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dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable. Dire was the tossing, deep the groans. Milton. Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire. Milton.

d, dust, etc.; whatever, adhering to anything, renders it foul or unclean; earth; as, a wagonload of dirt. Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. Is. lvii. 20.

ress, or one intended to mislead or deceive. Bunyan was forced to disguise himself as a wagoner. Macaulay.

Space between two antagonists in fencing. Shak.

The Dragon, a northern constellation within which is the north pole of the ecliptic.

Relating to Draco, the Athenian lawgiver; or to the constellation Draco; or to dragon's blood.

A red resin forming the essential basis of dragon's blood; -- called also dracin.

in which the moon performs one revolution, from ascending node to ascending node. See Dragon's head, under Dragon. [Obs.] "Dracontic month." Crabb.

Belonging to a dragon. Southey.

A fish; the dragonet.

ly come from swine keeping, from eating draff and husks. Shak. The draff and offal of a bygone age. Buckle. Mere chaff and draff, much better burnt. Tennyson.

See Dragonnade.

A dragon. [Obs.] Beowulf resolves to kill the drake. J. A. Harrison (Beowulf).

A driving; a violent movement. The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings. King Alisaunder (1332).

A machine for lowering heavy weights, as packages, coal wagons, etc., to a ship's deck.

f which the shaft of a column is composed; also, a vertical wall, whether circular or polygonal in plan, carrying a cupola or dome. (e) (Mach.)

markable for laying eggs like a bird or reptile; -- called also duckbill, platypus, mallangong, mullingong, tambreet, and water mole. -- To make ducks and drakes, to throw a flat stone obliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets; hence: To play at ducks an…

See Dugong.

place or house in which a person lives; abode; domicile. Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons. Jer. xlix. 33. God will deign To visit oft the dwellings of just men. Milton. Philip's dwelling fronted on the street. Tennyson. Dwelling house, a house intended to be occupied as a residence, in distinction from a store, of…

A mythical monster of the early Anglo-Saxon literature; a dragon. W. Spalding.