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Formed by the aid of the teeth; -- said of certain articulations and the letters representing them; as, d t are dental letters. Dental formula (Zoöl.), a brief notation used by zoölogists to denote the number and kind of teeth of a mammal. -- Dental surgeon, a dentist.

Having the lid removed; -- said of the capsules of mosses.

To testify under oath; to bear testimony to; -- now usually said of bearing testimony which is officially written down for future use. Abbott. To depose the yearly rent or valuation of lands. Bacon.

Concave on the upper side; -- said of a leaf whose disk is lower than the border.

The operation of reducing to a lower degree; -- said of equations.

To annul in part; to repeal partly; to restrict; to limit the action of; -- said of a law. By several contrary customs, . . . many of the civil and canon laws are controlled and derogated. Sir M. Hale.

To express a wish for; to entreat; to request. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord 2 Kings iv. 28. Desire him to go in; trouble him no more. Shak.

A taking away or withdrawing. [Obs.] The detraction of the eggs of the said wild fowl. Bacon.

Pertaining to a second canon, or ecclesiastical writing of inferior authority; -- said of the Apocrypha, certain Epistles, etc.

Of secondary origin; -- said of certain rocks whose material has been derived from older rocks.

Divalent; -- said of a base or radical as capable of saturating two acid monad radicals or a dibasic acid. Cf. Dibasic, a., and Biacid.

ng to the class Diadelphia; having the stamens united into two bodies by their filaments (said of a plant or flower); grouped into two bundles or sets by coalescence of the filaments (said of stamens).

Having a single, distinct, diagonal cleavage; -- said of crystals. Mohs.

en atoms capable of replacement by basic atoms or radicals, in forming salts; bibasic; -- said of acids, as oxalic or sulphuric acids. Cf. Diacid, Bibasic.

Furnishing or giving two colors; -- said of defective vision, in which all the compound colors are resolvable into two elements instead of three. Sir J. Herschel.

To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another. Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate. Bacon.

o called from the trick of Dido, who having bought so much land as a hide would cover, is said to have cut it into thin strips long enough to inclose a spot for a citadel.

reparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; -- said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought. To die by th…

Relating to differences of motion or leverage; producing effects by such differences; said of mechanism. Differential calculus. (Math.) See under Calculus. -- Differential coefficient, the limit of the ratio of the increment of a function of a variable to the increment of the variable itself, when these increments are…

l or ecclesiastical; degree of excellence; preferment; exaltation. Macaulay. And the king said, What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Esth. vi. 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, . . . the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Gen. xlix. 3.