Search the Dictionary

ions; to tend from one point and recede from each other; to tend to spread apart; to turn aside or deviate (as from a given direction); -- opposed to converge; as, rays of light diverge as they proceed from the sun.

To turn aside. [Obs.] The redcross knight diverst, but forth rode Britomart. Spenser.

The act of turning aside from any course, occupation, or object; as, the diversion of a stream from its channel; diversion of the mind from business.

To turn aside; to turn off from any course or intended application; to deflect; as, to divert a river from its channel; to divert commerce from its usual course. That crude apple that diverted Eve. Milton.

uff done up with the famous yellow starch." Hawthorne. -- To do way, to put away; to lay aside. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To do with, to dispose of; to make use of; to employ; -- usually preceded by what. "Men are many times brought to that extremity, that were it not for God they would not know what to do with themselves."…

To start suddenly aside, as to avoid a blow or a missile; to shift place by a sudden start. Milton.

That part of a bridge which may be raised, swung round, or drawn aside; the movable part of a drawbridge. See the Note under Drawbridge. [U.S.]

of which either the whole or a part is made to be raised up, let down, or drawn or turned aside, to admit or hinder communication at pleasure, as before the gate of a town or castle, or over a navigable river or canal.

To let go; to dismiss; to set aside; to have done with; to discontinue; to forsake; to give up; to omit. They suddenly drop't the pursuit. S. Sharp. That astonishing ease with which fine ladies drop you and pick you up again. Thackeray. The connection had been dropped many years. Sir W. Scott. Dropping the too rough H…

To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion. " Will duck his head aside. Swift.

To set aside as unimportant in a process of inductive inquiry; to leave out of consideration. Eliminate errors that have been gathering and accumulating. Lowth.

Any clear, level space used for public walks or drives; esp., a terrace by the seaside.

To part with for a substitute; to lay aside, quit, or resign (something being received in place of the thing as, to exchange a palace for cell. And death for life exchanged foolishly. Spenser. To shift his being Is to exchange one misery with another. Shak.

ress, the working dress of soldiers. -- Fatigue duty (Mil.), labor exacted from soldiers aside from the use of arms. Farrow. -- Fatigue party, a party of soldiers on fatigue duty.

To cheat; to trick; to impose on. Shak. To fob off, to shift off by an artifice; to put aside; to delude with a trick."A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people." Milton.

fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse. For which his horse fearé gan to turn, And leep aside, and foundrede as he leep. Chaucer.

To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. "Your arrow hath glanced". Shak. On me the curse aslope Glanced on the ground. Milton.

To inclose for mowing; to set aside for grass. "A ground . . . hained in." Holland.

That which happens aside from the main design; an accidental or subordinate action or event. No person, no incident, in a play but must be of use to carry on the main design. Dryden.

Not to be diverted or turned aside. [R.] Lamb.