Search the Dictionary

te, but competent; sufficient; hence, respectable; fairly good; reasonably comfortable or satisfying; as, a decent fortune; a decent person. A decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs. Burke. -- De"cent*ly, adv. -- De"cent*ness, n.

To avert or appease, as by paying off; to satisfy; as, to defray wrath. [Obs.] Spenser.

of indeterminate analysis which has for its object the discovery of rational values that satisfy given equations containing squares or cubes; as, for example, to find values of x and y which make x2 + y2 an exact square.

To deprive if content; to make uneasy; to dissatisfy. Suckling.

Causing discontent; dissatisfying. Milton.

To dissatisfy; to disaffect; to anger. [Colloq.]

To fail to satisfy; to miss of. [Obs.] I shall displease my ends else. Beau. & Fl.

defendant's goods are appraised and delivered to the plaintiff, and, if no sufficient to satisfy the debt, all of his lands are delivered, to be held till the debt is paid by the rents and profits, or until the defendant's interest has expired.

Want of solidity or substance; unsatisfactoriness; inability to satisfy desire; vacuity; hollowness; the emptiness of earthly glory.

Unable to satisfy; unsatisfactory; hollow; vain; -- said of pleasure, the world, etc. Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise. Pope.

Without profitable end; fruitless; unsatisfying. [R.] "All loves are endless." Beau. & Fl.

Satisfying desire; giving content; adequate to meet the want; sufficient; -- usually, and more elegantly, following the noun to which it belongs. How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare! Luke xv. 17.

Of delicate perception or close and accurate discrimination; not easy to satisfy; exact; nice; fastidious; as, exquisite judgment, taste, or discernment. His books of Oriental languages, wherein he was exquisite. Fuller.

Filling or satisfying the eye; visible; remarkable. [Obs.] "Eyeful trophies." Chapman.

Serving to disappoint or deceive; delusive; unsatisfying. "Yonder faithless phantom." Goldsmith. -- Faith"less*ly, adv.Faith"less*ness, n.

To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of. If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Rom. xii. 20. Unreasonable reatures feed their young. Shak.

To fill or supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy. Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fillso great a multitude Matt. xv. 33. Things that are sweet and fat are more filling. Bacon.

To fill to satiety; to satisfy fully the desire or craving of; to satiate; to sate; to cloy. His faithful heart, a bloody sacrifice, Torn from his breast, to glut the tyrant's eyes. Dryden. The realms of nature and of art were ransacked to glut the wonder, lust, and ferocity of a degraded populace. C. Kingsley. To glut…

To please; to give pleasure to; to satisfy; to soothe; to indulge; as, to gratify the taste, the appetite, the senses, the desires, the mind, etc. For who would die to gratify a foe Dryden.

Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire; as, a happy expedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen. Chymists have been more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them. Boyle.