Search the Dictionary

barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and…

Indifference to profit; want of regard to private advantage; disinterestedness. [Obs.] Johnson.

To throw (a park or inclosure); to treat (a private park) as a common. The Gentiles were made to be God's people when the Jews' inclosure was disparked. Jer. Taylor.

ensations. Neither are God's methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man. Rogers.

m. It is usually, but not always, distinguished from a pharmacopoeia in that it issued by private parties, and not by an official body or by government.

Domestic. [Obs.] Our private and domestical matter. Sir. P. Sidney.

In a domestic manner; privately; with reference to domestic affairs.

rights of the citizen scrupulously guarded. Motley. Domiciliary visit (Law), a visit to a private dwelling, particularly for searching it, under authority.

or drawn; a delineation. A draught of a Toleration Act was offered to the Parliament by a private member. Macaulay. No picture or draught of these things from the report of the eye. South.

m through dirt and mire without remorse. Spenser. He hastened to draw the stranger into a private room. Sir W. Scott. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats James ii. 6. The arrow is now drawn to the head. Atterbury.

said especially of sound. Most men being in sensual pleasures drowned. Sir J. Davies. My private voice is drowned amid the senate. Addison. To drown up, to swallow up. [Obs.] Holland.

A noisy, tumultuous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout. [Archaic] Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment. Smollett.

To influence, or attempt to influence, by whispered insinuations or private talk. "No longer was he earwigged by the Lord Cravens." Lord Campbell.

listen and learn what is said within doors; hence, to listen secretly to what is said in private. To eavesdrop in disguises. Milton.

The habit of lurking about dwelling houses, and other places where persons meet fro private intercourse, secretly listening to what is said, and then tattling it abroad. The offense is indictable at common law. Wharton.

To run away, or escape privately, from the place or station to which one is bound by duty; -- said especially of a woman or a man, either married or unmarried, who runs away with a paramour or a sweetheart. Great numbers of them [the women] have eloped from their allegiance. Addison.

ate fraudulently to one's own use, as property intrusted to one's care; to apply to one's private uses by a breach of trust; as, to embezzle money held in trust.

In accord, harmony, or sympathy; having a mutual, esp. a private, understanding; of a hypnotic subject, being in such a mental state as to be especially subject to the influence of a particular person or persons.

onsidered as the close and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to labor for private or public ends. Losing her, the end of living lose. Dryden. When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. Coleridge.

as distinguished from flags indicating divisions of the army, rank of naval officers, or private signals, and the like. Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still. Shak.