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Repeated composition; a combination of compounds. [Obs.] Decomposition of forces. Same as Resolution of forces, under Resolution. -- Decomposition of light, the division of light into the prismatic colors.

Having the force of a decree; determining. The will of God is either decretive or perceptive. Bates.

; to drive back or away; to repel. [A Latinism & Obs.] Th' other strove for to defend The force of Vulcan with his might and main. Spenser.

Causing deflection. Deflective forces, forces that cause a body to deviate from its course.

Same as Deforcement, n.

Pressed or forced down; lowed; sunk; dejected; dispirited; sad; humbled.

use the faculty of describing; to give a description; as, Milton describes with uncommon force and beauty.

To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill. If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, By some false guile pervert. Milton.

To thrust down or out; to push down with force. Locke.

of the power of evil; -- still practiced by barbarians who believe that the good and evil forces of nature are of equal power. -- Printer's devil, the youngest apprentice in a printing office, who runs on errands, does dirty work (as washing the ink rollers and sweeping), etc. "Without fearing the printer's devil or t…

taking, or being of a nature to take, a position at right angles to the lines of magnetic force. See Paramagnetic. Diamagnetic attraction. See under Attraction.

Any substance or medium that transmits the electric force by a process different from conduction, as in the phenomena of induction; a nonconductor. separating a body electrified by induction, from the electrifying body.

mechanism in which a simple differential combination produces such a change of motion or force as would, with ordinary compound arrangements, require a considerable train of parts. It is used for overcoming great resistance or producing very slow or very rapid motion. -- Differential pulley. (Mach.) (a) A portable ho…

sion; that may be dilated; -- opposed to contractible; as, the lungs are dilatable by the force of air; air is dilatable by heat.

Force; power; -- esp. in the phrase by dint of. Now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel The dint of pity. Shak. It was by dint of passing strength That he moved the massy stone at length. Sir W. Scott.

rmed, in a vertical plane, by a freely suspended magnetic needle, or the line of magnetic force, with a horizontal line; -- called also inclination. -- Dip of a stratum (Geol.), its greatest angle of inclination to the horizon, or that of a line perpendicular to its direction or strike; -- called also the pitch.…

To separate by force; to tear apart. [Obs.] Holinshed.

denotes separation, a parting from, as in distribute, disconnect; hence it often has the force of a privative and negative, as in disarm, disoblige, disagree. Also intensive, as in dissever.

Lacking ability; unable. [Obs.] "Our disable and unactive force." Daniel.

To destroy the force of habit in; to wean from a custom. Johnson.