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Tending to defend; defensive; as, defensory preparations.

A war without a just defiance made. Dryden. Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down. Tennyson.

A keeping out by force or wrong; a wrongful withholding, as of lands or tenements, to which another has a right.

Undergoing or producing degeneration; tending to degenerate.

To divest of human qualities, such as pity, tenderness, etc.; as, dehumanizing influences.

Having power, or tending, to cast down.

A prefix signifying ten. See Deca-.

By delays. [R.] Tennyson.

Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fiber or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.

considerate; -- said of manners, conduct, or feelings; as, delicate behavior; delicate attentions; delicate thoughtfulness.

pe. Coleridge. One draught of spring's delicious air. Keble. Were not his words delicious Tennyson.

ar. Inventions to delight the taste. Shak. Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds. Tennyson.

The act of deliquescing or liquefying; process by which anything deliquesces; tendency to melt.

Producing, or tending to produce, delirium. -- n.

Apt or fitted to delude; tending to mislead the mind; deceptive; beguiling; delusory; as, delusive arts; a delusive dream. Delusive and unsubstantial ideas. Whewell. -- De*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- De*lu"sive*ness, n.

or place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use. [Written also demain.] Wharton's Law Dict. Burrill. Ancient demesne. (Eng. Law) See under Ancient.

Tending to lower, depress, or degrade.

nment by the people. Whatever they call him, what care I, Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat. Tennyson.

Having the nature of demonstration; tending to demonstrate; making evident; exhibiting clearly or conclusively. "Demonstrative figures." Dryden. An argument necessary and demonstrative. Hooker.

Tending to demonstrate; demonstrative. Johnson.