Search the Dictionary

A work constructed beyond the main ditch of a fortress, and in front of the curtain between two bastions, intended to defend the curtain; a ravelin. See Ravelin.

Persons of doubtful reputation; esp., women who are kept as mistresses, though not public prostitutes; demireps. Literary demimonde, writers of the lowest kind.

localities; as, to desert a friend, a principle, a cause, one's country. "The deserted fortress." Prescott.

ted with absolute authority; especially, a magistrate created in times of exigence and distress, and invested with unlimited power. Invested with the authority of a dictator, nay, of a pope, over our language. Macaulay.

A dictatress.

A directress. [R.] Jer. Taylor.

nt of comfort; uneasiness, mental or physical; disturbance of peace; inquietude; pain; distress; sorrow. "An age of spiritual discomfort." M. Arnold. Strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings. Bp. Hall.

Dissatisfied; uneasy in mind; malcontent. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him. 1 Sam. xxii. 2. -- Dis`con*tent"ed*ly, adv. -- Dis`con*tent"ed*ness, n.

To torture; to excruciate. [Obs.] Discruciate a man in deep distress. Herrick.

To deprive of ease; to disquiet; to trouble; to distress. [Obs.] His double burden did him sore disease. Spenser.

Depression of spirits; discouragement. [R.] Procter, in evident distress and dispiritment, was waiting the slow conclusion of this. Carlyle.

To crowd out; to take the place of. Holland displaced Portugal as the mistress of those seas. London Times.

kle, as with water from a sponge. [Poetic & Rare] [Written also dispunge.] O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me. Shak.

vily upon; to bear down upon with violence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict. [Obs.] "Distrained with chains." Chaucer.

The act or proceeding of seizing personal property by distress. Abbott.

t land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a moat or a fosse.

The fitful naps taken when all hands are kept up by stress.

Pain; grief; distress; anguish. [Written also dolour.] [Poetic] Of death and dolor telling sad tidings. Spenser.

Lady; mistress; madam; -- a title of respect used in Spain, prefixed to the Christian name of a lady.

A lady; madam; mistress; -- the title given a lady in Italy.