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Office or duty of a custodian.

trate of Scotch burghs, formerly, and still, in some burghs, chosen by the Guildry, whose duty is to superintend the erection of new buildings and see that they conform to the law. -- Dean of a monastery, Monastic dean, a monastic superior over ten monks. -- Dean's stall. See Decanal stall, under Decanal.…

Corruption of fidelity; seduction from virtue, duty, or allegiance. The republic of Paris will endeavor to complete the debauchery of the army. Burke.

The act of corrupting; the act of seducing from virtue or duty.

A duty neglected or violated; a fault; a sin; a trespass. "Forgive us our debts." Matt. vi. 12.

To devote, set apart, or give up, as one's self, to a duty or service. The profession of a soldier, to which he had dedicated himself. Clarendon.

To fail in duty; to offend. That he gainst courtesy so foully did default. Spenser.

One who fails to perform a duty; a delinquent; particularly, one who fails to account for public money intrusted to his care; a peculator; a defalcator.

Act of abandoning a person or cause to which one is bound by allegiance or duty, or to which one has attached himself; desertion; failure in duty; a falling away; apostasy; backsliding. "Defection and falling away from God." Sir W. Raleigh. The general defection of the whole realm. Sir J. Davies.

Failure or omission of duty; a fault; a misdeed; an offense; a misdemeanor; a crime. The delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented in the most glaring colors. Motley.

Failing in duty; offending by neglect of duty.

So as to fail in duty.

An officer whose duty it was to announce the doom or sentence pronounced by the court.

Subdivision of business or official duty; especially, one of the principal divisions of executive government; as, the treasury department; the war department; also, in a university, one of the divisions of instructions; as, the medical department; the department of physics.

Money lodged with a party as earnest or security for the performance of a duty assumed by the person depositing.

To abandon (the service) without leave; to forsake in violation of duty; to abscond from; as, to desert the army; to desert one's colors.

One who forsakes a duty, a cause or a party, a friend, or any one to whom he owes service; especially, a soldier or a seaman who abandons the service without leave; one guilty of desertion.

erting or forsaking; abandonment of a service, a cause, a party, a friend, or any post of duty; the quitting of one's duties willfully and without right; esp., an absconding from military or naval service. Such a resignation would have seemed to his superior a desertion or a reproach. Bancroft.

To indicate or set apart for a purpose or duty; -- with to or for; to designate an officer for or to the command of a post or station.

nsequences, or difficulty, risk, etc. Addison. Potent enemies tempt and deter us from our duty. Tillotson. My own face deters me from my glass. Prior.