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A shoot from the roots or lower part of the stem of a plant; -- so called, perhaps, from diverting nourishment from the body of the plant.

Several; divers; more than one or two; various. "Sundry wines." Chaucer. "Sundry weighty reasons." Shak. With many a sound of sundry melody. Chaucer. Sundry foes the rural realm surround. Dryden.

A spring; a fountain. [Obs.] "Divers surges and springs of water." Ld. Berners.

within itself structural or other characters which are usually found only in two or more diverse groups; -- said of species, genera, and higher groups. See the Note under Comprehensive,

A third somewhat; something mediating, or regarded as being, between two diverse or incompatible substances, natures, or positions.

Diversified by squares; done in mosaic; tessellated. [Obs.] Sir R. Atkyns (1712).

A genus of tortoises which formerly included a large number of diverse forms, but is now restricted to certain terrestrial species, such as the European land tortoise (Testudo Græca) and the gopher of the Southern United States.

A large African antelope (Alcejaphus tora). It has widely divergent, strongly ringed horns.

A division of Spongiæ in which the spicules are siliceous and have four branches diverging at right angles. Called also Tetractinellinæ.

Having four branches diverging at right angles; -- said of certain spicules of sponges.

A phylum of plants of very diverse habit and structure, including the algæ, fungi, and lichens. The simpler forms, as many blue-green algæ, yeasts, etc., are unicellular and reproduce vegetatively or by means of asexual spores; in the higher forms the plant body is a thallus, which may be filamentous or may consist of…

ressing comparison, used after certain adjectives and adverbs which express comparison or diversity, as more, better, other, otherwise, and the like. It is usually followed by the object compared in the nominative case. Sometimes, however, the object compared is placed in the objective case, and than is then considered…

; as, the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Heb. i. 1.

ves pain, vexation, or misery. They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments. Matt. iv. 24.

winter the gentleman lives in town; in summer, in the country. Always hankering after the diversions of the town. Addison. Stunned with his giddy larum half the town. Pope.

To pass; to go; to move. Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. Shak.

A juggler who produces illusions by the use of elaborate machinery. [Obs.] Divers appearances Such as these subtle tregetours play. Chaucer.

To change from a given use or office; to divert, as to another purpose or end; to transfer; to use or employ; to apply; to devote. Therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David. 1 Chron. x. 14. God will make these evils the occasion of a greater good, by turning them to advantage in this world. Tillotson. Wh…

In a uniform manner; without variation or diversity; by a regular, constant, or common ratio of change; with even tenor; as, a temper uniformly mild. To vary uniformly (Math.), to vary with the ratio of the corresponding increments constant; -- said of two dependent quantities with regard to each other.…

Not like; dissimilar; diverse; having no resemblance; as, the cases are unlike.