Search the Dictionary

An offense or transgression against law; (Scots Law) an offense of a lesser degree; a misdemeanor. Every regulation of the civil code necessarily implies a delict in the event of its violation. Jeffrey.

The right or title in virtue of which anything may be claimed; as, to hold a demand against a person.

An instrument which, placed against the teeth, conveys sound to the auditory nerve; an audiphone. Knight.

The act of denouncing; public menace or accusation; the act of inveighing against, stigmatizing, or publicly arraigning; arraignment.

To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by player; to desire the removal of; to seek deliverance from; to express deep regret for; to disapprove of strongly. His purpose was deprecated by all round him, and he was with difficulty induced to adandon it. Sir W. Scott.

The act of deprecating; a praying against evil; prayer that an evil may be removed or prevented; strong expression of disapprobation. Humble deprecation. Milton.

er shall be valid, unless this clause is inserted word for word; -- a precaution to guard against later wills extorted by violence, or obtained by suggestion.

ageous; -- used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality. A desperate offendress against nature. Shak. The most desperate of reprobates. Macaulay.

Malice; malignity; spite; malicious anger; contemptuous hate. With all thy despite against the land of Israel. Ezek. xxv. 6.

To inform against; to accuse. [Obs.] He was untruly judged to have preached such articles as he was detected of. Sir T. More.

To witness against; to denounce; to condemn. [Obs.] The heresy of Nestorius . . . was detested in the Eastern churches. Fuller. God hath detested them with his own mouth. Bale.

recovery of a personal chattel wrongfully detained. Writ of detinue (Law), one that lies against him who wrongfully detains goods or chattels delivered to him, or in possession, to recover the thing itself, or its value and damages, from the detainer. It is now in a great measure superseded by other remedies.…

a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. His device in against Babylon, to destroy it. Jer. li. 11. Their recent device of demanding benevolences. Hallam. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job v. 12.

ing; the act or practice of prescribing; also that which is dictated. It affords security against the dictation of laws. Paley.

In a diffident manner. To stand diffidently against each other with their thoughts in battle array. Hobbes.

ent which presents an antagonist with two or more alternatives, but is equally conclusive against him, whichever alternative he chooses.

To arrange in a direct or straight line, as against a mark, or towards a goal; to point; to aim; as, to direct an arrow or a piece of ordnance.

ne or course. "To run directly on." Shak. Indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant. Shak.

To advise against; to dissuade from. [R.] Boyle.

en jar. The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city. Knolles. Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions. H. Spencer.