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A retiring of the sea, occasioning a change of high-water mark, whereby land is gained.

r shall be valid, unless this clause is inserted word for word; -- a precaution to guard against later wills extorted by violence, or obtained by suggestion.

geous; -- used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality. A desperate offendress against nature. Shak. The most desperate of reprobates. Macaulay.

Malice; malignity; spite; malicious anger; contemptuous hate. With all thy despite against the land of Israel. Ezek. xxv. 6.

To inform against; to accuse. [Obs.] He was untruly judged to have preached such articles as he was detected of. Sir T. More.

To witness against; to denounce; to condemn. [Obs.] The heresy of Nestorius . . . was detested in the Eastern churches. Fuller. God hath detested them with his own mouth. Bale.

recovery of a personal chattel wrongfully detained. Writ of detinue (Law), one that lies against him who wrongfully detains goods or chattels delivered to him, or in possession, to recover the thing itself, or its value and damages, from the detainer. It is now in a great measure superseded by other remedies.…

a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. His device in against Babylon, to destroy it. Jer. li. 11. Their recent device of demanding benevolences. Hallam. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job v. 12.

ng; the act or practice of prescribing; also that which is dictated. It affords security against the dictation of laws. Paley.

In a diffident manner. To stand diffidently against each other with their thoughts in battle array. Hobbes.

nt which presents an antagonist with two or more alternatives, but is equally conclusive against him, whichever alternative he chooses.

erse; especially, to put for a moment into a liquid; to insert into a fluid and withdraw again. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood. Lev. iv. 6. [Wat'ry fowl] now dip their pinions in the briny deep. Pope. While the prime swallow dips his wing. Tennyson.

To arrange in a direct or straight line, as against a mark, or towards a goal; to point; to aim; as, to direct an arrow or a piece of ordnance.

e or course. "To run directly on." Shak. Indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant. Shak.

Sordid; base; groveling; as, a dirty fellow. The creature's at his dirty work again. Pope.

To advise against; to dissuade from. [R.] Boyle.

n jar. The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city. Knolles. Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions. H. Spencer.

The enforcement of methods of correction against one guilty of ecclesiastical offenses; reformatory or penal action toward a church member.

ed; rout; overthrow; defeat; frustration; confusion and dejection. Every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture. 1 Sam. xiv. 20. A hope destined to end . . . in discomfiture and disgrace. Macaulay.

inquietude; pain; distress; sorrow. "An age of spiritual discomfort." M. Arnold. Strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings. Bp. Hall.