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Steady in purpose; constant; firm in resolution; not easily diverted from a purpose; not fickle or wavering; as, a man of stable character. And to her husband ever meek and stable. Chaucer.

A natural spot of a color different from the gound. Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains. Pope.

a sea duck (Tachyeres cinereus), native of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego, which swims and dives with great agility, but which, when full grown, is incapable of flight, owing to its very small wings. Called also loggerhead, race horse, and side wheel duck.

er. One of the strange queen's lords. Shak. I do not contemn the knowledge of strange and divers tongues. Ascham.

To divest of clothing; to uncover. Before the folk herself strippeth she. Chaucer. Strip your sword stark naked. Shak.

ich air for breathing is pumped through a tube leading from above the surface to enable a diver to remain under water. -- Submarine cable. See Telegraph cable, under Telegraph. -- Submarine mine. See Torpedo, 2 (a).

A shoot from the roots or lower part of the stem of a plant; -- so called, perhaps, from diverting nourishment from the body of the plant.

Several; divers; more than one or two; various. "Sundry wines." Chaucer. "Sundry weighty reasons." Shak. With many a sound of sundry melody. Chaucer. Sundry foes the rural realm surround. Dryden.

A spring; a fountain. [Obs.] "Divers surges and springs of water." Ld. Berners.

within itself structural or other characters which are usually found only in two or more diverse groups; -- said of species, genera, and higher groups. See the Note under Comprehensive,

A third somewhat; something mediating, or regarded as being, between two diverse or incompatible substances, natures, or positions.

Diversified by squares; done in mosaic; tessellated. [Obs.] Sir R. Atkyns (1712).

A genus of tortoises which formerly included a large number of diverse forms, but is now restricted to certain terrestrial species, such as the European land tortoise (Testudo Græca) and the gopher of the Southern United States.

A large African antelope (Alcejaphus tora). It has widely divergent, strongly ringed horns.

A division of Spongiæ in which the spicules are siliceous and have four branches diverging at right angles. Called also Tetractinellinæ.

Having four branches diverging at right angles; -- said of certain spicules of sponges.

A phylum of plants of very diverse habit and structure, including the algæ, fungi, and lichens. The simpler forms, as many blue-green algæ, yeasts, etc., are unicellular and reproduce vegetatively or by means of asexual spores; in the higher forms the plant body is a thallus, which may be filamentous or may consist of…

ressing comparison, used after certain adjectives and adverbs which express comparison or diversity, as more, better, other, otherwise, and the like. It is usually followed by the object compared in the nominative case. Sometimes, however, the object compared is placed in the objective case, and than is then considered…

To divest or strip one's self of; to put off. There the snake throws her enameled skin. Shak.

; as, the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Heb. i. 1.