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an army to pieces. -- To cut a play (Drama), to shorten it by leaving out passages, to adapt it for the stage. -- To cut rates (Railroads, etc.), to reduce the charges for transportation below the rates established between competing lines. -- To cut short, to arrest or check abruptly; to bring to a sudden terminatio…

Adapted to cut; as, a cutting tool.

ect is increased by putting, in the space between the spectator and the picture, things adapted to the scene represented, and in some places only parts of these objects, the completion of them being carried out pictorially.

Having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling; captious; currish. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received. Johnson.

licacy; deliciousness; fastidiousness; squeamishness. The daintiness and niceness of our captains Hakluyt. More notorious for the daintiness of the provision . . . than for the massiveness of the dish. Hakewill. The duke exeeded in the daintiness of his leg and foot, and the earl in the fine shape of his hands, Sir H.…

caper; to frisk; to skip about. Then, 'tis time to dance off. Thackeray. More dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw. Shak. Shadows in the glassy waters dance. Byron. Where rivulets dance their wayward round. Wordsworth. To dance on a rope, or To dance on nothing, to be hanged.…

To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle. [Obs.] Captains do so dandle their doings, and dally in the service, as it they would not have the enemy subdued. Spenser.

al dignitary, subordinate to a bishop. Dean of cathedral church, the chief officer of a chapter; he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its estates. -- Dean of peculiars, a dean holding a preferment which has some peculiarity relative to spiritual sup…

The power or habit of deceiving; tendency or aptness to deceive.

To sever from the neck; to behead; to decapitate. The decollated head of St. John the Baptist. Burke.

beheading or state of one beheaded; -- especially used of the execution of St. John the Baptist.

Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [Archaic or Poetic] "The deftest way." Shak. "Deftest feats." Gay. The limping god, do deft at his new ministry. Dryden. Let me be deft and debonair. Byron.

Aptly; fitly; dexterously; neatly. "Deftly dancing." Drayton. Thyself and office deftly show. Shak.

Adapted to destroy or obliterate. [R.] Evelyn.

Pleasing to the senses; refinedly; hence, adapted to please a nice or cultivated taste; nice; fine; elegant; as, a delicate dish; delicate flavor.

rescue from evil actual or feared; -- often with from or out of; as, to deliver one from captivity, or from fear of death. He that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. Ezek. xxxiii. 5. Promise was that I Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver. Milton.

The act of delivering or freeing from restraint, captivity, peril, and the like; rescue; as, the deliverance of a captive. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Luke iv. 18. One death or one deliverance we will share. Dryden.

The act of delivering from restraint; rescue; release; liberation; as, the delivery of a captive from his dungeon.

Apt or fitted to delude; tending to mislead the mind; deceptive; beguiling; delusory; as, delusive arts; a delusive dream. Delusive and unsubstantial ideas. Whewell. -- De*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- De*lu"sive*ness, n.

One of a sect of Anabaptists who maintain that the demons or devils will finally be saved.