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A form assumed by Protozoa inwhich they become saclike and quiescent. It generally precedes the production of germs. See Encystment.

To become damp; to deaden. Byron.

purpose; to be bold or venturesome; not to be afraid; to venture. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. Shak. Why then did not the ministers use their new law Bacause they durst not, because they could not. Macaulay. Who dared to sully her sweet love with suspicion. Thackeray. The tie of part…

To become dim-sighted; to become dazed or dazzled. [Obs.] Chauscer.

post office to be opened. (b) That which has lost its force or authority; as, the law has become a dead letter. -- Dead-letter office, a department of the general post office where dead letters are examined and disposed of. -- Dead level, a term applied to a flat country. -- Dead lift, a direct lift, without assista…

to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Goldsmith.

o tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. And…

To become resolved or returned from existing combinations; to undergo dissolution; to decay; to rot.

To become deeper; as, the water deepens at every cast of the lead; the plot deepens. His blood-red tresses deepening in the sun. Byron.

To become clear, pure, or free. Goldsmith.

To fail; to become deficient. [Obs.] "Defected honor." Warner.

The state of having become degenerate; decline in good qualities; deterioration; meanness. Degeneracy of spirit in a state of slavery. Addison. To recover mankind out of their universal corruption and degeneracy. S. Clarke.

Having become worse than one's kind, or one's former state; having declined in worth; having lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low. Faint-hearted and degenerate king. Shak. A degenerate and degraded state. Milton. Degenerate from their ancient blood. Swift. These degenerate days. Pope. I had pla…

The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration. Our degeneration and apostasy. Bates.

tor being to pay the debt himself if it is not punctually discharged by the buyer when it becomes due.

ation by which a debtor, to be liberated from his creditor, gives him a third person, who becomes obliged in his stead to the creditor, or to the person appointed by him. Pothier.

To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, and alkalies. In very moist air crystals of strontites deliquesce. Black.

To melt and become liquid by absorbing water from the air; to deliquesce. Fourcroy.

To become dispeopled. [R.] Whether the country be depopulating or not. Goldsmith.

To fall in value; to become of less worth; to sink in estimation; as, a paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie.