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An authoritative order or decree; especially, a letter of the pope, determining some point or question in ecclesiastical law. The decretals form the second part of the canon law.

Decretory; authoritative. Sir T. Browne.

Of penetrating or far-reaching intellect; not superficial; thoroughly skilled; sagacious; cunning. Deep clerks she dumbs. Shak.

Profoundly; thoroughly; not superficially; in a high degree; intensely; as, deeply skilled in ethics. He had deeply offended both his nobles and people. Bacon. He sighed deeply in his spirit. Mark viii. 12.

To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or to authority; -- with to. The house, deferring to legal right, acquiesced. Bancroft.

nion of another; submission in opinion; regard; respect; complaisance. Deference to the authority of thoughtful and sagacious men. Whewell. Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. Shenstone.

Deprived of glory; dishonored. [Obs.] "With thorns degloried." G. Fletcher.

as an ambassador; to send with power to transact business; to commission; to depute; to authorize.

The act of delegating, or investing with authority to act for another; the appointment of a delegate or delegates.

To ask or call for with authority; to claim or seek from, as by authority or right; to claim, as something due; to call for urgently or peremptorily; as, to demand a debt; to demand obedience. This, in our foresaid holy father's name, Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee. Shak.

successor; transference; especially, the transfer or transmission of the crown or royal authority to a successor.

tting down; a lowering; dejection. "Demission of mind." Hammond. Demission of sovereign authority. L'Estrange.

he people, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.

, A mysterious, terrible, and evil divinity, regarded by some as the author of creation, by others as a great magician who was supposed to command the spirits of the lower world. See Gorgon. Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon. Milton.

To blacken thoroughly; to make very black. Boyle.

To part thoroughly; to dispart; to divide; to separate. [Obs.] Till death departed them, this life they lead. Chaucer.

positions of their courts needs not the deposition of their examples, since it hath the authority of a known principle. W. Montagu.

missioning a deputy or representative; office of a deputy or delegate; vicegerency. The authority of conscience stands founded upon its vicegerency and deputation under God. South.

To give up, the will, courage, or spirit; to be thoroughly disheartened; to lose all courage; to become dispirited or depressed; to take an unhopeful view. I should despair, or at least despond. Scott's Letters. Others depress their own minds, [and] despond at the first difficulty. Locke. We wish that . . . desponding…

of; to set apart by design for a future use or purpose; to fix, as by destiny or by an authoritative decree; to doom; to ordain or preordain; to appoint; -- often with the remoter object preceded by to or for. We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe. Milton. Till the loathsome opposite Of all my heart ha…