Search the Dictionary

A book containing laws and usages, or customs; as, the Customary of the Normans. Cowell.

A sword of Damask steel. No old Toledo blades or damaskins. Howell

er. [R.] Also used substantively. "Such decuman billows." Gauden. "The baffled decuman." Lowell.

A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process. Cowell.

of high degree." Dryden. "A knight is your degree." Shak. "Lord or lady of high degree." Lowell.

An accuser; an informer. [R.] Howell.

Fig.: Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. "The deluge of summer." Lowell. A fiery deluge fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison.…

Of or pertaining to a demon or to demons; demoniac. "Demonic ambushes." Lowell.

Capable of being deposed or deprived of office. Howell.

To spend; to squander. See Dispend. [Obs.] Some noble men in Spain can despend Howell.

To make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality. -- De*vo`cal*i*za"tion, n. If we take a high vowel, such as (i) [= nearly i of bit], and devocalize it, we obtain a hiss which is quite distinct enough to stand for a weak (jh). H. Sweet.

A prefix denoting through; also, between, apart, asunder, across. Before a vowel dia- becomes di-; as, diactinic; dielectric, etc.

A mark consisting of two dots [..], placed over the second of two adjacent vowels, to denote that they are to be pronounced as distinct letters; as, coöperate, aërial.

Any textile fabric (esp. linen or cotton toweling) woven in diaper pattern. See 2.

r fluid evacuations from the intestines, without tenesmus; a purging or looseness of the bowels; a flux.

To rend in pieces; to tear. [R.] Howell.

Dimension. [R.] Howell.

A coalition or union of two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable; as, ou in out, oi in noise; -- called a proper diphthong.

To change into a diphthong, as by affixing another vowel to a simple vowel. "The diphthongized long vowels." H. Sweet.

To disturb the functions of; to disorder. It disaffects the bowels. Hammond.