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Consisting of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other; as, a decussated period.

more grave or low in tone; as, to deepen the tones of an organ. Deepens the murmur of the falling floods. Pope.

y allegiance or duty, or to which one has attached himself; desertion; failure in duty; a falling away; apostasy; backsliding. "Defection and falling away from God." Sir W. Raleigh. The general defection of the whole realm. Sir J. Davies.

Deficiency in amount or quality; a falling short; lack; as, a deficit in taxes, revenue, etc. Addison.

Flowing down; falling off. [Obs.] Bailey.

Deprived of leaves, as by their natural fall.

The separation of ripened leaves from a branch or stem; the falling or shedding of the leaves.

To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.

hame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaulay.

A falling down, or out of place; prolapsion.

a time; to retard the motion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.

A melting or dissolution in the air, or in a moist place; a liquid condition; as, a salt falls into a deliquium. [R.]

Delusive; fallacious. Glanvill.

An imperfect or half cadence, falling on the dominant instead of on the key note.

To let fall; to depress. [R.] They [peacocks] demit and let fall the same [i. e., their train]. Sir T. Browne.

Falling short of the natural size, from being impoverished or starved. Gray.

The stripping or falling off of plumes or feathers. Bp. Stillingfleet

To let fall; to deposit. [Obs.] Additional mud deposed upon it. Woodward.

To lay down; to place; to put; to let fall or throw down (as sediment); as, a crocodile deposits her eggs in the sand; the waters deposited a rich alluvium. The fear is deposited in conscience. Jer. Taylor.

To fall in value; to become of less worth; to sink in estimation; as, a paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie.