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A microscopic plant of the family Desmidiæ, a group of unicellular algæ in which the species have a greenish color, and the cells generally appear as if they consisted of two coalescing halves.

A sort of electroscope, invented by Rousseau, in which the dry pile is employed to measure the amount of electricity transmitted by different bodies, or to determine their conducting power. Nichol.

A miner's compass. Dial bird (Zoöl.), an Indian bird (Copsychus saularius), allied to the European robin. The name is also given to other related species. -- Dial lock, a lock provided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock…

Having the quality of unloosing or separating. Clarke. Dialytic telescope, an achromatic telescope in which the colored dispersion produced by a single object lens of crown glass is corrected by a smaller concave lens, or combination of lenses, of high dispersive power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the…

st shade. Pope. Diana monkey (Zoöl.), a handsome, white-bearded monkey of West Africa (Cercopithecus Diana).

in instruments to cut off marginal portions of a beam of light, as at the focus of a telescope.

Poured out; widely spread; not restrained; copious; full; esp., of style, opposed to concise or terse; verbose; prolix; as, a diffuse style; a diffuse writer. A diffuse and various knowledge of divine and human things. Milton.

ially, in writing, the use of a great or excessive number of word to express the meaning; copiousness; verbosity; prolixity.

diffusing; capable of spreading every way by flowing; spreading widely; widely reaching; copious; diffuse. "A plentiful and diffusive perfume." Hare.

To enlarge upon; to relate at large; to tell copiously or diffusely. [R.] Do me the favor to dilate at full What hath befallen of them and thee till now. Shak.

Extent; reach; scope; importance; as, a project of large dimensions.

Of or pertaining to dinner. [R.] The dinnerly officer. Copley.

A hydrous silicate of copper, occurring in emerald-green crystals.

of the refraction of light; refractive; as, the dioptric system; a dioptric glass or telescope. "Dioptrical principles." Nichol. Dioptric curve (Geom.), a Cartesian oval. See under Cartesian.

To yield or give up; to depart. [Obs.] I dare not discede from my copy a tittle. Fuller.

courses after supper. Shak. Filling the head with variety of thoughts, and the mouth with copious discourse. Locke.

out, or perceived; as, many minute animals are discoverable only by the help of the microscope; truths discoverable by human industry.

appearing as a point and not expanded into a disk, as the image of a faint star in a telescope.

of preparations made from them. It is usually, but not always, distinguished from a pharmacopoeia in that it issued by private parties, and not by an official body or by government.

Used for or in dissecting; as, a dissecting knife; a dissecting microscope.