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Natural or prevailing spirit, or temperament of mind, especially as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men; temper of mind. "A man of turbulent disposition." Hallam. "He is of a very melancholy disposition." Shak. His disposition led him to do things agreeable to his quality and condition wherein God had placed him…

To discourse or dispute; to discuss. [R.] We have disserted upon it a little longer than was necessary. Jeffrey.

To deal in dissertation; to write dissertations; to discourse. [R.] J. Foster.

A formal or elaborate argumentative discourse, oral or written; a disquisition; an essay; a discussion; as, Dissertations on the Prophecies.

One who writers a dissertation; one who discourses. Boyle.

A dissolute course of life, in which health, money, etc., are squandered in pursuit of pleasure; profuseness in vicious indulgence, as late hours, riotous living, etc.; dissoluteness. To reclaim the spendthrift from his dissipation and extravagance. P. Henry.

To advise or exhort against; to try to persuade (one from a course). [Obsolescent] Mr. Burchell, on the contrary, dissuaded her with great ardor: and I stood neuter. Goldsmith. War, therefore, open or concealed, alike My voice dissuades. Milton.

A space marked out in the last part of a race course. The horse that ran the whole field out of distance. L'Estrange.

sgust; to displease. [Obs.] He thought in no policy to distaste the English or Irish by a course of reformation, but sought to please them. Sir J. Davies.

To turn from a regular or designed course. [Obs.] And disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. Milton.

An interruption of a state of peace or quiet; derangement of the regular course of things; disquiet; disorder; as, a disturbance of religious exercises; a disturbance of the galvanic current.

The act of turning aside from any course, occupation, or object; as, the diversion of a stream from its channel; diversion of the mind from business.

To turn aside; to turn off from any course or intended application; to deflect; as, to divert a river from its channel; to divert commerce from its usual course. That crude apple that diverted Eve. Milton.

A course of notes so running into each other as to form one series or chain, to be sung in one breath to one syllable.

do with themselves." Tillotson. -- To have to do with, to have concern, business or intercourse with; to deal with. When preceded by what, the notion is usually implied that the affair does not concern the person denoted by the subject of have. "Philology has to do with language in its fullest sense." Earle. "What hav…

Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. You take me in too dolorous a sense; I spake to you for your comfort. Shak.

One of two or more words in the same language derived by different courses from the same original from; as, crypt and grot are doublets; also, guard and ward; yard and garden; abridge and abbreviate, etc.

From a higher place to a lower; in a descending course; as, to tend, move, roll, look, or take root, downward or downwards. "Looking downwards." Pope. Their heads they downward bent. Drayton.

That means of which anything is drained; a channel; a trench; a water course; a sewer; a sink.

invested with a dramatic unity and interest. "The drama of war." Thackeray. Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last. Berkeley. The drama and contrivances of God's providence. Sharp.…