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orce or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies. The lord mayor craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God defend the right! Shak. A village n…

The patron of a church; an officer having charge of the temporal affairs of a church.

To deprive of the feudal character or form.

as reputation; to taint. He is . . . among the greatest prelates of this age, however his character may be defiled by . . . dirty hands. Swift.

rom other or the established laws of propriety; as, deformity in an edifice; deformity of character. Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. Milton.

To pay or discharge; to serve in payment of; to provide for, as a charge, debt, expenses, costs, etc. For the discharge of his expenses, and defraying his cost, he allowed him . . . four times as much. Usher.

Payment of charges.

The act of reducing in rank, character, or reputation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.…

To reduce in estimation, 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 . . . str…

Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base. The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition. Motley.

Characterized by dehiscence; opening in some definite way, as the capsule of a plant.

To carry or bring against, as a charge; to inform against; to accuse; to denounce. As men were delated, they were marked down for such a fine. Bp. Burnet.

To delight; to charm. [R.]

se, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. Cowper.

site pleasure; delightful; most sweet or grateful to the senses, especially to the taste; charming. Some delicious landscape. Coleridge. One draught of spring's delicious air. Keble. Were not his words delicious Tennyson.

Concealment; seclusion. The mental organization of the novelist must be characterized, to speak craniologically, by an extraordinary development of the passion for delitescency. Sir W. Scott.

To deprive of material or physical qualities or characteristics. Dematerializing matter by stripping if of everything which . . . has distinguished matter. Milman.

A woman of doubtful reputation or suspected character; an adventuress. [Colloq.] De Quincey.

A work of sculpture of the above character. See Alto-rilievo.

Pertaining to, or characteristic of, a demon or evil spirit; devilish; as, a demoniac being; demoniacal practices. Sarcastic, demoniacal laughter. Thackeray.