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To divide; to separate in portions; hence, to give in portions; to distribute; to bestow successively; -- sometimes with out. Is not to deal thy bread to the hungry Is. lviii. 7. And Rome deals out her blessings and her gold. Tickell. The nightly mallet deals resounding blows. Gay. Hissing through the skies, the feathe…

ratio of the number of deaths to the population. At all ages the death rate is higher in towns than in rural districts. Darwin. -- Death rattle, a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a dying person. -- Death's door, the boundary of life; the partition dividing life from death. -- Death stroke, a stroke causing dea…

Toward death.

strength, soundness, prosperity, or of any species of excellence or perfection; tendency toward dissolution or extinction; corruption; rottenness; decline; deterioration; as, the decay of the body; the decay of virtue; the decay of the Roman empire; a castle in decay. Perhaps my God, though he be far before, May turn,…

A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. Shak.

ing or refusing; withdrawal; refusal; averseness. The queen's declination from marriage. Stow.

To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. An…

or to be worn upon the person, as a medal, cross, or ribbon of an order of knighthood, bestowed for services in war, great achievements in literature, art, etc. Decoration Day, a day, May 30, appointed for decorating with flowers the graves of the Union soldiers and sailors, who fell in the Civil War in the United Stat…

A crescent with the horns directed towards the sinister. Cussans.

to be guilty of neglect of; to omit; as, to default a dividend. What they have defaulted towards him as no king. Milton.

inst; attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies. The lord mayor craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God…

A female defender. [R.] Defendress of the faith. Stow.

A deviation of the rays of light toward the surface of an opaque body; inflection; diffraction.

To condescend to give or bestow; to stoop to furnish; to vouchsafe; to allow; to grant. Nor would we deign him burial of his men. Shak.

ives, for his delicate life, to the devil went. Piers Plowman. Haarlem is a very delicate town. Evelyn.

A territorial subdivision of Attica (also of modern Greece), corresponding to a township. Jowett (Thucyd).

To transfer or transmit by succession or inheritance; to grant or bestow by will; to bequeath. "Power to demise my lands." Swift. What honor Canst thou demise to any child of mine Shak.

One who, or that which, demolishes; as, a demolisher of towns.

throw; -- opposed to construction; as, the demolition of a house, of military works, of a town, or of hopes.

id your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief Shak. Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. Prescott.