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critical; as, a delicate subject or question. There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth. F. W. Robertson.

Pertaining to, or derived from, the larkspur; specifically, relating to the stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria).

A poisonous alkaloid extracted from the stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria), as a colorless amorphous powder.

To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate. The [Russian] clergy can not suffer corporal punishment without being previously desecrated. W. Tooke. The founders of monasteries imprecated evil…

Sacred. [R.] To take her from austerer check of parents, To make her his by most devoutful rights. Marston.

To deprive of consecration or sacredness. [R.]

bsence of esteem for; to regard with disfavor or slight contempt; to slight. But if this sacred gift you disesteem. Denham. Qualities which society does not disesteem. Ld. Lytton.

d in 1221. The first foundation in the United States was made in 1807. The Master of the Sacred Palace at Rome is always a Dominican friar. The Dominicans are called also preaching friars, friars preachers, black friars (from their black cloak), brothers of St. Mary, and in France, Jacobins.

A thing given to a sacred use. [R.] Burton.

incursion; dragoonade. He learnt it as he watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the Netherlands. C. Kingsley.

The sixth month of the Jewish year, by the sacred reckoning, or the twelfth, by the civil reckoning, corresponding nearly to the month of September.

eople of English descent; -- commonly applied to English people in Ireland. A general massacre of the Englishry. Macaulay.

To inclose in a shrine or chest; hence, to preserve or cherish as something sacred; as, to enshrine something in memory. We will enshrine it as holy relic. Massinger.

An East Indian long-tailed bearded monkey (Semnopithecus entellus) regarded as sacred by the natives. It is remarkable for the caplike arrangement of the hair on the head. Called also hoonoomaun and hungoor.

A garden plot, usually about half an acre. [Cape Colony]

e as spouse; to take to wife; to marry. Lavinia will I make my empress, . . . And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse. Shak.

Evangel. [Obs.] The sacred pledge of Christ's evangely. Spenser.

To purify with sacred rites. [Obs.] Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire. Deut. xviii. 10 (Douay version)

The fourth part of an acre of land. [Obs.] [Written also farding dale, fardingale, etc.]

A division of hand. [Obs.] Thirty acres make a farthing land; nine farthings a Cornish acre; and four Cornish acres a knight's fee. R. Carew.