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The most quiet or deathlike time; the period of profoundest repose, inertness, or gloom; as, the dead of winter. When the drum beat at dead of night. Campbell.

A debt; an entry on the debtor (Dr.) side of an account; -- mostly used adjectively; as, the debit side of an account.

The Ten Commandments or precepts given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and originally written on two tables of stone.

aud. Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. Amos viii. 5. Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. Milton. Yet still we hug the dear deceit. N. Cotton.

A number expressed in the scale of tens; specifically, and almost exclusively, used as synonymous with a decimal fraction. Circulating, or Circulatory, decimal, a decimal fraction in which the same figure, or set of figures, is constantly repeated; as, 0.354354354; -- called also recurring decimal, repeating decimal, a…

decorticating wood, hulling grain, etc.; also, an instrument for removing surplus bark or moss from fruit trees.

obscure; as, a deep subject or plot. Speculations high or deep. Milton. A question deep almost as the mystery of life. De Quincey. O Lord, . . . thy thought are very deep. Ps. xcii. 5.

An undoing or annulling; destruction. [Obs.] Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Shak.

ce. 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.

That which carries or conveys. Though air be the most favorable deferent of sounds. Bacon.

A tribe of Indians formerly inhabiting the valley of the Delaware River, but now mostly located in the Indian Territory.

Affording exquisite pleasure; delightful; most sweet or grateful to the senses, especially to the taste; charming. Some delicious landscape. Coleridge. One draught of spring's delicious air. Keble. Were not his words delicious Tennyson.

meanor; a crime. The delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented in the most glaring colors. Motley.

Dissolving; liquefying by contact with the air; capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere and becoming liquid; as, deliquescent salts.

. The Dellacruscan School, a name given in satire to a class of affected English writers, most of whom lived in Florence, about a. d. 1785.

The conveyance or transfer of an estate, either in fee for life or for years, most commonly the latter. Bouvier.

Cast down; humble; submissive. [Obs.] He down descended like a most demiss And abject thrall. Spenser.

shrubs or trees, produced by a foreign mineral, usually an oxide of manganese, as in the moss agate; also, a crystallized mineral having an arborescent form, e. g., gold or silver; an arborization.

Having the lid removed; -- said of the capsules of mosses.

to behave; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. Let an ambassador deport himself in the most graceful manner befor a prince. Pope.