Search the Dictionary

Constraining; compulsory. [R.] "Any constraintive vow." R. Carew.

A method of pronouncing Latin and Greek in which the vowels have their more familiar Continental values, as in German and Italian, the consonants being pronounced mostly as in English. The stricter form of this method of pronouncing Latin approaches the Roman, the modified form the English, pronunciation. The Continent…

To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.

y accuser is my 'prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with me. Shak.

A contraction of two vowels (as the final and initial vowels of united words) into one long vowel, or into a dipthong; synæresis; as, cogo for coago.

at which is declared or proclaimed; announcement; distinct statement; formal expression; avowal. Declarations of mercy and love . . . in the Gospel. Tillotson.

To make declaration of; to assert; to affirm; to set forth; to avow; as, he declares the story to be false. I the Lord . . . declare things that are right. Isa. xlv. 19.

Avowedly; explicitly.

A refusal to acknowledge; disclaimer of connection with; disavowal; -- the contrary of confession; as, the denial of a fault charged on one; a denial of God. Denial of one's self, a declining of some gratification; restraint of one's appetites or propensities; self-denial.

responsibility for, and the like; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow. The falsehood of denying his opinion. Bancroft. Thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved. Keble. To deny one's self, to decline the gratification of appetites or desires; to practice self-denial. Let him deny himself, and take…

The renunciation of religious or monastic vows. [Obs.] Blount.

rpose to obtain. For wisdom is most riches; fools therefore They are which fortunes do by vows devise. Spenser.

To make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality. -- De*vo`cal*i*za"tion, n. If we take a high vowel, such as (i) [= nearly i of bit], and devocalize it, we obtain a hiss which is quite distinct enough to stand for a weak (jh). H. Sweet.

To appropriate by vow; to set apart or dedicate by a solemn act; to consecrate; also, to consign over; to doom; to evil; to devote one to destruction; the city was devoted to the flames. No devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord . . . shall be sold or redeemed. Lev. xxvii. 28.

The state of being devoted, or set apart by a vow. [R.] Bp. Hurd.

A prefix denoting through; also, between, apart, asunder, across. Before a vowel dia- becomes di-; as, diactinic; dielectric, etc.

A mark consisting of two dots [..], placed over the second of two adjacent vowels, to denote that they are to be pronounced as distinct letters; as, coöperate, aërial.

A coalition or union of two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable; as, ou in out, oi in noise; -- called a proper diphthong.

To change into a diphthong, as by affixing another vowel to a simple vowel. "The diphthongized long vowels." H. Sweet.