Search the Dictionary

To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate. Thou shalt not . . . curse the ruler of thy people. Ex. xxii. 28. Ere sunset I'll make thee curse the deed. Shak.

Hurtful; pernicious. [R.] That it be not demageable unto your royal majesty. Hakluit.

Odious; pernicious; detestable. Begin, murderer; . . . leave thy damnable faces. Shak.

Hurtful; noxious; destructive; pernicious; as, a deleterious plant or quality; a deleterious example. -- Del`e*te"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Del`e*te"ri*ous*ness, n.

out ruin, death, or devastation; ruinous; fatal; productive of serious evil; mischievous; pernicious; -- often with of or to; as, intemperance is destructive of health; evil examples are destructive to the morals of youth. Time's destructive power. Wordsworth. Destructive distillation. See Distillation. -- Destructive…

To come to an end; to end; to terminate. [Obs.] He who has vented a pernicious doctrine or published an ill book must know that his life determine not together. South. Estates may determine on future contingencies. Blackstone.

rofesses divination; one who pretends to predict events, or to reveal occult things, by supernatural means. The diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain. Zech. x. 2.

Something divine or superhuman; supernatural power or virtue; something which inspires awe. They say there is divinity in odd numbers. Shak. There's such divinity doth hedge a king. Shak.

Fear or timidity, especially of something supernatural. [Written also eiryness.] The sense of eariness, as twilight came on. De Quincey.

An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. Shak.

p. Gardiner. Famous men, -- whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural. Hawthorne.

ence. It is still believed by the ignorant and superstitious that some persons have the supernatural power of injuring by a look. It almost led him to believe in the evil eye. J. H. Newman. -- Evil speaking, speaking ill of others; calumny; censoriousness. -- The evil one, the Devil; Satan.

Beyond what is due, usual, expected, or necessary; additional; supernumerary; also, extraordinarily good; superior; as, extra work; extra pay. "By working extra hours." H. Spencer.

An imaginary supernatural being or spirit, supposed to assume a human form (usually diminutive), either male or female, and to meddle for good or evil in the affairs of mankind; a fay. See Elf, and Demon. The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy. K. James. And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies i…

The belief in the historic truthfulness of the Scripture narrative, and the supernatural origin of its teachings, sometimes called historical and speculative faith.

among certain African tribes to represent in such a way, or to be so connected with, a supernatural being, that the possession of it gives to the possessor power to control that being.

Concord, Hartford, etc., and the southern fox grape (Vitis vulpina) has produced the Scuppernong, and probably the Catawba. -- Fox hunter. (a) One who pursues foxes with hounds. (b) A horse ridden in a fox chase. -- Fox shark (Zoöl.), the thrasher shark. See Thrasher shark, under Thrasher. -- Fox sleep, pretended s…

To bring under a genus or under genera; to view in relation to a genus or to genera. Copernicus generalized the celestial motions by merely referring them to the moon's motion. Newton generalized them still more by referring this last to the motion of a stone through the air. W. Nicholson.

, supposed by the ancients to preside over a man's destiny in life; a tutelary deity; a supernatural being; a spirit, good or bad. Cf. Jinnee. The unseen genius of the wood. Milton. We talk of genius still, but with thought how changed! The genius of Augustus was a tutelary demon, to be sworn by and to receive offering…

To shoot out, or emit, as a dazzling light. Every eye Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire. Milton.