourse or treatise on trees; the natural history of trees.
DENDROMETER, noun [Gr. Tree and to measure.] An instrument to measure the highth and diameter of trees.
DENEGATE, verb transitive To deny.
DENEGATION, noun Denial.
DENIABLE, adjective That may be denied, or contradicted.
DENIAL, noun
1. An affirmation to the contrary; an assertion that a declaration or fact stated is not true; negation; contradiction. It is often expressed by no or not, simply.
2. Refusal to grant; the negation of a request or petition; the contrary to grant, allowance or concession; as, his request or application met with a direct denial
3. A rejection, or refusing to acknowledge; a disowning; as a denial of God: or a refusing to receive or embrace; as a denial of the faith or the truth.
4. A denial of ones self, is a declining of some gratification; restraint of ones appetites or propensities.
DENIER, noun One who denies, or contradicts; one who refuses or rejects; a disowner; one who does not own, avow or acknowledge; as a denier of a fact, or of the faith, or of Christ.
DENIER, noun A small denomination of French money, the twelfth part of a sol; a small copper coin.
DENIGRATE, verb transitive [Latin Black.] To blacken; to make black.
DENIGRATION, noun The act of making black; a blackening.
DENITRATION, noun A disengaging of nitric acid.
DENIZATION, noun The act of making one a denizen, subject or citizen. This in England is done by the kings letters patent.
DENIZEN, noun
1. In England, an alien who is made a subject by the kings letters patent, holding a middle state between an alien and a natural born subject. He may take land by purchase or devise, which an alien cannot; but he cannot take by inheritance.
2. A stranger admitted to residence and certain rights in a foreign country.
Ye gods,
Natives, or denizens, of blest abodes.
3. A citizen.
DENIZEN, verb transitive To make a denizen; to admit to residence with certain rights and privileges; to infranchise.
DENOMIINABLE, adjective That may be denominated, or named.
DENOMINATE, verb transitive [Latin To name.] To name; to give a name or epithet to; as, a race of intelligent beings denominated man. Actions are denominated virtuous, or vicious, according to their character.
DENOMINATED, participle passive Named; called.
DENOMINATING, participle present tense Naming.
DENOMINATION, noun
1. The act of naming.
2. A name or appellation; a vocal sound, customarily used to express a thing or a quality, in discourse; as, all man fall under the denomination of sinners; actions fall under the denomination of good or bad.
3. A class, society or collection of individuals, called by the same name; as a denomination of christians.
DENOMINATIVE, adjective That gives a name; that confers a distinct appellation.
DENOMINATOR, noun
1. He that gives a name.
2. In arithmetic, that number placed below the line in vulgar fractions, which shows into how many parts the integer is divided. Thus in 3/5, 5 is the denominator showing that the integer is divided into five parts; and the numerator 3 shows how many parts are taken, that is, three fifths.
DENOTABLE, adjective That may be denoted or marked.
DENOTATION, noun The act of denoting.
DENOTATIVE, adjective Having power to denote.
DENOTE, verb transitive [Latin To note or mark.]
1. To mark; to signify by a visible sign; to indicate; to express. The character X denotes multiplication.
2. To show; to betoken; to indicate; as, a quick pulse denotes fever.
DENOTED, participle passive Marked; signified, indicated.
DENOTEMENT, noun Sign; indication.
DENOTING, participle present tense Marking; expressing; indicating.
DENOUEMENT, noun The unraveling or discovery of a plot.
DENOUNCE, verb transitive [Latin To tell, or declare.]
1. To declare solemnly; to proclaim in a threatening manner; to announce or declare, as a threat.
I denounce to you this day, that ye shall surely perish. Deuteronomy 30:18.
So we say, to denounce war; to denounce wrath.
2. To threaten by some outward sign, or expression.
His look denounced revenge.
3. To inform against; to accuse; as, to denounce one for neglect of duty.
DENOUNCED, participle passive
1. Threatened by open declaration; as, punishment is denounced against the ungodly.
2. Accused; proclaimed; as, he was denounced as an enemy.
DENOUNCEMENT, noun The declaration of a menace, or of evil; denunciation.
DENOUNCER, noun One who denounces, or declares a menace.
Here comes the sad denouncer of my fate.
DENOUNCING, participle present tense Declaring, as a threat; threatening; accusing.
DENSE, adjective
1. Close; compact; having its constituent parts closely united; applied to solids or fluids; as a dense body; dense air.
2. Thick; as a dense cloud, or fog.
DENSENESS, noun The same as density.
DENSITY, noun
1. Closeness of constituent parts; compactness. density is opposed to rarity; and in philosophy, the density of a body indicates the quantity of matter contained in it, under a given bulk. If a body of equal bulk with another is of double the density it contains double the quantity of matter.
2. Thickness; as the density of fog.
DENT, noun
1. Literally, a tooth or projecting point. But it is used to express a gap or notch, or rather a depression or small hollow in a solid body; a hollow made by the pressure of a harder body on a softer; indentation. In this sense, it is in customary use in the United States.
2. A stroke.
DENT, verb transitive To make a dent or small hollow.
DENTAL, adjective Pertaining to the teeth. In grammar, formed or pronounced by the teeth, with the aid of the tongue; as, D and T are dental letters.
DENTAL, noun
1. An articulation or letter formed by placing the end of the tongue against the upper teeth, or against the gum that covers the root of the upper teeth, as D, T, and Th.
2. A genus of shell-fish, Dentalium, of several species. The shell consists of one tubulous straight valve, open at both ends.
DENTALITE, noun A fossil shell of the genus Dentalium.
DENTATE,
DENTATED, adjective Toothed; notched.
In botany, a dentated root is one that consists of a concatenation of joints, resembling a necklace.
A dentate leaf is one that has horizontal points, with a space between each, or points in the plane of the disk, or having points like teeth on the margin.
DENTED, adjective Indented; impressed with little hollows.
DENTELLI, noun Modillions.
DENTICLE, noun A small tooth or projecting point.
DENTICULATE,
DENTICULATED, adjective [Latin A tooth.] Having small teeth or notches; as a denticulate leaf, calyx or seed.
DENTICULATED, a. [L. A tooth.] Having small teeth or notches; as a denticulate leaf, calyx or seed.
DENTICULATION, noun The state of being set with small teeth, or prominences or points, resembling the teeth of a saw.
DENTIFORM, adjective [Latin A tooth and form.] Having the form of a tooth.
DENTIFRICE, noun [Latin A tooth and to rub] A powder or other substance to be used in cleaning the teeth. Burnt shells and charcoal pulverized make an excellent dentifrice
DENTIL, noun [Latin A tooth.] In architecture, an ornament in cornices bearing some resemblance to teeth; used particularly in the Ionic and Corinthian order.
DENTIST, noun One whose occupation is to clean and extract teeth, or repair the loss of them.
DENTITION, noun [Latin To breed teeth.]
1. The breeding or cutting of teeth in infancy.
2. The time of breeding teeth.
DENTIZE, verb transitive To renew the teeth, or have them renewed.
DENTOID, adjective [Latin A tooth and form.] Having a form of teeth.
DENUDATE or DENUDE, verb transitive [Latin To make bare; naked.] To strip; to divest of all covering; to make bare or naked.
DENUDATION, noun
1. The act of stripping off covering; a making bare.
2. In geology, the act of washing away the surface of the earth by the deluge or other flood.
DENUDED, participle passive Stripped; divested of covering; laid bare.
DENUDING, participle present tense Stripping of covering; making bare.
DENUNCIATE, verb transitive To denounce, which see.
DENUNCIATION, noun
1. Publication; proclamation; annunciation; preaching; as a faithful denunciation of the gospel.
2. Solemn or formal declaration, accompanied with a menace; or the declaration of intended evil; proclamation of a threat; a public menace; as a denunciation of war, or of wrath.
DENUNCIATOR, noun
1. He that denounces; one who publishes or proclaims, especially intended evil; one who threatens.
2. An accuser; one who informs against another.
DENY, verb transitive
1. To contradict; to gainsay; to declare a statement or position not to be true. We deny what another says, or we deny a proposition. We deny the truth of an assertion, or the assertion itself. The sense of this verb is often expressed by no or nay.
2. To refuse to grant; as, we asked for bread, and the man denied us.
3. Not to afford; to withhold.
Who find not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?
4. To disown; to refuse or neglect to acknowledge; not to confess.
5. To reject; to disown; not to receive or embrace.
He hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. 1 Timothy 5:1.
DENYing ungodliness and worldly lusts. Titus 2:1.
6. Not to afford or yield.
To deny ones self, is to decline the gratification of appetites or desires; to refrain from; to abstain. The temperate man denies himself the free use of spirituous liquors. I denied myself the pleasure of your company.
God cannot deny himself. He cannot act in contradiction to his character and promises. He cannot be unfaithful. 2 Timothy 2:12.
DEOBSTRUCT, verb transitive [Latin To stop; to pile.]
To remove obstructions, or impediments to a passage; to clear from any thing that hinders the passage of fluids in the proper ducts of the body; as, to deobstruct the pores or lacteals.
DEOBSTRUCTED, participle passive Cleared of obstructions; opened.
DEOBSTRUCTING, participle present tense Removing impediments to a passage.
DEOBSTRUENT, adjective Removing obstructions; having power to clear or open the natural ducts of the fluids and secretions of the body; resolving viscidities; aperient.
DEOBSTRUENT, noun Any medicine which removes obstructions and opens the natural passages of the fluids of the body, as the pores and lacteal vessels; an aperient Calomel is a powerful deobstruent
DEODAND, noun [Latin To be given to God.]
In England, a personal chattel which is the immediate occasion of the death of a rational creature, and for that reason, given to God, that is, forfeited to the king, to be applied to pious uses, and distributed in alms by his high almoner. Thus, if a cart runs over a man and kills him, the cart is forfeited as a deodand
DEONERATE, verb transitive To unload.
DEOPPILATE, verb transitive To free from obstructions; to clear a passage.
DEOPPILATION, noun The removal of obstructions.
DEOPPILATIVE, adjective Deobstruent; aperient.
DEORDINATION, noun Disorder.
DEOSCULATE, verb transitive To kiss.
DEOSCULATION, noun A kissing.
DEOSYDATED, participle passive Reduced from the state of an oxyd.
DEOXYDATE, verb transitive To deprive of oxygen, or reduce from the state of an oxyd.
DEOXYDATING, participle present tense Reducing from the state of an oxyd.
DEOXYDATION, noun The act or process of reducing from the state of an oxyd.
DEOXYDIZATION, noun Deoxydation.
DEOXYDIZE, verb transitive To deoxydate.
DEOXYDIZED, participle passive Deoxydated.
DEOXYDIZING, participle present tense Deoxydating.
NOTE. Deoxydate and deoxydize are synonymous; but the former is preferable, on account of the length of the word deoxydization.
DEOXYGENATE, verb transitive To deprive of oxygen.
DEOXYGENATED, verb transitive Deprived of oxygen.
DEOXYGENATING, participle present tense Depriving of oxygen.
DEOXYGENATION, noun The act or operation of depriving of oxygen.
DEPAINT, verb transitive [Latin To paint.]
1. To paint; to picture; to represent in colors, as by painting the resemblance.
2. To describe in words.
DEPAINTED, participle passive Painted; represented in colors; described.
DEPAINTER, noun A painter.
DEPAINTING, participle present tense Painting; representing in colors; describing.
DEPART, verb intransitive
1. To go or move from.
DEPART from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Matthew 25:41.
It is followed by from, or from is implied before the place left.
I will depart to my own land, that is, I will depart from this place to my own land. Numbers 10:30.
2. To go from; to leave; to desist, as from a practice. Jehu departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. Jehoshaphat departed not from the way of Asa his father.
3. To leave; to deviate from; to forsake; not to adhere to or follow; as, we cannot depart from our rules.
I have not departed from thy judgments. Psalms 119:115.
4. To desist; to leave; to abandon; as, he would not depart from his purpose, resolution, or demand.
5. To be lost; to perish; to vanish; as, his glory has departed.
6. To die; to decease; to leave this world.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. Luke 2:29.
To depart this life is elliptical, from being understood.
8. To cease.
The prey departeth not. Nahum 3.
9. To deviate; to vary from.
If the plan of the convention be found to depart from republican principles-
10. To vary; to deviate from the title or defense in pleading.
11. To part with.
To depart from God, is to forsake his service and live in sin; to apostatize; to revolt; to desert his government and laws.
God departs from men, when he abandons them to their own sinful inclinations, or ceases to bestow on them his favor. Hosea 9.
DEPART, verb transitive To divide or separate; to part.
DEPART, noun
1. The act of going away; death.
2. Division; separation.
DEPARTER, noun One who refines metals by separation.
DEPARTING, participle present tense Going from; leaving; desisting; forsaking; vanishing; dying.
DEPARTING, noun A going away; separation.
DEPARTMENT, noun
1. Literally, a separation or division; hence, a separate part, or portion; a division of territory; as the departments of France.
2. A separate allotment or part of business; a distinct province, in which a class of duties are allotted to a particular person; as the department of state, assigned to the secretary of state; the treasury department; the department of war.
3. A separate station; as, the admirals had their respective departments. Nearly in this sense, during war, were used in America, the terms, Northern and Southern departments.
DEPARTMENTAL, adjective Pertaining to a department, or division.
DEPARTURE, noun
1. The act of going away; a moving from or leaving a place; as a departure from London.
2. Death; decease; removal from the present life.
The time of my departure is at hand. 2 Timothy 4:6.
3. A forsaking; abandonment; as a departure from evil.
4. A desisting; as a departure from a purpose.
5. Ruin; destruction. Ezekiel 26:18.
6. A deviation from the title or defense in pleading.
7. In navigation, the distance of two places on the same parallel, counted in miles of the equator.
DEPASCENT, adjective [Latin To feed.] Feeding.
