Search the Dictionary

An adverse or unfortunate event, esp. a sudden and extraordinary misfortune; a calamity; a serious mishap. But noble souls, through dust and heat, Rise from disaster and defeat The stronger. Longfellow.

To throw off or deliver a load, charge, or burden; to unload; to emit or give vent to fluid or other contents; as, the water pipe discharges freely. The cloud, if it were oily or fatty, would not discharge. Bacon.

To make known, as that which has been kept secret or hidden; to reveal; to expose; as, events have disclosed his designs. If I disclose my passion, Our friendship 's an end. Addison.

favor; to put out of the good graces of any one. A compliance will discommend me to Mr. Coventry. Pepys.

Failure or refusal to comply; noncompliance. A compliance will discommend me to Mr. Coventry, and a discompliance to my lord chancellor. Pepys.

put an end to; to cause to cease; to cease using, to stop; to leave off. Set up their conventicles again, which had been discontinued. Bp. Burnet. I have discontinued school Above a twelvemonth. Shak. Taught the Greek tongue, discontinued before in these parts the space of seven hundred years. Daniel. They modify and…

eaks off or away from; an absentee. He was no gadder abroad, not discontinuer from his convent for a long time. Fuller.

To take into consideration beforehand; to anticipate and form conclusions concerning (an event).

of the blood. A brilliant career of discovery and conquest. Prescott. We speak of the "invention" of printing, the discovery of America. Trench.

y presenting favorable and adverse considerations; to debate; to sift; to investigate; to ventilate. "We sat and . . . discussed the farm . . . and the price of grain." Tennyson. "To discuss questions of taste." Macaulay.

To pour out or discharge at the mouth, as a stream; to vent; to discharge into an ocean, a lake, etc. Rolling down, the steep Timavdisembogues his waves. Addison.

en disgusted at failing. J. H. Newman. Alarmed and disgusted by the proceedings of the convention. Macaulay.

To cut off from an inheritance or from hereditary succession; to prevent, as an heir, from coming into possession of any property or right, which, by law or custom, would devolve on him in the course of descent. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity! South.

soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent. Piston displacement (Mech.), the volume of the space swept through, or weight of steam, water, etc., displaced, in a given time, by the piston of a steam engine o…

ould probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States, as difficult for the Convention. A. Hamilton. -- Dis*sat`is*fac"to*ri*ness, n.

A trifle which wastes time or distracts attention. Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. Swift. Dissipation of energy. Same as Degradation of energy, under Degradation.

Having the power to dissolve anything; solvent. [Obs.] Frampton.

Length or interval of time; period, past or future, between two eras or events. Ten years' distance between one and the other. Prior. The writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years. Playfair.

ion of substances by themselves, or without the addition of water or of other volatile solvent; as, the dry distillation of citric acid. -- Fractional distillation. (Chem.) See under Fractional.

The quality or state of being distinct; a separation or difference that prevents confusion of parts or things. The soul's . . . distinctness from the body. Cudworth.