Search the Dictionary

; fluency. [Obs.] When currentness [combineth] with staidness, how can the language . . . sound other than most full of sweetness Camden.

h or a flat plate, with a handle at the back; -- used in pairs to produce a sharp ringing sound by clashing them together.

ne or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhytmically. Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance. Wiher. Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your dauther Shak.

with against. If you dash a stone against a stone in the botton of the water, it maketh a sound. Bacon.

So constructed as not to transmit sound; soundless; as, a dead floor.

orce or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

Wanting the sense of hearing, either wholly or in part; unable to perceive sounds; hard of hearing; as, a deaf man. Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf. Shak.

To make deaf; to deprive of the power of hearing; to render incapable of perceiving sounds distinctly. Deafened and stunned with their promiscuous cries. Addison.

The act or process of rendering impervious to sound, as a floor or wall; also, the material with which the spaces are filled in this process; pugging.

Without sense of sounds; obscurely.

Incapacity of perceiving sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impression which constitute hearing; want of the sense of hearing.

ii. 7. And Rome deals out her blessings and her gold. Tickell. The nightly mallet deals resounding blows. Gay. Hissing through the skies, the feathery deaths were dealt. Dryden.

other allied species). By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by superstitious people to presage death.

To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth ac…

Pretentious rhetorical display, with more sound than sense; as, mere declamation.

tray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals. Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Ps. cxix. 157.

With decreasing volume of sound; -- a direction to performers, either written upon the staff (abbreviated Dec., or Decresc.), or indicated by the sign.

eat depth. Courage from the deeps of knowledge springs. Cowley. The hollow deep of hell resounded. Milton. Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound. Pope.

or pertaining to the deeper parts of the sea; as, a deep-sea line (i. e., a line to take soundings at a great depth); deep-sea lead; deep-sea soundings, explorations, etc.

That which carries or conveys. Though air be the most favorable deferent of sounds. Bacon.