DEPASTURE, verb transitive To eat up; to consume.
DEPASTURE, verb intransitive To feed; to graze.
If a man takes in a horse, or other cattle, to graze and depasture in his grounds, which the law calls agistment-
DEPASTURING, participle present tense Feeding; grazing; eating up.
DEPAUPERATE, verb transitive [Latin To beggar.] To make poor; to impoverish; to deprive of fertility or richness; as, to depauperate the soil or the blood.
DEPAUPERATED, participle passive Impoverished; made poor.
DEPAUPERATING, participle present tense Impoverishing; making poor.
DEPECTIBLE, adjective [Latin To comb.] Tough; thick.
DEPEINCT, verb transitive To paint.
DEPEND, verb intransitive [Latin To hang.]
1. To hang; to be sustained by being fastened or attached to something above; followed by from.
From the frozen beard
Long icicles depend
2. To be connected with anything, as the cause of its existence or of its operation and effects; to rely on; to have such connection with any thing as a cause, that without it, the effect would not be produced; followed by on or upon. We depend on God for existence; we depend on air for respiration; vegetation depends on heat and moisture; the infant depends on its parents for support; the peace of society depends on good laws and a faithful administration.
3. To adhere; to hold to; to be retained.
4. To be in suspense; to be undetermined; as, the cause still depends. But the verb is seldom used in this sense. We use the participle; as, the suit is still depending in court.
5. To rely; to rest with confidence; to trust; to confide; to have full confidence or belief, we depend on the word or assurance of our friends. We depend on the arrival of the mail at the usual hour. depend on it, the knave will deceive us.
To depend on or upon, to rely; to trust in, with confidence.
DEPENDABLE, adjective That may be depended on; as dependable friendships.
DEPENDENCE,
DEPENDENCY, noun
1. A state of hanging down from a supporter.
2. Any thing hanging down; a series of things hanging to another.
And made a long dependence from the bough.
3. Concatenation; connection by which one thing is sustained by another, in its place, operations or effects, or is affected by it.
But of this frame the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies.
4. A state of being at the disposal of another; a state of being subject to the will of an intelligent cause, or to the power and operation of any other cause; inability to sustain itself without the aid of.
We ought to feel our dependence on God for life and support. The child should be sensible of his dependence on his parents. In the natural and moral world, we observe the dependence of one thing on another.
5. Reliance; confidence; trust; a resting on; as, we may have a firm dependence on the promises of God.
6. Accident; that of which the existence presupposes the existence of something else; that which pertains to something else; as modes which are considered as dependencies or affections of substances.
7. That which is attached to, but subordinate to something else; as this earth and its dependencies.
8. A territory remote from the kingdom or state to which it belongs, but subject to its dominion; as distant isles or countries. Great Britain has its dependencies, in Asia, Africa and America.
DEPENDENCY, n.
1. A state of hanging down from a supporter.2. Any thing hanging down; a series of things hanging to another.And made a long dependence from the bough.3. Concatenation; connection by which one thing is sustained by another, in its place, operations or effects, or is affected by it. But of this frame the bearings and the ties, The strong connections, nice dependencies.4. A state of being at the disposal of another; a state of being subject to the will of an intelligent cause, or to the power and operation of any other cause; inability to sustain itself without the aid of.We ought to feel our dependence on God for life and support. The child should be sensible of his dependence on his parents. In the natural and moral world, we observe the dependence of one thing on another.5. Reliance; confidence; trust; a resting on; as, we may have a firm dependence on the promises of God.6. Accident; that of which the existence presupposes the existence of something else; that which pertains to something else; as modes which are considered as dependencies or affections of substances.7. That which is attached to, but subordinate to something else; as this earth and its dependencies.8. A territory remote from the kingdom or state to which it belongs, but subject to its dominion; as distant isles or countries. Great Britain has its dependencies, in Asia, Africa and America.DEPENDENT, adjective
1. Hanging down; as a dependent leaf.
The furs in the tails were dependent
2. Subject to the power of; at the disposal of; not able to exist or sustain itself without the will or power of. Thus, we are dependent on God and his providence; and effect may be dependent on some unknown cause.
3. Relying on for support or favor; unable to subsist or to perform any thing, without the aid of.
Children are dependent on their parents for food and clothing. The pupil is dependent on his preceptor for instruction.
DEPENDENT, noun One who is at the disposal of another; one who is sustained by another, or who relies on another for support or favor; a retainer; as, the prince was followed by a numerous train of dependents.
DEPENDER, noun One who depends; a dependent.
DEPENDING, participle present tense
1. Hanging down; relying.
2. adjective Pending; undecided; as a suit or question.
DEPERDIT, adjective That which is lost or destroyed.
DEPERDITION, noun Loss; destruction.
DEPHLEGMATE, verb transitive [Gr. To burn.] To deprive of superabundant water, as by evaporation or distillation, used of spirit and acids; to clear spirit or acids of aqueous matter; to rectify.
DEPHLEGMATION, noun The operation of separating water from spirits and acids, by evaporation or repeated distillation; called also concentration, particularly when acids are the subject.
DEPHLEGMEDNESS, noun A state of being freed from water.
DEPHLOGISTICATE, verb transitive [Gr. Burnt, inflammable.] To deprive of phlogiston, or the supposed principle of inflammability.
DEPHLOGISTICATED, participle passive Deprived of phlogiston. dephlogisticated air, is an elastic fluid capable of supporting animal life and flame much longer than common air. It is now called oxygen, oxygen gas, or vital air.
DEPICT, verb transitive [Latin To paint.]
1. To paint; to portray; to form a likeness in colors; as, to depict a lion on a shield.
2. To describe; to represent in words; as, the poet depicts the virtues of his hero in glowing language.
DEPICTED, participle passive Painted; represented in colors; described.
DEPICTING, participle present tense Painting; representing in colors, or in words.
DEPICTURE, verb transitive To paint; to picture; to represent in colors.
DEPILATE, verb transitive [Latin Hair.] To strip of hair.
DEPILATION, noun The act of pulling off the hair.
DEPILATORY, adjective Having the quality or power to take off hair and make bald.
DEPILATORY, noun Any application which is used to take off the hair of an animal body; such as lime and orpiment.
DEPILOUS, adjective Without hair.
DEPLANTATION, noun The act of taking up plants from beds.
DEPLETION, noun [Latin To fill.] The act of emptying; particularly, in the medical art, the act of diminishing the quantity of blood in the vessels by venesection; bloodletting.
DEPLORABLE, adjective
1. That may be deplored or lamented; lamentable; that demands or causes lamentation; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; miserable; wretched; as, the evils of life are deplorable; the Pagan world is in a deplorable condition.
Deplorate, in a like sense, is not used.
2. In popular use, low; contemptible; pitiable; as deplorable stupidity.
DEPLORABLENESS, noun The state of being deplorable; misery; wretchedness; a miserable state.
DEPLORABLY, adverb In a manner to be deplored; lamentably; miserable; as, manners are deplorably corrupt.
DEPLORATION, noun The act of lamenting. In music, a dirge or mournful strain.
DEPLORE, verb transitive [Latin To howl; to wail.] To lament; to bewail; to mourn; to feel or express deep and poignant grief for. We deplored the death of Washington.
DEPLORED, participle passive Lamented; bewailed; deeply regretted.
DEPLOREDLY, adverb Lamentably.
DEPLORER, noun One who deplores, or deeply laments; a deep mourner.
DEPLORING, participle present tense Bewailing; deeply lamenting.
DEPLOY, verb transitive To display; to open; to extend; a military term.
DEPLOY, verb intransitive To open; to extend; to form a more extended front or line.
DEPLOYING, participle present tense Opening; extending; displaying.
DEPLUMATION, noun
1. The stripping or falling off of plumes or feathers.
2. A tumor of the eye-lids with loss of hair.
DEPLUME, verb transitive [Latin A feather.] To strip or pluck off feathers; to deprive of plumage.
DEPLUMED, participle passive Stripped of feathers or plumes.
DEPLUMING, participle present tense Stripping off plumes or feathers.
DEPOLARIZE, verb transitive To deprive of polarity.
DEPONE, verb transitive To lay down as a pledge; to wage.
DEPONENT, adjective
1. Laying down.
2. A deponent verb, in the Latin Grammar, is a verb which has a passive termination, with an active signification, and wants one of the passive participles; as, loquor, to speak.
DEPONENT, .
1. One who deposes, or gives a deposition under oath; one who gives written testimony to be used as evidence in a court of justice. With us in New England, this word is never used, I believe, for a witness who gives oral testimony in court. In England, a deponent is one who gives answers under oath to interrogatories exhibited in chancery.
2. A deponent verb.
DEPOPULATE, verb transitive [Latin To ravage or lay waste.] To dispeople; to unpeople; to deprive of inhabitants, whether by death, or by expulsion. It is not synonymous with laying waste or destroying, being limited to the loss of inhabitants; as, an army or a famine may depopulate a country. It rarely expresses an entire loss of inhabitants, but often a great diminution of their numbers. The deluge nearly depopulated the earth.
DEPOPULATE, verb intransitive To become dispeopled.
DEPOPULATED, participle passive Dispeopled; deprived of inhabitants.
DEPOPULATING, participle present tense Dispeopling; depriving of inhabitants.
DEPOPULATION, noun The act of dispeopling; destruction or expulsion of inhabitants.
DEPOPULATOR, noun One who depopulates; one who destroys or expels the inhabitants of a city, town or country; a dispeopler.
DEPORT, verb transitive [Latin To carry.]
1. With the reciprocal pronoun, to carry; to demean; to behave.
Let an embassador deport himself in the most graceful manner before a prince.
2. To transport; to carry away, or from one country to another.
He told us, he had been deported to Spain, with a hundred others like himself.
DEPORT, noun Behavior; carriage; demeanor; deportment; as goddess-like deport
DEPORTATION, noun Transportation; a carrying away; a removal from one country to another, or to a distant place; exile; banishment.
DEPORTED, participle passive Carried away; transported; banished.
DEPORTING, participle present tense Carrying away; removing to a distant place or country; transporting; banishing.
DEPORTMENT, noun Carriage; manner of acting in relation to the duties of life; behavior; demeanor ; conduct; management.
DEPOSABLE, adjective That may be deposed, or deprived of office.
DEPOSAL, noun The act of deposing, or divesting of office.
DEPOSE, verb transitive [Latin To lay or put.]
1. To lay down; to throw; to let fall; as, the flood deposed fine particles of earth on the bank of the river. In this sense, we now use deposit.
2. To reduce from a throne or other high station; to dethrone; to degrade; to devest of office; as, to depose a king or a pope.
3. To give testimony on oath, especially to give testimony which is committed to writing; to give answers to interrogatories, intended as evidence in a court.
4. To lay aside.
5. To take away; to strip; to divest.
6. To examine on oath.
DEPOSE, verb intransitive To bear witness.
DEPOSED, participle passive Dethroned; degraded; testified.
DEPOSER, noun One who deposes or degrades from office.
DEPOSING, participle present tense Dethroning; degrading; bearing witness.
DEPOSING, noun The act of dethroning.
DEPOSIT, verb transitive
1. To lay down; to lay; to throw down. A crocodile deposits her eggs in the sand. A bird deposits eggs in a nest. An inundation deposits particles of earth on a meadow.
2. To lay up; to lay in a place for preservation. We deposit the produce of the earth in barns, cellars of storehouses. We deposit goods in a warehouse, and books in a library.
3. To lodge in the hands of a person for safe-keeping or other purpose; to commit to the care of; to entrust; to commit to one as a pledge. We say, the bond is deposited in the hands of an attorney; money is deposited as a pledge, or security.
4. To lay aside.
DEPOSIT, noun
1. That which is laid or thrown down; any matter laid or thrown down, or lodged.
The deposit already formed affording to the succeeding portions of the charged fluid, a basis.
2. Any thing entrusted to the care of another; a pledge; a pawn; a thing given as security, or for preservation; as, these papers are committed to you as a sacred deposit; he
has a deposit of money in his hands.
3. A place where things are deposited; a depository.
4. A city or town where goods are lodged for safe-keeping or for reshipment.
In deposit in a state of pledge, or for safe keeping.
DEPOSITARY, noun
1. A person with whom any thing is left or lodged in trust; one to whom a thing is committed for safe keeping, or to be used for the benefit of the owner; a trustee; a guardian. The Jews were the depositaries of the sacred writings.
2. In law, one to whom goods are bailed to be kept for the bailor without a recompense.
DEPOSITING, participle present tense Laying down; pledging; repositing.
DEPOSITION, noun
1. The act of laying or throwing down; as, soil is formed by the deposition of fine particles, during a flood.
2. That which is thrown down; that which is lodged; as, banks are sometimes depositions of alluvial matter.
3. The act of giving testimony under oath.
4. The attested written testimony of a witness; an affidavit.
5. The act of dethroning a king, or the degrading of a person from an office or station; a divesting of sovereignty, or of office and dignity; a depriving of clerical orders. A deposition differs from abdication; an abdication being voluntary, and a deposition compulsory.
DEPOSITORY, noun A place where any thing is lodged for safe-keeping. A warehouse is a depository for goods; a clerks office, for records.
DEPOSITUM, noun A deposit.
DEPOT. [A french word. See deposit.]
DEPRAVATION, noun
1. The act of making bad or worse; the act of corrupting.
2. The state of being made bad or worse; degeneracy; a state in which good qualities are lost, or impaired. We speak of the depravation of morals, manners or goverment; of the heart or mind; of nature, taste, etc.
3. Censure; defamation.
DEPRAVE, verb transitive [Latin Crooked, perverse, wicked.]
