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above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song.

Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance. [Obs.] Near, and on speedy foot; the main descry Stands on the hourly thought. Shak.

To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace out; to draw. Dryden.

then bare, Despoiled is the summer fair. Gower. A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled. Macaulay. Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. Milton.

The station or government of a despot; also, the domain of a despot. Freeman.

That which is detached; especially, a body of troops or part of a fleet sent from the main body on special service. Troops . . . widely scattered in little detachments. Bancroft.

onward or downward; to pass on. Every headlong stream Devolves its winding waters to the main. Akenside. Devolved his rounded periods. Tennyson.

The shaft, or main part, of a bone, which is first ossified.

in turtles, and in the genus Dicynodon, supporting also a pair of powerful tusks. Their remains are found in triassic strata of South Africa and India.

The quantity by which one quantity differs from another, or the remainder left after subtracting the one from the other. Ascensional difference. See under Ascensional.

tor used for dividing and distributing the current to a series of electric lamps so as to maintain equal action in all. Knight. Partial differential (Math.), the differential of a function of two or more variables, when only one of the variables receives an increment. -- Total differential (Math.), the differential of…

To step or turn aside; to deviate; to swerve; especially, to turn aside from the main subject of attention, or course of argument, in writing or speaking. Moreover she beginneth to digress in latitude. Holland. In the pursuit of an argument there is hardly room to digress into a particular definition as often as a man…

The act of digressing or deviating, esp. from the main subject of a discourse; hence, a part of a discourse deviating from its main design or subject. The digressions I can not excuse otherwise, than by the confidence that no man will read them. Sir W. Temple.

Pertaining to, or having the character of, a digression; departing from the main purpose or subject. T. Warton.

Departing from the main subject; partaking of the nature of digression. Johnson.

mples; to sink into depressions or little inequalities. And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. Dryden.

The theory which maintains that the primitive elements of language are reflex expressions induced by sensory impressions; that is, as stated by Max Müller, the creative faculty gave to each general conception as it thrilled for the first time through the brain a phonetic expression; -- jocosely so called from the analo…

A genus of large extinct Devonian ganoid fishes. In some parts of Ohio remains of the Dinichthys are abundant, indicating animals twenty feet in length.

stain the character of; to lessen the reputation of; as, the duelist dishonors himself to maintain his honor. Nothing . . . that may dishonor Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite. Milton.

ember from member; to tear or cut in pieces; to break up. Fowls obscene dismembered his remains. Pope. A society lacerated and dismembered. Gladstone. By whose hands the blow should be struck which would dismember that once mighty empire. Buckle.