Search the Dictionary

To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer. Calamy. We have put off God, and dallied with his grace. Barrow.

To condemn as bad or displeasing, by open expression, as by denuciation, hissing, hooting, etc. You are not so arrant a critic as to damn them [the works of modern poets] . . . without hearing. Pope. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer. Pope.

To move nimbly or merrily; to express pleasure by motion; to caper; to frisk; to skip about. Then, 'tis time to dance off. Thackeray. More dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw. Shak. Shadows in the glassy waters dance. Byron. Where rivulets dance their wayward round. Wordsworth. To dance on a r…

Hard to suit; difficult to please. [Obs.] My wages ben full strait, and eke full small; My lord to me is hard and dangerous. Chaucer.

In one's gift; capable of being disposed of at will and pleasure, as an office.

declination or refusal, as of submission to a charge or sentence. Blackstone. Declinatory plea (O. Eng. Law), the plea of sanctuary or of benefit of clergy, before trial or conviction; -- now abolished.

g deducted, taken away, or withdrawn. Not one found honestly deductible From any use that pleased him. Mrs. Browning.

Delight; pleasure. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Protecting plea; vindication; justification. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense. Acts xxii. 1.

To render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor. Above those passions that this world deform. Thomson.

Highly pleasing; delightful. Delectable both to behold and taste. Milton. -- De*lec"ta*ble*ness, n. -- De*lec"ta*bly, adv.

Great pleasure; delight.

Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment. And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy Milton.

Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring. [R.] Dives, for his delicate life, to the devil went. Piers Plowman. Haarlem is a very delicate town. Evelyn.

Affording exquisite pleasure; delightful; most sweet or grateful to the senses, especially to the taste; charming. Some delicious landscape. Coleridge. One draught of spring's delicious air. Keble. Were not his words delicious Tennyson.

A high degree of gratification of mind; a high-wrought state of pleasurable feeling; lively pleasure; extreme satisfaction; joy. Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Shak. A fool hath no delight in understanding. Prov. xviii. 2.

Highly pleasing; affording great pleasure and satisfaction. "Delightful bowers." Spenser. "Delightful fruit." Milton.

Very pleasing; delightful. "Delightsome vigor." Grew. Ye shall be a delightsome land, . . . saith the Lord. Mal. iii. 12. -- De*light"some*ly, adv. -- De*light"some*ness, n.

Behavior; deportment; carriage; bearing; mien. His demeanor was singularly pleasing. Macaulay. The men, as usual, liked her artless kindness and simple refined demeanor. Thackeray.

th from; as, we can not depart from our rules; to depart from a title or defense in legal pleading. If the plan of the convention be found to depart from republican principles. Madison.