1. To make bad or worse; to impair good qualities; to make bad qualities worse; to vitiate; to corrupt; as, to deprave manners, morals, government, laws; to deprave the heart, mind, will, understanding, taste, principles, etc.
2. To defame; to vilify.
DEPRAVED, participle passive
1. Made bad or worse; vitiated; tainted; corrupted.
2. adjective Corrupt; wicked; destitute of holiness or good principles.
DEPRAVEDLY, adverb In a corrupt manner.
DEPRAVEDNESS, noun Corruption; taint; a vitiated state.
DEPRAVEMENT, noun A vitiated state.
DEPRAVER, noun A corrupted; he who citiates; a vilifier.
DEPRAVING, noun A traducing.
DEPRAVITY, noun
1. Corruption; a vitiated state; as the depravity of manners and morals.
2. A vitiated state of the heart; wickedness; corruption of moral principles; destitution of holiness or good principles.
DEPRECATE, verb transitive [Latin To pray.]
1. To pray against; to pray or intreat that a present evil may be removed, or an expected one averted.
The judgments we would deprecate are not removed.
We should all deprecate the return of war.
2. More generally, to regret; to have or to express deep sorrow at a present evil, or at one that may occur. This word is seldom used to express actual prayer; but it expresses deep regret that an evil exists or may exist, which implies a strong desire that it may be removed or averted.
3. To implore mercy of.
DEPRECATED, participle passive Prayed against; deeply regretted.
DEPRECATING, participle present tense Praying against; regretting.
DEPRECATION, noun
1. A praying against; a praying that an evil may be removed or prevented.
2. Intreaty; petitioning; an excusing; a begging pardon for.
DEPRECATIVE, adjective
1. That serves to deprecate; tending to remove or avert evil by prayer; as deprecatory letters.
2. Having the form of prayer.
DEPRECATOR, noun One who deprecates.
DEPRECATORY,
DEPRECIATE, verb transitive [Low Latin Price.]
1. To lessen the price of a thing; to cry down the price or value.
2. To undervalue; to represent as of little value or merit, or of less value than is commonly supposed; as, one author is apt to depreciate the works of another, or to depreciate their worth.
3. To lower the value. The issue of a superabundance of notes depreciates them, or depreciates their value.
DEPRECIATE, verb intransitive To fall in value; to become of less worth. A paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie. Estates are apt to depreciate in hte hands of tenants on short leases. Continental bills of credit, issued by the congress, during the revolution, depreciated to the one hundredth part of their nominal value.
DEPRECIATE, v.t. [Low L. Price.]
1. To lessen the price of a thing; to cry down the price or value.2. To undervalue; to represent as of little value or merit, or of less value than is commonly supposed; as, one author is apt to depreciate the works of another, or to depreciate their worth.3. To lower the value. The issue of a superabundance of notes depreciates them, or depreciates their value.DEPRECIATE, v.i. To fall in value; to become of less worth. A paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie. Estates are apt to depreciate in hte hands of tenants on short leases. Continental bills of credit, issued by the congress, during the revolution, depreciated to the one hundredth part of their nominal value.
DEPRECIATED, participle passive Lessened in value or price; undervalued.
DEPRECIATING, participle present tense
1. Lessening the price or worth; undervaluing.
2. Falling in value.
DEPRECIATION, noun
1. The act of lessening or crying down price or value.
2. The falling of value; reduction of worth; as the depreciation of bills of credit.
DEPREDATE, verb intransitive [Latin To plunder; prey.]
1. To plunder; to rob; to pillage; to take the property of an enemy or of a foreign country by force; as, the army depredated the enemys country.
That kind of war which depredates and distresses individuals.
2. To prey upon; to waste; to spoil.
3. To devour; to destroy by eating; as, wild animals depredate the corn.
DEPREDATE, verb intransitive To take plunder or prey; to commit waste; as, the troops depredated on the country.
DEPREDATED, participle passive Spoiled; plundered; wasted; pillaged.
DEPREDATING, participle present tense Plundering; robbing; pillaging.
DEPREDATION, noun
1. The act of plundering; a robbing; a pillaging.
2. Waste; consumption; a taking away by any act of violence. The sea often makes depredations on the land. Intemperance commits depredations on the constitution.
DEPREDATOR, noun One who plunders, or pillages; a spoiler; a waster.
DEPREDATORY, adjective Plundering; spoiling; consisting in pillaging.
DEPREHEND, verb transitive [Latin To take or seize.]
1. To catch; to take unawares or by surprise; to seize, as a person committing an unlawful act.
2. To detect; to discover; to obtain the knowledge of.
DEPREHENDED, participle passive Taken by surprise; caught; seized; discovered.
DEPREHENDING, participle present tense Taking unawares; catching; seizing; discovering.
DEPREHENSIBLE, adjective That may be caught, or discovered.
DEPREHENSIBLENESS, noun Capableness of being caught or discovered.
DEPREHENSION, noun A catching or seizing; a discovery.
DEPRESS, verb transitive [Latin To press.]
1. To press down; to press to a lower state or position; as, to depress the end of a tube, or the muzzle of a gun.
2. To let fall; to bring down; as, to depress the eye.
3. To render dull or languid; to limit or diminish; as, to depress commerce.
4. To sink; to lower; to deject; to make sad; as, to depress the spirits or the mind.
5. To humble; to abase; as, to depress pride.
6. To sink in altitude; to cause to appear lower or nearer the horizon; as, a man sailing towards the equator depresses the pole.
7. To impoverish; to lower in temporal estate; as, misfortunes and losses have depressed the merchants.
8. To lower in value; as, to depress the price of stock.
DEPRESSING, participle present tense Pressing down; lowering in place; letting fall; sinking; dejecting; abasing; impoverishing; rendering languid.
DEPRESSION, noun
1. The act of pressing down; or the state of being pressed down; a low state.
2. A hollow; a sinking or falling in of a surface; or a forcing inwards; as roughness consisting in little protuberances and depressions; the depression of the skull.
3. The act of humbling; abasement; as the depression of pride; the depression of the nobility.
4. A sinking of the spirits; dejection; a state of sadness; want of courage or animation; as depression of the mind.
5. A low state of strength; a state of body succeeding debility in the formation of disease.
6. A low state of business or of property.
7. The sinking of the polar star towards the horizon, as a person recedes from the pole towards the equator. Also, the distance of a star from the horizon below, which is measured by an arch of the vertical circle or azimuth, passing through the star, intercepted between the star and the horizon.
8. In algebra, the depression of an equation, is the bringing of it into lower and more simple terms by division.
DEPRESSIVE, adjective Able or tending to depress or cast down.
DEPRESSOR, noun
1. He that presses down; an oppressor.
2. In anatomy, a muscle that depresses or draws down the part to which it is attached; as the depressor of the lower jaw, or of the eyeball. It is called also depriment or deprimens.
DEPRIVABLE, adjective That may be deprived.
A chaplain shall be deprivable by the founder, not by the bishop.
DEPRIVATION, noun
1. The act of depriving; a taking away.
2. A state of being deprived; loss; want; bereavement by loss of friends or of goods.
3. In law, the act of divesting a bishop or other clergyman of his spiritual promotion or dignity; the taking away of a preferment; deposition. This is of two kinds; a beneficio, and ab officio. The former is the deprivation of a minister of his living or preferment; the latter, of his order, and otherwise called deposition or degradation.
DEPRIVE, verb transitive [Latin To take away.]
1. To take from; to bereave of something possessed or enjoyed; followed by of; as, to deprive a man of sight; to deprive one of strength, of reason, or of property. This has a general signification, applicable to a lawful or unlawful taking.
God hath deprived her of wisdom. Job 39:17.
2. To hinder from possessing or enjoying; to debar.
From his face I shall be hid, deprived of his blessed countenance.
[This use of the word is not legitimate, but common.]
3. To free or release from.
4. To divest of an ecclesiastical preferment, dignity or office; to divest of orders; as a bishop, prebend or vicar.
DEPRIVED, participle passive Bereft; divested; hindered; stripped of office or dignity; deposed; degraded.
DEPRIVEMENT, noun The state of losing or being deprived.
DEPRIVER, noun He or that which deprives or bereaves.
DEPRIVING, participle present tense Bereaving; taking away what is possessed; divesting; hindering from enjoying; deposing.
DEPTH, noun
1. Deepness; the distance or measure of a thing from the surface to the bottom, or to the extreme part downwards or inwards. The depth of a river may be ten feet. The depth of the ocean is unfathomable. The depth of a wound may be an inch. In a vertical direction, depth is opposed to highth.
2. A deep place.
3. The sea, the ocean.
The depth closed me round about. Jonah 2:5.
4. The abyss; a gulf of infinite profundity.
When he set a compass on the face of the depth Proverbs 8:27.
5. The middle or highth of a season, as the depth of winter; or the middle, the darkest or stillest part, as the depth of night; or the inner part, a part remote from the border, as the depth of a wood or forest.
6. Abstruseness; obscurity; that which is not easily explored; as the depth of a science.
7. Unsearchableness; infinity.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Romans 11:33.
8. The breadth and depth of the love of Christ, are its vast extent.
9. Profoundness; extent of penetration, or of the capacity of penetrating; as depth of understanding; depth of skill.
10. The depth of a squadron or battalion, is the number of men in a file, which forms the extent from the front to the rear; as a depth of three men or six men.
11. depth of a sail, the extent of the square sails from the head-rope to the foot-rope, or the length of the after-leech of a stay-sail or boom-sail.
DEPULSION, noun [Latin To drive.] A driving or thrusting away.
DEPULSORY, adjective Driving or thrusting away; averting.
DEPURATE, verb transitive To purify; to free from impurities, heterogeneous matter or feculence; a chimical term.
DEPURATED, participle passive Purified from heterogeneous matter, or from impurities.
DEPURATING, participle present tense Purifying; freeing from impurities.
DEPURATION, noun
1. The act of purifying or freeing fluids from heterogeneous matter. This is done by decantation, when the feculent matter is deposited on the bottom of the vessel; or by despumation, effected by boiling or fermentation, and skimming; or by filtration; or by fining or clarification.
2. The cleansing of a wound from impure matter.
DEPURATORY, adjective Cleansing; purifying; or tending to purify. A depuratory fever, is a fever that expels morbid matter by a free perspiration.
DEPURE, verb transitive To depurate.
DEPUTATION, noun
1. The act of appointing a substitute or representative to act for another; the act of appointing and sending a deputy or substitute to transact business for another, as his agent, either with a special commission and authority, or with general powers. This word may be used for the election of representatives to a legislature; but more generally it is employed to express the appointment of a special agent or commissioner, by an individual or public body, to transact a particular business.
2. A special commission or authority to act as the substitute of another; as, this man acts by deputation from the sheriff.
3. The person deputed; the person or persons authorized and sent to transact business for another; as, the General sent a deputation to the enemy to offer terms of peace.
DEPUTE, verb transitive To appoint as a substitute or agent to act for another; to appoint and send with a special commission or authority to transact business in anothers name. The sheriff deputes a man to serve a writ.
There is no man deputed by the king to hear. 2 Samuel 15:3.
The bishop may depute a priest to administer the sacrement.
DEPUTED, participle passive Appointed as a substitute; appointed and sent with special authority to act for another.
DEPUTING, participle present tense Appointing as a substitute; appointed and sent with special authority to act for another.
DEPUTIZE, verb transitive To appoint a deputy; to empower to act for another, as a sheriff.
DEPUTY, noun
1. A person appointed or elected to act for another, especially a person sent with a special commission to act in the place of another; a lieutenant; a viceroy. A prince sends a deputy to a diet or council, to represent him and his dominions. A sheriff appoints a deputy to execute the duties of his office. The towns in New England send deputies to the legislature. In the latter sense, a deputy has general powers, and it is more common to use the word representative.
2. In law, one that exercises an office in anothers right, and the forfeiture or misdemeanor of such deputy shall cause the person he represents to lose his office.
DER, prefixed to names of places, may be from Sax. deor, a wild beast, or from dur, water.
DERACINATE, verb transitive To pluck up by the roots; to extirpate.
DERACINATED, participle passive Plucked up by the roots; extirpated.
DERACINATING, participle present tense Tearing up by the roots; extirpating.
DERAIGN or DERAIN, verb transitive To prove; to justify; to vindicate, as an assertion; to clear ones self.
DERAIGNMENT,
DERAINMENT, noun The act of deraining; proof; justification.
A like word was formerly used in the sense of disordering, derangement, a discharge from a profession, or departure from a religious order.
DERANGE, verb transitive
1. To put out of order; to disturb the regular order of; to throw into confusion; as, to derange the plans of a commander, or the affairs of a nation.
I had long supposed that nothing could derange or interrupt the course of putrefaction.
2. To embarrass; to disorder; as, his private affairs are deranged.
3. To disorder the intellect; to disturb the regular operations of reason.
4. To remove from place or office, as the personal staff of a principal military officer. Thus when a general officer resigns or is removed from office, the personal staff appointed by himself are said to be deranged.
DERANGED, participle passive Put out of order; disturbed; embarrassed; confused; disordered in mind; delirious; distracted.
DERANGEMENT, noun
1. A putting out of order; disturbance of regularity or regular course; embarrassment.
2. Disorder of the intellect or reason; delirium; insanity; as a derangement of the mental organs.
DERANGING, participle present tense
1. Putting out of order; disturbing regularity or regular course; embarrassment; confusion.
2. Disordering the rational powers.
DERAY, verb transitive Tumult; disorder; merriment.
DERE, verb transitive To hurt.
DERELICT, adjective [Latin To leave.] Left; abandoned.
