Search the Dictionary

To pass from an animate to a lifeless state; to cease to live; to suffer a total and irreparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; -- said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or…

Material which, in the process of catalysis, has diffused or passed through the separating membrane.

A finger's breadth, commonly estimated to be three fourths of an inch.

Of or pertaining to dilettanteism; amateur; as, dilettant speculation. Carlyle.

An admirer or lover of the fine arts; popularly, an amateur; especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge, desultorily, or for amusement only.

The state of being disanimated or discouraged; depression of spirits.

y means of discretive particles, as but, though, yet, etc.; as, travelers change their climate, but not their temper.

A quoit; a circular plate of some heavy material intended to be pitched or hurled as a trial of strength and skill.

Abounding with disease; producing diseases; as, a diseaseful climate. [R.]

Tending to disperse. Dispersive power (Opt.), the relative effect of a material in separating the different rays of light by refraction, as when the substance is formed into a prism. -- Dis*pers"ive*ness, n.

The process of extracting soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent. Piston displacement (Mech.), the volume of the space swept through, or weight of steam, water, etc., displaced, in a given time, by the…

Severity of climate; extreme weather, whether hot or cold. [Obs.] Those countries . . . under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable. Sir W. Raleigh.

lation (Chem.), the distillation, especially of complex solid substances, so that the ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new compounds, -- usually requiring a high degree of heat; as, the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood. -- Dry distillation, the distillation of substances by themselves,…

water by hydraulic presses. -- Naval dock, a dock connected with which are naval stores, materials, and all conveniences for the construction and repair of ships. -- Sectional dock, a form of floating dock made in separate sections or caissons. -- Slip dock, a dock having a sloping floor that extends from deep water…

, including any writing, book, or other instrument conveying information in the case; any material substance on which the thoughts of men are represented by any species of conventional mark or symbol. Saint Luke . . . collected them from such documents and testimonies as he . . . judged to be authentic. Paley.…

A small vane of bunting, feathers, or any other light material, carried at the masthead to indicate the direction of the wind. Totten.

llar. See under 9th Chop. -- Dollar fish (Zoöl.), a fish of the United States coast (Stromateus triacanthus), having a flat, roundish form and a bright silvery luster; -- called also butterfish, and Lafayette. See Butterfish. -- Trade dollar, a silver coin formerly made at the United States mint, intended for export,…

eping grass (Cynodon dactylon), highly prized, in Hindostan, as food for cattle, and acclimated in the United States. [Written also doub grass.]

To judge; to estimate or determine as a judge. [Obs.] Milton.

The frame or barrier of boards, or other material, usually turning on hinges, by which an entrance way into a house or apartment is closed and opened. At last he came unto an iron door That fast was locked. Spenser.