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tis time to dance off. Thackeray. More dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw. Shak. Shadows in the glassy waters dance. Byron. Where rivulets dance their wayward round. Wordsworth. To dance on a rope, or To dance on nothing, to be hanged.

A state of distress or trouble. A day of clouds and of thick darkness. Joel. ii. 2. Prince of darkness, the Devil; Satan. "In the power of the Prince of darkness." Locke.

At a high rate or price; grievously. He buys his mistress dearly with his throne. Dryden.

To impair the strength of; to weaken; to enfeeble; as, to debilitate the body by intemperance. Various ails debilitate the mind. Jenyns. The debilitated frame of Mr. Bertram was exhausted by this last effort. Sir W. Scott.

Gradual failure of health, strength, soundness, prosperity, or of any species of excellence or perfection; tendency toward dissolution or extinction; corruption; rottenness; decline; deterioration; as, the decay of the body; the decay of virtue; the decay of the Roman empire; a castle in decay. Perhaps my God, though h…

ending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion. Their fathers lived in the decline of literature. Swift.

To prepare by boiling; to digest in hot or boiling water; to extract the strength or flavor of by boiling; to make an infusion of.

d to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December. He must increase, but I must decrease. John iii. 30.

Profound; thorough; complete; unmixed; intense; heavy; heartfelt; as, deep distress; deep melancholy; deep horror. "Deep despair." Milton. "Deep silence." Milton. "Deep sleep." Gen. ii. 21. "Deeper darkness." Hoole. "Their deep poverty." 2 Cor. viii. 2. An attitude of deep respect. Motley.

fective; imperfect; incomplete; lacking; as, deficient parts; deficient estate; deficient strength; deficient in judgment. The style was indeed deficient in ease and variety. Macaulay. Deficient number. (Arith.) See under Abundant. -- De*fi"cient-ly, adv.

nce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

Diminution or reduction of strength, efficacy, or value; degeneration; deterioration. The development and degradation of the alphabetic forms can be traced. I. Taylor (The Alphabet).

The mistress of Samson, who betrayed him (Judges xvi.); hence, a harlot; a temptress. Other Delilahs on a smaller scale Burns met with during his Dumfries sojourn. J. C. Shairp.

Free; nimble; sprightly; active. [Obs.] Wonderly deliver and great of strength. Chaucer.

The act of exerting one's strength or limbs. Neater limbs and freer delivery. Sir H. Wotton.

r-burning sulphur unconsumed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison. After me the deluge. (Aprés moi le déluge.) Madame de Pompadour.

Persons of doubtful reputation; esp., women who are kept as mistresses, though not public prostitutes; demireps. Literary demimonde, writers of the lowest kind.

To reduce by destroying or consuming the vital powers of; to exhaust, as a country of its strength or resources, a treasury of money, etc. Saturday Review.

A leading or drawing off of water from a stream or source. [Obs.] T. Burnet.

f Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judg. i. 23. Edmund, I think, is gone . . . to descry The strength o' the enemy. Shak. And now their way to earth they had descried. Milton.