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Demur; delay in acting or deciding. The same causes of demurral existed which prevented British troops from assisting in the expulsion of the French from Rome. Southey.

A personal chattel which had caused the death of a person, and for that reason was given to God, that is, forfeited to the crown, to be applied to pious uses, and distributed in alms by the high almoner. Thus, if a cart ran over a man and killed him, it was forfeited as a deodand.

To withdraw, or cause to withdraw, from one's country; to banish. [Obs.] A subject born in any state May, if he please, depatriate. Mason.

To hang in suspense; to be pending; to be undetermined or undecided; as, a cause depending in court. You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. Burke.

state of being influenced and determined by something; subjection (as of an effect to its cause). The cause of effects, and the dependence of one thing upon another. Bp. Burnet.

ng out of a body of men in order to extend their front. -Wilhelm. Deployments . . . which cause the soldier to turn his back to the enemy are not suited to war.H.L. Scott.

To put under oath. [Obs.] Depose him in the justice of his cause. Shak.

To press down; to cause to sink; to let fall; to lower; as, to depress the muzzle of a gun; to depress the eyes. "With lips depressed." Tennyson.

To cause to run off from the rails of a railroad, as a locomotive. Lardner.

The act of receiving anything from a source; the act of procuring an effect from a cause, means, or condition, as profits from capital, conclusions or opinions from evidence. As touching traditional communication, . . . I do not doubt but many of those truths have had the help of that derivation. Sir M. Hale.…

recognize transmission of; as, he derives this word from the Anglo-Saxon. From these two causes . . . an ancient set of physicians derived all diseases. Arbuthnot.

g blame, except sometimes when used of localities; as, to desert a friend, a principle, a cause, one's country. "The deserted fortress." Prescott.

One who forsakes a duty, a cause or a party, a friend, or any one to whom he owes service; especially, a soldier or a seaman who abandons the service without leave; one guilty of desertion.

The act of deserting or forsaking; abandonment of a service, a cause, a party, a friend, or any post of duty; the quitting of one's duties willfully and without right; esp., an absconding from military or naval service. Such a resignation would have seemed to his superior a desertion or a reproach. Bancroft.…

To cause to despair. [Obs.] Sir W. Williams.

To make destitute; to cause to be in want; to deprive; -- followed by of. [Obs.] Destituted of all honor and livings. Holinshed.

, or without resources; deficiency; lack; extreme poverty; utter want; as, the inundation caused general destitution.

A destroying agency; a cause of ruin or of devastation; a destroyer. The destruction that wasteth at noonday. Ps. xci. 6.

That which serves to determine; that which causes determination.

to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide; as, the court has determined the cause.