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A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man. [Obs.] One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel. Bacon.

Like a doctor or learned man. [Obs.] "Doctorly prelates." Foxe.

That which is taught or authoritatively set forth; precept; instruction; dogma. [Obs.] Learners should not be too much crowded with a heap or multitude of documents or ideas at one time. I. Watts.

iminating opinion or judgment; discrimination; discernment; decision. [Obs.] And there he learned of things and haps to come, To give foreknowledge true, and certain doom. Fairfax.

pherical aberration and chromatic dispersion, thus rendering the image of an object more clear and distinct. W. H. Wollaston.

Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like. Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good. Shak. Is it a great cruelty to expel from our abode the enemy of our peace, or even the doubtfu…

son. And that drags down his life. Tennyson. There is not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a man who has written himself down. Addison. The French . . . shone down [i. e., outshone] the English. Shak.

rmed force, usually of dragoons; hence, a rapid and devastating incursion; dragoonade. He learnt it as he watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the Netherlands. C. Kingsley.

To clear, by forcing away what is contained. To drive the country, force the swains away. Dryden.

sluggard. By living as a drone,to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society. Burton.

od humor by a vast system of public spectacles. C. Kingsley. Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it. Tennyson.

Dock. -- Dry fat. See Dry vat (below). -- Dry light, pure unobstructed light; hence, a clear, impartial view. Bacon. The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and color the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects. J. C. Shairp. -- Dry mas…

Occasioning doubt; not clear, or obvious; equivocal; questionable; doubtful; as, a dubious answer. Wiping the dingy shirt with a still more dubious pocket handkerchief. Thackeray.

To drop the head or person suddenly; to bow. The learned pate Ducks to the golden fool. Shak.

tanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. "Dull at classical learning." Thackeray. She is not bred so dull but she can learn. Shak.

Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.] Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color. De Foe. Deaf and dumb. See Deaf-mute. -- Dumb ague, or Dumb chill, a form of intermittent fever which has no well-defined "chill." [U.S.] -- Dumb animal, any animal except man; -- usually restricted to a domestic quad…

One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt. I never knew this town without dunces of figure. Swift.

To stand under the eaves, near a window or at the door, of a house, to listen and learn what is said within doors; hence, to listen secretly to what is said in private. To eavesdrop in disguises. Milton.

The clear, viscid fluid secreted by the poison glands of certain serpents; also, a nitrogenous base contained in this, and supposed to be the active poisonous principle of the virus. Brande & C.

To make clear; to clear up what is obscure or not understood; to explain.