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, a rudimentary claw or small hoof not reaching the ground. Some cut off the dewclaws [of greyhounds]. J. H. Walsh.

; -- often limited to rocks pretertiary in age. It includes part of what was early called greenstone.

ä, o, ô, etc. "Diacritical points." Sir W. Jones. A glance at this typography will reveal great difficulties, which diacritical marks necessarily throw in the way of both printer and writer. A. J. Ellis.

y local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the Ionic and Attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned. In the midst of this Babel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard English language. Earle. [Charles V.] could address his subjects from every quarter in their nati…

A dark green or bronze-colored laminated variety of pyroxene, common in certain igneous rocks.

virgin goddess who presided over hunting, chastity, and marriage; -- identified with the Greek goddess Artemis. And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade. Pope. Diana monkey (Zoöl.), a handsome, white-bearded monkey of West Africa (Cercopithecus Diana).

One of the Diatomaceæ, a family of minute unicellular Algæ having a siliceous covering of great delicacy, each individual multiplying by spontaneous division. By some authors diatoms are called Bacillariæ, but this word is not in general use.

Gambling with dice. J. R. Green.

listen to the dictates of your conscience; the dictates of the gospel. I credit what the Grecian dictates say. Prior.

The curve which on a given surface and with a given perimeter contains the greatest area. Tait.

A two-drachma piece; an ancient Greek silver coin, worth nearly forty cents.

or extinct; to be extinguished. Letting the secret die within his own breast. Spectator. Great deeds can not die. Tennyson.

y compound arrangements, require a considerable train of parts. It is used for overcoming great resistance or producing very slow or very rapid motion. -- Differential pulley. (Mach.) (a) A portable hoisting apparatus, the same in principle as the differential windlass. (b) A hoisting pulley to which power is applied…

fidence; doubt of the power, ability, or disposition of others. [Archaic] That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence of God's mercy. Donne.

Spread abroad; dispersed; loose; flowing; diffuse. It grew to be a widely diffused opinion. Hawthorne. -- Dif*fus"ed*ly, adv. -- Dif*fus"ed*ness, n.

The quality of being diffuse; especially, in writing, the use of a great or excessive number of word to express the meaning; copiousness; verbosity; prolixity.

. . . dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls. Robynson (More's Utopia). To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall. -- To dig from, out of, out, or up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal f…

or its representative letter or sound; as, the Latin word vis is a digammated form of the Greek . Andrews.

r an article of food that aids digestion, or strengthens digestive power. Rice is . . . a great restorer of health, and a great digester. Sir W. Temple.

Prolixity; diffuse discourse. [Obs.] "What needeth greater dilatation" Chaucer.