Search the Dictionary

Dealing; transaction. [Obs.] Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how We got the victory. Beau. & Fl.

ce of vesture of youth and age, men and women. Sir T. Elyot. There is no real discrepancy between these two genealogies. G. S. Faber.

lly as to matters of propriety and self- control; prudence; circumspection; wariness. The better part of valor is discretion. Shak. The greatest parts without discretion may be fatal to their owner. Hume.

In palmistry, applied to the line which marks the separation between the hand and the arm.

distinguish accurately; as, in judging of evidence, we should be careful to discriminate between probability and slight presumption.

ing, distinguishing, or noting and marking differences. To make an anxious discrimination between the miracle absolute and providential. Trench.

rinciple; want of fairness and straightforwardness; a disposition to defraud, deceive, or betray; faithlessness.

Reduction from a better to a worse state; as, disimprovement of the earth.

To refuse to acknowledge or allow; to deny. Then they, who brother's better claim disown, Expel their parents, and usurp the throne. Dryden.

quality; difference in age, rank, condition, or excellence; dissimilitude; -- followed by between, in, of, as to, etc.; as, disparity in, or of, years; a disparity as to color. The disparity between God and his intelligent creatures. I. Taylor. The disparity of numbers was not such as ought to cause any uneasiness. Mac…

The difference between the thickness of the metal at the mouth and at the breech of a piece of ordnance. On account of the dispart, the line of aim or line of metal, which is in a plane passing through the axis of the gun, always makes a small angle with the axis. Eng. Cys.

Lack of sympathy; want of passion; apathy. [R.] Many discrepancies and some dispathies between us. Southey.

parts of an animal or vegetable body; as, a dissecting aneurism, one which makes its way between or within the coats of an artery.

One of the transverse, calcareous partitions between the radiating septa of a coral.

Want of resemblance; unlikeness; dissimilarity. Dissimilitude between the Divinity and images. Stillingfleet.

The space between two objects; the length of a line, especially the shortest line joining two points or things that are separate; measure of separation in place. Every particle attracts every other with a force . . . inversely proportioned to the square of the distance. Sir I. Newton.

The act of distinguishing or denoting the differences between objects, or the qualities by which one is known from others; exercise of discernment; discrimination. To take away therefore that error, which confusion breedeth, distinction is requisite. Hooker.

To make distinctions; to perceive the difference; to exercise discrimination; -- with between; as, a judge distinguishes between cases apparently similar, but differing in principle.

t fear and pity." Spenser. As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror. Shak. To doubt betwixt our senses and our souls Which are the most distraught and full of pain. Mrs. Browning.

ion of territory of undefined extent; a region; a country; a tract. These districts which between the tropics lie. Blackstone. Congressional district. See under Congressional. -- District attorney, the prosecuting officer of a district or district court. -- District court, a subordinate municipal, state, or United St…