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agated curse. Milton. The curse of Scotland (Card Playing), the nine of diamonds. -- Not worth a curse. See under Cress.

y a wife to her husband within the bed curtains, or in bed. Jerrold. A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. W. Irving. -- The curtain falls, the performance closes. -- The curtain rises, the performance begins. -- To draw the curtain, to close…

See Costrel. [Obs.] Ainsworth.

erest or self-indulgence, and that appearances to the contrary are superficial and untrustworthy. He could obtain from one morose cynic, whose opinion it was impossible to despise, scarcely any not acidulated with scorn. Macaulay.

water, as with the hands; to paddle or splash in mud or water. Wher the duck dabbles Wordsworth.

Shadows in the glassy waters dance. Byron. Where rivulets dance their wayward round. Wordsworth. To dance on a rope, or To dance on nothing, to be hanged.

Defiance; challenge. Childish, unworthy dares Are not enought to part our powers. Chapman. Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Cæsar. Shak.

To reduce from a higher to a lower state or grade of worth, dignity, purity, station, etc.; to degrade; to lower; to deteriorate; to abase; as, to debase the character by crime; to debase the mind by frivolity; to debase style by vulgar words. The coin which was adulterated and debased. Hale. It is a kind of taking God…

ke away as if by deception. These occupations oftentimes deceived The listless hour. Wordsworth.

Destruction; -- opposed to creation. [R.] Cudworth.

To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean, or worthless; to clamor against; to blame clamorously; to discredit; to disparage. For small errors they whole plays decry. Dryden. Measures which are extolled by one half of the kingdom are naturally decried by the other. Addison.

Having become worse than one's kind, or one's former state; having declined in worth; having lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low. Faint-hearted and degenerate king. Shak. A degenerate and degraded state. Milton. Degenerate from their ancient blood. Swift. These degenerate days. Pope. I had pla…

In a degenerate manner; unworthily.

To render godlike. By our own spirits are we deified. Wordsworth.

To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain. [Obs.] I fear my Julia would not deign my lines. Shak.

Of or pertaining to a demon. [Obs.] Cudworth.

rals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. Bancroft.…

value of about fourteen cents; the "penny" of the New Testament; -- so called from being worth originally ten of the pieces called as.

Worthy of being depended on; trustworthy. "Dependable friendships." Pope.

Worthy of being deplored or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.