Search the Dictionary

One against whom a fictitious action of fine was brought. [Obs.] Burrill.

A gradual wearing down or wasting, as of rocks and banks, by the action of water, fro

take counsel with one's self; to weigh the arguments for and against a proposed course of action; to reflect; to consider; to hesitate in deciding; -- sometimes with on, upon, concerning. The woman the deliberation is lost. Addison.

of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. Cowper.

tion of mind; a high-wrought state of pleasurable feeling; lively pleasure; extreme satisfaction; joy. Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Shak. A fool hath no delight in understanding. Prov. xviii. 2.

Highly pleasing; affording great pleasure and satisfaction. "Delightful bowers." Spenser. "Delightful fruit." Milton.

A state in which the thoughts, expressions, and actions are wild, irregular, and incoherent; mental aberration; a roving or wandering of the mind, -- usually dependent on a fever or some other disease, and so distinguished from mania, or madness.

To give forth in action or exercise; to discharge; as, to deliver a blow; to deliver a broadside, or a ball. Shaking his head and delivering some show of tears. Sidney. An uninstructed bowler . . . thinks to attain the jack by delivering his bowl straightforward. Sir W. Scott.

The act of giving birth; parturition; the expulsion or extraction of a fetus and its membranes.

One who demands; the plaintiff in a real action; any plaintiff.

misconduct; -- the opposite of Ant: merit. They see no merit or demerit in any man or any action. Burke. Secure, unless forfeited by any demerit or offense. Sir W. Temple.

r hesitate about. [Obs.] The latter I demur, for in their looks Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. Milton.

A stop or pause by a party to an action, for the judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further. Demurrer to evidence, an e…

enominates those elsewhere called "scholars," young men who partake of the founder's benefaction, and succeed in their order to vacant fellowships. Johnson.

That number placed below the line in vulgar fractions which shows into how many parts the integer or unit is divided.

e washing away of the overlying earth, etc.; or the excavation and removal of them by the action of running water.

A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature. Macaulay.

Deviation or abandonment, as from or of a rule or course of action, a plan, or a purpose. Any departure from a national standard. Prescott.

ubordinate; subordination; concatenation; connection; reliance; trust. Any long series of action, the parts of which have very much dependency each on the other. Sir J. Reynolds. So that they may acknowledge their dependency on the crown of England. Bacon.

The act of depriving of polarity, or the result of such action; reduction to an unpolarized condition. Depolarization of light (Opt.), a change in the plane of polarization of rays, especially by a crystalline medium, such that the light which had been extinguished by the analyzer reappears as if the polarization had b…