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To make foul or impure; to make filthy; to dirty; to befoul; to pollute. They that touch pitch will be defiled. Shak.

explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term. They define virtue to be life ordered according to nature. Robynson (More's Utopia).

steps; -- said of a cross each of whose extremities finishes in steps growing larger as they leave the center; -- termed also on degrees.

f horns; to prevent the growth or the horns of (cattle) by burning their ends soon after they start. See Dishorn. "Dehorning cattle." Farm Journal (1886).

re of a god; divinity; godhead; as, the deity of the Supreme Being is seen in his works. They declared with emphasis the perfect deity and the perfect manhood of Christ. Milman.

ng against, as a charge; to inform against; to accuse; to denounce. As men were delated, they were marked down for such a fine. Bp. Burnet.

ounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. Locke.

That which destroys. [Obs.] They [the Scriptures] are the only deletery of heresies. Jer. Taylor.

A wandering of the mind; a crazy fancy. [Obs.] Heywood.

To conduct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death. Shak. They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions. Clarendon.

or deserves, either of good or ill; desert. [Obs.] By many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents, [they] acquired this reputation. Holland.

death of any illustrious person. After the demise of the Queen [of George II.], in 1737, they [drawing-rooms] were held but twice a week. P. Cunningham.

Downcast; submissive; humble. [R.] They pray with demissive eyelids. Lord (1630).

To let fall; to depress. [R.] They [peacocks] demit and let fall the same [i. e., their train]. Sir T. Browne.

One who is an adherent or advocate of democracy, or government by the people. Whatever they call him, what care I, Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat. Tennyson.

To deprive of current value; to withdraw from use, as money. They [gold mohurs] have been completely demonetized by the [East India] Company. R. Cobden.

mure manner; soberly; gravely; -- now, commonly, with a mere show of gravity or modesty. They . . . looked as demurely as they could; for 't was a hanging matter to laugh unseasonably. Dryden.

ich prevented British troops from assisting in the expulsion of the French from Rome. Southey.

unce the natural rights and duties of; to deprive of citizenship; to denationalize. [R.] They also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or, in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy. Prescott.…

ion of a request. The commissioners, . . . to obtain from the king's subjects as much as they would willingly give, . . . had not to complain of many peremptory denials. Hallam.