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A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Divalent; -- said of a base or radical as capable of saturating two acid monad radicals or a dibasic acid. Cf. Dibasic, a., and Biacid.

g to the class Diadelphia; having the stamens united into two bodies by their filaments (said of a plant or flower); grouped into two bundles or sets by coalescence of the filaments (said of stamens).

Having a single, distinct, diagonal cleavage; -- said of crystals. Mohs.

n atoms capable of replacement by basic atoms or radicals, in forming salts; bibasic; -- said of acids, as oxalic or sulphuric acids. Cf. Diacid, Bibasic.

Furnishing or giving two colors; -- said of defective vision, in which all the compound colors are resolvable into two elements instead of three. Sir J. Herschel.

To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another. Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate. Bacon.

called from the trick of Dido, who having bought so much land as a hide would cover, is said to have cut it into thin strips long enough to inclose a spot for a citadel.

eparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; -- said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought. To die by the…

Relating to differences of motion or leverage; producing effects by such differences; said of mechanism. Differential calculus. (Math.) See under Calculus. -- Differential coefficient, the limit of the ratio of the increment of a function of a variable to the increment of the variable itself, when these increments are…

not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve. The diffident maidens, Folding their hands in prayer. Longfellow.

A medicine or an article of food that aids digestion, or strengthens digestive power. Rice is . . . a great restorer of health, and a great digester. Sir W. Temple.

That which aids digestion, as a food or medicine. Chaucer. That digestive [a cigar] had become to me as necessary as the meal itself. Blackw. Mag.

or ecclesiastical; degree of excellence; preferment; exaltation. Macaulay. And the king said, What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Esth. vi. 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, . . . the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Gen. xlix. 3.

The elongation, or angular distance from the sun; -- said chiefly of the inferior planets. [R.]

al ruin, by misuse or through neglect; to destroy the fairness and good condition of; -- said of a building. If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony. Blackstone.

Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; -- said of actions or measures. Alva, as usual, brought his dilatory policy to bear upon hiMotley. Dilatory plea (Law), a plea designed to create delay in the trial of a cause, generally founded upon some matter not connected with the merits of the case.…

Effected or produced by a flood or deluge of water; -- said of coarse and imperfectly stratified deposits along ancient or existing water courses. Similar unstratified deposits were formed by the agency of ice. The time of deposition has been called the Diluvian epoch.

as the unit of length and inversely as the unit of time, the dimensions of velocity are said to be length ÷ time; the dimensions of work are mass × (length)2 ÷ (time)2; the dimensions of density are mass ÷ (length)3. Dimension lumber, Dimension scantling, or Dimension stock (Carp.), lumber for building, etc., cut to t…

with Duke Humphrey, to go without dinner; -- a phrase common in Elizabethan literature, said to be from the practice of the poor gentry, who beguiled the dinner hour by a promenade near the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in Old Saint Paul's.