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The act of distraining; the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrongdoer, by way of pledge for redress of an injury, or for the performance of a duty, as for nonpayment of rent or taxes, or for injury done by cattle, etc.

Fig.: To strip; to deprive; to dispossess; as, to divest one of his rights or privileges; to divest one's self of prejudices, passions, etc. Wretches divested of every moral feeling. Goldsmith. The tendency of the language to divest itself of its gutturals. Earle.

f stripping, or depriving; the state of being divested; the deprivation, or surrender, of possession of property, rights, etc.

The territory over which dominion or authority is exerted; the possessions of a sovereign or commonwealth, or the like. Also used figuratively. The domain of authentic history. E. Everett. The domain over which the poetic spirit ranges. J. C. Shairp.

ereign or supreme authority; the power of governing and controlling; independent right of possession, use, and control; sovereignty; supremacy. I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. Dan. iv. 34. To choose between dominion or slavery. Jowett (Thucyd. ).…

each other. Conjugate or isolated points of a curve are called double points, since they possess most of the properties of double points (see Conjugate). They are also called acnodes, and those points where the branches of the curve really cross are called crunodes. The extremity of a cusp is also a double point. --…

The possession of dovelike qualities, harmlessness and innocence. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

Open; artless; undisguised; absolute; unmixed; as, downright atheism. The downright impossibilities charged upon it. South. Gloomy fancies which in her amounted to downright insanity. Prescott. -- Down"right`ly, adv. -- Down"right`ness, n.

relating to the mere right of property, as distinguished from the right of possession; as, droitural actions. [Obs.] Burrill.

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

ement or thing. [R.] Men often swallow falsities for truths, dubiosities for certainties, possibilities for feasibilities. Sir T. Browne.

or a time; to live in a place; to reside. The parish in which I was born, dwell, and have possessions. Peacham. The poor man dwells in a humble cottage near the hall where the lord of the domain resides. C. J. Smith. To dwell in, to abide in (a place); hence, to depend on. "My hopes in heaven to dwell." Shak. -- To dw…

The jurisdiction of an earl; the territorial possessions of an earl.

Of all things on earth; possible; conceivable. What earthly benefit can be the result Pope.

Possessing the quality of being effective; productive of, or powerful to produce, the effect intended; as, an efficacious law.

A kind of posset made of eggs, brandy, sugar, and ale. Lamb.

To cast out; to evict; to dispossess; as, to eject tenants from an estate.

The state of being ejected or cast out; dispossession; banishment.

A casting out; a dispossession; an expulsion; ejection; as, the ejectment of tenants from their homes.

One who, or that which, ejects or dispossesses.