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Evincing blaxk or foul traits of character; vile; wicked; atrocious; as, a dark villain; a dark deed. Left him at large to his own dark designs. Milton.

Wanting in religious spirit and vitality; as, dead faith; dead works. "Dead in trespasses." Eph. ii. 1.

The outward opening of a river, of a valley, or of a strait.

ainst; as, victory declares against the allies. Like fawning courtiers, for success they wait, And then come smiling, and declare for fate. Dryden.

a snare; a lure that deceives and misleads into danger, or into the power of an enemy; a bait.

Lying down; prostrate; recumbent. The decumbent portraiture of a woman. Ashmole.

A female defender. [R.] Defendress of the faith. Stow.

To put off; to delay to act; to wait. Pius was able to defer and temporize at leisure. J. A. Symonds.

To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

y pleasing; delightful. "Delightsome vigor." Grew. Ye shall be a delightsome land, . . . saith the Lord. Mal. iii. 12. -- De*light"some*ly, adv. -- De*light"some*ness, n.

March; walk; gait. [Obs.]

h praise and blame. [Obs.] If I have demerited any love or thanks. Udall. Executed as a traitor . . . as he well demerited. State Trials (1645).

One who denies; as, a denier of a fact, or of the faith, or of Christ.

An unfolding, untwisting, or unplaiting. [Obs.] W. Montagu.

Lost; adrift; hence, wanting; careless; neglectful; unfaithful. They easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his [Chatham's] friends; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy. Burke. A government which is either unable or unwilling to redres…

A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species. Milton has descriptions of morning. D. Webster.

an immense domain of which they had been despoiled. Macaulay. Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. Milton.

om worldly objects; renunciation. A trial which would have demanded of him a most heroic faith and the detachment of a saint. J. H. Newman.

A war horse; a destrer. [Obs.] "By him baiteth his dextrer." Chaucer.

he curve which on a given surface and with a given perimeter contains the greatest area. Tait.