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emptuous, or insolent language or behavior in presence of a court, tending to disturb its proceedings, or impair the respect due to its authority.

Proceeding without interruption or cesstaion; continuous; unceasing; lasting; abiding. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Prov. xv. 15.

The adjournment of the proceedings in a cause from one day, or from one stated term of a court, to another.

; convergent; as, converging lines. Whewell. Converging rays(Opt.), rays of light, which, proceeding from different points of an object, tend toward a single point. -- Converging series (Math.), a series in which if an indefinitely great number of terms be taken, their sum will become indefinitely near in value to a f…

Proceeding from the heart. [Obs.] A rib with cordial spirits warm. Milton.

more paragraphs of news respecting the sovereign and the royal family, together with the proceedings or movements of the court generally, supplied to the newspapers by an officer specially charged with such duty. [Eng.] Edwards. -- Court day, a day on which a court sits to administer justice. -- Court dress, the dre…

Belonging to a coward; proceeding from, or expressive of, base fear or timidity. He raised the house with loud and coward cries. Shak. Invading fears repel my coward joy. Proir.

Proceeding from fear of danger or other consequences; befitting a coward; dastardly; base; as, cowardly malignity. Macualay. The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face. Burke.

Of or pertaining to decimals; numbered or proceeding by tens; having a tenfold increase or decrease, each unit being ten times the unit next smaller; as, decimal notation; a decimal coinage. Decimal arithmetic, the common arithmetic, in which numeration proceeds by tens. -- Decimal fraction, a fraction in which the de…

or denial of the truth or validity of the plaintiff's or prosecutor's case; the method of proceeding adopted by the defendant to protect himself against the plaintiff's action.

Pertaining to deliberation; proceeding or acting by deliberation, or by discussion and examination; deliberating; as, a deliberative body. A consummate work of deliberative wisdom. Bancroft. The court of jurisdiction is to be distinguished from the deliberative body, the advisers of the crown. Hallam.…

To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair. Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur. Hayward.

Containing ten; tenfold; proceeding by tens; as, the denary, or decimal, scale.

Descending; falling; proceeding from an ancestor or source. More than mortal grace Speaks thee descendent of ethereal race. Pope.

Proceeding from, or suggested by, despair; without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious; as, a desperate effort. "Desperate expedients." Macaulay.

To restrain from proceeding; to stay or stop; to delay; as, we were detained by an accident. Let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. Judges xiii. 15.

That technical interruption of the proceedings in pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant does not answer the whole of the plaintiff's declaration, and the plaintiff omits to take judgment for the part unanswered. Wharton's Law Dict. Burrill.

Reasoning; proceeding from one ground to another, as in reasoning; argumentative. Reason is her being, Discursive or intuitive. Milton. -- Dis*cur"sive*ly, adv. -- Dis*cur"sive*ness, n.

e or search thoroughly; to exhaust a remedy against, as against a principal debtor before proceeding against the surety. Burrill.

lared . . . to have been disgusted at failing. J. H. Newman. Alarmed and disgusted by the proceedings of the convention. Macaulay.