Search the Dictionary

Acting directly, as one part upon another, without the intervention of other working parts. Direct-acting steam engine, one in which motion is transmitted to the crank without the intervention of a beam or lever; -- also called direct-action steam engine. -- Direct-acting steam pump, one in which the steam piston rod…

Sordid; base; groveling; as, a dirty fellow. The creature's at his dirty work again. Pope.

Release or dismissal from an office, employment, etc.; dismission; as, the discharge of a workman by his employer.

To deprive of a crown. The end had crowned the work; it not unreasonably discrowned the workman. Motley.

er from the power of charms or spells; to free from fascination or delusion. Haste to thy work; a noble stroke or two Ends all the charms, and disenchants the grove. Dryden.

To strip of furniture and equipments, guns, etc.; to unrig; to strip of walls or outworks; to break down; as, to dismantle a fort, a town, or a ship. A dismantled house, without windows or shutters to keep out the rain. Macaulay.

lked of. Shak. [The] harvest men . . . almost in one fair day dispatcheth all the harvest work. Robynson (More's Utopia).

have received the law by the disposition of angels. Acts vii. 53. The disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be of a piece. Dryden.

in a perfect body none of the limbs are disproportionate; it is wisdom not to undertake a work disproportionate means. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*ate*ly, adv. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*ate*ness, n.

The building and works where distilling, esp. of alcoholic liquors, is carried on.

tributive operation (Math.), any operation which either consists of two or more parts, or works upon two or more things, and which is such that the result of the total operation is the same as the aggregated result of the two or more partial operations. Ordinary multiplication is distributive, since a × (b + c) = ab +…

ons; to amuse; to entertain; as, children are diverted with sports; men are diverted with works of wit and humor. We are amused by a tale, diverted by a comedy. C. J. Smith.

iving bell, a hollow inverted vessel, sometimes bell-shaped, in which men may descend and work under water, respiration being sustained by the compressed air at the top, by fresh air pumped in through a tube from above. -- Diving dress. See Submarine armor, under Submarine. -- Diving stone, a kind of jasper.…

Calf stained dark brown and worked without gilding, often used for theological books.

ood or a bad act; do our duty; to do what I can. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. Ex. xx. 9. We did not do these things. Ld. Lytton. You can not do wrong without suffering wrong. Emerson. Hence: To do homage, honor, favor, justice, etc., to render homage, honor, etc.

Sullenly obstinate; obstinately determined or persistent; as, dogged resolution; dogged work.

Lit., given; hence, in a literary work, as a drama or tale, that which is assumed as to characters, situation, etc., as a basis for the plot or story. W. E. Henley.

ed to a kind of rowing in which the rowers sit side by side in twos, a pair of oars being worked from each bank or thwart.

tupefy. [Obs.] I was an hour . . . in casting up about twenty sums, being dozed with much work. Pepys. They left for a long time dozed and benumbed. South.

A wooden box, used in salt works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.