Search the Dictionary

To cause to eat and drink sparingly, or by prescribed rules; to regulate medicinally the food of. She diets him with fasting every day. Spenser.

which a painting is seen from a distance through a large opening. By a combination of transparent and opaque painting, and of transmitted and reflected light, and by contrivances such as screens and shutters, much diversity of scenic effect is produced.

An igneous, crystalline in structure, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar and hornblende. It includes part of what was called greenstone.

o deprive of that which gives value or estimation; to declare lacking in competency; to disparage; to undervalue. [Obs.] "He disabled my judgment." Shak.

To disparage. [Obs.] She oft him blamed . . . and him dishabled quite. Spenser.

To withdraw praise from; to notice with disapprobation or some degree of censure; to disparage; to blame. Dispraising the power of his adversaries. Chaucer. I dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him. Shak.

Want of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness; disparity; as, the disproportion of strength or means to an object.

A state of danger or necessity; as, a ship in distress, from leaking, loss of spars, want of provisions or water, etc.

nsisting of pointed projections resembling teeth; -- also called tooth ornament. Dogtooth spar (Min.), a variety of calcite, in acute crystals, resembling the tooth of a dog. See Calcite. -- Dogtooth violet (Bot.), a small, bulbous herb of the Lily family (genus Erythronium). It has two shining flat leaves and commonl…

A dark-colored, basic, igneous rock, composed essentially of pyroxene and a triclinic feldspar with magnetic iron. By many authors it is considered equivalent to a coarse-grained basalt.

either white or clouded. It includes much of the common white marble. Also called bitter spar.

A spar or buoy held by an anchor and furnished with a ring to which ships may fasten their cables. R. H. Dana.

ument for augmenting a very small quantity of electricity, so as to render it manifest by sparks or the electroscope.

a bully. The leader was of an ugly look and gigantic stature; he acted like a drawcansir, sparing neither friend nor foe. Addison.

The hedge sparrow or hedge accentor. [Local, Eng.]

Moderate; sparing; frugal. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To be prudently sparing in expenditure; to be frugal and saving; as, to economize in order to grow rich. [Written also economise.] Milton.

The more transparent cells, which finally become external, in many segmenting ova, as those of mammals.

The outer transparent layer of protoplasm in a developing ovum.

An addition. [R.] Clumsy ekes that may well be spared. Geddes.