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hing given or admitted; a fact or principle granted; that upon which an inference or an argument is based; -- used chiefly in the plural. Any writer, therefore, who . . . furnishes us with data sufficient to determine the time in which he wrote. Priestley.

hear or listen; determinedly inattentive; regardless; not to be persuaded as to facts, argument, or exhortation; -- with to; as, deaf to reason. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! Shak.

To contend for in words or arguments; to strive to maintain by reasoning; to dispute; to contest; to discuss; to argue for and against. A wise council . . . that did debate this business. Shak. Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself. Prov. xxv. 9.

One who debates; one given to argument; a disputant; a controvertist. Debate where leisure serves with dull debaters. Shak.

o speak pompously, noisily, or theatrically; to make an empty speech; to rehearse trite arguments in debate; to rant. Grenville seized the opportunity to declaim on the repeal of the stamp act. Bancroft.

Characterized by rhetorical display; pretentiously rhetorical; without solid sense or argument; bombastic; noisy; as, a declamatory way or style.

anger or harm from; to protect; to secure against; attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies. The lord mayor cr…

eat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion. I once again Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight. Milton. I defy the enemies of our constitution to show the contrary. Burke.

Weighing facts and arguments with a view a choice or decision; carefully considering the probable consequences of a step; circumspect; slow in determining; -- applied to persons; as, a deliberate judge or counselor. "These deliberate fools." Shak.

making evident; exhibiting clearly or conclusively. "Demonstrative figures." Dryden. An argument necessary and demonstrative. Hooker.

Produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to the gums; or representing a sound so formed. -- n.

asure derivable from the true and beautiful relations of domestic life. H. G. Bell. The argument derivable from the doxologies. J. H. Newman.

A suffix or terminal formative, much used in anatomical terms, and signifying skin, integument, covering; as, blastoderm, ectoderm, etc.

The integument of animal; the skin.

Pertaining to the integument or skin of animals; dermic; as, the dermal secretions.

ertaining to the dermis; dermal. Underneath each nail the deep or dermic layer of the integument is peculiarly modified. Huxley. Dermic remedies (Med.), such as act through the skin.

tion or purpose as revealed or inferred from the adaptation of means to an end; as, the argument from design.

an; to scheme; as, to devise an engine, a new mode of writing, a plan of defense, or an argument. To devise curious works. Ex. CCTV. 32. Devising schemes to realize his ambitious views. Bancroft.

Dewrotting; the process of decomposing the gummy matter of flax and hemp and setting the fibrous part, by exposure on a sward to dew, rain, and sunshine.

A translucent, gummy, amorphous substance, nearly tasteless and odorless, used as a substitute for gum, for sizing, etc., and obtained from starch by the action of heat, acids, or diastase. It is of somewhat variable composition, containing several carbohydrates which change easily to their respective varieties of suga…