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The act of going downward; descent; falling or sinking; declension; degradation. Oblique descension (Astron.), the degree or arc of the equator which descends, with a celestial object, below the horizon of an oblique sphere. -- Right descension, the degree or arc of the equator which descends below the horizon of a ri…

Going out of the right or common course; going astray; erring; wandering; as, a devious step.

uish. Thou mayest difference gods from men. Chapman. Kings, in receiving justice and undergoing trial, are not differenced from the meanest subject. Milton. So completely differenced by their separate and individual characters that we at once acknowledge them as distinct persons. Sir W. Scott.

The state of being dissolved, or of undergoing liquefaction. A man of continual dissolution and thaw. Shak.

Daily; recurring every day; performed in a day; going through its changes in a day; constituting the measure of a day; as, a diurnal fever; a diurnal task; diurnal aberration, or diurnal parallax; the diurnal revolution of the earth. Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring. Shak…

A wandering about or going astray; digression. Let us be set down at Queen's Crawley without further divagation. Thackeray.

Downward; going down; sloping; as, a down stroke; a down grade; a down train on a railway. Down draught, a downward draft, as in a flue, chimney, shaft of a mine, etc. -- Down in the mouth, chopfallen; dejected.

ot completed; implying duration. Its durative tense, which expresses the thought of it as going on. J. Byrne.

lang] "My lord, quoth the king, presently deposit your hundred pounds in gold, or else no going hence all the days of your life. . . . The Abbot down with his dust, and glad he escaped so, returned to Reading." Fuller. -- Dust brand (Bot.), a fungous plant (Ustilago Carbo); -- called also smut. -- Gold dust, fine par…

Going toward the east, or in the direction of east; as, an eastern voyage. Eastern Church. See Greek Church, under Greek.

Receding; going out; falling; shallow; low. The water there is otherwise very low and ebb. Holland.

The act of going out or leaving, or the power to leave; departure. Embarred from all egress and regress. Holland. Gates of burning adamant, Barred over us, prohibit all egress. Milton.

The act of going; egress. [R.] B. Jonson.

The act of putting or going on board of a vessel; as, the embarkation of troops.

onsideration; to admit, treat, or make use of; as, to entertain a proposal. I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke. De Quincey. A rumor gained ground, -- and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people. Hawthorne.

The act of entering or going into; ingress; as, the entrance of a person into a house or an apartment; hence, the act of taking possession, as of property, or of office; as, the entrance of an heir upon his inheritance, or of a magistrate into office.

parent time, or between the time of day indicated by the sun, and that by a perfect clock going uniformly all the year round. -- Equation clock or watch, a timepiece made to exhibit the differences between mean solar and apparent solar time. Knight. -- Normal equation. See under Normal. -- Personal equation (Astron.…

ommission; as, the servant was sent on an errand; to do an errand. Also, one's purpose in going anywhere. I have a secret errand to thee, O king. Judg. iii. 19. I will not eat till I have told mine errand. Gen. xxiv. 33. mission.

The act of exaggerating; the act of doing or representing in an excessive manner; a going beyond the bounds of truth reason, or justice; a hyperbolical representation; hyperbole; overstatement. No need of an exaggeration of what they saw. I. Taylor.

The state of surpassing or going beyond limits; the being of a measure beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; that which exceeds what is usual or prover; immoderateness; superfluity; superabundance; extravagance; as, an excess of provisions or of light. To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on th…