Search the Dictionary

To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and recognize; as, to discern a difference. And [I] beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. Prov. vii. 7. Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to discern the minute texture of visible objects. Beattie…

Capable of being discerned by the eye or the understanding; as, a star is discernible by the eye; the identity of difference of ideas is discernible by the understanding. The effect of the privations and sufferings . . . was discernible to the last in his temper and deportment. Macaulay.

Difficult situation; dilemma; strait. [Obs.] "I stand in such disjoint." Chaucer.

Conscious inclination; propension or propensity. How stands your disposition to be married Shak.

s deformity in the body; the studies of youth should not be disproportional to their understanding.

ith of the observer. It is the complement of the altitude. -- To keep one's distance, to stand aloof; to refrain from familiarity. If a man makes keep my distance, the comfort is he keeps his at the same time. Swift.

e mentally or morally. Wrath and malice, envy and revenge, do darken and distort the understandings of men. Tillotson.

sal in one premise. A term is said to be distributed when it is taken universal, so as to stand for everything it is capable of being applied to. Whately.

Deprived of wits or understanding; distracted. [Obs.] Drayton.

hostile; to set at variance. If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can not stand. Mark iii. 24. Every family became now divided within itself. Prescott.

to give the vertigo to; to confuse. If the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thy understanding. Sir W. Scott.

indicative, it may be used with the verb to be; as, do be quiet. Do, did, and done often stand as a general substitute or representative verb, and thus save the repetition of the principal verb. "To live and die is all we have to do." Denham. In the case of do and did as auxiliaries, the sense may be completed by the…

The place in court where a criminal or accused person stands. Balance dock, a kind of floating dock which is kept level by pumping water out of, or letting it into, the compartments of side chambers. -- Dry dock, a dock from which the water may be shut or pumped out, especially, one in the form of a chamber having wal…

mini). The first seven letters of the alphabet are used for this purpose, the same letter standing for Sunday during a whole year (except in leap year, when the letter is changed at the end of February). After twenty-eight years the same letters return in the same order. The dominical letters go backwards one day every…

ite number of times. Derived from an entertainment using dominoes arranged in a row, each standing on edge and therefore easily knocked over; when the first is made to fall against the next, it starts a sequence which ends when all have fallen. For amusement, people have arranged such sequences involving thousands of d…

Feebleness or imbecility of understanding or mind, particularly in old age; the childishness of old age; senility; as, a venerable man, now in his dotage. Capable of distinguishing between the infancy and the dotage of Greek literature. Macaulay.

One who dotes; a man whose understanding is enfeebled by age; a dotard. Burton.

the sulphate of potassium or ammonium. -- Double shuffle, a low, noisy dance. -- Double standard (Polit. Econ.), a double standard of monetary values; i. e., a gold standard and a silver standard, both of which are made legal tender. -- Double star (Astron.), two stars so near to each other as to be seen separate on…

Suspicion; fear; apprehension; dread. [Obs.] I stand in doubt of you. Gal. iv. 20. Nor slack her threatful hand for danger's doubt. Spenser.

perfectly baked; hence, not brought to perfection; unfinished; also, of weak or dull understanding. [Colloq.] Halliwell.