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bell thrice was heard to ring. Mickle. -- Death candle, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death. -- Death damp, a cold sweat at the coming on of death. -- Death fire, a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode death. And round about in reel and rout, The death fires danced at n…

nd with moral beauties; to decorate a hero with honors. Her fat neck was ornamented with jewels, rich bracelets decorated her arms. Thackeray.

of causes is deductive. Glanvill. Notions and ideas . . . used in a deductive process. Whewell.

ard; respect; complaisance. Deference to the authority of thoughtful and sagacious men. Whewell. Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. Shenstone.

inite measure; a definite period or interval. Elements combine in definite proportions. Whewell.

iling; delusory; as, delusive arts; a delusive dream. Delusive and unsubstantial ideas. Whewell. -- De*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- De*lu"sive*ness, n.

ctly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.

or name; distinctive title; appellation. The usual designation of the days of the week. Whewell.

with dew; to bedew; to moisten; as with dew. The grasses grew A little ranker since they dewed them so. A. B. Saxton.

for wiping the hands, etc. Let one attend him with a silver basin, . . . Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper. Shak.

"[The moon] was dichotomized." Whewell.

The property of presenting different colors by transmitted light, when viewed in two different directions, the colors being unlike in the direction of unlike or unequal axes.

Iolite; -- so called from its presenting two different colors when viewed in two different directions. See Iolite.

rimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called diffraction. Whewell. Diffraction grating. (Optics) See under Grating. -- Diffraction spectrum. (Optics) See under Spectrum.

and ages infinite. Milton. We find this knowledge diffused among all civilized nations. Whewell.

sky; darkish; obscure; indistinct; overcast; tarnished. The dim magnificence of poetry. Whewell. How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, Through words and things, a dim and perilous way. Wordsworth.

A bishop, viewed in relation to his diocese; as, the diocesan of New York.

Destitute of mettle, that is, or fire or spirit. [R.] Llewellyn.

nnecessary displacement of funds. A. Hamilton. The displacement of the sun by parallax. Whewell.

To dissuade; to frustrate; as, to dispurpose plots. [R.] A. Brewer.