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Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim. [Obs.] Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves. Sir T. Browne.

The manifoldness with which the fundamental units of time, length, and mass are involved in determining the units of other physical quantities. Thus, since the unit of velocity varies directly as the unit of length and inversely as the unit of time, the dimensions of velocity are said to be length ÷ time; the dimension…

Having the organs of one side, or half, different in function from the corresponding organs on the other side; as, dimidiate hermaphroditism.

Crystallizing under two forms fundamentally different, while having the same chemical composition.

An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillæ) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvæ (called mag…

A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. The raven croaked, and hollow shrieks of owls Sung dirges at her funeral. Ford.

Funereal; moaning. Soothed sadly by the dirgeful wind. Coleridge.

To disturb the functions of; to disorder. It disaffects the bowels. Hammond.

To pay out; to expend; -- usually from a public fund or treasury. The duty of collecting and disbursing his revenues. Macaulay. Disbursing officer, an officer in any department of the public service who is charged with the duty of paying out public money.

To discourage; to deject. His funeral shall not be in our camp, Lest it discomfort us. Shak.

ibiting a dissolution of continuity; gaping. "Discontinuous wound." Milton. Discontinuous function (Math.), a function which for certain values or between certain values of the variable does not vary continuously as the variable increases. The discontinuity may, for example, consist of an abrupt change in the value of…

The eliminant of the n partial differentials of any homogenous function of n variables. See Eliminant.

he body or of some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of the vital functions, and causing or threatening pain and weakness; malady; affection; illness; sickness; disorder; -- applied figuratively to the mind, to the moral character and habits, to institutions, the state, etc. Diseases desperate g…

Disturbance of the functions of the animal economy of the soul; sickness; derangement. "Disorder in the body." Locke.

Not acting in an orderly way, as the functions of the body or mind.

ing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place. Unnecessary displacement of funds. A. Hamilton. The displacement of the sun by parallax. Whewell.

The funnel part of the apparatus for solution by displacement.

to apply; to employ; to dispose of. Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor. Evelyn.

To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. Shak. The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties. Buckminster.

Endowment; establishment of funds for support, as of a hospital or eleemosynary corporation. Blackstone.