Search the Dictionary

A venomous Australian snake of the family Elapidæ, of several species, as the Hoplocephalus superbus and Acanthopis antarctica. -- Death bell, a bell that announces a death. The death bell thrice was heard to ring. Mickle. -- Death candle, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death.…

A mortal or crushing blow; a stroke or event which kills or destroys. The deathblow of my hope. Byron.

me weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Goldsmith.

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…

ically or morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness. Defilements of the flesh. Hopkins. The chaste can not rake into such filth without danger of defilement. Addison.

ffice or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.

stitution. [U.S.] Court of delegates, formerly, the great court of appeal from the archbishops' courts and also from the court of admiralty. It is now abolished, and the privy council is the immediate court of appeal in such cases. [Eng.]

ay; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

ed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison. After me the deluge. (Aprés moi le déluge.) Madame de Pompadour.

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

r subverting morals. Especially: The act of corrupting or subverting discipline, courage, hope, etc., or the state of being corrupted or subverted in discipline, courage, etc.; as, the demoralization of an army or navy.

A genus of marine mollusks belonging to the Scaphopoda, having a tubular conical shell.

think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. Burke.

, adv. Hopelessly; despairingly; in the manner of one ruined; as, deperditely wicked. [Archaic]

To regard as hopeless; to give up. [Obs.] Bacon.

Fully prostrate; humble; low; rude. [Obs.] How may weak mortal ever hope to file His unsmooth tongue, and his deprostrate style. G. Fletcher.

ning in value; disparagement; detraction; depreciation; -- followed by of, from, or to. I hope it is no derogation to the Christian religion. Locke. He counted it no derogation of his manhood to be seen to weep. F. W. Robertson.

To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation; -- often with of. We despaired even of life. 2 Cor. i. 8. Never despair of God's blessings here. Wake.

Hopeless. [Obs.] Spenser.

Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless. -- De*spair"ing*ly, adv. -- De*spair"ing*ness, n.