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To diminish the quantity of; to lessen. [Obs.] Shak.

breaking up; vanishing. -- Dis*solv"ing*ly, adv. Dissolving view, a picture which grows dim and is gradually replaced by another on the same field; -- an effect produced by magic lanterns.

To diminish or exhaust by drawing. [R.] The Parliament so often draughted and drained. Sir W. Scott.

atter contained in a liquid, or precipitated from it; refuse; feculence; lees; grounds; sediment; hence, the vilest and most worthless part of anything; as, the dregs of society. We, the dregs and rubbish of mankind. Dryden.

To cut to proper dimensions, or give proper shape to, as to a tool by hammering; also, to smooth or finish.

A preparation to fit food for use; a condiment; as, a dressing for salad.

as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline. He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay.

bright or clear to the eye; wanting in liveliness of color or luster; not vivid; obscure; dim; as, a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror.

e state of being dull; slowness; stupidity; heaviness; drowsiness; bluntness; obtuseness; dimness; want of luster; want of vividness, or of brightness. [Written also dulness.] And gentle dullness ever loves a joke. Pope.

es the sky. Dryden. The figure of that first ancestor invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur. Hawthorne.

imal or plant which is much below the ordinary size of its species or kind; especially, a diminutive human being.

A diminutive dwarf.

To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away. Weary sennights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. Shak. Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs. Swift.

purposelessness; a term applied by Haeckel to that branch of physiology which treats of rudimentary organs, in view of their being useless to the life of the organism. To the doctrine of dysteleology, or the denial of final causes, a proof of the real existence of such a thing as instinct must necessarily be fatal. Wor…

A young eagle, or a diminutive eagle.

A current of water or air moving in a circular direction; a whirlpool. And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. Dryden. Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play. Addison.

ing elastic; the inherent property in bodies by which they recover their former figure or dimensions, after the removal of external pressure or altering force; springiness; tendency to rebound; as, the elasticity of caoutchouc; the elasticity of the air.

The simplest or fundamental principles of any system in philosophy, science, or art; rudiments; as, the elements of geometry, or of music.

Pertaining to rudiments or first principles; rudimentary; elementary. "The elemental rules of erudition." Cawthorn.

Pertaining to, or treating of, the elements, rudiments, or first principles of anything; initial; rudimental; introductory; as, an elementary treatise.