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deny responsibility for, approbation of, an the like; to disclaim; to disown; as, he was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime. A solemn promise made and disavowed. Dryden.

. Macaulay. Disbursing officer, an officer in any department of the public service who is charged with the duty of paying out public money.

To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish. To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. Boyle. A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. Robynson (More's Utopia).

To relieve of a charge, load, or burden; to empty of a load or cargo; to unburden; to unload; as, to discharge a vessel.

To deduct from an account, debt, charge, and the like; to make an abatement of; as, merchants sometimes discount five or six per cent for prompt payment of bills.

Reasoning; characterized by reasoning; passing from premises to consequences; discursive. Milton.

Marking a difference; distinguishing; distinctive; characteristic. That peculiar and discriminative form of life. Johnson.

self, or as not deserving one's notice; to look with scorn upon; to scorn, as base acts, character, etc. When the Philistine . . . saw Dawid, he disdained him; for he was but a youth. 1 Sam. xvii. 42. 'T is great, 't manly to disdain disguise. Young.

affection; illness; sickness; disorder; -- applied figuratively to the mind, to the moral character and habits, to institutions, the state, etc. Diseases desperate grown, By desperate appliances are relieved. Shak. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public counsels have, in truth, been the mo…

To free from enchantment; to deliver from the power of charms or spells; to free from fascination or delusion. Haste to thy work; a noble stroke or two Ends all the charms, and disenchants the grove. Dryden.

To free from the influence of a charm or spell; to disenchant. [R.] Jer. Taylor.

To deprive of a franchise or chartered right; to dispossess of the rights of a citizen, or of a particular privilege, as of voting, holding office, etc. Sir William Fitzwilliam was disfranchised. Fabyan (1509). He was partially disfranchised so as to be made incapable of taking part in public affairs. Thirlwall.…

isfranchising, or the state disfranchised; deprivation of privileges of citizenship or of chartered immunities. Sentenced first to dismission from the court, and then to disfranchisement and expulsion from the colony. Palfrey.

; to cloak by a false show; to mask; as, to disguise anger; to disguise one's sentiments, character, or intentions. All God's angels come to us disguised. Lowell.

Characterized by fraud; indicating a want of probity; knavish; fraudulent; unjust. To get dishonest gain. Ezek. xxii. 27. The dishonest profits of men in office. Bancroft.

or shame on; to treat with indignity, or as unworthy in the sight of others; to stain the character of; to lessen the reputation of; as, the duelist dishonors himself to maintain his honor. Nothing . . . that may dishonor Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite. Milton.

Wanting in honor; not honorable; bringing or deserving dishonor; staining the character, and lessening the reputation; shameful; disgraceful; base.

Releasing from obligation. "Disobligatory power." Charles I.

To rid; to free. [Obs.] I had clean dispatched myself of this great charge. Udall.

Inclined to dispute; apt to civil or controvert; characterized by dispute; as, a disputatious person or temper. The Christian doctrine of a future life was no recommendation of the new religion to the wits and philosophers of that disputations period. Buckminster. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ly, adv. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ness, n…