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Reclining on the ground, as if too weak to stand, and tending to rise at the summit or apex; as, a decumbent stem. Gray.

of defying, putting in opposition, or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat. A war without a just defiance made. Dryden. Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down. Tennyson.

State as indicated by sum of exponents; more particularly, the degree of a term is indicated by the sum of the exponents of its literal factors; thus, a2b2c is a term of the sixth degree. The degree of a power, or radical, is denoted by its index, that of an equation by the greatest sum of the exponents of the unknown…

liberation, or by discussion and examination; deliberating; as, a deliberative body. A consummate work of deliberative wisdom. Bancroft. The court of jurisdiction is to be distinguished from the deliberative body, the advisers of the crown. Hallam.

To cause to melt away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

the Latin classics, prepared in the reign of Louis XIV., for the use of the dauphin (in usum Delphini).

Fig.: Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. "The deluge of summer." Lowell. A fiery deluge fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison.…

To call into court; to summon. Burrill.

That may be demanded or claimed. "All sums demandable." Bacon.

A course of reasoning showing that a certain result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; -- these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously established propositions. Direct, or Positive, demonstration (Logic & Math.), one in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence of reasoning from ax…

pause by a party to an action, for the judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further. Demurrer to evidence, an exception…

To reduce by destroying or consuming the vital powers of; to exhaust, as a country of its strength or resources, a treasury of money, etc. Saturday Review.

keeping; to commit to the custody of another; to intrust; esp., to place in a bank, as a sum of money subject to order.

l; to lay waste; to prey upon. It makes the substance of the body . . . less apt to be consumed and depredated by the spirits. Bacon.

The act of leaving with an intention not to reclaim or resume; an utter forsaking abandonment. Cession or dereliction, actual or tacit, of other powers. Burke.

p; to divest; -- usually followed by of. The clothed earth is then bare, Despoiled is the summer fair. Gower. A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled. Macaulay. Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. Milton.

hal. [Obs.] For all this desponsation of her . . . she had not set one step toward the consummation of her marriage. Jer. Taylor.

To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume. I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation. Jer. xii. 17.

The sum of a series of products of several numbers, these products being formed according to certain specified laws; thus, the determinant of the nine numbers. a, b, c,a', b', c',a'\'b7, b'\'b7, c'\'b7, is a b' c'\'b7 -- a b'\'b7 c' + a' b'\'b7 c] -- a' b c'\'b7 + a'\'b7 b' c. The determinant is written by placing the…

To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon. Some evil beast hath devoured him. Gen. xxxvii. 20.