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less; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation; -- often with of. We despaired even of life. 2 Cor. i. 8. Never despair of God's blessings here. Wake.

hope; extreme recklessness; reckless fury. In the desperation of the moment, the officers even tried to cut their way through with their swords. W. Irving.

The keeping possession of what belongs to another; detention of what is another's, even though the original taking may have been lawful. Forcible detainer is indictable at common law.

To prevent by fear; hence, to hinder or prevent from action by fear of consequences, or difficulty, risk, etc. Addison. Potent enemies tempt and deter us from our duty. Tillotson. My own face deters me from my glass. Prior.

Edwards. Something divinely beautiful . . . that at some time or other might influence or even determine her course of life. W. Black.

That which deters or prevents.

The act of devastating, or the state of being devastated; a laying waste. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done. Goldsmith.

y cool bodies upon their surfaces, particularly at night. Her tears fell with the dews at even. Tennyson.

sel for holding liquid air, etc., having the space between the walls exhausted so as to prevent conduction of heat, and sometimes having the glass silvered to prevent absorption of radiant heat; -- called also, according to the particular shape, Dewar bulb, Dewar tube, etc.

One celebrated upon the completion of sixty, or, according to some, seventy-five, years from the beginning of the thing commemorated.

hich consists of the constant repetition of one or more simple figures or units of design evenly spaced.

A register of daily events or transactions; a daily record; a journal; a blank book dated for the record of daily memoranda; as, a diary of the weather; a physician's diary.

the octave of the first. Diatonic scale (Mus.), a scale consisting of eight sounds with seven intervals, of which two are semitones and five are whole tones; a modern major or minor scale, as distinguished from the chromatic scale.

To play games with dice. I . . . diced not above seven times a week. Shak.

r the giving orders to, in an overbearing manner; authoritative utterance; as, his habit, even with friends, was that of dictatio.

disposition of others. [Archaic] That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence of God's mercy. Donne.

An embankment to prevent inundations; a levee. Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised . . . Shut out the turbulent tides. Longfellow.

To make smaller by a half step; to make (an interval) less than minor; as, a diminished seventh.

The American dipper or ouzel (Cinclus Mexicanus). The Dipper (Astron.), the seven principal stars in the constellation of the Great Bear; popularly so called from their arrangement in the form of a dipper; -- called also Charles's Wain. See Ursa Major, under Ursa.

forward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken. Be even and direct with me. Shak.