Search the Dictionary

obliterating important features or portions of; as, to deface a monument; to deface an edifice; to deface writing; to deface a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." Emerson. So by false learning is good sense defaced. Pope.

An abstraction of money, etc., by an officer or agent

The patron of a church; an officer having charge of the temporal affairs of a church.

; gross deviation from 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.

Aptly; fitly; dexterously; neatly. "Deftly dancing." Drayton. Thyself and office deftly show. Shak.

ank, 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 from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank' to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer. Prynne was sentenced by the Star Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar. Palfrey.

Deprivation of rank or office; degradation. [R.] Milton.

ct as its representative in a convention; as, a delegate to a convention for nominating officers, or for forming or altering a constitution. [U.S.] Court of delegates, formerly, the great court of appeal from the archbishops' courts and also from the court of admiralty. It is now abolished, and the privy council is the…

e state of being delivered, or freed from restraint. I do desire deliverance from these officers. Shak.

Resignation of an office. [Scot.]

To lay down, as an office; to resign. [Scot.] General Conway demitted his office. Hume.

own; to raze; to destroy the fabric of; to pull to pieces; to ruin; as, to demolish an edifice, or a wall. I expected the fabric of my book would long since have been demolished, and laid even with the ground. Tillotson.

An officer whose duty it was to announce the doom or sentence pronounced by the court.

Capable of being deposed or deprived of office. Howell.

The act of deposing from office; a removal from the throne. Fox.

To remove from a throne or other high station; to dethrone; to divest or deprive of office. A tyrant over his subjects, and therefore worthy to be deposed. Prynne.

One who deposes or degrades from office.

The act of setting aside a sovereign or a public officer; deprivation of authority and dignity; displacement; removal.

ng is deposited for sale or keeping; as, warehouse is a depository for goods; a clerk's office is a depository for records.