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discussion. Debating society or club, a society or club for the purpose of debate and improvement in extemporaneous speaking.

To bring to a termination, as a question, controversy, struggle, by giving the victory to one side or party; to render judgment concerning; to determine; to settle. So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. 1 Kings xx. 40. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then. Shak.…

The act of deciding; act of settling or terminating, as a controversy, by giving judgment on the matter at issue; determination, as of a question or doubt; settlement; conclusion. The decision of some dispute. Atterbury.

Having the power or quality of deciding a question or controversy; putting an end to contest or controversy; final; conclusive. "A decisive, irrevocable doom." Bates. "Decisive campaign." Macaulay. "Decisive proof." Hallam.

A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process. Cowell.

To ward or fend off; to drive back or away; to repel. [A Latinism & Obs.] Th' other strove for to defend The force of Vulcan with his might and main. Spenser.

To fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end. "To define controversies." Barrow.

Capable of being demonstrated; that can be proved beyond doubt or question. The grand articles of our belief are as demonstrable as geometry. Glanvill.

In a demonstrable manner; incontrovertibly; clearly. Cases that demonstrably concerned the public cause. Clarendon.

To show, or make evident, by reasoning or proof; to prove by deduction; to establish so as to exclude the possibility of doubt or denial. We can not demonstrate these things so as to show that the contrary often involves a contradiction. Tillotson.

One who demonstrates; one who proves anything with certainty, or establishes it by indubitable evidence.

A matter depending, or in suspense, and still to be determined; ground of controversy or quarrel. [Obs.] To go on now with my first dependence. Beau. & Fl.

To lay aside; to rid one's self of. [Obs.] If what is written prove useful to you, to the depositing that which i can not deem an error. Hammond.

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.

ere phoilosophers may look upon fastidiously, or undervalue and depreciate. Cudworth. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself. Burke.

To prove or to refute by proof; to clear (one's self). [Obs.]

The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble. Grove. Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, as children make descant upon plain song. Tyndale. She [the nightingale] all night long her amorous descant sung. Milton.

; to demolish. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13.

The state of decision; a judicial decision, or ending of controversy.

To bring to a conclusion, as a question or controversy; to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide; as, the court has determined the cause.