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A state of things in which evils or obstacles present themselves on every side, and it is difficult to determine what course to pursue; a vexatious alternative or predicament; a difficult choice or position. A strong dilemma in a desperate case! To act with infamy, or quit the place. Swift. Horns of a dilemma, alternat…

Evil in great degree; dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable. Dire was the tossing, deep the groans. Milton. Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire. Milton.

To see or understand the difference; to make distinction; as, to discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood. More than sixscore thousand that cannot discern between their right hand their left. Jonah iv. 11.

onging to a course of training. Those canons . . . were only disciplinary. Bp. Ferne. The evils of the . . . are disciplinary and remedial. Buckminster.

Possessed of discernment, especially in avoiding error or evil, and in the adaptation of means to ends; prudent; sagacious; judicious; not rash or heedless; cautious. It is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives measures to society. Addison. Satire 's my…

To divest of the or corporeal existence. Devils embodied and disembodied. Sir W. Scott.

m fellowship; to refuse intercourse with, as an associate. An attempt to disfellowship an evil, but to fellowship the evildoer. Freewill Bapt. Quart.

To treat discourteously; to upbraid; to revile. The goddess wroth gan foully her disgrace. Spenser.

ct of dispensing or dealing out; distribution; often used of the distribution of good and evil by God to man, or more generically, of the acts and modes of his administration. To respect the dispensations of Providence. Burke.

nfounded; as, to distinguish the sound of a drum. We are enabled to distinguish good from evil, as well as truth from falsehood. Watts. Nor more can you distinguish of a man, Than of his outward show. Shak.

Suspicion of evil designs. Alienation and distrust . . . are the growth of false principles. D. Webster.

existence of two gods or of two original principles (as in Manicheism), one good and one evil; dualism.

Desiring different things. [Obs.] Webster (White Devil).

oresee or foreknow; to detect; to anticipate; to conjecture. A sagacity which divined the evil designs. Bancroft.

Evil intent, embracing both malice and fraud. See Culpa. Wharton.

ram of well-doing should be preferred before many times as mush the forcible hindrance of evildoing. Milton.

Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror. The secret dread of divine displeasure. Tillotson. The dread of something after death. Shak.

r part; leavings; dregs; refuse. All world's glory is but dross unclean. Spenser. At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross coats its ounce of gold. Lowell.

A system which accepts two gods, or two original principles, one good and the other evil.

; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done; a fee; a toll. He will give the devil his due. Shak. Yearly little dues of wheat, and wine, and oil. Tennyson.