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Hence, a book containing the words belonging to any system or province of knowledge, arranged alphabetically; as, a dictionary of medicine or of botany; a biographical dictionary.

The didactic method or system.

arts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as they advance in organization acquire special organs f…

Having several leaflets arranged, like the fingers of the hand, at the extremity of a stem or petiole. Also, in general, characterized by digitation. -- Dig"i*tate*ly, adv.

A unit employed by oculists in numbering glasses according to the metric system; a refractive power equal to that of a glass whose principal focal distance is one meter.

Of or pertaining to the dioptre, or to the metric system of numbering glasses. -- n.

ics; assisting vision by means of the refraction of light; refractive; as, the dioptric system; a dioptric glass or telescope. "Dioptrical principles." Nichol. Dioptric curve (Geom.), a Cartesian oval. See under Cartesian.

Having the heart completely divided or double, one side systemic, the other pulmonary.

Pertaining to discipline. "Displinarian system." Milman.

Training to act in accordance with established rules; accustoming to systematic and regular action; drill. Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, Obey the rules and discipline of art. Dryden.

sed unnecessarily contribute to shorten life, by sooner rendering peculiar parts of the system disobedient to stimuli. E. Darwin.

Neglect of order or system; irregularity. From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art. Pope.

The act of disorganizing; destruction of system.

To destroy the organic structure or regular system of (a government, a society, a party, etc.); to break up (what is organized); to throw into utter disorder; to disarrange. Lyford . . . attempted to disorganize the church. Eliot (1809).

a system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy; as, the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations. Neither are God's methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man. Rogers.

A book or medicinal formulary containing a systematic description of drugs, and of preparations made from them. It is usually, but not always, distinguished from a pharmacopoeia in that it issued by private parties, and not by an official body or by government.

A formal or systematic inquiry into, or discussion of, any subject; a full examination or investigation of a matter, with the arguments and facts bearing upon it; elaborate essay; dissertation. For accurate research or grave disquisition he was not well qualified. Macaulay.

Tending to dissipate. Dissipative system (Mech.), an assumed system of matter and motions in which forces of friction and resistances of other kinds are introduced without regard to the heat or other molecular actions which they generate; -- opposed to conservative system.

tation, as in some motors, or along two or more lines in parallel, as in a distributing system.

Dividing into double or treble ramifications; -- said of a leaf or stem. [R.] Loudon.