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Any substance or medium that transmits the electric force by a process different from conduction, as in the phenomena of induction; a nonconductor. separating a body electrified by induction, from the electrifying body.

A course of food selected with reference to a particular state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen prescribed. To fast like one that takes diet. Shak. Diet kitchen, a kitchen in which diet is prepared for invalids; a charitable establishment that provides proper food for the sick poor.

or stand apart; to disagree; to be unlike; to be distinguished; -- with from. One star differeth from another star in glory. 1 Cor. xv. 41. Minds differ, as rivers differ. Macaulay.

In a differing or different manner. Boyle.

To get out of repair; to fall into partial ruin; to become decayed; as, the church was suffered to dilapidate. Johnson.

Measure in a single line, as length, breadth, height, thickness, or circumference; extension; measurement; -- usually, in the plural, measure in length and breadth, or in length, breadth, and thickness; extent; size; as, the dimensions of a room, or of a ship; the dimensions of a farm, of a kingdom. Gentlemen of more t…

Having the organs of one side, or half, different in function from the corresponding organs on the other side; as, dimidiate hermaphroditism.

lower. -- Diminished, 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 narro…

Difference of form between members of the same species, as when a plant has two kinds of flowers, both hermaphrodite (as in the partridge berry), or when there are two forms of one or both sexes of the same species of butterfly. Dimorphism is the condition of the appearance of the same species under two dissimilar form…

Crystallizing under two forms fundamentally different, while having the same chemical composition.

An attachment to a clock by which the quarter hours are struck upon bells of different tones.

A Linnæan class of plants having the stamens and pistils on different plants.

he laws of the refraction of light in passing from one medium into another, or through different mediums, as air, water, or glass, and esp. through different lenses; -- distinguished from catoptrics, which refers to reflected light.

artificially from certain allyl derivatives. Though isomeric with benzine, it is very different in its chemical relations. Called also dipropinyl.

iguous. He howhere, that I know, says it in direct words. Locke. A direct and avowed interference with elections. Hallam.

The pointing of a piece with reference to an imaginary vertical axis; -- distinguished from elevation. The direction is given when the plane of sight passes through the object. Wilhelm.

Difference of opinion or sentiment.

Not allowable; not to be suffered. Raleigh. -- Dis`al*low"a*ble*ness, n.

To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish. To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. Boyle. A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. Robynson (More's Utopia).

by the eye or the understanding; as, a star is discernible by the eye; the identity of difference of ideas is discernible by the understanding. The effect of the privations and sufferings . . . was discernible to the last in his temper and deportment. Macaulay.