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h deceives or is intended to deceive; false representation; artifice; cheat; fraud. There was of course room for vast deception. Motley.

A pack or set of playing cards. The king was slyly fingered from the deck. Shak.

ing such statement or proclamation; as, the Declaration of Independence (now preserved in Washington). In 1776 the Americans laid before Europe that noble Declaration, which ought to be hung up in the nursery of every king, and blazoned on the porch of every royal palace. Buckle.

A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline. Dunglison.

s; to decorate the mind with moral beauties; to decorate a hero with honors. Her fat neck was ornamented with jewels, rich bracelets decorated her arms. Thackeray.

rns, enriches, or beautifies; something added by way of embellishment; ornament. The hall was celebrated for . . . the richness of its decoration. Motley.

The state of becoming gradually less; decrease; diminution; waste; loss. Twit me with the decrements of my pendants. Ford. Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement. Woodward.

Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. "Beggary or decrepit age." Milton. Already decrepit with premature old age. Motley.

from an indenture by having the edge of the parchment or paper cut even, or polled as it was anciently termed, instead of being indented. Burrill.

To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [Obs.] Claudius . . . Was demed for to hang upon a tree. Chaucer.

[Profane scoffing] doth . . . deface the reverence of religion. Bacon. For all his power was utterly defaste [defaced]. Spenser.

or annulling; destruction. [Obs.] Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Shak.

craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God defend the right! Shak. A village near it was defended by the river. Clarendon.

To put off; to delay to act; to wait. Pius was able to defer and temporize at leisure. J. A. Symonds.

in whose periphery either the heavenly body or the center of the heavenly body's epicycle was supposed to be carried round.

lure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiencyof blood." Arbuthnot. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle. Deficiency of a curve (Geom.), the amount by which the number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum for curves of…

, deficient parts; deficient estate; deficient strength; deficient in judgment. The style was indeed deficient in ease and variety. Macaulay. Deficient number. (Arith.) See under Abundant. -- De*fi"cient-ly, adv.

f; to rob of the choicest ornament. He died innocent and before the sweetness of his soul was defloured and ravished from him. Jer. Taylor.

One against whom a fictitious action of fine was brought. [Obs.] Burrill.

of a garrison, or of troops necessary for defense; as, to degarnish a city or fort. [R.] Washington.