Search the Dictionary

The state of being deprived; privation; loss; want; bereavement.

The loss or obliteration of division into segments; as, a desegmentation of the body.

Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, Pine with regret, or sicken with despair. Keble. Before he [Bunyan] was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair. Macaulay.

The state of desponding; loss of hope and cessation of effort; discouragement; depression or dejection of the mind. The unhappy prince seemed, during some days, to be sunk in despondency. Macaulay.

That which injures or causes damage; mischief; harm; diminution; loss; damage; -- used very generically; as, detriments to property, religion, morals, etc. I can repair That detriment, if such it be. Milton.

m a simpler form of existence to one more complex either in structure or function; as, a blossom develops from a bud; the seed develops into a plant; the embryo develops into a well-formed animal; the mind develops year by year. Nor poets enough to understand That life develops from within. Mrs. Browning.…

from an animate to a lifeless state; to cease to live; to suffer a total and irreparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; -- said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardshi…

: To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook. I never can digest the loss of most of Origin's works. Coleridge.

cial quality, condition, circumstance, or the like; that which hinders success, or causes loss or injury. I was brought here under the disadvantage of being unknown by sight to any of you. Burke. Abandoned by their great patron, the faction henceforward acted at disadvantage. Palfrey.

Unprepared; unequipped. [Obs.] Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled. Shak.

haracter of; to discriminate; to distinguish. To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. Boyle. A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. Robynson (More's Utopia).

The condition of being out of favor; loss of favor, regard, or respect. Macduff lives in disgrace. Shak.

Loss of courage and firmness through fear; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation. I . . . can not think of such a battle without dismay. Macaulay. Thou with a tiger spring dost leap upon thy prey, And tear his helpless breast, o'erwhelmed with wild dismay. Mrs. Barbauld.…

Loss; damage. Foxe.

Loss or want of reputation or good name; dishonor; disrepute; disesteem. "A disreputation of piety." Jer. Taylor.

Loss or want of reputation; ill character; disesteem; discredit. At the beginning of the eighteenth century astrology fell into general disrepute. Sir W. Scott.

issipating or dispersing; a state of dispersion or separation; dispersion; waste. Without loss or dissipation of the matter. Bacon. The famous dissipation of mankind. Sir M. Hale.

or suffering; anguish of body or mind; as, to suffer distress from the gout, or from the loss of friends. Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress. Shak.

State of being suspected; loss of trust. Milton.

A handsome fish of Florida and the West Indies (Platyglossus radiatus). The name is applied also to the ladyfish (Harpe rufa) of the same region.