DERELICT, noun
1. In law, an article of goods, or any commodity, thrown away, relinquished or abandoned by the owner.
2. A tract of land left dry by the sea, and fit for cultivation or use.
DERELICTION, noun
1. The act of leaving with an intention not to reclaim; an utter forsaking; abandonment.
2. The state of being left or abandoned.
3. A leaving or receding from; as the dereliction of the sea.
DERIDE, verb transitive [Latin To laugh.] To laugh at in contempt; to turn to ridicule or make sport of; to mock; to treat with scorn by laughter.
The Pharisees also-derided him. Luke 16:14.
Some, who adore Newton for his fluxions, deride him for his religion.
DERIDED, participle passive Laughed at in contempt; mocked; ridiculed.
DERIDER, noun
1. One who laughs at another in contempt; a mocker; a scoffer.
2. A droll or buffoon.
DERIDING, participle present tense Laughing at with contempt; mocking; ridiculing.
DERIDINGLY, adverb By way of derision or mockery.
DERISION, noun
1. The act of laughing at in contempt.
2. Contempt manifested by laughter; scorn.
I am in derision daily. Jeremiah 20:7.
3. An object of derision or contempt; a laughing-stock.
I was a derision to all my people. Lamentations 3:14.
DERISIVE, adjective Containing derision; mocking; ridiculing.
DERISIVE taunts.
DERISIVELY, adverb With mockery or contempt.
DERISORY, adjective Mocking; ridiculing.
DERIVABLE, adjective
1. That may be derived; that may be drawn, or received, as from a source. Income is derivable from land, money or stocks.
2. That may be received from ancestors; as an estate derivable from an ancestor.
3. That may be drawn, as from premises; deducible; as an argument derivable from facts or preceding propositions.
4. That may be drawn from a radical word; as a word derivable from an Oriental root.
DERIVATE, noun A word derived from another.
DERIVATION, noun
1. The act of deriving, drawing or receiving from a source; as the derivation of an estate from ancestors, or of profits from capital, or of truth or facts from antiquity.
2. In grammar, the drawing or tracing of a word from its root or original; as, derivation is from the Latin Derivo, and the latter from rivus, a stream.
3. A drawing from, or turning aside from, a natural course or channel; as the derivation of water from its channel by lateral drains.
4. A drawing of humors from one part of the body to another; as the derivation of humors from the eye, by a blister on the neck.
5. The thing derived or deduced.
DERIVATIVE, adjective
1. Derived; taken or having proceeded from another or something preceding; secondary; as a derivative perfection; a derivative conveyance, as a release.
2. A derivative chord, in music, is one derived from a fundamental chord.
DERIVATIVE, noun
1. That which is derived; a word which takes its origin in another word, or is formed from it. Thus, depravity is a derivative from the Latin Deravo, and acknowledge, from knowledge, and this from know, the primitive word.
2. In music, a chord not fundamental.
DERIVATIVELY, adverb In a derivative manner; by derivation.
DERIVE, verb transitive [Latin A stream.]
1. To draw from, as in a regular course or channel; to receive from a source by a regular conveyance. The heir derives an estate from his ancestors. We derive from Adam mortal bodies and natures prone to sin.
2. To draw or receive, as from a source or origin. We derive ideas from the senses, and instruction from good books.
3. To deduce or draw, as from a root, or primitive word. A hundred words are often derived from a single monosyllabic root, and sometimes a much greater number.
4. To turn from its natural course; to divert; as, to derive water from the main channel or current into lateral rivulets.
5. To communicate from one to another by descent.
An excellent disposition is derived to your lordship from your parents.
6. To spread in various directions; to cause to flow.
The streams of justice were derived into every part of the kingdom.
DERIVE, verb intransitive To come or proceed from.
Power from heaven derives.
DERIVED, participle passive Drawn, as from a source; deduced; received; regularly conveyed; descended; communicated; transmitted.
DERIVER, noun One who derives, or draws from a source.
DERIVING, participle present tense Drawing; receiving; deducing; communicating; diverting or turning into another channel.
DERMAL, adjective Pertaining to skin; consisting of skin.
DERMOID, adjective Pertaining to the skin; a medical term.
DERN, adjective Solitary; sad; cruel.
DERNFUL, adjective Sad; mournful.
DERNIER, adjective Last; final; ultimate; as the dernier resort.
DERNLY, adverb Sadly; mournfully.
DEROGATE, verb transitive [Latin To ask, to propose. In ancient Rome, rogo was used in proposing new laws, and derogo, in repealing some section of a law. Hence the sense is to take from or annul a part.]
1. To repeal, annul or destroy the force and effect of some part of a law or established rule; to lessen the extent of a law; distinguished from abrogate.
By several contrary customs, many of the civil and canon laws are controlled and derogated.
2. To lessen the worth of a person or thing; to disparage.
DEROGATE, verb intransitive
1. To take away; to detract; to lessen by taking away a part; as, say nothing to derogate from the merit or reputation of a brave man.
2. To act beneath ones rank, place or birth.
DEROGATED, participle passive Diminished in value; degraded; damaged.
DEROGATELY, adverb In a manner to lessen or take from.
DEROGATING, participle present tense Annulling a part. Lessening by taking from.
DEROGATION, noun
1. The act of annulling or revoking a law, or some part of it. More generally, the act of taking away or destroying the value or effect of any thing, or of limiting its extent, or of restraining its operation; as, an act of parliament is passed in derogation of the kings prerogative; we cannot do any thing in derogation of the moral law.
2. The act of taking something from merit, reputation or honor; a lessening of value or estimation; detraction; disparagement; with from or of; as, I say not this in derogation of Virgil; let nothing be said in derogation from his merit.
DEROGATIVE, adjective Derogatory.
DEROGATORILY, adverb In a detracting manner.
DEROGATORINESS, noun The quality of being derogatory.
DEROGATORY, adjective
1. Detracting or tending to lessen by taking something from; that lessens the extent, effect or value; with to. Let us entertain no opinions derogatory to the honor of God, or his moral government. Let us say nothing derogatory to the merit of our neighbor.
2. A derogatory clause in a testament, is a sentence or secret character inserted by the testator, of which he reserves the knowledge to himself, with a condition that no will be may make hereafter shall be valid, unless this clause is inserted word for word; a precaution to guard against later wills extorted by violence or obtained by suggestion.
DERRING, adjective Daring.
DERVIS, noun A turkish priest or monk, who professes extreme poverty, and leads an austere life.
DESCANT, noun
1. A song or tune composed in parts.
2. A song or tune with various modulations.
The wakeful nightingale
All night long her amourous descant sung.
3. A discourse; discussion; disputation; animadversion, comment, or a series of comments.
4. The art of composing music in several parts. descant is plain, figurative and double.
Plain descant is the ground-work of musical compositions, consisting in the orderly disposition of concords, answering to simple counterpoint.
Figurative or florid descant is that part of an air in which some discords are concerned.
Double descant is when the parts are so contrived, that the treble may be made the base, and the base the treble.
DESCANT, verb intransitive
1. To run a division or variety with the voice, on a musical ground in true measure; to sing.
2. To discourse; to comment; to make a variety of remarks; to animadvert freely.
A virtuous man should be pleased to find people descanting on his actions.
DESCANTING, participle present tense Singing in parts or with various modulations; discoursing freely; commenting.
DESCANTING, noun Remark; conjecture.
DESCEND, verb intransitive [Latin To climb.]
1. To move or pass from a higher to a lower place; to move, come or go downwards; to fall; to sink; to run or flow down; applicable to any kind of motion or of body. We descend on the feet, on wheels, or by falling. A torrent descends from a mountain.
The rains descended, and the floods came. Matthew 7:25.
2. To go down, or to enter.
He shall descend into battle and perish. Sam. 26.
3. To come suddenly; to fall violently.
And on the suitors let thy wrath descend
4. To go in; to enter.
He, with honest meditations fed, into himself descended.
5. To rush; to invade, as an enemy.
The Grecian fleet descending on the town.
6. To proceed from a source or original; to be derived. The beggar may descend from a prince, and the prince, from a beggar.
7. To proceed, as from father to son; to pass from a preceding possessor, in the order of lineage, or according to the laws of succession or inheritance. Thus, an inheritance descends to the son or next of kin; a crown descends to the heir.
8. To pass from general to particular considerations; as, having explained the general subject, we will descend to particulars.
9. To come down from an elevated or honorable station; in a figurative sense. Flavius is an honorable man; he cannot descend to acts of meanness.
10. In music, to fall in sound; to pass from any note to another less acute or shrill, or from sharp to flat.
DESCEND, verb transitive To walk, move or pass downwards on a declivity; as, to descend a hill; to descend an inclined plain. [But this may be considered as elliptical; on or along being understood.]
DESCENDANT, noun Any person proceeding from an ancestor in any degree; issue; offspring, in the line of generation, ad infinitum. We are all the descendants of Adam and Eve.
DESCENDENT, adjective
1. Descending; falling; sinking.
2. Proceeding from an original or ancestor.
DESCENDIBILITY, noun The quality of being descendible, or capable of being trnasmitted from ancestors; as the descendibility of an estate or of a crown.
DESCENDIBLE, adjective
1. That may be descended, or passed down; as, the hill is descendible
2. That may descend from an ancestor to an heir; as a descendible estate.
DESCENSION, noun
1. The act of going downwards; descent; a falling or sinking; declension; degradation.
2. In astronomy, right descension is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the intersection of the meridian, passing through the center of the object, at its setting, in a right sphere.
Oblique descension is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the horizon, passing through the center of the object, at its setting, in an oblique sphere.
Oblique descension is an arch of the equator which descends with the sun below the horizon of an oblique sphere.
DESCENSION of a sign, is an arch of the equator, which sets with such a sign or part of the zodiac, or any planet in it.
Right descension of a sign, is an arch of the equator, which descends with the sign below the horizon of a right sphere; or the time the sign is setting in a right sphere.
DESCENSIONAL, adjective Pertaining to descent.
DESCENSIVE, adjective Tending downwards; having power to descend.
DESCENT, noun
1. The act of descending; the act of passing from a higher to a lower place, by any form of motion, as by walking, riding, rolling, sliding, sinking or falling.
2. Inclination downward; obliquity; slope; declivity; as the descent of a hill, or a roof.
3. Progress downward; as the descent from higher to lower orders of beings.
4. Fall from a higher to a lower state or station.
5. A landing from ships; invasion of troops from the sea; as, to make a descent on Cuba.
6. A passing from an ancestor to an heir; transmission by succession or inheritance, as the descent of an estate or a title from the father to the son. descent is lineal, when it proceeds directly from the father to the son, and from the son to the grandson; collateral, when it proceeds from a man to his brother, nephew or other collateral representative.
7. A proceeding from an original or progenitor. The Jews boast of their descent from Abraham. Hence,
8. Birth; extraction; lineage; as a noble descent
9. A generation; a single degree in the scale of genealogy; distance from the common ancestor.
No man is a thousand descents from Adam.
10. Offspring; issue; descendants.
The care of our descent perplexes most.
11. A rank in the scale of subordination.
12. Lowest place.
13. In music, a passing from a note or sound to one more grave or less acute.
DESCRIBABLE, adjective That may be described; capable of description.
DESCRIBE, verb transitive [Latin To write.]
1. To delineate or mark the form or figure; as, to describe a circle by the compasses.
2. To make or exhibit a figure by motion; as, a star describes a circle or an ellipsis in the heavens.
3. To show or represent to others in words; to communicate the resemblance of a thing, by naming its nature, form or properties. The poet describes the Trojan horse. The historian describes the battle of Pharsalia. The moralist describes the effects of corrupt manners. The geographer describes countries and cities.
4. To represent by signs. A deaf and dumb man may describe a distant object. Our passions may be described by external motions.
5. To draw a plan; to represent by lines and other marks on paper, or other material; as, to describe the surface of the earth by a map or chart.
6. To define laxly.
DESCRIBED, participle passive Represented in form by marks or figures; delineated; represented by words or signs.
DESCRIBER, noun One who describes by marks, words or signs.
DESCRIBING, participle present tense Representing the form or figure of, by lines or marks; communicating a view of, by words or signs, or by naming the nature and properties.
DESCRIED, participle passive Espied; discovered; seen.
DESCRIER, noun One who espies, or discovers; a discoverer; a detecter.
DESCRIPTION, noun
1. The act of delineating, or representing the figure of any thing by a plan, to be presented to the eye.
2. The figure or appearance of any thing delineated, or represented by visible lines, marks, colors, etc.; as the description of a country, or of Solomons temple.
3. The act of representing a thing by words or by signs, or the passage containing such representation; a representation of names, nature of properties, that gives to another a view of the thing. Homer abounds with beautiful and striking descriptions.
4. A definition. All definitions must be less perfect descriptions of a material thing, than a visible figure or delineation.
5. The qualities expressed in a representation; as, a man of this description Hence,
6. The persons having the qualities expressed; a class of persons to whom a description is applicable, or who are in a similar condition.
The secretary proceeds to examine, whether a difference ought to be permitted to remain between them and another description of public creditors.
Persons of different descriptions.
DESCRIPTIV, E, adjective Containing description; tending to describe; having the quality of representing; as a descriptive figure; a descriptive narration; a story descriptive of the age.
DESCRY, verb transitive
1. To espy; to explore; to examine by observation.
The house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judges 1:23.
2. To detect; to find out; to discover any thing concealed.
3. To see; to behold; to have a sight of from a distance; as, the seamen descried land.
4. To give notice of something suddenly discovered.
DESCRY, noun Discovery; thing descovered.
DESCRYING, participle present tense Descovering; espying.
DESECRATE, verb transitive [Latin To consecrate, from sacred.]
1. To divert from a sacred purpose or appropriation; opposed to consecrate; as, to desecrate a donation to a church.
2. To divest of a sacred character or office.
The clergy-cannot suffer corporal punishment, without being previously desecrated.
DESECRATED, participle passive Diverted from a sacred purpose or appropriation; divested of a sacred character or office.
DESECRATING, participle present tense Diverting from a purpose to which a thing is consecrated; divested of a sacred character or office.
DESECRATION, noun The act of diverting from a sacred purpose or use to which a thing had been devoted; the act of diverting from a sacred character or office.
DESERT, adjective S as z [Latin To sow, plant or scatter.]
1. Literally, forsaken; hence, uninhabited; as a desert isle. Hence, wild; untilled; waste; uncultivated; as a desert land or country.
2. Void; emprty; unoccupied.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.
DESERT, noun An uninhabited tract of land; a region in its natural state; a wilderness; a solitude; particularly, a vast sandy plain, as the deserts of Arabia and Africa. But the word may be applied to an uninhabited country covered with wood.
DESERT, verb transitive [Latin To forsake.]
1. To forsake; to leave utterly; to abandon; to quit with a view not to return to; as, to desert a friend; to desert our country; to desert a cause.
2. To leave, without permission, a military band, or a ship, in which one is enlisted; to forsake the service in which one is engaged, in violation of duty; as, to desert the army; to desert ones colors; to desert a ship.
DESERT, verb intransitive To run away; to quit a service without permission; as, to desert from the army.
DESERT, noun
1. A deserving; that which gives a right to reward or demands, or which renders liable to punishment; merit or demerit; that which entitles to a recompense of equal to the offense; good conferred, or evil done, which merits an equivalent return. A wise legislature will reward or punish men according to their deserts.
2. That which is deserved; reward or punishment merited. In a future life, every man will receive his desert
DESERTED, participle passive Wholly forsaken; abandoned; left.
DESERTER, noun A person who forsakes his cause, his post, or his party or friend; particularly, a soldier or seaman who quits the service without permission, and in violation of his engagement.
DESERTFUL, adjective High in desert; meritorious.
DESERTING, participle present tense Forsaking utterly; abandoning.
DESERTION, noun
1. The act of forsaking or abandoning, as a party, a friend, a country, an army or military band, or a ship; the act of quitting, with an intention not to return.
2. The state of being forsaken by God; spiritual despondency.
The agonies of a soul under desertion
DESERTLESS, adjective Without merit or claim to favor or reward.
DESERTLESSLY, adverb Undeservedly.
DESERTRICE,
DESERTRIX, noun A female who deserts.
DESERTRIX, n. A female who deserts.
DESERVE, verb transitive [Latin To serve.]
1. To merit; to be worthy of; applied to good or evil.
2. To merit by labor or services; to have a just claim to an equivalent for good conferred. The laborer deserves his wages; he deserves the value of his services.
3. To merit by good actions or qualities in general; to be worthy of, on account of excellence. The virtuous man deserves esteem and commendation. A work of value deserves praise.
4. To be worthy of, in a bad sense; to merit by an evil act; as, to deserve blame or punishment.
God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job 11:1.
DESERVE, verb intransitive To merit; to be worthy of or deserving; as, he deserves well or ill of his neighbor.
DESERVED, participle passive Merited; worthy of.
DESERVEDLY, adverb Justly; according to desert, whether of good or evil. A man may be deservedly praised, blamed or punished.
DESERVER, noun He who deserves or merits; one who is worthy of; used generally in a good sense.
DESERVING, participle present tense
1. Meriting; having a just claim to reward; justly meriting punishment.
2. Worthy of reward or praise; meritorious; possessed of good qualities that entitle to approbation; as a deserving officer.
DESERVING, noun The act of meriting; desert; merit.
If ye have done to him according to the deserving of his hands. Judges 9:16.
DESERVINGLY, adverb Meritoriously; with just desert.
DESHABILLE or DESHABIL, noun An undress; a loose morning dress; hence, any home dress; as, the lady is in deshabille [It would be well to anglicize the orthography.]
DESICCANT, adjective Drying.
DESICCANT, noun A medicine or application that dries a sore.
DESICCATE, verb transitive [Latin To dry.] to dry; to exhaust of moisture; to exhale or remove moisture from.
DESICCATE, verb intransitive To become dry.
DESICCATED, participle passive Dried.
DESICCATING, participle present tense Drying; exhausting moisture.
DESICCATION, noun The act of making dry; the state of being dried.
DESICCATIVE, adjective Drying; tending to dry; that has the power to dry.
DESIDERATE, verb intransitive [from the Latin ] To want; to miss.
DESIDERATUM, noun plural Desiderata. [Latin To desire.] That which is desired; that which is not possessed, but which is desirable; any perfection or improvement which is wanted. The longitude is a desideratum in navigation. A tribunal to settle national disputes without war is a great desideratum
DESIGN, verb transitive [Latin To seal or stamp, that is, to set or throw.]
1. To delineate a form or figure by drawing the outline; to sketch; as in painting and other works of art.
2. To plan; to form an outline or representation of any thing. Hence,
3. To project; to form in idea, as a scheme. Hence,
4. To purpose or intend; as, a man designs to write an essay, or to study law.
5. To mark out by tokens.
6. To intend to apply or appropriate; with for; as, we design this ground for a garden, and that for a park. The word design may include an adapting or planning a thing for a purpose, or mere intention or scheme of the mind, which implies a plan. The father designs his son for the profession of the law, or for the ministry. It was formerly followed by to, but this use is now uncommon.
DESIGN, noun
1. A plan or representation of a thing by an outline; sketch; general view; first idea represented by visible lines; as in painting or architecture.
2. A scheme or plan in the mind. A wise man is distinguished by the judiciousness of his designs.
3. Purpose; intention; aim; implying a scheme or plan in the mind. It is my design to educate my son for the bar.
4. The idea or scheme intended to be expressed by an artist; as the designs of medals.
5. In manufactories, the figures with which workmen enrich their stuffs, copied from painting or draughts.
6. In music, the invention and conduct of the subject; the disposition of every part, and the general order of the whole.
DESIGNABLE, adjective
1. Capable of being designed or marked out.
2. Distinguishable.
DESIGNATE, verb transitive
1. To mark out or show, so as to make known; to indicate by bisible lines, marks, description or something known and determinate; as, to designate the limits of a country; the limits are designated on the map; designate the spot where a star appears in the heavens; designate the place where our ancestors first landed.
2. To point out; to distinguish from others by indication; as, to be able to designate every individual who was concerned in a riot.
3. To appoint; to select or distinguish for a particular purpose; to assign; with for, as to designate an officer for the command of a station; or with to, as this captain was designated to that station.
DESIGNATE, adjective Appointed; marked out.
DESIGNATED, participle passive Marked out; indicated; shown; pointed out appointed.
DESIGNATING, participle present tense Marking out; indicating; pointing out; appointing.
DESIGNATION, noun
1. The act of pointing or marking out by signs or objects; as the designation of an estate by boundaries.
2. Indication; a showing or pointing; a distinguishing from others.
3. Appointment; direction; as, a claim to a throne grounded on the designation of a predecessor.
4. Appointment; a selecting and appointing; assignment; as the designation of an officer to a particular command.
5. Import; distinct application.
Finite and infinite are primarily attributed in their first designation to things which have parts.
DESIGNATIVE, adjective Serving to designate or indicate.
DESIGNATOR, noun A Roman officer who assigned to each person his rank and place in public shows and ceremonies.
DESIGNED, participle passive Marked out; delineated; planned; intended.
DESIGNEDLY, adverb By design; purposely; intentionally; opposed to accidentally, ignorantly, or inadvertently.
DESIGNER, noun
1. One who designs, marks out or plans; one who frames a scheme or project; a contriver.
2. One who plots; one who lays a scheme; in an ill sense.
DESIGNFULNESS, noun Abundance of design.
DESIGNING, participle present tense
1. Forming a design; plnning; delineating the outline; drawing figures on a plane.
2. adjective In an ill sense, artful; insidious; intriguing; contriving schemes of mischief; hence, deceitful. designing men are always liable to suspicion.
DESIGNING, noun The art of delineating objects.
DESIGNLESS, adjective Without design or intention; inadvertent.
DESIGNLESSLY, adverb Without design; inadvertently; ignorantly.
DESIGNMENT, noun
1. Design; sketch; delineation.
2. Design; purpose; aim; intent; scheme.
DESINENCE, noun End; close.
DESINENT, adjective Ending; extreme; lower-most.
DESIPIENT, adjective [Latin To dote; to be wise.] trifling; foolish; playful.
DESIRABLE, adjective
1. Worthy of desire; that is to be wished for with sincerity or earnestness. An easy address is a desirable accomplishment; real virtue is still more desirable
2. Pleasing; agreeable.
All of them desirable young men. Ezekiel 23:6.
DESIRABLENESS, noun The quality of being desirable.
DESIRE, noun
1. An emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected; a passion excited by the love of an object, or uneasiness at the want of it, and directed to its attainment or possession. desire is a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is supposed to be obtainable. A wish may exist for something that is or is not abtainable. desire when directed solely to sensual enjoyment, differs little from appetite. In other languages, desire is expressed by longing or reaching toward, and when it is ardent or intense, it approaches to longing, but the word in English usually expresses less than longing.
We endeavored-to see your face with great desire 1 Thessalonians 2:17.
Thou satisfiest the desires of every living thing. Psalms 145:16.
DESIRE is that internal act, which, by influencing the will, makes us proceed to action.
2. A prayer or request to obtain:
He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. Psalms 145:16.
3. The object of desire; that which is desired.
The desire of all nations shall come. Haggai 2:7.
4. Love; affection.
His desire is toward me. Song of Solomon 7:10.
5. Appetite; lust.
Fulfilling the desires of the flesh. Ephesians 2:3.
DESIRE, verb transitive
1. To wish for the possession or enjoyment of, with a greater or less degree of earnestness; to covet. It expresses less strength of affection than longing.
Neither shall any man desire thy land. Exodus 34:24.
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14:1.
2. To express a wish to obtain; to ask; to request; to petition.
Then she said, did I desire a son of my Lord? 2 Kings 4:28.
3. To require.
DESIRED, participle passive Wished for; coveted; requested; entreated.
DESIRELESS, adjective Free from desire.
DESIRER, noun One who desires or asks; one who wishes.
DESIRING, participle present tense Wishing for; coveting; asking; expressing a wish; soliciting.
DESIROUS, adjective Wishing for; wishing to obtain; coveting; solicitous to possess and enjoy.
Be not desirous of his dainties. Proverbs 23:3.
Jesus knew they were desirous to ask him. John 16:19.
DESIROUSLY, adverb With desire; with earnest wishes.
DESIROUSNESS, noun The state or affection of being desirous.
DESIST, verb intransitive [Latin To stand.] To stop; to cease to act or proceed; to forbear; with from; as, he desisted from his purpose; let us desist
DESISTANCE, noun A ceasing to act or proceed; a stopping.
DESISTING, participle present tense Ceasing to act or proceed.
DESITIVE, adjective Final; conclusive.
DESK, noun
1. An inclining table for the use of writers and readers; usually made with a box or drawer underneath, and sometimes with a book-case above.
2. The pulpit in a church, and figuratively the clerical profession. The man appears well in the desk He intends one son for the bar, and another for the desk
DESK, verb transitive To shut up in a desk; to treasure.
DESMINE, noun A mineral that crystalizes in little silken tufts, which accompany spinellane in the lava of extinct volcanoes on the banks of the Rhine.
DESOLATE, adjective
1. Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; desert; uninhabited; denoting either stripped of inhabitants, or never having been inhabitated; as a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate without an inhabitant. Jeremiah 9:11.
2. Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed; as desolate altars; desolate towers. Ezek. Zeph.
3. Solitary; without a companion; afflicted.
Tamar remained desolate in Absaloms house. 2 Samuel 13:20.
4. Deserted of God; deprived of comfort.
My heart within me is desolate Psalms 143:4.
DESOLATED, participle passive Deprived of inhabitants; wasted; ruined.
DESOLATELY, adverb In a desolate manner.
DESOLATER, noun One who lays waste or desolates; that which desolates.
DESOLATING, participle present tense Depriving of inhabitants; wasting; ravaging.
DESOLATION, noun
1. The act of desolating destruction or expulsion of inhabitants; destruction; ruin; waste.
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation Matthew 12:25.
2. A place deprived of inhabitants, or otherwise wasted, ravaged and ruined.
How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations. Jeremiah 50:23.
3. A desolate state; gloominess; sadness; destitution.
The abomination of desolation Roman armies which ravaged and destroyed Jerusalem. Matthew 24:15.
DESOLATORY, adjective Causing desolation.
DESPAIR, noun
1. Hopelessness; a hopeless state; a destitution of hope or expectation.
We are perplexed, but not in despair 2 Corinthians 4:8.
All safety in despair of safety placed.
2. That which causes despair; that of which there is no hope.
The mere despair of surgery, he cures.
3. Loss of hope in the mercy of God.
DESPAIR, verb intransitive [Latin To hope.] To be without hope; to hive up all hope or expectation; followed by of.
We despaired even of life. 2 Corinthians 1:8.
Never despair of Gods blessings here, or of his reward hereafter.
DESPAIRER, noun One without hope.
DESPAIRFUL, adjective Hopeless.
DESPAIRING, participle present tense Giving up all hope or expectation.
DESPAIRINGLY, adverb In a despairing manner; in a manner indicating hopelessness; as, he speaks despairingly of the sick mans recovery.
DESPATCH, [See Dispatch.]
DESPECTION, noun A looking down; a despising.
DESPERADO, noun A desperate fellow; a furious man; a madman; a person urged by furious passions; one fearless, or regardless of safety.
DESPERATE, adjective [Latin To despair.]
1. Without hope.
I am desperate of obtaining her.
2. Without care of safety; rash; fearless of danger; as a desperate man. Hence,
3. Furious, as a man in despair.
4. Hopeless; despaired of; lost beyond hope of recovery; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn. We speak of a desperate case of disease, desperate fortunes, a desperate situation or condition.
5. In a popular sense, great in the extreme; as a desperate sot or fool.
DESPERATELY, adverb
1. In a desperate manner; as in despair; hence, furiously; with rage; madly; without regard to danger or safety; as, the troops fought desperately
2. In a popular sense, greatly; extremely; violently.
She fell desperately in love with him.
DESPERATENESS, noun Madness; fury; rash precipitance.
DESPERATION, noun
1. A despairing; a giving up of hope; as desperation of success.
2. Hopelessness; despair; as, the men were in a state of desperation Hence,
3. Fury; rage; disregard of safety or danger; as, the men fought with desperation; they were urged to desperation
DESPICABLE, adjective [Low Latin To look down, to despise; to look.] That may be or deserves to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; applicable equally to persons and things; as a despicable man; despicable company; a despicable gift.
DESPICABLENESS, noun The quality or state of being despicable; meanness; vileness; worthlessness.
DESPICABLY, adverb Meanly; vilely; contemptibly; as despicably poor.
DESPICIENCY, noun A looking down; a despising.
DESPISABLE, adjective Despicable; contemptible.
DESPISAL, noun Contempt.
DESPISE, .verb intransitive
1. To contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have the lowest opinion of.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7.
Else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Matthew 6:24.
2. To abhor.
DESPISED, participle passive Contemned; disdained; abhorred.
DESPISEDNESS, noun The state of being despised.
DESPISER, noun A contemner; a scorner.
DESPISING, participle present tense Contemning; scorning; disdaining.
DESPISING, noun Contempt.
DESPISINGLY, adverb With contempt.
DESPITE, noun
1. Extreme malice; violent hatred; malignity; malice irritated or enraged; active malignity; angry hatred.
With all thy despite against the land of israel. Ezekiel 25:6.
2. Defiance with contempt, or contempt of opposition.
He will rise to fame in despite of his enemies.
3. An act of malice or contempt; as a despite to the Most High.
DESPITE, verb transitive To vex; to offend; to tease.
DESPITEFUL, adjective Full of spite; malicious; malignant; as a despiteful enemy.
Hater of God, despiteful proud, boasters. Romans 1:30.
DESPITEFULLY, adverb With despite; maliciously; contemptuously.
Pray for them that despitefully use you. Matthew 5:44.
DESPITEFULNESS, noun Malice; extreme hatred; malignity.
DESPITEOUS, adjective Malicious.
DESPITEOUSLY, adverb . Furiously.
DESPOIL, verb intransitive [Latin To spoil.]
1. To strip; to take from by force; to rob; to deprive; followed by of; as, to despoil one of arms; to despoil of honors; to despoil of innocence.
2. To strip or divest by any means.
DESPOILED, participle passive Stripped; robbed; bereaved; deprived.
DESPOILER, noun One who strips by force; a plunderer.
DESPOILING, participle present tense Depriving; stripping; robbing.
DESPOLIATION, noun The act of despoiling; a stripping.
DESPOND, verb intransitive [Latin To promise; literally, to throw to or forward.]
1. To be cast down; to be depressed or dejected in mind; to fail in spirits.
I should despair, or at least despond
2. To lose all courage, spirit or resolution; to sink by loss of hope.
Others depress their own mind, and despond at the first difficulty.
Note. The distinction between despair and despond is well marked in the foregoing passage from Scott. But although despair implies a total loss of hope, which despond does not, at least in every case, yet despondency is followed by the abandonment of effort, or cessation of action, and despair sometimes impelss to violent action, even to rage.
DESPONDENCY, noun A sinking or dejection of spirits at the loss of hope; loss of courage at the failure of hope, or in deep affliction, or at the prospect of insurmountable difficulties.
DESPONDENT, adjective Losing courage at the loss of hope; sinking into dejection; depressed and inactive in despair.
DESPONDER, noun One destitute of hope.
DESPONDING, participle present tense Losing courage to act, in consequence of loss of hope, or of deep calamity, or of difficulties deemed insurmountable; sinking into dejection; despairing, with depression of spirits; despairingly.
DESPONDINGLY, adverb In a desponding manner; with dejection of spirits; despairingly.
DESPONSATE, verb transitive To betroth.
DESPONSATION, noun A betrothing.
DESPOT, noun An emperor, king or price invested with absolute power, or ruling without any control from men, constitution or laws. Hence in a general sense, a tyrant.
DESPOTIC,
DESPOTICAL, adjective
1. Absolute in power; independent of control from men, constitution or laws; arbitrary in the exercise of power; as a despotic prince.
2. Unlimited or unrestrained by constitution, laws or men; absolute; arbitrary; as despotic authority or power.
3. Tyrannical.
DESPOTICAL, a.
1. Absolute in power; independent of control from men, constitution or laws; arbitrary in the exercise of power; as a despotic prince.2. Unlimited or unrestrained by constitution, laws or men; absolute; arbitrary; as despotic authority or power. 3. Tyrannical.DESPOTICALLY, adverb With unlimited power; arbitrarily; in a despotic manner.
DESPOTICALNESS, noun Absolute or arbitrary authority.
DESPOTISM, noun
1. Absolute power; authority unlimited and uncontrolled by men, constitution or laws, and depending alone on the will of the prince; as the despotism of a Turkish sultan.
2. An arbitrary government, as that of Turkey and Persia.
DESPUMATE, verb intransitive [Latin Froth or scum.] To foam; to froth; to form froth or scum.
DESPUMATION, noun The act of throwing off excrementitious matter and forming a froth or scum on the surface of liquor; clarification; scumming.
DESQUAMATION, noun [Latin A scale.] A scaling or exfoliation of bone; the separation of the cuticle in small scales.
DESS, for desk.
DESSERT, noun A service of fruits and sweetmeats, at the close of an entertainment; the last course at the table, after the meat is removed.
DESTINATE, verb transitive To design or appoint.
DESTINATE, adjective Appointed; destined; determined.
DESTINATION, noun
1. The act of destining, or appointing.
2. The purpose for which any thing is intended or appointed; end or ultimate design. Every animal is fitted for its destination
3. The place to which a thing is appointed, as the ship left her destination; but it is more usual to say, the place of her destination
DESTINE, verb transitive [Latin]
1. To set, ordain or appoint to a use, purpose, state or place. We destine a son to the ministerial office; a house for a place of worship; a ship for the London trade or to Lisbon; and we are all destined to a future state of happiness or misery.
2. To fix unalterable, as by a divine decree; as the destined hour of death.
3. To doom; to devote; to appoint unalterably.
DESTINED, participle passive Ordained; appointed by previous determination; devoted; fixed unalterably.
DESTINING, participle present tense Ordaining; appointing.
DESTINY, noun
1. State or condition appointed or predetermined; ultimate fate; as, men are solicitous to know their future destiny which is however happily concealed from them.
2. Invincible necessity; fate; a necessity or fixed order of things established by a divine decree, or by an indissoluble connection of causes and effects.
But who can turn the stream of destiny?
Destinies, the fates, or supposed powers which preside over himan life, spin it out, and determine it; called by the Latins, parcae.
DESTITUTE, adjective [Latin To set. Literally, set from or away.]
1. Not having or possessing; wanting; as destitute of virtue, or of peity; destitute of food and clothing. It differs from deprived, as it does not necessarily imply previous possession.
2. Needy; abject; comfortless; friendless.
He will regard the prayer of the destitute Psalms 102:17.
DESTITUTE, noun One who is without friends or comfort.
DESTITUTE, verb transitive
1. To forsake.
2. To deprive.
DESTITUTION, noun Want; absence of a thing; a state in which something is wanted or not possessed; poverty.
DESTROY, verb transitive [Latin To pile, to build.]
1. To demolish; to pull down; to separate the parts of an edifice, the union of which is necessary to constitute the thing; as, to destroy a house or temple; to destroy a fortification.
2. To ruin; to annihilate a thing by demolishing or by burning; as, to destroy a city.
3. To ruin; to bring to naught; to annihilate; as, to destroy a theory or scheme; to destroy a government; to destroy influence.
4. To lay waste; to make desolate.
Go up against this land, and destroy it. Isaiah 36:10.
5. To kill; to slay; to extirpate; applied to men or other animals.
Ye shall destroy all this people. Numbers 32:15.
All the wicked will he destroy Psalms 145:20.
6. To take away; to cause to cease; to put an end to; as, pain destroys happiness.
That the body of sin might be destroyed. Romans 6:6.
7. To kill; to eat; to devour; to consume. Birds destroy insects. Hawks destroy chickens.
8. In general, to put an end to; to annihilate a thing or the form in which it exists. An army is destroyed by slaughter, capture or dispersion; a forest, by the ax, or by fire; towns, by fire or inundation, etc.
9. In chimistry, to resolve a body into its parts or elements.
DESTROYABLE, adjective That may be destroyed.
Plants scarcely destroyable by the weather.
DESTROYED, participle passive Demolished; pulled down; ruined; annihilated; devoured; swept away; etc.
DESTROYER, noun One who destroys, or lays waste; one who kills a man, or an animal, or who ruins a country, cities, etc.
DESTROYING, participle present tense Demolishing; laying waste; killing; annihilating; putting an end to.
DESTROYING, noun Destruction.
DESTRUCT, fro destroy, is not used.
DESTRUCTIBILITY, noun The quality of being capable of destruction.
DESTRUCTIBLE, adjective [Latin] Liable to destruction; capable of being destroyed.
DESTRUCTION, noun
1. The act of destroying; demolition; a pulling down; subversion; ruin, by whatever means; as the destruction of buildings, or of towns. destruction consists in the annihilation of the form of any theing; that form of parts which constitues it what it is; as the destruction of grass or herbage by eating; of a forest, by cutting down the trees; or it denotes a total annihilation; as the destruction of a particular government; the destruction of happiness.
2. Death; murder; slaughter; massacre.
There was a deadly destruction throughout all the city. 1 Samuel 5:9.
3. Ruin.
DESTRUCTION and misery are in their ways. Romans 3:16.
4. Eternal death.
Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction Matthew 7:13.
5. Cause of destruction; a consuming plague; a destroyer.
The destruction that wasteth at noon-day. Psalms 91:6.
DESTRUCTIVE, adjective Causing destruction; having the quality of destroying; ruinous; mischievous; pernicious; with of or to; as a destructive fire or famine. Intemperance is destructive of health; evil examples are destructive to the morals of youth.
DESTRUCTIVELY, adverb With destruction; ruinously; mischievously; with power to destroy; as destructively lewd or intemperate.
DESTRUCTIVENESS, noun The quality of destroying or ruining.
DESTRUCTOR, noun A destroyer; a consumer. [Not used.]
DESUDATION, noun [Latin , to sweat.] A sweating; a profuse or morbid sweating, succeeded by an eruption of pustles, called heat-pimples.
DESUETUDE, noun [Latin] The cessation of use; disuse; discontinuance of practice, custom or fashion. Habit is contracted by practice, and lost by desuetude Words in every language are lost by desuetude
DESULPHURATE, verb transitive To deprive of sulphur.
DESULPHURATED, participle passive Deprived of sulphur.
DESULPHURATING, participle present tense Depriving of sulphur.
DESULPHURATION, noun The act or operation of depriving of sulphur.
DESULTORILY, adverb [See Desultory.] In a desultory manner; without method; loosely.
DESULTORINESS, noun A desultory manner; unconnectedness; a passing from one thing to another without order or method.
DESULTORY, adjective [Latin , to leap.]
1. Leaping; passing from one thing or subject to another, without order or natural connection; unconnected; immethodical; as a desultory conversation.
2. Coming suddenly; started at the moment; not proceeding from natural order or connection with what precedes; as a desultory thought.
DESUME, verb transitive [Latin] To take from; to borrow. [Not in use.]
DETACH, verb transitive [See Attach.]
1. To separate or disunite; to disengage; to part from; as, to detach the coats of a bulbous root from each other; to detach a man from the interest of the minister, or from a party.
2. To separate men from their companies or regiments; to draw from companies or regiments, as a party of men, and send them on a particular service.
3. To select ships from a fleet and send them on a separate service.
DETACHED, participle passive
1. Separated; parted from ; disunited; drawn and sent on a separate service.
2. adjective Separate; as detached parcels or portions.
DETACHING, participle present tense Separating; parting from; drawing and sending on a separate employment.
DETACHMENT, noun
1. The act of detaching.
2. A body of troops, selected or taken from the main army, and employed on some special service or expedition.
3. A number of ships, taken from a fleet, and sent on a separate service.
DETAIL, verb transitive
1. To relate, report or narrate in particulars; to recite the particulars of; to particularize; to relate minutely and distinctly; as, he detailed all the facts in due order.
2. To select, as an officer or soldier from a division, brigade, regiment or battalion.
DETAIL, noun
1. A narration or report of particulars; a minute and particular account. He related the story in detail He gave a detail of all the transactions.
2. A selecting of officer or soldiers from the rosters.
DETAILED, participle passive Related in particulars; minutely recited; selected.
DETAILER, noun One who details.
DETAILING, participle present tense
1. Relating minutely; telling the particulars.
2. Selecting from the rosters.
DETAINDER, noun A writ. [See Detinue.]
DETAINED, participle passive Withheld; kept back; prevented from going or coming; held; restrained.
DETAINER, noun
1. One who withholds what belongs to another; one who detains, stops or prevents from going.
2. In law, a holding or keeping possession of what belongs to another; detention of what is anothers, though the original taking may be lawful.
DETAING, v.t. [L., to hold. See Tenant.]
