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An object of derision or scorn; a laughing-stock. I was a derision to all my people. Lam. iii. 14.

e descension (Astron.), the degree or arc of the equator which descends, with a celestial object, below the horizon of an oblique sphere. -- Right descension, the degree or arc of the equator which descends below the horizon of a right sphere at the same time with the object. [Obs.]

To spy out or discover by the eye, as objects distant or obscure; to espy; to recognize; to discern; to discover. And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judg. i. 23. Edmund, I think, is gone . . . to descry The strength o' the enemy. Shak. And now their way to earth they had descried. Milton.…

An object of desire.

An unsightly object. [Obs.]

To intend or purpose; -- usually with for before the remote object, but sometimes with to. Ask of politicians the end for which laws were originally designed. Burke. He was designed to the study of the law. Dryden.

All of them desirable young men. Ezek. xxiii. 12. As things desirable excite Desire, and objects move the appetite. Blackmore.

Anything which is desired; an object of longing. The Desire of all nations shall come. Hag. ii. 7.

Purpose for which anything is destined; predetermined end, object, or use; ultimate design.

horitative decree; to doom; to ordain or preordain; to appoint; -- often with the remoter object preceded by to or for. We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe. Milton. Till the loathsome opposite Of all my heart had destined, did obtain. Tennyson. Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or way.…

To separate for a special object or use; -- used especially in military language; as, to detach a ship from a fleet, or a company from a regiment.

Abstraction from worldly objects; renunciation. A trial which would have demanded of him a most heroic faith and the detachment of a saint. J. H. Newman.

The act of determining the relations of an object, as regards genus and species; the referring of minerals, plants, or animals, to the species to which they belong; classification; as, I am indebted to a friend for the determination of most of these shells.

To fix the course of; to impel and direct; -- with a remoter object preceded by to; as, another's will determined me to this course.

A thing consecrated; an object of devotion. [R.] Churches and altars, priests and all devotions, Tumbled together into rude chaos. Beau. & Fl. Days of devotion. See under Day.

onsisting in whirling on a string, fastened to two sticks, a small somewhat spool- shaped object (called the diabolo) so as to balance it on a string, toss it in the air and catch it, etc.

c telescope, an achromatic telescope in which the colored dispersion produced by a single object lens of crown glass is corrected by a smaller concave lens, or combination of lenses, of high dispersive power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the converging cone of rays, usually near the middle of the tube.…

The length of a straight line through the center of an object from side to side; width; thickness; as, the diameter of a tree or rock.

cut or shaped as to give a certain desired form to, or impress any desired device on, an object or surface, by pressure or by a blow; used in forging metals, coining, striking up sheet metal, etc.

A controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an objection; a cavil. Measures for terminating all local difficulties. Bancroft.