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A person required to make answer in an action or suit; -- opposed to plaintiff. Abbott.

The defendant's answer or plea; an opposing or denial of the truth or validity of the plaintiff's or prosecutor's case; the method of proceeding adopted by the defendant to protect himself against the plaintiff's action.

Capable of being defined, limited, or explained; determinable; describable by definition; ascertainable; as, definable limits; definable distinctions or regulations; definable words. -- De*fin"a*bly, adv.

ermine the precise signification of; to fix the meaning of; to describe accurately; to explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term. They define virtue to be life ordered according to nature. Robynson (More's Utopia).

One who defines or explains.

Act of ascertaining and explaining the signification; a description of a thing by its properties; an explanation of the meaning of a word or term; as, the definition of "circle;" the definition of "wit;" an exact definition; a loose definition. Definition being nothing but making another understand by words what the te…

To remove the glaze from, as pottery or porcelain, so as to give a dull finish.

One who demands; the plaintiff in a real action; any plaintiff.

To exhibit and explain (a dissection or other anatomical preparation).

any two others are called "proofs;" and where agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called demonstration. Locke.

btain from the king's subjects as much as they would willingly give, . . . had not to complain of many peremptory denials. Hallam.

To mark out plainly; to signify by a visible sign; to serve as the sign or name of; to indicate; to point out; as, the hands of the clock denote the hour. The better to denote her to the doctor. Shak.

To complain of. [Obs.] Shak.

The process of removing the vitreous glaze from porcelain, leaving the dull luster of the surface of ivory porcelian. Knight.

Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song.

or forsaken region; a barren tract incapable of supporting population, as the vast sand plains of Asia and Africa are destitute and vegetation. A dreary desert and a gloomy waste. Pope.

The state of being destroyed, demolished, ruined, slain, or devastated. This town came to destruction. Chaucer. Thou castedst them down into destruction. Ps. lxxiii. 18.

bring to light; as, to detect a crime or a criminal; to detect a mistake in an account. Plain good intention . . . is as easily discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at last. Burke. Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect. Pope.

To turn form the original or plain meaning; to pervert; to wrest. Hammond.

rnish smaller subdivisions of the unit of measure than could be conveniently marked on a plain scale. -- Diagonal stratification. (Geol.) Same as Cross bedding, under Cross, a.