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make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

dealing cards to the players; also, the portion disturbed. The deal, the shuffle, and the cut. Swift.

oaching death. -- Death warrant. (a) (Law) An order from the proper authority for the execution of a criminal. (b) That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy. -- Death wound. (a) A fatal wound or injury. (b) (Naut.) The springing of a fatal leak. -- Spiritual death (Scripture), the corruption and perversion…

An executioner; a headsman or hangman. [Obs.] Shak.

The guard set over a criminal before his execution.

To cut off from entrance, as if by a bar or barrier; to preclude; to hinder from approach, entry, or enjoyment; to shut out or exclude; to deny or refuse; -- with from, and sometimes with of. Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed Labor, as to debar us when we need Refreshment. Milton. Their wages were so low as to…

inary; as, a lion is debruised when a bend or other ordinary is placed over it, as in the cut. The lion of England and the lilies of France without the baton sinister, under which, according to the laws of heraldry, they where debruised in token of his illegitimate birth. Macaulay.

The division of Cephalopoda which includes the squids, cuttlefishes, and others having ten arms or tentacles; -- called also Decapoda. [Written also Decacera.] See Dibranchiata.

Having the point or top cut off. [Obs.] Bailey.

To cut off the head of; to behead.

A division of the dibranchiate cephalopods including the cuttlefishes and squids. See Decacera.

To cut off; to separate. [Obs.] Our seat denies us traffic here; The sea, too near, decides us from the rest. Fuller.

Cutting off; division; detachment of a part. [Obs.] Bp. Pearson.

The act of beheading or state of one beheaded; -- especially used of the execution of St. John the Baptist.

Leaving the neck and shoulders uncovered; cut low in the neck, or low-necked, as a dress.

rge number of persons, all being now of the same age, an equal number shall die each consecutive year. (b) The decrease of life in a group of persons in which the assumed law of mortality is such that the ratio of those dying in a year to those living through the year is constant, being independent of the age of the pe…

To cut short; to curtail. [Obs.] Bale.

Act of cutting short. [Obs.]

To cross at an acute angle; to cut or divide in the form of X; to intersect; -- said of lines in geometrical figures, rays of light, nerves, etc.

Act of crossing at an acute angle, or state of being thus crossed; an intersection in the form of an X; as, the decussation of lines, nerves, etc.