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The act of defiling, or state of being defiled, whether physically or morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness. Defilements of the flesh. Hopkins. The chaste can not rake into such filth without danger of defilement. Addison.

Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base. The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition. Motley.

Three figures taken together in numeration; thus, 140 is one degree, 222,140 two degrees.

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…

Having the constituent parts massed or crowded together; close; compact; thick; containing much matter in a small space; heavy; opaque; as, a dense crowd; a dense forest; a dense fog. All sorts of bodies, firm and fluid, dense and rare. Ray. To replace the cloudy barrier dense. Cowper.

To deprive of inhabitants, whether by death or by expulsion; to reduce greatly the populousness of; to dispeople; to unpeople. Where is this viper, That would depopulate the city Shak.

A pair of toothed wheels which work together. [R.]

; proceeding from an ancestor or source. More than mortal grace Speaks thee descendent of ethereal race. Pope.

; to espy; to recognize; to discern; to discover. And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judg. i. 23. Edmund, I think, is gone . . . to descry The strength o' the enemy. Shak. And now their way to earth they had descried. Milton.

According to desert (whether good or evil); justly.

Betrothal. [Obs.] Ethelbert . . . went peaceably to King Offa for desponsage of Athilrid, his daughter. Foxe.

e necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual. But who can turn the stream of destiny Spenser. Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. Longfellow. The Destinies (Anc. Myth.), the three Parcæ,…

d a pernicious doctrine or published an ill book must know that his life determine not together. South. Estates may determine on future contingencies. Blackstone.

d; an object of devotion. [R.] Churches and altars, priests and all devotions, Tumbled together into rude chaos. Beau. & Fl. Days of devotion. See under Day.

all atonement; both diagonal contraries, as much allowing one another as day and night together in one hemisphere. Milton.

The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterized by local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the Ionic and Attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned. In…

metaphysics. By Kant, it was employed to signify the logic of appearances or illusions, whether these arise from accident or error, or from those necessary limitations which, according to this philosopher, originate in the constitution of the human intellect.

Powdered aromatic herbs, sometimes made into little balls and strung together. [Obs.]

iet or food; rules for diet. To suppose that the whole of dietetics lies in determining whether or not bread is more nutritive than potatoes. H. Spencer.

The supposed act or tendency in being of every kind, whether organic or inorganic, to assume or produce a more complex structure or functions.