1. To keep back or from; to withhold; to keep what belongs to another. Detain not the wages of the hireling.2. To keep or restrain from proceeding, either going or coming; to stay or stop. We were detained by the rain.Let us detain thee, till we have made ready a kid. Judges 13.3. To hold in custody.DETAINING, participle present tense Withholding what belongs to another; holding back; restraining from going or coming; holding in custody.
DETAINMENT, noun The act of detaining; detention.
DETECT, verb transitive [Latin , to cover.] Literally, to uncover; hence, to discover; to find out; to bring to light; as, to detect the ramifications and inosculations of the fine vessels. But this word is especially applied to the discovery of secret crimes and artifices. We detect a thief, or the crime of stealing. We detect the artifices of the man, or the man himself. We detect what is concealed, especially what is concealed by design.
DETECTED, participle passive Discovered; found out; laid open; brought to light.
DETECTER, noun A discoverer; one who finds out what another attempts to conceal.
DETECTING, participle present tense Discovering; finding out.
DETECTION, noun The act of detecting; discovery of a person or thing attempted to be concealed; as the detection of a thief or burglarian; the detection of fraud or forgery; the detection of artifice, device or a plot.
2. Discovery of any thing before hidden, or unknown.
The sea and rivers are instrumental to the detection of amber and other fossils, by washing away the earth that concealed them.
DETENEBRATE, verb transitive [Latin] To remove darkness. [Not in use.]
DETENT, noun [Latin] A stop in a clock, which by being lifted up or let down, locks and unlocks the clock in striking.
DETENTION, noun [See Detain.]
1. The act of detaining; a withholding from another his right; a keeping what belongs to another, and ought to be restored.
2. Confinement; restraint; as detention in custody.
3. Delay from necessity; a detaining; as the detention of the mail by bad roads.
DETER, verb transitive [Latin , to frighten.]
1. To discourage and stop by fear; to stop or prevent from acting or proceeding, by danger, difficulty or other consideration which disheartens, or countervails the motive for an act. We are often deterred from out duty by trivial difficulties. The state of the road or a cloudy sky may deter a man from undertaking a journey.
A million of frustrated hopes will not deter us from new experiments.
2. To prevent by prohibition or danger.
DETERGE, verb transitive deterj. [Latin , to wipe or scour.] To cleanse; to purge away foul or offending matter, from the body, or from an ulcer.
DETERGED, participle passive Cleansed; purged.
DETERGENT, adjective Cleansing; purging.
DETERGENT, noun A medicine that has the power of cleansing the vessels or skin from offending matter.
DETERGING, participle present tense Cleansing; carrying off obstructions or foul matter.
DETERIORATE, verb intransitive [Latin] To grow worse; to be impaired in quality to degenerate; opposed to meliorate.
DETERIORATE, verb transitive To make worse; to reduce in quality; as, to deteriorate a race of men of their condition.
DETERIORATED, participle passive Made worse; impaired in quality.
DETERIORATING, participle present tense Becoming worse or inferior in quality.
DETERIORATION, noun A growing or making worse; the state of growing worse.
DETERIORITY, noun Worse sate or quality; as deteriority of diet.
DETERMENT, noun [See Deter.] The act of deterring; the cause of deterring; that which deters.
DETERMINABLE, adjective [See Determine.]
1. That may be decided with certainty.
2. That may end or be determined.
DETERMINATE, adjective [Latin]
1. Limited; fixed; definite; as a determinate quantity of matter.
2. Established; settled; positive; as a determinate rule or order.
The determinate counsel of God. Acts 2:23.
3. Decisive; conclusive; as a determinate resolution or judgment.
4. Resolved on.
5. Fixed; resolute.
DETERMINATE, verb transitive To limit. [Not used. See Determine.]
DETERMINATELY, adverb
1. With certainty.
The principles of religion are determinately true or false.
2. Resolutely; with fixed resolve. [Unusual.]
DETERMINATENESS, noun The state of being determinate, certain, or precise.
DETERMINATION, noun
1. The act of determining or deciding.
2. Decision of a question in the mind; firm resolution; settled purpose; as, they have acquainted me with their determination
3. Judicial decision; the ending of a controversy or suit by the judgment of a court. Justice is promoted by a speedy determination of causes, civil and criminal.
4. Absolute direction to a certain end.
Remissness can by no means consist with a constant determination of the will to the greatest apparent good.
5. An ending; a putting an end to; as the determination of a will.
DETERMINATIVE, adjective
1. That uncontrollably directs to a certain end.
The determinative power of a just cause.
2. Limiting; that limits or bounds; as, a word may be determinative and limit the subject.
DETERMINATOR, noun One who determines.
DETERMINE, verb transitive [Latin , to bound; a boundary or limit. Gr. See Term.]
1. To end; particularly, to end by the decision or conclusion of a cause, or of a doubtful or controverted point; applicable to the decisions of the mind, or to judicial decisions. We say, I had determined this question in my own mind; the court has determined the cause.
2. To end and fix; to settle ultimately; as, this event determined his fate.
3. To fix on; to settle or establish; as, to determine the proper season for planting seeds.
God--hath determined the times before appointed. Acts 17:26.
4. To end; to limit; to bound; to confine. Yonder hill determines our view. Knowledge is determined by the sight.
5. To give a direction to; to influence the choice; that is, to limit to a particular purpose or direction; as, this circumstance determined him to the study of law. Also, to give a direction to material bodies in their course; as, impulse may determine a moving body to this or that point.
6. To resolve, that is, to end or settle a point in the mind, as in Definition first.
I determined this with myself. 2 Corinthians 2:1.
Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus. Acts 20:16.
7. To destroy. [Not used.]
8. To put an end to; as, to determine a will.
9. To settle or ascertain, as something uncertain.
The character of the soul is determined by the character of its God.
DETERMINE, verb intransitive
1. To resolve; to conclude; to come to a decision.
He shall pay as the judges determine Exodus 21:22.
It is indifferent how the learned shall determine concerning this matter.
2. To end; to terminate. The danger determined by the death of the conspirators. Revolutions often determine in setting up tyranny at home, or in conquest from abroad.
Some estates may determine on future contingencies.
DETERMINED, participle passive
1. Ended; concluded; decided; limited; fixed; settled; resolved; directed.
2. adjective Having a firm or fixed purpose, as a determined man; or manifesting a firm resolution, as a determined countenance.
DETERMINING, participle present tense Ending; deciding; fixing; settling; resolving; limiting; directing.
DETERRATION, noun [Latin , de and terra, earth.] The uncovering of any thing which is buried or covered with earth; a taking from out of the earth.
DETERRED, participle passive [See Deter.] Discouraged or prevented from proceeding or acting, by fear, difficulty or danger.
DETERRING, participle passive
1. Discouraging or influencing not to proceed or act, by fear, difficulty, danger, or prospect of evil.
2. adjective Discouraging; frightening.
DETERSION, noun [Latin See Deterge.] The act of cleansing, as a sore.
DETERSIVE, adjective [See Deterge.] Cleansing; having power to cleanse from offending matter.
DETERSIVE, noun A medicine which has the power of cleansing ulcers, or carrying off foul matter.
DETEST, verb transitive [Latin , to affirm or bear witness. The primary sense of testor is to set, throw or thrust. To detest is to thrust away.] To abhor; to abominate; to hate extremely; as, to detest crimes or meanness.
DETESTABLE, adjective Extremely hateful; abominable; very odious; deserving abhorrence.
Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things. Ezekiel 5:11.
DETESTABLENESS, noun Extreme hatefulness.
DETESTABLY, adverb Very hatefully; abominably.
DETESTATION, noun Extreme hatred; abhorrence; with of. The good man entertains uniformly a detestation of sin.
DETESTED, participle passive Hated extremely; abhorred.
DETESTER, noun One who abhors.
DETESTING, participle present tense Hating extremely; abhorring; abominating.
DETHRONE, verb transitive [Latin]
1. To remove or drive from a throne; to depose; to divest of royal authority and dignity.
2. To divest of rule or power, or of supreme power.
The protector was dethroned.
DETHRONED, participle passive Removed from a throne; deposed.
DETHRONEMENT, noun Removal from a throne; deposition of a king, emperor or prince.
DETHRONER, noun One who dethrones.
DETHRONING, participle present tense Driving from a throne; depriving of regal power.
DETINUE, noun In law, a writ of detinue is one that lies against him who wrongfully detains goods or chattels delivered to him, or in his possession. This writ lies for a thing certain and valuable, as for a horse, cow, sheep, plate, cloth, etc., to recover the thing itself or damages for the detainer.
DETONATE, verb transitive [Latin , to thunder.] In chemistry, to cause to explode; to burn or inflame with a sudden report.
DETONATE, verb intransitive To explode; to burn with a sudden report. Niter detonates with sulphur.
DETONATED, participle passive Exploded; burnt with explosion.
DETONATING, participle present tense Exploding; inflaming with a sudden report.
DETONATION, noun An explosion or sudden report made by the inflammation of certain combustible bodies, as fulminating gold. detonation is not decrepitation.
DETONIZATION, noun The acct of exploding, as certain combustible bodies.
DETONIZE, verb intransitive [See Detonate.] To cause to explode; to burn with an explosion; to calcine with detonation.
DETONIZE, verb intransitive To explode; to burn with a sudden report.
This precipitate-detonizes with a considerable noise.
DETONIZED, participle passive Exploded, as a combustible body.
DETONIZING, participle present tense Exploding with a sudden report.
DETORSION, noun A turning or wresting; perversion.
DETORT, verb transitive [Latin , to twist.] To twist; to wrest; to pervert; to turn from the original or plain meaning.
DETORTED, participle passive Twisted; wrested; perverted.
DETORTING, participle present tense Wresting; perverting.
DETOUR, noun A turning; a circuitous way.
DETRACT, verb transitive [Latin , to draw. See Draw and Drag.]
1. Literally, to draw from. Hence, to take away from reputation or merit, through envy, malice or other motive; hence, to detract from, is to lessen or depreciate reputation or worth; to derogate from.
Never circulate reports that detract from the reputation or honor of your neighbor, without obvious necessity to justify the act.
2. To take away; to withdraw, in a literal sense.
DETRACTION, noun [Latin] The act of taking something from the reputation or worth of another, with the view to lessen him in estimation; censure; a lessening of worth; the act of depreciating another, from envy or malice. detraction may consist in representing merit, as less than it really is; or in the imputation of faults, vices or crimes, which impair reputation; and if such imputation is false, it is slander or defamation.
DETRACTIOUS, adjective Containing detraction; lessening reputation. [Not in use.]
DETRACTIVE, adjective Having the quality or tendency to lessen the worth or estimation.
DETRACTOR, noun One who takes away or impairs the reputation of another injuriously; one who attempts to lessen the worth or honor of another.
DETRACTORY, adjective Derogatory; defamatory by denial of desert; with from.
DETRACTRESS, noun A female detractor; a censorious woman.
DETRECT, verb transitive [Latin] To refuse. [Not in use.]
DETRIMENT, noun [Latin , worn off.] Loss; damage; injury; mischief; harm; diminution. We speak of detriment to interest, property, religion, morals, reputation, and to land or buildings. It is a word of very general application.
DETRIMENTAL, adjective Injurious; hurtful; causing loss or damage.
A spirit of speculation may be detrimental to regular commerce.
DETRITION, noun [Latin] A wearing off.
DETRITUS, noun [Latin , worn; to wear.] In geology, a mass of substances worn off or detached from solid bodies by attrition; as diluvial detritus
DETRUDE, verb transitive [Latin , to thrust.] To thrust down; to push down with force.
DETRUDED, participle passive Thrust or forced down.
DETRUDING, participle present tense Thrusting or forcing down.
DETRUNCATE, verb transitive [Latin , to cut shorter; cut short. See Trench.] To cut off; to lop; to shorten by cutting.
DETRUNCATION, noun The act of cutting off.
DETRUSION, noun s as z. [See Detrude.] The act of thrusting or driving down.
DETURPATE, verb transitive [Latin] To defile. [Little used.]
DEUCE, noun Two; a card with two spots; a die with two spots; a term used in gaming.
DEUCE, noun A demon. [See Duse.]
DEUTEROGAMIST, noun [infra.] One who marries the second time.
DEUTEROGAMY, noun [Gr., second; marriage.] A second marriage after the death of the first husband or wife.
DEUTERONOMY, noun [Gr., second; law.] The second law, or second giving of the law by Moses; the name given to the fifth book of the Pentateuch.
DEUTOXYD, noun [Gr., second; strictly.] In chemistry, a substance oxydized in the second degree.
DEVAPORATION, noun [Latin] The change of vapor into water, as in the generation of rain.
DEVAST, verb transitive [Latin] To lay waste; to plunder. [Not in use.]
DEVASTATE, verb transitive [Latin , to waste. See Waste.] To lay waste; to waste; to ravage; to desolate; to destroy improvements.
DEVASTATED, participle passive Laid waste; ravaged.
DEVASTATING, participle present tense Laying waste; desolating.
DEVASTATION, noun [Latin]
1. Waste; ravage; desolation; destruction of works of art and natural productions which are necessary or useful to man; havock; as by armies, fire, flood, etc.
2. IN law, waste of the goods of the deceased by an executor, or administrator.
DEVELOP, verb transitive
1. To uncover; to unfold; to lay open; to disclose or make known something concealed or withheld from notice.
The General began to develop the plan of his operations.
These serve to develop its tenets.
2. To unravel; to unfold what is intricate; as, to develop a plot.
DEVELOPED, participle passive Unfolded; laid open; unraveled.
DEVELOPING, participle present tense Unfolding; disclosing; unraveling.
DEVELOPMENT, noun
1. An unfolding; the discovering of something secret or withheld from the knowledge of others; disclosure; full exhibition.
2. The unraveling of a plot.
DEVEST, verb transitive [Latin , a vest, a garment. Generally written divest.]
