Search the Dictionary

To diversify in external appearance; to mark with different colors; to dapple; to streak; as, to variegate a floor with marble of different colors. The shells are filled with a white spar, which variegates and adds to the beauty of the stone. Woodward.

The act of variegating or diversifying, or the state of being diversified, by different colors; diversity of colors.

The quality or state of being various; intermixture or succession of different things; diversity; multifariousness. Variety is nothing else but a continued novelty. South. The variety of colors depends upon the composition of light. Sir I. Newton. For earth this variety from heaven. Milton. There is a variety in the te…

Different; diverse; several; manifold; as, men of various names; various occupations; various colors. So many and so various laws are given. Milton. A wit as various, gay, grave, sage, or wild. Byron.

To make of different kinds; to make different from one another; to diversity; to variegate. God hath varied their inclinations. Sir T. Browne. God hath here Varied his bounty so with new delights. Milton.

ers interwoven and soldered together so as to form a firm network, and has long, slender, divergent anchoring fibers at the base by means of which it stands erect in the soft mud at the bottom of the sea. Called also Venus's flower basket, and Venus's purse. -- Venus's comb. (a) (Bot.) Same as Lady's comb. (b) (Zoöl.)…

The reciprocal of the focal distance of a lens, used as measure of the divergence or convergence of a pencil of rays. [R.] Humphrey Lloyd.

species of geometrid moths which feed on the leaves of the grapevine, especially Cidaria diversilineata. -- Vine-leaf rooer (Zoöl.), a small moth (Desmia maculalis) whose larva makes a nest by rolling up the leaves of the grapevine. The moth is brownish black, spotted with white. -- Vine louse (Zoöl.), the phylloxer…

equal to zero. -- Virtual focus (Opt.), the point from which rays, having been rendered divergent by reflection of refraction, appear to issue; the point at which converging rays would meet if not reflected or refracted before they reach it. -- Virtual image. (Optics) See under Image. -- Virtual moment (of a force)…

Having no incumbent; unoccupied; -- said of offices and the like. Divers great offices that had been long void. Camden.

Dryden. I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy. Addison. We are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects, and warp the understandings, of men. Southey.

wet and calender, as cloth, so as to impart to it a lustrous appearance in wavy lines; to diversify with wavelike lines; as, to water silk. Cf. Water, n., 6.

be equivalent to in weight; to counterbalance; to have the heaviness of. "A body weighing divers ounces." Boyle.

than two leaves, which are the cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging segments.

m, nigh overspent, Shall breathe itself awhile after so long a went. Spenser. He knew the diverse went of mortal ways. Spenser.

e about with great celerity in a gyrating, or circular, manner, but they are also able to dive and swim rapidly. The larva is aquatic. Called also weaver, whirlwig, and whirlwig beetle.

To draw or turn away, as by diversion; to while or while away; to cause to pass pleasantly. Tennyson.

ly adapted to the subject. Dryden. Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in general diversity. Coleridge. Wit lying most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures in the fancy. Locke.…

worst is not So long as we can say, This is the worst. Shak. He is always sure of finding diversion when the worst comes to the worst. Addison.

The California poison oak (Rhus diversiloba). See under Poison, a.