Search the Dictionary

Politeness; civility; urbanity; courtliness. And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, With oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, With smoky rafters, than in tapestry walls And courts of princes, where it first was named, And yet is most pretended. Milton. Pardon me, Messer Claudio, if once more I use the ancient courtesies…

The dried leaves of the purple foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), used in heart disease, disturbance of the circulation, etc.

Want of comfort; uneasiness, mental or physical; disturbance of peace; inquietude; pain; distress; sorrow. "An age of spiritual discomfort." M. Arnold. Strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings. Bp. Hall.

The state of being discomposed; disturbance; disorder; agitation; perturbation. No discomposure stirred her features. Akenside.

Breach of public order; disturbance of the peace of society; tumult. Shak.

Disarrangement; disturbance. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Want of quiet; want of tranquility in body or mind; uneasiness; restlessness; disturbance; anxiety. Swift.

Disturbance of quiet in body or mind; restlessness; uneasiness. Hooker.

Want of peace or tranquility; uneasiness; disturbance; agitation; anxiety. Fears and disquietude, and unavoidable anxieties of mind. Abp. Sharp.

Disturbance. [Obs.] Milton.

Act of disturbing; disturbance. [Obs.] Daniel.

Without pain, anxiety, or disturbance; as, to pass life well and easily. Sir W. Temple.

imperfectly conducting substance or space. It is generally brought into action by any disturbance of molecular equilibrium, whether from a chemical, physical, or mechanical, cause.

moving of the mind or soul; excitement of the feelings, whether pleasing or painful; disturbance or agitation of mind caused by a specific exciting cause and manifested by some sensible effect on the body. How different the emotions between departure and return! W. Irving. Some vague emotion of delight. Tennyson.…

of the body; -- especially applied to feelings, such as hunger, produced by internal disturbances. Opposed to epiperipheral.

A mulct or fine imposed on a person for making a fight or quarrel to the disturbance of the peace.

An uproar; a noisy quarrel; a disturbance; a brawl.

Agitation of mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation; as, he keeps his mind in a continual fret. Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret. Pope.

Tumult; disturbance; disorder. [Obs.] Shak.

feeling. In its nature heat is a mode if motion, being in general a form of molecular disturbance or vibration. It was formerly supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was given the name caloric.