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Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations. Neither are God's methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man. Rogers.

To scatter abroad; to drive to different parts; to distribute; to diffuse; to spread; as, the Jews are dispersed among all nations. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge. Prov. xv. 7. Two lions, in the still, dark night, A herd of beeves disperse. Cowper.

The separation of light into its different colored rays, arising from their different refrangibilities. Dispersion of the optic axes (Crystallog.), the separation of the optic axes in biaxial crystals, due to the fact that the axial angle has different values for the different colors of the spectrum.…

to disperse. Dispersive power (Opt.), the relative effect of a material in separating the different rays of light by refraction, as when the substance is formed into a prism. -- Dis*pers"ive*ness, n.

To spread abroad, or different ways; to spread apart; to open; as, the sun dispreads his beams. Spenser.

dissatisfaction; unable to give content; unsatisfactory; displeasing. To have reduced the different qualifications in the different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States, as difficult for the Convention. A. Hamilton. -- Dis*sat`is*fac"to*ri*ness, n.…

No agreeing; dissenting; discordant; different. Our life and manners be dissident from theirs. Robynson (More's Utopia).

To tinge with a different color from the natural or proper one; to stain; to discolor; to sully; to tarnish; to defile; -- used chiefly in poetry. "Distained with dirt and blood." Spenser. [She] hath . . . distained her honorable blood. Spenser. The worthiness of praise distains his worth. Shak.

Cyanite or kyanite; -- so called in allusion to its unequal hardness in two different directions. See Cyanite.

Not identical; different; individual. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices. Shak.

rom a shrub. A simple idea being in itself uncompounded . . . is not distinguishable into different ideas. Locke.

To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse; as, to distract the eye; to distract the attention. Mixed metaphors . . . distract the imagination. Goldsmith.

State in which the attention is called in different ways; confusion; perplexity. That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. 1 Cor. vii. 3

A divergence of lines of color sculpture, or of fibers at different angles.

To extend from a common point in different directions; to tend from one point and recede from each other; to tend to spread apart; to turn aside or deviate (as from a given direction); -- opposed to converge; as, rays of light diverge as they proceed from the sun.

Tending in different directions from a common center; spreading apart; divergent. Diverging series (Math.), a series whose terms are larger as the series is extended; a series the sum of whose terms does not approach a finite limit when the series is extended indefinitely; -- opposed to a converging series.…

Different in kind or species; diverse. [Obs.] Every sect of them hath a divers posture. Bacon. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds. Deut. xxii. 9.

Different; unlike; dissimilar; distinct; separate. The word . . . is used in a sense very diverse from its original import. J. Edwards. Our roads are diverse: farewell, love! said she. R. Browning.

In different ways; differently; variously. "Diversely interpreted." Bacon. How diversely love doth his pageants play. Spenser.

Of a different form; of varied forms.