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A washing away; an overflowing of the land by water; an inundation; a flood; specifically, The Deluge, the great flood in the days of Noah (Gen. vii.).

To dig; to open (the ground) as with a spade. Delve of convenient depth your thrashing flooDryden.

A wash for cleaning the teeth.

The laying bare of rocks by the washing away of the overlying earth, etc.; or the excavation and removal of them by the action of running water.

ze and departure in his grounds. Blackstone. A right to cut wood upon or departure land. Washburn.

A disease of the eyelids, attended with loss of the eyelashes. Thomas.

Destitution. [R.] Ash.

The cessation of use; disuse; discontinuance of practice, custom, or fashion. The desuetude abrogated the law, which, before, custom had established. Jer. Taylor.

To remove darkness from. [Obs.] Ash.

redit; to lessen reputation; to derogate; to defame; -- often with from. It has been the fashion to detract both from the moral and literary character of Cicero. V. Knox.

, the youngest apprentice in a printing office, who runs on errands, does dirty work (as washing the ink rollers and sweeping), etc. "Without fearing the printer's devil or the sheriff's officer." Macaulay. -- Tasmanian devil (Zoöl.), a very savage carnivorous marsupial of Tasmania (Dasyurus, or Diabolus, ursinus). -…

Meeting and intersecting, as lines; not parallel; -- opposed to parallel. [Obs.] Ash.

trust of one's self or one's own powers; lack of self-reliance; modesty; modest reserve; bashfulness. It is good to speak on such questions with diffidence. Macaulay. An Englishman's habitual diffidence and awkwardness of adress. W. Irving.

fidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve. The diffident maidens, Folding their hands in prayer. Longfellow.

to delve. Dig for it more than for hid treasures. Job iii. 21. I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed. Luke xvi. 3.

A process of sorting ore by washing in a hand sieve. [Written also deluing.]

alue of ten cents; the tenth of a dollar. Dime novel, a novel, commonly sensational and trashy, which is sold for a dime, or ten cents.

To dash; to throw violently. [Obs.] To ding the book a coit's distance from him. Milton.

In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing. Dirt bed (Geom.), a layer of clayey earth forming a stratum in a geological formation. Dirt beds are common among the coal measures. -- Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) (Me…

To confuse the faculties of; to disturb the composure of; to discompose; to abash. The embrace disconcerted the daughter-in-law somewhat, as the caresses of old gentlemen unshorn and perfumed with tobacco might well do. Thackeray.