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is business he shall stand before kings. Prov. xxii. 29. Diligent cultivation of elegant literature. Prescott.

To loiter or trifle; to waste time.

A literal factor, as numbered in characterizing a term. The term dimensions forms with the cardinal numbers a phrase equivalent to degree with the ordinal; thus, a2b2c is a term of five dimensions, or of the fifth degree.

hak. To dine 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.

To talk with vehemence, importunity, or reiteration; to bluster. [Low]

Originated or taught by Diophantus, the Greek writer on algebra. Diophantine analysis (Alg.), that branch of indeterminate analysis which has for its object the discovery of rational values that satisfy given equations containing squares or cubes; as, for example, to find values of x and y which make x2 + y2 an exact s…

ng some privilege, honor, or power; a document bearing record of a degree conferred by a literary society or educational institution.

The writer of a treatise or dissertation. Philologers and critical discoursers. Sir T. Browne.

t depends the satisfaction or disgust wherewith it is received. Locke. In a vulgar hack writer such oddities would have excited only disgust. Macaulay.

disposition. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne. Do dispositively what Moses is recorded to have done literally, . . . break all the ten commandments at once. Boyle.

A writer of dissertations.

One who writers a dissertation; one who discourses. Boyle.

A plunge headforemost into water, the act of one who dives, literally or figuratively.

Disagreement; difference. Related with some divergence by other writers. Sir G. C. Lewis.

A ruler or ruling power. "Sole dominator of Navarre." Shak. Jupiter and Mars are dominators for this northwest part of the world. Camden.

Lit., given; hence, in a literary work, as a drama or tale, that which is assumed as to characters, situation, etc., as a basis for the plot or story. W. E. Henley.

now in his dotage. Capable of distinguishing between the infancy and the dotage of Greek literature. Macaulay.

From a higher to a lower position, literally or figuratively; in a descending direction; from the top of an ascent; from an upright position; to the ground or floor; to or into a lower or an inferior condition; as, into a state of humility, disgrace, misery, and the like; into a state of rest; -- used with verbs indica…

Dramatic composition and the literature pertaining to or illustrating it; dramatic literature.

The author of a dramatic composition; a writer of plays.