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The act of digressing or deviating, esp. from the main subject of a discourse; hence, a part of a discourse deviating from its main design or subject. The digressions I can not excuse otherwise, than by the confidence that no man will read them. Sir W. Temple.

Prolixity; diffuse discourse. [Obs.] "What needeth greater dilatation" Chaucer.

ils or obstacles present themselves on every side, and it is difficult to determine what course to pursue; a vexatious alternative or predicament; a difficult choice or position. A strong dilemma in a desperate case! To act with infamy, or quit the place. Swift. Horns of a dilemma, alternatives, each of which is equall…

r; -- said of coarse and imperfectly stratified deposits along ancient or existing water courses. Similar unstratified deposits were formed by the agency of ice. The time of deposition has been called the Diluvian epoch.

An attachment to a clock by which the quarter hours are struck upon bells of different tones.

the motion of a celestial body. Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting. -- Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said "I can not come;" -- correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often cal…

The line or course upon which anything is moving or aimed to move, or in which anything is lying or pointing; aim; line or point of tendency; direct line or course; as, the ship sailed in a southeasterly direction.

In a direct manner; in a straight line or course. "To run directly on." Shak. Indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant. Shak.

Pertaining to discipline; intended for discipline; corrective; belonging to a course of training. Those canons . . . were only disciplinary. Bp. Ferne. The evils of the . . . are disciplinary and remedial. Buckminster.

mity or correspondence; inconsistency; disagreement. Those . . . in some disconformity to ourselves. Milton. Disagreement and disconformity betwixt the speech and the conception of the mind. Hakewill.

ity; breaking off; cessation; interruption; as, a discontinuance of conversation or intercourse; discontinuance of a highway or of travel.

doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon. We will discover ourselves unto them. 1 Sam. xiv. 8. Discover not a secret to another. Prov. xxv. 9.

The act of discoursing or reasoning; range, as from thought to thought. Coleridge.

A discourser. [Obs.] L. Addison.

To exclude from fellowship; to refuse intercourse with, as an associate. An attempt to disfellowship an evil, but to fellowship the evildoer. Freewill Bapt. Quart.

blot. Uncommon expressions . . . are a disfigurement rather than any embellishment of discourse. Hume.

emed. He that is dishonorable in riches, how much more in poverty! Ecclus. x. 31. To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Shak. -- Dis*hon"or*a*ble*ness, n. -- Dis*hon"or*a*bly, adv.

ossession of any property or right, which, by law or custom, would devolve on him in the course of descent. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity! South.

To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet. [Obs.] Do not dismay yourself for this. Spenser.

In a disorderly manner; without law or order; irregularly; confusedly. Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. 2 Thess. iii. 6. Savages fighting disorderly with stones. Sir W. Raleigh.