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, commonly, with a mere show of gravity or modesty. They . . . looked as demurely as they could; for 't was a hanging matter to laugh unseasonably. Dryden.

otted woman. Hallam. A . . . settled design upon another man's life. Locke. How little he could guess the secret designs of the court! Macaulay.

d hope or expectation; to despair of. [Obs.] I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted. Milton.

ely, so that their intersections furnish smaller subdivisions of the unit of measure than could be conveniently marked on a plain scale. -- Diagonal stratification. (Geol.) Same as Cross bedding, under Cross, a.

abel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard English language. Earle. [Charles V.] could address his subjects from every quarter in their native dialect. Prescott.

To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another. Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate. Bacon.

table, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could. T. Ellwood.

correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua. -- