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A grass with leaves having edges furnished with very minute hooked prickles, which form a cutting edge; one or more species of Leersia.

A kind of coccolith, which in shape resembles a minute cup widened at the top, and varies in size from

A genus of minute Entomostraca, found both in fresh and salt water. See Copepoda.

e writing or drawing is done with a style carrying a small wheel at the end which makes minute punctures in the paper, thus converting it into a stencil. Copies are transferred with an inked roller.

A minute vesicle in a red seaweed, which contains the reproductive spores.

Diminutive of Dad. Dryden.

Hateful; detestable; abominable. But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who doats, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves. Shak.

A genus of diminutive Shrubs, mostly evergreen, and with fragrant blossoms.

Decayed; tasteless; dead; as, a deaf nut; deaf corn. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deaf, void, light, and naught. Holland. Deaf and dumb, without the sense of hearing or the faculty of speech. See Deaf-mute.…

A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion. Their fathers lived in the decline of literature. Swift.…

A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.

The state of becoming gradually less; decrease; diminution; waste; loss. Twit me with the decrements of my pendants. Ford. Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement. Woodward.

Becoming less by gradual diminution; decreasing; as, a decrescent moon.

A lopping off; a diminution; abatement; deficit. Specifically: Reduction of a claim by deducting a counterclaim; set-off. Abbott.

Definiteness. [R.] Definitude . . . is a knowledge of minute differences. Sir W. Hamilton.

putation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.

ken as the principal unit of measure for arcs and angles. The degree is divided into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.

Fine or slender; minute; not coarse; -- said of a thread, or the like; as, delicate cotton.

ent in lines, as with the pen, pencil, or graver; hence, to represent with accuracy and minuteness. See Delineation. Adventurous to delineate nature's form. Akenside.

s of lines, as distinguished from representation by means of tints shades; accurate and minute representation, as distinguished from art that is careless of details, or subordinates them excessively.