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A very slight convulsive or spasmodic contraction of certain muscles, external or internal. Few men can look down from a great height without creepings and crispations. O. W. Holmes.

The state of being crispate.

The dark space within the negative-pole glow at the cathode of a vacuum tube, observed only when the pressure is low enough to give a striated discharge; -- called also Crookes layer.

One of the temporary wooden braces, placed horizontally across a frame to hold it in position until the deck beams are in; a cross- pawl.

An ill-natured person. [Colloq.] "Crosspatch, draw the latch." Mother Goose.

Ending in a point.

A massive variety of fluor spar, found in Derbyshire, England, and wrought into vases and other ornamental work.

be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation; -- often with of. We despaired even of life. 2 Cor. i. 8. Never despair of God's blessings here. Wake.

One who despairs.

Hopeless. [Obs.] Spenser.

Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless. -- De*spair"ing*ly, adv. -- De*spair"ing*ness, n.

To scatter; to disparkle. [Obs.] Mandeville.

Same as Dispatch.

To roam. [Obs.] In this fair plot dispacing to and fro. Spenser.

To separate (a pair). [R.] I have . . . dispaired two doves. Beau. & Fl.

To spread out; to expand. [Obs.] Bailey.

Act of dispanding, or state of being dispanded. [Obs.]

Removed from paradise. [R.] Cockeram.

dishonor by an unequal marriage. [Obs.] Alas! that any of my nation Should ever so foul disparaged be. Chaucer.

rior excellence; a lowering in rank or estimation. [Eng.] And thought that match a foul disparagement. Spenser.