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Damask silk; silk woven with an elaborate pattern of flowers and the like. "A bed of ancient damask." W. Irving.

or refuse; -- with from, and sometimes with of. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed Labor, as to debar us when we need Refreshment. Milton. Their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts but from the common decencies of civilized life. Buckle.

of energy (Physics), the transformation of energy into some form in which it is less available for doing work.

To dig or labor with a spade, or as with a spade; to labor as a drudge. Delve may I not: I shame to beg. Wyclif (Luke xvi. 3).

o be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise. God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job xi. 6. John Gay deserved to be a favorite. Thackeray. Encouragement is not held out to things that deserve r…

o take credit or reputation from; to defame. That calumnious critic . . . Detracting what laboriously we do. Drayton.

The elaboration of a theme or subject; the unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole piece or movement from a leading theme or motive. Development theory (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, a…

The separation or resolution of one syllable into two; -- the opposite of synæresis.

s or products. I would employ . . . dianoetic to denote the operation of the discursive, elaborative, or comparative faculty. Sir W. Hamilton.

A figure by which a syllable naturally short is made long.

Hard to do or to make; beset with difficulty; attended with labor, trouble, or pains; not easy; arduous.

Something difficult; a thing hard to do or to understand; that which occasions labor or perplexity, and requires skill perseverance to overcome, solve, or achieve; a hard enterprise; an obstacle; an impediment; as, the difficulties of a science; difficulties in theology. They lie under some difficulties by reason of th…

To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. [Cant, U.S.]

ia; the greater Dionysia were held at Athens in March or April, and were celebrated with elaborate performances of both tragedies and comedies.

A coalition or union of two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable; as, ou in out, oi in noise; -- called a proper diphthong.

A morbid an uncontrollable craving (often periodic) for drink, esp. for alcoholic liquors; also improperly used to denote acute and chronic alcoholism.

Destitute of comfort; uncomfortable. [R.] A labyrinth of little discomfortable garrets. Thackeray. -- Dis*com"fort*a*ble*ness, n. [Obs.]

isentangle truth from error. Stewart. To extricate and disentangle themselves out of this labyrinth. Clarendon. A mind free and disentangled from all corporeal mixtures. Bp. Stillingfleet.

A double spondee; a foot consisting of four long syllables.

of crime is a disqualification of a person for office; sickness is a disqualification for labor. I must still retain the consciousness of those disqualifications which you have been pleased to overlook. Sir J. Shore.