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A barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; esp., a bank of earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water course, to confine and keep back flowing water.

, under Carbonic. -- Damp sheet, a curtain in a mine gallery to direct air currents and prevent accumulation of gas. -- Fire damp, a damp consisting chiefly of light carbureted hydrogen; -- so called from its tendence to explode when mixed with atmospheric air and brought into contact with flame.

on a picture. I take care to dash the character with such particular circumstance as may prevent ill-natured applications. Addison. The very source and fount of day Is dashed with wandering isles of night. Tennyson.

ic or hydraulic cushion for a falling weight, as in the valve gear of a steam engine, to prevent shock.

A vain fancy speculation; a reverie; a castle in the air; unfounded hope. Mrs. Lambert's little daydream was over. Thackeray.

aphthalus, etc. -- Dead plate (Mach.), a solid covering over a part of a fire grate, to prevent the entrance of air through that part. -- Dead pledge, a mortgage. See Mortgage. -- Dead point. (Mach.) See Dead center. -- Dead reckoning (Naut.), the method of determining the place of a ship from a record kept of the…

Incapacity of perceiving sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impression which constitute hearing; want of the sense of hearing.

The office or the revenue of a dean. See the Note under Benefice, n., 3.

Turned upside down from its proper position; inverted; reversed.

To prevent from centralizing; to cause to withdraw from the center or place of concentration; to divide and distribute (what has been united or concentrated); -- esp. said of authority, or the administration of public affairs.

ning of; to make out or read, as words badly written or partly obliterated; to detect; to reveal; to unfold.

A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.

To destroy; to make null. [Obs.] [Profane scoffing] doth . . . deface the reverence of religion. Bacon. For all his power was utterly defaste [defaced]. Spenser.

Frustration by rendering null and void, or by prevention of success; as, the defeat of a plan or design.

That which defends; a safeguard. Wars preventive, upon just fears, are true defensive. Bacon. To be on the defensive, To stand on the defensive, to be or stand in a state or posture of defense or resistance, in opposition to aggression or attack.

Deficiency in amount or quality; a falling short; lack; as, a deficit in taxes, revenue, etc. Addison.

To deprive of horns; to prevent the growth or the horns of (cattle) by burning their ends soon after they start. See Dishorn. "Dehorning cattle." Farm Journal (1886).

To praise or revere as a deity; to treat as an object of supreme regard; as, to deify money. He did again to extol and deify the pope. Bacon.

a deist; the belief or system of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation.

One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion; a freethinker.