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One who affects special finery or gives undue attention to dress; a fop; a coxcomb.

To fight out; to contest; to decide by combat. [Obs.] "To darrain the battle." Chaucer .

An arrangement to attain a desired result by a combination of interested parties; -- applied to stock speculations and political bargains. [Slang]

To engage in combat for; to strive for. Volunteers . . . thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain as on the plains of Palestine. Prescott.

to resolve into original elements; to set free from previously existing forms of chemical combination; to bring to dissolution; to rot or decay.

Repeated composition; a combination of compounds. [Obs.] Decomposition of forces. Same as Resolution of forces, under Resolution. -- Decomposition of light, the division of light into the prismatic colors.

Failure; miscarriage. [Obs.] Possibility of defailance in degree or continuance. Comber.

The act of defying, putting in opposition, or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat. A war without a just defiance made. Dryden. Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down. Tennyson.

xed; as, definite dimensions; a definite measure; a definite period or interval. Elements combine in definite proportions. Whewell.

Burning with a sudden and sparkling combustion, as niter; hence, slightly explosive; liable to snap and crackle when heated, as salt.

To burn with a sudden and sparkling combustion, as niter; also, to snap and crackle with slight explosions when heated, as salt.

A form of the voltaic battery having large plates, used for producing rapid and powerful combustion.

diaphragm in a furnace, or a come in a lamp (to deflect and mingle air and gases and help combustion).

To provoke to combat or strife; to call out to combat; to challenge; to dare; to brave; to set at defiance; to treat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion. I once again Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight. Milton. I defy t…

with suitable tackle for hoisting heavy weights, as stones in building. Derrick crane, a combination of the derrick and the crane, having facility for hoisting and also for swinging the load horizontally.

An explosion or sudden report made by the instantaneous decomposition or combustion of unstable substances' as, the detonation of gun cotton.

To form in the mind by new combinations of ideas, new applications of principles, or new arrangement of parts; to formulate by thought; to contrive; to excogitate; to invent; to plan; to scheme; as, to devise an engine, a new mode of writing, a plan of defense, or an argument. To devise curious works. Ex. CCTV. 32. Dev…

A drawing instrument, combining a protractor and scale.

roduced by a single object lens of crown glass is corrected by a smaller concave lens, or combination of lenses, of high dispersive power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the converging cone of rays, usually near the middle of the tube.

A prefix or combining form of Diamine.