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An imaginary circle surrounding the earth, in whose periphery either the heavenly body or the center of the heavenly body's epicycle was supposed to be carried round.

That which is chosen as the flower or choicest part; careful culling or selection. [R.] The laws of Normandy are, in a great measure, the defloration of the English laws. Sir M. Hale.

o render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor. Above those passions that this world deform. Thomson.

Having steps; -- said of a cross each of whose extremities finishes in steps growing larger as they leave the center; -- termed also on degrees.

stles vehemently dehort us from unbelief. Bp. Ward. "Exhort" remains, but dehort, a word whose place neither "dissuade" nor any other exactly supplies, has escaped us. Trench.

Yet not Lord Cranstone deigned she greet. Sir W. Scott. Round turned he, as not deigning Those craven ranks to see. Macaulay.

The doctrine or creed of a deist; the belief or system of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation.

otion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.

Any one sent and empowered to act for another; one deputed to represent; a chosen deputy; a representative; a commissioner; a vicar.

One or more persons appointed or chosen, and commissioned to represent others, as in a convention, in Congress, etc.; the collective body of delegates; as, the delegation from Massachusetts; a deputation.

n to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment. And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy Milton.

te, luxurious, or effeminate person. All the vessels, then, which our delicates have, -- those I mean that would seem to be more fine in their houses than their neighbors, -- are only of the Corinth metal. Holland.

ered safe and soon. Gower. Tully was long ere he could be delivered of a few verses, and those poor ones. Peacham.

A human being possessed by a demon or evil spirit; one whose faculties are directly controlled by a demon. The demoniac in the gospel was sometimes cast into the fire. Bates.

y, proof beyond the possibility of doubt; indubitable evidence, to the senses or reason. Those intervening ideas which serve to show the agreement of any two others are called "proofs;" and where agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called demonstration. Locke.…

An officer whose duty it was to announce the doom or sentence pronounced by the court.

He was elected into Magdalen College as a demy; a term by which that society denominates those elsewhere called "scholars," young men who partake of the founder's benefaction, and succeed in their order to vacant fellowships. Johnson.

A squalid place of resort; a wretched dwelling place; a haunt; as, a den of vice. "Those squalid dens, which are the reproach of great capitals." Addison.

with high fever, cutaneous eruption, and severe pains in the head and limbs, resembling those of rheumatism; -- called also breakbone fever. It occurs in India, Egypt, the West Indies, etc., is of short duration, and rarely fatal.

the denomination of units, or of thousands, or of fourths, or of shillings, or of tons. Those [qualities] which are classed under the denomination of sublime. Burke.