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Decayed; tasteless; dead; as, a deaf nut; deaf corn. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deaf, void, light, and naught. Holland. Deaf and dumb, without the sense of hearing or the faculty of speech. See Deaf-mute.…

Lonely; solitary. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

, or correction; as, he has turbulent passions to deal with. To deal by, to treat, either well or ill; as, to deal well by servants. "Such an one deals not fairly by his own mind." Locke. -- To deal in. (a) To have to do with; to be engaged in; to practice; as, they deal in political matters. (b) To buy and sell; to f…

To engage in strife or combat; to fight. [Obs.] Chaucer. Well could he tourney and in lists debate. Spenser.

Pertaining to a dean or deanery. His rectorial as well as decanal residence. Churton. Decanal side, the side of the choir on which the dean's tall is placed. -- Decanal stall, the stall allotted to the dean in the choir, on the right or south side of the chancel. Shipley.

Comely; shapely; well-formed. [Archaic] A sable stole of cyprus lawn Over thy decent shoulders drawn. Milton. By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed. Pope.

r. [R.] Also used substantively. "Such decuman billows." Gauden. "The baffled decuman." Lowell.

Feeling no compunction; apathetic. [R.] Hallywell.

of causes is deductive. Glanvill. Notions and ideas . . . used in a deductive process. Whewell.

A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process. Cowell.

To make deep or deeper; to increase the depth of; to sink lower; as, to deepen a well or a channel. It would . . . deepen the bed of the Tiber. Addison.

rd; respect; complaisance. Deference to the authority of thoughtful and sagacious men. Whewell. Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. Shenstone.

t clearly; as, the defining power of an optical instrument. Rings . . . very distinct and well defined. Sir I. Newton.

nite measure; a definite period or interval. Elements combine in definite proportions. Whewell.

f high degree." Dryden. "A knight is your degree." Shak. "Lord or lady of high degree." Lowell.

A casting down; depression. [Obs. or Archaic] Hallywell.

An accuser; an informer. [R.] Howell.

Formed with deliberation; well-advised; carefully considered; not sudden or rash; as, a deliberate opinion; a deliberate measure or result. Settled visage and deliberate word. Shak.

Fig.: Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. "The deluge of summer." Lowell. A fiery deluge fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison.…

ling; delusory; as, delusive arts; a delusive dream. Delusive and unsubstantial ideas. Whewell. -- De*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- De*lu"sive*ness, n.