Search the Dictionary

Serving to designate or indicate; pointing out.

The act of destining or appointing.

o fix, as by destiny or by an authoritative decree; to doom; to ordain or preordain; to appoint; -- often with the remoter object preceded by to or for. We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe. Milton. Till the loathsome opposite Of all my heart had destined, did obtain. Tennyson. Not enjoyment and not so…

To disappoint. [Obs.] When his expectation is destituted. Fotherby.

A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.

fix the boundaries of; to mark off and separate. [God] hath determined the times before appointed. Acts xvii. 26.

ed, closed at one end, and furnished with two wires passing through its sides at opposite points, and nearly meeting, for the purpose of exploding gaseous mixtures by an electric spark, as in gas analysis, etc.

o destroy it. Jer. li. 11. Their recent device of demanding benevolences. Hallam. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job v. 12.

t, as in a pictorial representation, this would be the left side. Dexter chief, or Dexter point (Her.), a point in the dexter upper corner of the shield, being in the dexter extremity of the chief, as A in the cut. -- Dexter base, a point in the dexter lower part or base of the shield, as B in the cut.…

That separates or distinguishes; -- applied to points or marks used to distinguish letters of similar form, or different sounds of the same letter, as, a, â, ä, o, ô, etc. "Diacritical points." Sir W. Jones. A glance at this typography will reveal great difficulties, which diacritical marks necessarily throw in the way…

The graduated face of a timepiece, on which the time of day is shown by pointers or hands.

A figure by which arguments are placed in various points of view, and then turned to one point. Smart.

A pointed projection, like a four-sided pyramid, used for ornament in lines or groups.

A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which no set out plants or to plant seeds.

A judicial opinion expressed by judges on points that do not necessarily arise in the case, and are not involved in it.

To point at or out with the finger. [R.]

To point out as with the finger. [R.] Robinson (Eudoxa).

-- 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 narrower in…

In counterpoint, the imitation of, or reply to, a subject, in notes of half the length or value of those the subject itself.

Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means. What is direct to, what slides by, the question. Locke.