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To disentangle; to free from perplexity; to extricate from confusion. Vaillant has disembroiled a history that was lost to the world before his time. Addison.

To extricate from complication and perplexity; disengage from embarrassing connection or intermixture; to disembroil; to set free; to separate. To disentangle truth from error. Stewart. To extricate and disentangle themselves out of this labyrinth. Clarendon. A mind free and disentangled from all corporeal mixtures. Bp…

y distilling. Shak. Destructive distillation (Chem.), the distillation, especially of complex solid substances, so that the ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new compounds, -- usually requiring a high degree of heat; as, the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood. -- Dry distillation, the dis…

To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse; as, to distract the eye; to distract the attention. Mixed metaphors . . . distract the imagination. Goldsmith.

State in which the attention is called in different ways; confusion; perplexity. That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. 1 Cor. vii. 3

Causing perplexity; distracting. "Distractive thoughts." Bp. Hall.

Distracted; perplexed. "Distraught twixt fear and pity." Spenser. As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror. Shak. To doubt betwixt our senses and our souls Which are the most distraught and full of pain. Mrs. Browning.

Confusion of the mind; agitation of the feelings; perplexity; uneasiness. Any man . . . in a state of disturbance and irritation. Burke.

One of a series of complex nitrogenous substances regarded as containing two molecules of urea or their radicals, as uric acid or allantoin. Cf. Ureide.

s. The extremity of a cusp is also a double point. -- Double quarrel. (Eccl. Law) See Duplex querela, under Duplex. -- Double refraction. (Opt.) See Refraction. -- Double salt. (Chem.) (a) A mixed salt of any polybasic acid which has been saturated by different bases or basic radicals, as the double carbonate of sod…

(Paleon.) The reflexed margin of the trilobite carapace.

Like dough; soft and heavy; pasty; crude; flabby and pale; as, a doughy complexion.

Hard; inflexible; obstinate; sour in aspect; hardy; bold. [Scot.] A dour wife, a sour old carlin. C. Reade.

O my dove, . . . let me hear thy voice. Cant. ii. 14. Dove tick (Zoöl.), a mite (Argas reflexus) which infests doves and other birds. -- Soiled dove, a prostitute. [Slang]

To fit in or connect strongly, skillfully, or nicely; to fit ingeniously or complexly. He put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed . . . that it was indeed a very curious show. Burke.

am. The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. Tennyson. A needless Alexandrine ends the song That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Pope.

inary in their nature, and consist of two distinct constituents, themselves simple or complex, and possessed of opposite chemical or electrical affinities.

Brittle; inflexible; not ductile. [Obs.] Gold will be sometimes so eager, as artists call it, that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself. Locke.

e. -- Ear finger, the little finger. -- Ear of Dionysius, a kind of ear trumpet with a flexible tube; -- named from the Sicilian tyrant, who constructed a device to overhear the prisoners in his dungeons. -- Ear sand (Anat.), otoliths. See Otolith. -- Ear snail (Zoöl.), any snail of the genus Auricula and allied ge…

The esculent tubers of the umbelliferous plants Bunium flexuosum and Carum Bulbocastanum.