Search the Dictionary

end; -- usually from a public fund or treasury. The duty of collecting and disbursing his revenues. Macaulay. Disbursing officer, an officer in any department of the public service who is charged with the duty of paying out public money.

To lay open or expose to view; to cause to appear; to bring to light; to reveal. How softly on the Spanish shore she plays, Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown! Byron. Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose. Pope.

The act of disclosing, uncovering, or revealing; bringing to light; exposure. He feels it [his secret] beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. D. Webster.

lack of common possessions, properties, or relationship. Community of embryonic structure reveals community of descent; but dissimilarity of embryonic development does not prove discommunity of descent. Darwin.

To disclose; to lay open to view; to make visible; to reveal; to make known; to show (what has been secret, unseen, or unknown). Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover The several caskets to this noble prince. Shak. Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon. We will discover…

A making known; revelation; disclosure; as, a bankrupt is bound to make a full discovery of his assets. In the clear discoveries of the next [world]. South.

To discover; to reveal; to discoure. [Obs.] I will, if please you it discure, assay To ease you of that ill, so wisely as I may. Spenser.

Disdainful. [Obs.] Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt Of this proud king. Shak.

; to indispose; to make unwilling; to alienate. Careful . . . to disincline them from any reverence or affection to the Queen. Clarendon. To social scenes by nature disinclined. Cowper.

To cut off from an inheritance or from hereditary succession; to prevent, as an heir, from coming into possession of any property or right, which, by law or custom, would devolve on him in the course of descent. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity! South.

ffice, dignity, or employment; to discharge; to depose; as, to displace an officer of the revenue.

oke. God was displeased with this thing. 1 Chron. xxi. 7. Wilt thou be displeased at us forever Psalms lxxxv. 5 (Bk. of Com. Prayer). This virtuous plaster will displease Your tender sides. J. Fletcher. Adversity is so wholesome . . . why should we be displeased therewith Barrow.

Want of respect or reverence; disesteem; incivility; discourtesy. Impatience of bearing the least affront or disrespect. Pope.

A trifle which wastes time or distracts attention. Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. Swift. Dissipation of energy. Same as Degradation of energy, under Degradation.

ving the difference marked; separated by a visible sign; marked out; specified. [Obs.] Wherever thus created -- for no place Is yet distinct by name. Milton.

The quality or state of being distinct; a separation or difference that prevents confusion of parts or things. The soul's . . . distinctness from the body. Cudworth.

true posture or direction; to twist aside mentally or morally. Wrath and malice, envy and revenge, do darken and distort the understandings of men. Tillotson.

particularly a trench for draining wet land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a moat or a fosse.

A kind of lyric poetry in honor of Bacchus, usually sung by a band of revelers to a flute accompaniment; hence, in general, a poem written in a wild irregular strain. Bentley.

One who professes divination; one who pretends to predict events, or to reveal occult things, by supernatural means. The diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain. Zech. x. 2.