Search the Dictionary

To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish; to damage; -- esp. used of reputation or character. I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance taken. Shak.

To change or alter the bue or tint of, by dyeing, staining, painting, etc.; to dye; to tinge; to aint; to stain. The rays, to speak properly, are not colored; in them there is nothing else than a certain power and disposition to stir up a sensation of this or that color. Sir I. Newton.

Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained. The lime rod, colored as the glede. Chaucer. The colored rainbow arched wide. Spenser.

council or conference, as of physicians, held to consider a special case, or of lawyers restained in a cause. Writ of consultation (Law), a writ by which a cause, improperly removed by prohibition from one court to another, is returned to the court from which it came; -- so called because the judges, on consultation, f…

To soil, stain, or corrupt by contact; to tarnish; to sully; to taint; to pollute; to defile. Shall we now Contaminate our figures with base bribes Shak. I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated. Goldsmith.

Abstaining from sexual intercourse; exercising restraint upon the sexual appetite; esp., abstaining from illicit sexual intercourse; chaste. My past life Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true, As I am now unhappy. Shak.

Continuing; prolonged; sustained; as, a continuant sound. -- n.

greement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights. Wharton.

A small assembly or gathering; esp., a secret assembly. They are commanded to abstain from all conventicles of men whatsoever. Ayliffe.

rruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. Hallam. They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days. Bancroft.

; to beat or force down, as by an incumbent weight. To crush the pillars which the pile sustain. Dryden. Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again. Bryant.

The estimated reparation in money for detriment or injury sustained; a compensation, recompense, or satisfaction to one party, for a wrong or injury actually done to him by another.

To urge to abstain or refrain; to dissuade. [Obs.] The apostles vehemently dehort us from unbelief. Bp. Ward. "Exhort" remains, but dehort, a word whose place neither "dissuade" nor any other exactly supplies, has escaped us. Trench.

ssion; melancholy. What besides, Of sorrow, and dejection, and despair, Our frailty can sustain, thy tidings bring. Milton.

uming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further. Demurrer to evidence, an exception taken by a party to the evidence offered by the opposite party, and an objecting to proceed…

To hang down; to be sustained by being fastened or attached to something above. And ever-living lamps depend in rows. Pope.

Relying on, or subject to, something else for support; not able to exist, or sustain itself, or to perform anything, without the will, power, or aid of something else; not self-sustaining; contingent or conditioned; subordinate; -- often with on or upon; as, dependent on God; dependent upon friends. England, long depen…

A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Is. li. 3.

eters. The hoisting rope winds upon one part as it unwinds from the other, and a pulley sustaining the weight to be lifted hangs in the bight of the rope. It is an ancient example of a differential motion.

To alter the natural hue or color of; to change to a different color; to stain; to tinge; as, a drop of wine will discolor water; silver is discolored by sea water.