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The act of deviating; a wandering from the way; variation from the common way, from an established rule, etc.; departure, as from the right course or the path of duty.

Going out of the right or common course; going astray; erring; wandering; as, a devious step.

To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily, selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use up; to waste; to annihilate. Famine and pestilence shall devour him. Ezek. vii. 15. I waste my life and do my days devour. Spenser.

r at the thought. To die by the roadside of grief and hunger. Macaulay. She will die from want of care. Tennyson.

A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed. To fast like one that takes diet. Shak. Diet kitchen, a kitchen in which diet is prepared for invalids; a charitable establishment that provides proper food for the sick poor.

A rule of diet; a fixed allowance of food, as in workhouse, prison, etc.

The state of being diffident; distrust; want of confidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others. [Archaic] That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence of God's mercy. Donne.

Wanting confidence in others; distrustful. [Archaic] You were always extremely diffident of their success. Melmoth.

Irregularity of form; diversity of form; want of uniformity. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

usive or diffuse; extensiveness; expansion; dispersion. Especially of style: Diffuseness; want of conciseness; prolixity. The fault that I find with a modern legend, it its diffusiveness. Addison.

Not bright or distinct; wanting luminousness or clearness; obscure in luster or sound; dusky; darkish; obscure; indistinct; overcast; tarnished. The dim magnificence of poetry. Whewell. How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, T…

Dullness, or want of clearness, of vision or of intellectual perception. Dr. H. More.

State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like. Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted. Milton. Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability. Bancroft.

State of being disaffected; alienation or want of affection or good will, esp. toward those in authority; unfriendliness; dislike. In the making laws, princes must have regard to . . . the affections and disaffections of the people. Jer. Taylor.

Want of array or regular order; disorder; confusion. Disrank the troops, set all in disarray. Daniel.

Want of as siduity or care. [R.] Sir H. Wotton.

ntal vision; acuteness; sagacity; insight; as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment.

Want of comfort; uneasiness, mental or physical; disturbance of peace; inquietude; pain; distress; sorrow. "An age of spiritual discomfort." M. Arnold. Strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings. Bp. Hall.

Want of concert; disagreement. Sir W. Temple.

Want of conformity or correspondence; inconsistency; disagreement. Those . . . in some disconformity to ourselves. Milton. Disagreement and disconformity betwixt the speech and the conception of the mind. Hakewill.