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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



1,026 words match “DIAN”

DERELICT a.
Given up or forsaken by the natural owner or guardian; left and abandoned; as, derelict lands. The affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion. Jer. Taylor.
DEVIATION n.
f the compass, the angle which the needle of a ship's compass makes with the magnetic meridian by reason of the magnetism of the iron parts of the ship. -- Deviation of the line of the vertical, the difference between the actual direction of a plumb line and the direction it would have if the earth were a perfect elli…
DEWAR VESSEL n.
nt conduction of heat, and sometimes having the glass silvered to prevent absorption of radiant heat; -- called also, according to the particular shape, Dewar bulb, Dewar tube, etc.
DHOORRA; DHOURRA; DHURRA n.
Indian millet. See Durra.
DHOW n.
A coasting vessel of Arabia, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean. It has generally but one mast and a lateen sail. [Also written dow.]
DIAL n.
A miner's compass. Dial bird (Zoöl.), an Indian bird (Copsychus saularius), allied to the European robin. The name is also given to other related species. -- Dial lock, a lock provided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock…
DIATHERMAL a.
Freely permeable by radiant heat.
DIATHERMANCY; DIATHERMANEITY n.
The property of transmitting radiant heat; the quality of being diathermous. Melloni.
DIATHERMANISM n.
The doctrine or the phenomena of the transmission of radiant heat. Nichol.
DIATHERMANOUS a.
Having the property of transmitting radiant heat; diathermal; - - opposed to athermanous.
DIGGERS n.
A degraded tribe of California Indians; -- so called from their practice of digging roots for food.
DIPLEIDOSCOPE n.
ving in opposite directions, and coinciding at the instant the sun's center is on the meridian.
DIRT n.
rt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) (Med.) Same as Chthonophagia. -- Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. Otway (1684). -- To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie.…
DISENNOBLE v.
that which ennobles; to degrade. An unworthy behavior degrades and disennobles a man. Guardian.
DISINCLINATION n.
inclination to the fair sex. Arbuthnot. Having a disinclination to books or business. Guardian.
DISTANT a.
ing space; at a distance; away. One board had two tenons, equally distant. Ex. xxxvi. 22. Diana's temple is not distant far. Shak.
DOMINE n.
A West Indian fish (Epinula magistralis), of the family Trichiuridæ. It is a long-bodied, voracious fish.
DRIFT n.
The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
DRUMMER n.
A large West Indian cockroach (Blatta gigantea) which drums on woodwork, as a sexual call.
DUGONG n.
order Sirenia, allied to the manatee, but with a bilobed tail. It inhabits the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, East Indies, and Australia. [Written also duyong.]
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