Search the Dictionary

The point or step of progression to which a person has arrived; rank or station in life; position. "A dame of high degree." Dryden. "A knight is your degree." Shak. "Lord or lady of high degree." Lowell.

Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring. [R.] Dives, for his delicate life, to the devil went. Piers Plowman. Haarlem is a very delicate town. Evelyn.

llowed by the reflexive pronoun. They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death. Shak. They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions. Clarendon.

The conveyance or transfer of an estate, either in fee for life or for years, most commonly the latter. Bouvier.

; making a show of gravity. A cat lay, and looked so demure, as if there had been neither life nor soul in her. L'Estrange. Miss Lizzy, I have no doubt, would be as demure and coquettish, as if ten winters more had gone over her head. Miss Mitford.

art thoroughly; to dispart; to divide; to separate. [Obs.] Till death departed them, this life they lead. Chaucer.

A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature. Macaulay.

Removal from the present life; death; decease. The time of my departure is at hand. 2 Tim. iv. 6. His timely departure . . . barred him from the knowledge of his son's miseries. Sir P. Sidney.

with confidence; reliance; trust. Affectionate dependence on the Creator is the spiritual life of the soul. T. Erskine.

d or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.

nduct; carrige; especially, manner of acting with respect to the courtesies and duties of life; behavior; demeanor; bearing. The gravity of his deportment carried him safe through many difficulties. Swift.

To take away; to put an end; to destroy. [Obs.] 'Tis honor to deprive dishonored life. Shak.

South. The exquisite pleasure derivable from the true and beautiful relations of domestic life. H. G. Bell. The argument derivable from the doxologies. J. H. Newman.

urkish or Persian monk, especially one who professes extreme poverty and leads an austere life.

Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Des…

hstood the designs of a besotted woman. Hallam. A . . . settled design upon another man's life. Locke. How little he could guess the secret designs of the court! Macaulay.

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.

ies (Anc. Myth.), the three Parcæ, or Fates; the supposed powers which preside over human life, and determine its circumstances and duration. Marked by the Destinies to be avoided. Shak.

Not possessing the necessaries of life; in a condition of want; needy; without possessions or resources; very poor. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Heb. xi. 37.

discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at last. Burke. Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect. Pope.