1. To strip; to deprive of clothing or arms; to take off.
2. To deprive; to take away; as, to devest a man or nation of rights. [See Divest.]
3. To free from; to disengage.
4. In law, to alienate, as title or right.
DEVEST, verb intransitive In law, to be lost or alienated, as a title or an estate.
[This word is generally written divest, except in the latter and legal sense.]
DEVESTED, participle passive Stripped of clothes; deprived; freed from; alienated or lost, as title.
DEVESTING, participle present tense Stripping of clothes; depriving; freeing from ; alienating.
DEVEX, adjective [Latin] Bending down. [Not in use.]
DEVEXITY, noun [Latin , to carry.] A bending downward; a sloping; incurvation downward.
DEVIATE, verb intransitive [Latin , way.]
1. To turn aside or wander from the common or right way, course or line, either in a literal or figurative sense; as, to deviate from the common track or path, or from a true course.
There nature deviates, and here wanders will.
2. To stray from the path of duty; to wander, in a moral sense; to err; to sin.
DEVIATION, noun
1. A wandering or turning aside from the right way, course or line.
2. Variation from a common or established rule, or from analogy.
3. A wandering from the path of duty; want of conformity to the rules prescribed by God; error; sin; obliquity of conduct.
4. In commerce, the voluntary departure of a ship, without necessity, from the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured. This discharges the underwriters from their responsibility.
DEVICE, noun [Latin]
1. That which is formed by design, or invented; scheme; artificial contrivance; stratagem; project; sometimes in a good sense; more generally in a bad sense, as artifices are usually employed for bad purposes.
In a good sense:
His device is against Babylon, to destroy it. Psalms 21:11.
In a bad sense:
He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Psalms 21:11.
They imagined a mischievous device Psalms 21:11.
2. An emblem intended to represent a family, person, action or quality, with a suitable motto; used in painting, sculpture and heraldry. It consists in a metaphorical similitude between the things representing and represented, as the figure of a plow representing agriculture.
Knights-errant used to distinguish themselves by devices on their shields.
3. Invention; genius; faculty of devising; as a man of noble device
4. A spectacle or show.
DEVICEFUL, adjective Full of devices; inventive.
DEVICEFULLY, adverb In a manner curiously contrived.
DEVIL, noun Devl. [Latin , to calumniate.]
1. In the Christian theology, an evil spirit or being; a fallen angel, expelled from heaven for rebellion against God; the chief of the apostate angels; the implacable enemy and tempter of the human race. In the New Testament, the word is frequently and erroneously used for demon.
2. A very wicked person, and in ludicrous language, an great evil. In profane language, it is an expletive expressing wonder, vexation, etc.
3. An idol, or false god. Leviticus 17:7. 2 Chronicles 11:15.
DEVILING, noun A young devil. [Not in use.]
DEVILISH, adjective
1. Partaking of the qualities of the devil; diabolical; very evil and mischievous; malicious; as a devilish scheme; devilish wickedness.
2. Having communication with the devil; pertaining to the devil.
3. Excessive; enormous; in a vulgar and ludicrous sense; as a devilish cheat.
DEVILISHLY, adverb
1. In a manner suiting the devil; diabolically; wickedly.
2. Greatly; excessively; in a vulgar sense.
DEVILISHNESS, noun The qualities of the devil.
DEVILISM, noun The state of devils. [Not used.]
DEVILIZE, verb transitive To place among devils. [Not used.]
DEVILKIN, noun A little devil.
DEVILSHIP, noun The character of a devil.
DEVIOUS, adjective [Latin , way.]
1. Out of the common way or track; as a devious course.
2. Wandering; roving; rambling.
To bless the wildly devious morning walk.
3. Erring; going astray from rectitude or the divine precepts.
One devious step at first may lead into a course of habitual vice.
DEVIRGINATE, verb transitive [Low Latin ] To deflour.
DEVISABLE, adjective s as z. [See the Verb.]
1. That may be bequeathed or given by will.
2. That can be invented or contrived.
DEVISE, verb transitive s as z. [Latin]
1. To invent; to contrive; to form in the mind by new combinations of ideas, new applications of principles, or new arrangement of parts; to excogitate; to strike out by thought; to plan; to scheme; to project; as, to devise an engine or machine; to devise a new mode of writing; to devise a plan of defense; to devise arguments.
To devise curious works in gold and silver. Exodus 35:32.
In a bad sense:
DEVISE not evil against thy neighbor. Proverbs 3:29.
2. To give or bequeath by will, as land or other real estate.
DEVISE, verb intransitive To consider; to contrive; to lay a plan; to form a scheme.
DEVISE how you will use him, when he comes.
Formerly followed by of; as, let us devise of ease.
DEVISE, noun
1. Primarily, a dividing or division; hence, the act of bequeathing by will; the act of giving or distributing real estate by a testator.
2. A will or testament.
3. A share of estate bequeathed.
DEVISE, noun Contrivance; scheme invented.
DEVISED, participle passive Given by will; bequeathed; contrived.
DEVISEE, noun The person to whom a devise is made; one to whom real estate is bequeathed.
DEVISER, noun One who contrives or invents; a contriver; an inventor.
DEVISING, participle present tense
1. Contriving; inventing; forming a scheme or plan.
2. Giving by will; bequeathing.
DEVISOR, noun One who gives by will; one who bequeaths lands or tenements.
DEVITABLE, adjective Avoidable. [Not in use.]
DEVITATION, noun An escaping. [Not in use.]
DEVOCATION, noun [Latin] A calling away; seduction. [Not in use.]
DEVOID, adjective [See Void.]
1. Void; empty; vacant; applied to place.
2. Destitute; not possessing; as devoid of understanding.
3. Free from; as devoid of fear or shame.
DEVOIR, noun [Latin , to owe.] Primarily, service or duty. Hence, an act of civility or respect; respectful notice due to another; as, we paid our devoirs to the queen, or to the ladies.
DEVOLUTION, noun [Latin]
1. The act of rolling down; as the devolution of earth into a valley.
2. Removal from one person to another; a passing or falling upon a successor.
DEVOLVE, verb transitive devolv. [Latin , to roll.]
1. To roll down; to pour or flow with windings.
Through splendid kingdoms he devolves his maze.
2. To move from one person to another; to deliver over, or from one possessor to a successor.
The king devolved the care and disposition of affairs on the duke or Ormond.
DEVOLVE, verb intransitive devolv. Literally, to roll down; hence, to pass from one to another; to fall by succession from one possessor to his successor. In the absence of the commander in chief, the command devolved on the next officer in rank. On the death of the prince, the crown devolved on his eldest son.
DEVOLVED, participle passive Rolled down; passed over to another.
DEVOLVING, participle present tense Rolling down; falling to a successor.
DEVOTARY, noun A votary. [Not in use.]
DEVOTE, verb transitive [Latin , to vow.]
1. To appropriate by vow; to set apart ro dedicate by a solemn act; to consecrate.
No devoted thing that a man shall devote to the Lord--shall be sold or redeemed. Every thing devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. Leviticus 27:28.
2. To give up wholly; to addict; to direct the attention wholly or chiefly; to attach; as, to devote ones self to science; to devote ourselves to our friends, or to their interest or pleasure.
3. To give up; to resign; as, aliens were devoted to rapine; the city was devoted to the flames.
4. To doom; to consign over; as, to devote one to destruction.
5. To execrate; to doom to evil.
DEVOTE, adjective Devoted.
DEVOTE, noun A devotee.
DEVOTED, participle passive Appropriated by vow; solemnly set apart or dedicated; consecrated; addicted; given up; doomed; consigned.
DEVOTEDNESS, noun The state of being devoted or given; addictedness; as devotedness to religion.
DEVOTEE, noun One who is wholly devoted; particularly, one given wholly to religion; one who is superstitiously given to religious duties and ceremonies; a bigot.
DEVOTEMENT, noun
1. Devotedness; devotion.
2. Vowed dedication.
DEVOTER, noun One that devotes; also, a worshiper.
DEVOTING, participle present tense Giving or appropriating by vow; solemnly setting apart or dedicating; consecrating; giving wholly; addicting; dooming; consigning.
DEVOTION, noun
1. The state of being dedicated, consecrated, or solemnly set apart for a particular purpose.
2. A solemn attention to the Supreme Being in worship; a yielding of the heart and affections to God, with reverence, faith and piety, in religious duties, particularly in prayer and meditation; devoutness.
3. External worship; acts of religion; performance of religious duties.
As I passed by and beheld your devotions. Acts 17:23.
4. Prayer to the Supreme Being. A Christian will be regular in his morning and evening devotions.
5. An act of reverence, respect or ceremony.
6. Ardent love or affection; attachment manifested by constant attention; as, the duke was distinguished by his devotion to the king, and to the interest of the nation.
7. Earnestness; ardor; eagerness.
He seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him.
8. Disposal; power of disposing of; state of dependence.
Arundel castle would keep that rich corner of the country at his majestys devotion
DEVOTIONAL, adjective
1. Pertaining to devotion; used in devotion; as a devotional posture; devotional exercises.
2. Suited to devotion; as a devotional frame of mind.
DEVOTIONALIST, DEVOTIONIST, noun A person given to devotion; or one superstitiously or formally devout.
DEVOTIONALIST, DEVOTIONIST noun A person given to devotion; or one superstitiously or formally devout.
DEVOTO, noun A devotee. [Not in use.]
DEVOTOR, noun One who reverences or worships.
DEVOUR, verb transitive [Latin , to eat.]
1. To eat up; to eat with greediness; to eat ravenously, as a beast of prey, or as a hungry man.
We will say, some evil beast hath devoured him. Genesis 37:20.
In the morning, he shall devour the prey. Genesis 49:27.
2. To destroy; to consume with rapidity and violence.
I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad. Amos 1:4.
Famine and pestilence shall devour him. Ezekiel 7:15.
3. To destroy; to annihilate; to consume.
He seemed in swiftness to devour the way.
4. To waste; to consume; to spend in dissipation and riot.
As soon as this thy son had come, who hath devoured thy living with harlots. Luke 15:30.
5. To consume wealth and substance by fraud, oppression, or illegal exactions.
Ye devour widows houses. Matthew 23:14.
6. To destroy spiritually; to ruin the soul.
Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour 1 Peter 5:8.
7. To slay.
The sword shall devour the young lions. Nahum 2.
8. To enjoy with avidity.
Longing they look, and gaping at the sight, devour her oer and oer with vast delight.
DEVOURED, participle passive Eaten; swallowed with greediness; consumed; destroyed; wasted; slain.
DEVOURER, noun One who devours; he or that which eats, consumes or destroys; he that preys on.
DEVOURING, participle present tense Eating greedily; consuming; wasting; destroying; annihilating.
DEVOURINGLY, adverb In a devouring manner.
DEVOUT, adjective [Latin See Devote.]
1. Yielding a solemn and reverential attention to God in religious exercises, particularly in prayer.
We must be constant and devout in the worship of God.
2. Pious; devoted to religion; religious.
Simeon was a just man and devout Luke 2:25.
DEVOUT men carried Stephen to his burial. Acts 8:2.
3. Expressing devotion or piety; as, with eyes devout
4. Sincere; solemn; earnest; as, you have my devout wishes for your safety.
DEVOUT, noun A devotee. [Not used.]
DEVOUTLESS, adjective Destitute of devotion.
DEVOUTLESSNESS, noun Want of devotion.
DEVOUTLY, adverb
1. With solemn attention and reverence to God; with ardent devotion.
He was devoutly engaged in prayer.
2. Piously; religiously; with pious thoughts; as, he viewed the cross devoutly
3. Sincerely; solemnly; earnestly; as, a consummation devoutly to be wished.
DEVOUTNESS, noun The quality or state of being devout.
DEVOW, verb transitive To give up. [Not in use.]
DEW, noun [G. To thaw.] The water or moisture collected or deposited on or near the surface of the earth, during the night, by the escape of the heat which held the water in solution.
DEW, verb intransitive To wet with dew; to moisten.
DEWBENT, adjective Bent by the dew.
DEWED, participle passive Moistened with dew.
DEWING, participle present tense Wetting or moistening the dew.
DEWY, adjective
1. Partaking of dew; like dew; as dewy mist.
2. Moist with dew; as dewy fields.
His dewy locks distilled Ambrosia.
DEXTER, adjective [Latin , Gr.] Right, as opposed to left; a term used in heraldry, to denote the right side of a shield or coat of arms; as, bend-dexter; dexter-point.
DEXTERITY, noun [Latin , right, fit, prompt.]
1. Readiness of limbs; adroitness; activity; expertness; skill; that readiness in performing an action, which proceeds from experience or practice, united with activity or quick motion. We say, a man handles an instrument, or eludes a thrust, with dexterity
2. Readiness of mind or mental faculties, as in contrivance, or inventing means to accomplish a purpose; promptness in devising expedients; quickness and skill in managing or conducting a scheme of operations. We say, a negotiation is conducted with dexterity
DEXTRAL, adjective Right, as opposed to left.
DEXTRALITY, noun The state of being on the right side.
DEXTRORSAL, adjective Rising from right to left, as a spiral line or helix.
DEXTROUS, adjective
1. Ready and expert in the use of the body and limbs; skillful and active in manual employment; adroit; as a dextrous hand; a dextrous workman.
2. Ready in the use of the mental faculties; prompt in contrivance and management; expert; quick at inventing expedients; as a dextrous manager.
3. Skillful; artful; done with dexterity; as dextrous management.
DEXTROUSLY, adverb With dexterity; expertly; skillfully; artfully; adroitly; promptly.
DEXTROUSNESS, noun Dexterity; adroitness.
DEY, noun The title of the governor or sovereign of Algiers, under the protection of the Grand Seignior.