Search the Dictionary

dian knot, to dispose of a difficulty summarily; to solve it by prompt, arbitrary action, rather than by skill or patience. -- To cut lots, to determine lots by cuttings cards; to draw lots. -- To cut off. (a) To sever; to separate. I would to God, . . . The king had cut off my brother's. Shak.

To hang loosely, or with a swinging or jerking motion. he'd rather on a gibbet dangle Than miss his dear delight, to wrangle. Hudibras. From her lifted hand Dangled a length of ribbon. Tennyson. To dangle about or after, to hang upon importunately; to court the favor of; to beset. The Presbyterians, and other fanatics…

specially on moral or religious subjects; hence, wickedness; impurity. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John. iii. 19. Pursue these sons of darkness: drive them out From all heaven's bounds. Milton.

kull as the emblem of death; the head of the conventional personification of death. I had rather be married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth. Shak. Death's-head moth (Zoöl.), a very large European moth (Acherontia atropos), so called from a figure resembling a human skull on the back of the thorax; -- called…

-- Dec"o*ra*tive*ness, n. Decorative art, fine art which has for its end ornamentation, rather than the representation of objects or events.

To cause to melt away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

trical; hence; diametrically opposed. [Obs.] Sin can have no tenure by law at all, but is rather an eternal outlaw, and in hostility with law past all atonement; both diagonal contraries, as much allowing one another as day and night together in one hemisphere. Milton.

id, flat, or spiritless, as liquor. To die in the last ditch, to fight till death; to die rather than surrender. "There is one certain way," replied the Prince [William of Orange] " by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin, -- I will die in the last ditch." Hume (Hist. of Eng. ). -- To die out, to cease gr…

reduce in bulk or amount; to lessen; -- opposed to augment or increase. Not diminish, but rather increase, the debt. Barrow.

The nomination or designation of candidates for public office by direct popular vote rather than through the action of a convention or body of elected nominating representatives or delegates. The term is applied both to the nomination of candidates without any nominating convention, and, loosely, to the nomination effe…

he power he [Shakespeare] delights to show is not intense, but discursive. Hazlitt. A man rather tacit than discursive. Carlyle.

at which disfigures; a defacement; a blot. Uncommon expressions . . . are a disfigurement rather than any embellishment of discourse. Hume.

he sickening opposition felt for anything which offends the physical organs of taste; now rather of the analogous repugnance excited by anything extremely unpleasant to the moral taste or higher sensibilities of our nature; as, an act of cruelty may excite disgust. The manner of doing is more consequence than the thing…

y; to dispose of. Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor. Evelyn.

Injury; mischief. We shall rather perform good offices unto truth than any disservice unto their relators. Sir T. Browne.

To make a jest of; to set in a comical light. [R.] This drolling everything is rather fatiguing. W. D. Howells.

e, or hard; hence, sharp; keen; shrewd; quaint; as, a dry tone or manner; dry wit. He was rather a dry, shrewd kind of body. W. Irving.

To abide; to remain; to continue. I 'll rather dwell in my necessity. Shak. Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart. Wordsworth.

- Edge play, a kind of swordplay in which backswords or cutlasses are used, and the edge, rather than the point, is employed. -- Edge rail. (Railroad) (a) A rail set on edge; -- applied to a rail of more depth than width. (b) A guard rail by the side of the main rail at a switch. Knight. -- Edge railway, a railway ha…

An image or effigy; -- used rather in an abstract sense, and rarely for a work of art.