Search the Dictionary

A cleansing quality or power. De Foe.

To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair; as, to deteriorate the mind. Whately. The art of war . . . was greatly deteriorated. Southey.

Worse state or quality; inferiority. "The deteriority of the diet." [R.] Ray.

The quality of being determinable; determinableness. Coleridge.

The quality of mind reaches definite conclusions; decision of character; resoluteness. He only is a well-made man who has a good determination. Emerson.

The quality of cleansing.

The quality or state of being detestable.

The quality of being detractive.

The quality of being detrimental; injuriousness.

To make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality. -- De*vo`cal*i*za"tion, n. If we take a high vowel, such as (i) [= nearly i of bit], and devocalize it, we obtain a hiss which is quite distinct enough to stand for a weak (jh). H. Sweet.

Quality or state of being devout.

The quality of being dexterous; dexterity.

The state of being on the right-hand side; also, the quality of being right-handed; right-handedness. Sir T. Browne.

Having the quality of unloosing or separating. Clarke. Dialytic telescope, an achromatic telescope in which the colored dispersion produced by a single object lens of crown glass is corrected by a smaller concave lens, or combination of lenses, of high dispersive power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the…

The quality of being diaphanous; transparency; pellucidness.

The property of transmitting radiant heat; the quality of being diathermous. Melloni.

fferent or unlike; distinction; dissimilarity; unlikeness; variation; as, a difference of quality in paper; a difference in degrees of heat, or of light; what is the difference between the innocent and the guilty Differencies of administration, but the same Lord. 1 Cor. xii. 5.

Of various or contrary nature, form, or quality; partially or totally unlike; dissimilar; as, different kinds of food or drink; different states of health; different shapes; different degrees of excellence. Men are as different from each other, as the regions in which they are born are different. Dryden.…

The quality of being diffuse; especially, in writing, the use of a great or excessive number of word to express the meaning; copiousness; verbosity; prolixity.

The quality of being diffusible; capability of being poured or spread out.