Search the Dictionary

will, power, or aid of something else; not self-sustaining; contingent or conditioned; subordinate; -- often with on or upon; as, dependent on God; dependent upon friends. England, long dependent and degraded, was again a power of the first rank. Macaulay. Dependent covenant or contract (Law), one not binding until som…

To turn the course of, as water; to divert and distribute into subordinate channels; to diffuse; to communicate; to transmit; -- followed by to, into, on, upon. [Obs.] For fear it [water] choke up the pits . . . they [the workman] derive it by other drains. Holland. Her due loves derived to that vile witch's share. Spe…

Division or distribution of genera into two species; division into two subordinate parts.

To say; to utter; to communicate authoritatively; to deliver (a command) to a subordinate; to declare with authority; to impose; as, to dictate the terms of a treaty; a general dictates orders to his troops. Whatsoever is dictated to us by God must be believed. Watts.

A subordinate or local assembly; a diet of inferior rank.

g disconnected; separation; want of union. Nothing was therefore to be left in all the subordinate members but weakness, disconnection, and confusion. Burke.

Inordinate; irregular; vicious. [Obs.] Chaucer.

torney, the prosecuting officer of a district or district court. -- District court, a subordinate municipal, state, or United States tribunal, having jurisdiction in certain cases within a judicial district. -- District judge, one who presides over a district court. -- District school, a public school for the childr…

ng a variety in the nationality of, or the forms of administration in, constituent and subordinate portions; as, the Austrian empire. Empire carries with it the idea of a vast and complicated government. C. J. Smith.

Exceeding the usual rule, norm, or measure; out of due proportion; inordinate; abnormal. "Enormous bliss." Milton. "This enormous state." Shak. "The hoop's enormous size." Jenyns. Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait. Milton.

One who envies; one who desires inordinately what another possesses.

ed rules or established limits of right or propriety; excessive; extravagant; enormous; inordinate; as, exorbitant appetites and passions; exorbitant charges, demands, or claims. Foul exorbitant desires. Milton.

r human sight or observation. (c) To come within; to be ranged or reckoned with; to be subordinate to in the way of classification; as, these substances fall under a different class or order. -- To fall upon. (a) To attack. [See To fall on.] (b) To attempt; to have recourse to. "I do not intend to fall upon nice disqu…

Composed of states or districts which retain only a subordinate and limited sovereignty, as the Union of the United States, or the Sonderbund of Switzerland.

ch fiddle, the itch. (Low) -- To play first, or second, fiddle, to take a leading or a subordinate part. [Colloq.]

The incense of praise; inordinate flattery. To smother him with fumes and eulogies. Burton. In a fume, in ill temper, esp. from impatience.

Characteristic of Gargantua, a gigantic, wonderful personage; enormous; prodigious; inordinate.

A class of objects divided into several subordinate species; a class more extensive than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.

the family Mustelidæ, about the size of a large badger. It was formerly believed to be inordinately voracious, whence the name; the wolverene. It is a native of the northern parts of America, Europe, and Asia. Glutton bird (Zoöl.), the giant fulmar (Ossifraga gigantea); -- called also Mother Carey's goose, and mollyma…

or degrees; graduated. Beginning with the genus, passing through all the graduate and subordinate stages. Tatham.