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The habit or practice of speaking through the teeth, or with them closed.

oved. Keble. To deny one's self, to decline the gratification of appetites or desires; to practice self-denial. Let him deny himself, and take up his cross. Matt. xvi. 24.

forbear; -- often with from. Never desisting to do evil. E. Hall. To desist from his bad practice. Massinger. Desist (thou art discern'd, And toil'st in vain). Milton.

The cessation of use; disuse; discontinuance of practice, custom, or fashion. The desuetude abrogated the law, which, before, custom had established. Jer. Taylor.

ls." F. Hardman (Blackw. Mag.). -- Devil worship, worship of the power of evil; -- still practiced by barbarians who believe that the good and evil forces of nature are of equal power. -- Printer's devil, the youngest apprentice in a printing office, who runs on errands, does dirty work (as washing the ink rollers an…

The practice of a devotionalist. A. H. Clough.

The act of dictating; the act or practice of prescribing; also that which is dictated. It affords security against the dictation of laws. Paley.

A small interval, less than any in actual practice, but used in the mathematical calculation of intervals.

A degraded tribe of California Indians; -- so called from their practice of digging roots for food.

, to go without dinner; -- a phrase common in Elizabethan literature, said to be from the practice of the poor gentry, who beguiled the dinner hour by a promenade near the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in Old Saint Paul's.

The art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations (particularly in securing treaties), including the methods and forms usually employed.

The practice of taking snuff by rubbing the teeth or gums with a stick or brush dipped in snuff. [U.S.] Dipping needle, a magnetic needle suspended at its center of gravity, and moving freely in a vertical plane, so as to indicate on a graduated circle the magnetic dip or inclination.

nding to direct, guide, or govern; showing the way. Hooker. The precepts directive of our practice in relation to God. Barrow.

The termination of an action in practice by the voluntary act of the plaintiff; an entry on the record that the plaintiff discontinues his action.

To interrupt the continuance of; to intermit, as a practice or habit; to put an end to; to cause to cease; to cease using, to stop; to leave off. Set up their conventicles again, which had been discontinued. Bp. Burnet. I have discontinued school Above a twelvemonth. Shak. Taught the Greek tongue, discontinued before i…

To lend, or make a practice of lending, money, abating the discount; as, the discount for sixty or ninety days.

Not conformable; discrepant; repugnant; as, a practice so widely distant from Christianity.

To practice the art of distillation. Shak.

To cease to use; to discontinue the practice of.

One who practices or pretends to divination; a diviner. [R.] Burton.