Search the Dictionary

r from before the purpose, state, or act. My common illness disqualifies me for all conversation; I mean my deafness. Swift. Me are not disqualified by their engagements in trade from being received in high society. Southey.

gas or vapor from volatile liquids or solids, by heat in a retort or still, and the condensation of the products as far as possible by a cool receiver, alembic, or condenser; rectification; vaporization; condensation; as, the distillation of illuminating gas and coal, of alcohol from sour mash, or of boric acid in stea…

The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction. Bouvier. Kent. Burrill. If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle. Spenser. The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for. Blackstone. Abuse of distress. (Law) See under Abuse…

body politic; public commotion; tumult. The disturbance was made to support a general accusation against the province. Bancroft.

Gradual cessation of use or custom; neglect of use; disuse. [R.] Hooker.

Cessation of use, practice, or exercise; inusitation; desuetude; as, the limbs lose their strength by disuse. The disuse of the tongue in the only . . . remedy. Addison. Church discipline then fell into disuse. Southey.

rn away from any occupation, business, or study; to cause to have lively and agreeable sensations; 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.

the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes. The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals. Gibbon.

Giddiness; a whirling sensation in the head; vertigo.

Having in the head a sensation of whirling, with a tendency to fall; vertiginous; giddy; hence, confused; indistinct. Alas! his brain was dizzy. Drayton.

s in stating opinion. The self-importance of his demeanor, and the dogmatism of his conversation. Sir W. Scott.

authorizes it to appropriate any part thereof to a necessary public use, reasonable compensation being made.

ce naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss. Dorsal vessel (Zoöl.), a central pulsating blood vessel along the back of insects, acting as a heart.

efraction. -- Double salt. (Chem.) (a) A mixed salt of any polybasic acid which has been saturated by different bases or basic radicals, as the double carbonate of sodium and potassium, NaKCO3.6H2O. (b) A molecular combination of two distinct salts, as common alum, which consists of the sulphate of aluminium, and the…

Exciting cheerless sensations, feelings, or associations; comfortless; dismal; gloomy. " Dreary shades." Dryden. "The dreary ground." Prior. Full many a dreary anxious hour. Keble. Johnson entered on his vocation in the most dreary part of that dreary interval which separated two ages of prosperity. Macaulay.…

To steep in moisture; to wet thoroughly; to soak; to saturate with water or other liquid; to immerse. Now dam the ditches and the floods restrain; Their moisture has already drenched the plain. Dryden.

uid, for quenching thirst or other purpose; to imbibe; to receive or partake of, as if in satisfaction of thirst; as, to drink from a spring. Gird thyself, and serve me, till have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. Luke xvii. 8. He shall drink of the wrath the Almighty. Job xxi. 20. Drink of the…

Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood. Deut. xxxii. 42.

Saturated with liquid or moisture; drenched. Let the earth be drunken with our blood. Shak.

An explosive substance consisting essentially of sawdust or wood pulp, saturated with nitroglycerin and other similar nitro compounds. It is inferior to dynamite, and is more liable to explosion.