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A class to which a certain representation is applicable; kind; sort. A difference . . . between them and another description of public creditors. A. Hamilton. The plates were all of the meanest description. Macaulay.

(Med.) A medicine or application for drying up a sore. Wiseman.

An application for drying up secretions.

Use or application; import; intention; signification, as of a word or phrase. Finite and infinite seem . . . to be attributed primarily, in their first designation, only to those things have parts. Locke.

To determine the future condition or application of; to set apart by design for a future use or purpose; to fix, as by destiny or by an authoritative decree; to doom; to ordain or preordain; to appoint; -- often with the remoter object preceded by to or for. We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe. Milton…

Waste or misapplication of the assets of a deceased person by an executor or an administrator. Bouvier.

To become apparent gradually; as, a picture on sensitive paper develops on the application of heat; the plans of the conspirators develop.

To form in the mind by new combinations of ideas, new applications of principles, or new arrangement of parts; to formulate by thought; to contrive; to excogitate; to invent; to plan; 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. Dev…

diness in the use or control of the mental powers; quickness and skill in managing any complicated or difficult affair; adroitness. His wisdom . . . was turned . . . into a dexterity to deliver himself. Bacon. He had conducted his own defense with singular boldness and dexterity. Hallam.

That branch of logic which teaches the rules and modes of reasoning; the application of logical principles to discursive reasoning; the science or art of discriminating truth from error; logical discussion.

Choice of words for the expression of ideas; the construction, disposition, and application of words in discourse, with regard to clearness, accuracy, variety, etc.; mode of expression; language; as, the diction of Chaucer's poems. His diction blazes up into a sudden explosion of prophetic grandeur. De Quincey.…

arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application; as, to digest the laws, etc. Joining them together and digesting them into order. Blair. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. Shak.

Interested and persevering application; devoted and painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken; assiduity in service. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Shak.

Interestedly and perseveringly attentive; steady and earnest in application to a subject or pursuit; assiduous; industrious. Seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings. Prov. xxii. 29. Diligent cultivation of elegant literature. Prescott.

Serving to disperse morbid matter; discussive; as, a discutient application. -- n.

To extricate from complication and perplexity; disengage from embarrassing connection or intermixture; to disembroil; to set free; to separate. To disentangle truth from error. Stewart. To extricate and disentangle themselves out of this labyrinth. Clarendon. A mind free and disentangled from all corporeal mixtures. Bp…

Regulation of the fate, condition, application, etc., of anything; the transference of anything into new hands, a new place, condition, etc.; alienation, or parting; as, a disposal of property. A domestic affair of great importance, which is no less than the disposal of my sister Jenny for life. Tatler.…

To determine the fate of; to exercise the power of control over; to fix the condition, application, employment, etc. of; to direct or assign for a use. Freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons. Locke.

The act of disposing, arranging, ordering, regulating, or transferring; application; disposal; as, the disposition of a man's property by will. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels. Acts vii. 53. The disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be of…

is the same as the aggregated result of the two or more partial operations. Ordinary multiplication is distributive, since a × (b + c) = ab + ac, and (a + b) × c = ac + bc. -- Distributive proportion. (Math.) See Fellowship.