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ed, or Diminishing, scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the volute. Gwilt. -- Diminishing rule (Arch.), a board cut with a concave edge, for fixing the entasis and curvature of a shaft. -- Diminishing stile (Arch.), a stile which is narrower in one part tha…

r immerse; 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 draw back, or cause to draw back. [Obs.] Spenser.

sible; to reveal; to make known; to show (what has been secret, unseen, or unknown). Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover The several caskets to this noble prince. Shak. Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon. We will discover ourselves unto them. 1 Sam. xiv. 8. Discover…

To take or draw from the body, as the web of a spider. [R.] "Her disemboweled web." J. Philips.

To disembowel; to let out or draw forth, as the entrails. [Obs.] As if he thought her soul to disentrail. Spenser.

cess of unsettling or breaking up that which has been established; specifically, the withdrawal of the support of the state from an established church; as, the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church by Act of Parliament.

To withhold or withdraw favor from; to regard with disesteem; to show disapprobation of; to discountenance. Countenanced or disfavored according as they obey. Swift.

To depose or withdraw from the condition of a friar. [Obs.] Many did quickly unnun and disfriar themselves. Fuller.

The nonpayment or nonacceptance of commercial paper by the party on whom it is drawn.

In a disorderly manner; without law or order; irregularly; confusedly. Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. 2 Thess. iii. 6. Savages fighting disorderly with stones. Sir W. Raleigh.

To withdraw praise from; to notice with disapprobation or some degree of censure; to disparage; to blame. Dispraising the power of his adversaries. Chaucer. I dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him. Shak.

The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand. I will the distaff hold; come thou and spin. Fairfax.

distance of a fourth or seventh. Angular distance, the distance made at the eye by lines drawn from the eye to two objects. -- Lunar distance. See under Lunar. -- North polar distance (Astron.), the distance on the heavens of a heavenly body from the north pole. It is the complement of the declination. -- Zenith dis…

Separated; drawn asunder. [Obs.]

Capable of being drawn aside or distracted.

Tending or serving to draw apart.

The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet.

The steps or operations by which steam is supplied to and withdrawn from the cylinder at each stroke of the piston; viz., admission, suppression or cutting off, release or exhaust, and compression of exhaust steam prior to the next admission. Geographical distribution, the natural arrangements of animals and plants in…

A wandering about or going astray; digression. Let us be set down at Queen's Crawley without further divagation. Thackeray.