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To translate from secret characters or ciphers into intelligible terms; as, to decipher a letter written in secret characters.

Marked by promptness and decision. A noble instance of this attribute of the decisive character. J. Foster.

Characterized by rhetorical display; pretentiously rhetorical; without solid sense or argument; bombastic; noisy; as, a declamatory way or style.

Suitable to a character, or to the time, place, and occasion; marked with decorum; becoming; proper; seemly; befitting; as, a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge. A decorous pretext the war. Motley. -- De*co"rous*ly, adv. -- De*co"rous*ness, n.

of manner or conduct; grace arising from suitableness of speech and behavior to one's own character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable. Negligent of the duties and decorums of his station. Hallam. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell hi…

A hydrocarbon radical, C10H21, never existing alone, but regarded as the characteristic constituent of a number of compounds of the paraffin series.

alities; as, a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or account; a defective character; defective rules.

orce or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies. The lord mayor craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God defend the right! Shak. A village n…

To deprive of the feudal character or form.

as reputation; to taint. He is . . . among the greatest prelates of this age, however his character may be defiled by . . . dirty hands. Swift.

rom other or the established laws of propriety; as, deformity in an edifice; deformity of character. Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. Milton.

The act of reducing in rank, character, or reputation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.…

To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . str…

Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base. The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition. Motley.

Characterized by dehiscence; opening in some definite way, as the capsule of a plant.

se, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. Cowper.

Concealment; seclusion. The mental organization of the novelist must be characterized, to speak craniologically, by an extraordinary development of the passion for delitescency. Sir W. Scott.

To deprive of material or physical qualities or characteristics. Dematerializing matter by stripping if of everything which . . . has distinguished matter. Milman.

A work of sculpture of the above character. See Alto-rilievo.

A woman of doubtful reputation or suspected character; an adventuress. [Colloq.] De Quincey.