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The period of the earth's revolution on its axis. -- ordinarily divided into twenty-four hours. It is measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and takes a specific name from that of the body. Thus, if this is the sun, the day (the interval between two success…

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.

peculiars, a dean holding a preferment which has some peculiarity relative to spiritual superiors and the jurisdiction exercised in it. [Eng.] -- Rural dean, one having, under the bishop, the especial care and inspection of the clergy within certain parishes or districts of the diocese.

Of disagreeable things and antipathies. In our dear peril. Shak. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day. Shak.

Bought at a high price; as, dear-bought experience.

Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.

A group or division of ten; esp., a period of ten years; a decennium; as, a decade of years or days; a decade of soldiers; the second decade of Livy. [Written also decad.] During this notable decade of years. Gladstone.

to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Goldsmith.

A period of ten years.

Consisting of ten years; happening every ten years; as, a decennial period; decennial games. Hallam.

A period of ten years. "The present decennium." Hallam. "The last decennium of Chaucer's life." A. W. Ward.

A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion. Their fathers lived in the decline of literature. Swift.…

g and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other; as, a decussated period.

frustrate, as hope; to deprive, as of an estate. He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes. Tillotson. The escheators . . . defeated the right heir of his succession. Hallam. In one instance he defeated his own purpose. A. W. Ward.…

An imaginary circle surrounding the earth, in whose periphery either the heavenly body or the center of the heavenly body's epicycle was supposed to be carried round.

ent or greatness; limited; fixed; as, definite dimensions; a definite measure; a definite period or interval. Elements combine in definite proportions. Whewell.

type; as, the degenerationists hold that savagery is the result of degeneration from a superior state.

The act of delivering or freeing from restraint, captivity, peril, and the like; rescue; as, the deliverance of a captive. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Luke iv. 18. One death or one deliverance we will share. Dryden.

e, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.

bs.] Denouncing wrath to come. Milton. I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish. Deut. xxx. 18.