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The elongation, or angular distance from the sun; -- said chiefly of the inferior planets. [R.]

ial ruin, by misuse or through neglect; to destroy the fairness and good condition of; -- said of a building. If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony. Blackstone.

Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; -- said of actions or measures. Alva, as usual, brought his dilatory policy to bear upon hiMotley. Dilatory plea (Law), a plea designed to create delay in the trial of a cause, generally founded upon some matter not connected with the merits of the case.…

Effected or produced by a flood or deluge of water; -- 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.

y as the unit of length and inversely as the unit of time, the dimensions of velocity are said to be length ÷ time; the dimensions of work are mass × (length)2 ÷ (time)2; the dimensions of density are mass ÷ (length)3. Dimension lumber, Dimension scantling, or Dimension stock (Carp.), lumber for building, etc., cut to…

e with Duke Humphrey, to go without dinner; -- a phrase common in Elizabethan literature, said to be from the practice of the poor gentry, who beguiled the dinner hour by a promenade near the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in Old Saint Paul's.

often destructive to crops. -- Diogenes' tub, the tub which the philosopher Diogenes is said to have carried about with him as his house, in which he lived.

Having a double row of columns on each on the flanks, as well as in front and rear; -- said of a temple.

Having two dorsal fins; -- said of certain fishes.

ral planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of 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 di…

To tarnish; to sully; to scandalize; -- said of reputation, character, etc.

To assert the contrary of; to contradict; to deny; -- said of that which has been asserted.

d or loaded; to let go the charge of; as, to discharge a bow, catapult, etc.; especially, said of firearms, -- to fire off; to shoot off; also, to relieve from a state of tension, as a Leyden jar. The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city. Knolles. Feeling in oth…

Bearing the stamens on a discoid outgrowth of the receptacle; - - said of a subclass of plants. Cf. Calycifloral.

Said of strata which lack conformity in direction of bedding, either as in unconformability, or as caused by a fault.

Separate; not coalescent; -- said of things usually coalescent. Discrete movement. See Concrete movement of the voice, under Concrete, a. -- Discrete proportion, proportion where the ratio of the means is different from that of either couplet; as, 3:6::8:16, 3 bearing the same proportion to 6 as 8 does to 16. But 3 is…

To break up; to disperse; to scatter; to dissipate; to drive away; -- said especially of tumors. Many arts were used to discuss the beginnings of new affection. Sir H. Wotton. A pomade . . . of virtue to discuss pimples. Rambler.

y of gavelkind tenure by which lands descend equally among all the sons of the tenant; -- said of lands. Burrill.

e; aversion or displeasure produced by something loathsome; loathing; strong distaste; -- said primarily of the sickening opposition felt for anything which offends the physical organs of taste; now rather of the analogous repugnance excited by anything extremely unpleasant to the moral taste or higher sensibilities of…

To refuse or decline to accept or pay; -- said of a bill, check, note, or draft which is due or presented; as, to dishonor a bill exchange.