Search the Dictionary

Nice; delicate;elegant, in form, manner, or breeding; well-formed; neat; tender. Those dainty limbs which nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy. Milton. Iwould be the girdle. About her dainty, dainty waist. Tennyson.

To render damp; to moisten; to make humid, or moderately wet; to dampen; as, to damp cloth.

To render dim; to deprive of vision. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Rom. xi. 10.

Dearly beloved; regarded with especial kindness and tenderness; favorite. "Some darling science." I. Watts. "Darling sin." Macaulay.

ning or expansion; first appearance; beginning; rise. "The dawn of time." Thomson. These tender circumstances diffuse a dawn of serenity over the soul. Pope.

ng of the day, or first appearance of light; the dawn; hence, the beginning. Milton. The tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. Luke i. 78.

To make deaf; to deprive of the power of hearing; to render incapable of perceiving sounds distinctly. Deafened and stunned with their promiscuous cries. Addison.

The act or process of rendering impervious to sound, as a floor or wall; also, the material with which the spaces are filled in this process; pugging.

Fondness; preciousness; love; tenderness. The dearness of friendship. Bacon.

Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. There came a dearth over all the land of Egypt. Acts vii. 11. He with her press'd, she faint with dearth. Shak. Dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination. Dryden.

on, as a question, controversy, struggle, by giving the victory to one side or party; to render judgment concerning; to determine; to settle. So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. 1 Kings xx. 40. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then. Shak.

The act of yielding; surrender. [R.] Sir M. Hale.

To render infamous; to bring into disrepute. My guilt thy growing virtues did defame; My blackness blotted thy unblemish'd name. Dryden.

A rendering null or void.

To render null and void, as a title; to frustrate, as hope; to deprive, as of an estate. He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes. Tillotson. The escheators . . . defeated the right heir of his succession. Hallam. In one instance he defeated his…

your defects to know, Make use of every friend -- any every foe. Pope. Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects. Macaulay.

One who defends; a defender. The rampiers and ditches which the defendants had cast up. Spotswood.

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

Defender. [Obs.] Foxe.

A defender. Fabyan.