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Dire; dreadful; terrible; calamitous; woeful; as, a direful fiend; a direful day. -- Dire"ful*ly, adv. -- Dire"ful*ness, n.

ritional process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism. The breaking down of already existing chemical compounds into simpler ones, sometimes called disassimilation. Martin.

To obtain for the first time sight or knowledge of, as of a thing existing already, but not perceived or known; to find; to ascertain; to espy; to detect. Some to discover islands far away. Shak.

To put in a dish, ready for the table.

To suffer (the hair) to hang loosely or disorderly; to spread or throw (the hair) in disorder; -- used chiefly in the passive participle. With garments rent and hair disheveled, Wringing her hands and making piteous moan. Spenser.

Capable of being disintegrated, or reduced to fragments or powder. Argillo-calcite is readily disintegrable by exposure. Kirwan.

To spread out; to expand. [Obs.] Bailey.

To scatter abroad; to drive to different parts; to distribute; to diffuse; to spread; as, the Jews are dispersed among all nations. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge. Prov. xv. 7. Two lions, in the still, dark night, A herd of beeves disperse. Cowper.

To unfold; to spread wide; to expand; to stretch out; to spread. The northern wind his wings did broad display. Spenser.

To sow broadcast or as seed; to scatter for growth and propagation, like seed; to spread abroad; to diffuse; as, principles, ideas, opinions, and errors are disseminated when they are spread abroad for propagation.

state of being disseminated; diffusion for propagation and permanence; a scattering or spreading abroad, as of ideas, beliefs, etc. The universal dissemination of those writings. Wayland.

One who, or that which, disseminates, spreads, or propagates; as, disseminators of disease.

The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand. I will the distaff hold; come thou and spin. Fairfax.

Breadth. [Obs.] Sir H. Wotton.

The act of distending; the act of stretching in breadth or in all directions; the state of being Distended; as, the distention of the lungs.

To spread (ink) evenly, as upon a roller or a table.

To prepare for action or use; to make ready; to dight. [Obs.] His hideous club aloft he dites. Spenser.

A double reading, or twofold interpretation, as of a Scripture text. [R.]

A sailor's small bag to hold thread, needles, tape, etc.; -- also called sailor's housewife.

A small box to hold a sailor's thread, needless, comb, etc.