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pledge or indemnification; to take possession of as security for nonpayment of rent, the reparation of an injury done, etc.; to take by distress; as, to distrain goods for rent, or of an amercement.

icts or limited portions of territory; as, legislatures district States for the choice of representatives.

mas" ("), or small marks. Used in bills, books of account, tables of names, etc., to save repetition. A spacious table in the center, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners. Dickens.

A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. O, too high ditty for my simple rhyme. Spenser.

t is the first of the seven syllables used by the Italians as manes of musical tones, and replaced, for the sake of euphony, the syllable Ut, applied to the note C. In England and America the same syllables are used by mane as a scale pattern, while the tones in respect to absolute pitch are named from the first seven…

e taught; tractableness. The humble docility of little children is, in the New Testament, represented as a necessary preparative to the reception of the Christian faith. Beattie.

ating with deep water, but having appliances for excluding it; -- used in constructing or repairing ships. The name includes structures used for the examination, repairing, or building of vessels, as graving docks, floating docks, hydraulic docks, etc. -- Floating dock, a dock which is made to become buoyant, and, by…

To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart. [Colloq.]

onveying information in the case; any material substance on which the thoughts of men are represented by any species of conventional mark or symbol. Saint Luke . . . collected them from such documents and testimonies as he . . . judged to be authentic. Paley.

The chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa.

ms; charitable gratuity or portion. So sure the dole, so ready at their call, They stood prepared to see the manna fall. Dryden. Heaven has in store a precious dole. Keble.

Ruling arrogantly; overbearing. A violent, brutal, domineering old reprobate. Blackw. Mag.

in turn to fall, and that second object causes a third to fall, etc.; the process can be repeated an indefinite number of times. Derived from an entertainment using dominoes arranged in a row, each standing on edge and therefore easily knocked over; when the first is made to fall against the next, it starts a sequence…

A Hindoo divinity, the consort of Siva, represented with ten arms. [Written also Durga.] Malcom.

iar action of the tongue by flute players in articulating staccato notes; also, the rapid repetition of notes in cornet playing.

A coarse linen cloth made in the north of England and in Scotland, now nearly replaced by calico. Shak.

That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down When in the down I sink my head, Sleep, Death's twin brother, times my breath. Tennyson. Thou bosom softness, down of all my cares! Southern.

A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin. Dire were the consequences which would follow the downfall of so important a place. Motley.

The time of retiring to rest; time of repose. Cavendish. At the downlying, at the travail in childbirth. [Scot.]

The act of sitting down; repose; a resting. Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising. Ps. cxxxix. 2.