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The state of being cultivated; advancement in physical, intellectual, or moral condition; refinement; culture. Italy . . . was but imperfectly reduced to cultivation before the irruption of the barbarians. Hallam.

of, or any labor or means employed for, training, disciplining, or refining the moral and intellectual nature of man; as. the culture of the mind. If vain our toil We ought to blame theculture, not the soil. Pepe.

Destitute of knowledge and culture; in moral or intellectual darkness; unrefined; ignorant. The age wherin he lived was dark, but he Cobld not want light who taught the world oto see. Denhan. The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediæval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night. Hallam.…

ore -May strengthen my decays. Herbert. His [Johnson's] failure was not to be ascribed to intellectual decay. Macaulay. Which has caused the decay of the consonants to follow somewhat different laws. James Byrne.

Of penetrating or far-reaching intellect; not superficial; thoroughly skilled; sagacious; cunning. Deep clerks she dumbs. Shak.

e state of being reduced in rank, character, or reputation; baseness; moral, physical, or intellectual degeneracy; disgrace; abasement; debasement. The . . . degradation of a needy man of letters. Macaulay. Deplorable is the degradation of our nature. South. Moments there frequently must be, when a sidegradation of his…

ation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard agains…

To disturb in the orderly or normal action of the intellect; to render insane.

itations which, according to this philosopher, originate in the constitution of the human intellect.

Dullness, or want of clearness, of vision or of intellectual perception. Dr. H. More.

State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like. Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted. Milton. Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability. Bancroft.

; to destroy the force, vigor, or power of action of; to deprive of competent physical or intellectual power; to incapacitate; to disqualify; to make incompetent or unfit for service; to impair. A Christian's life is a perpetual exercise, a wrestling and warfare, for which sensual pleasure disables him. Jer. Taylor. An…

soon dissipated his fears. Cook. The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy. Hazlitt.

Doltlike; dull in intellect; stupid; blockish; as, a doltish clown. -- Dolt"ish*ly, adv. -- Dolt"ish*ness, n.

To be weak-minded, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel. Time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died. South.…

One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt. I never knew this town without dunces of figure. Swift.

To make stupid in intellect. [R.] Bp. Warburton.

Intellectually clouded. Though dusky wits dare scorn astrology. Sir P. Sidney.

escribed by the rounding of his head, and his earmark. Robynson (More's Utopia). A set of intellectual ideas . . . have earmarks upon them, no tokens of a particular proprietor. Burrow.

e state of being edified; a building up, especially in a moral or spiritual sense; moral, intellectual, or spiritual improvement; instruction. The assured edification of his church. Bp. Hall. Out of these magazines I shall supply the town with what may tend to their edification. Addison.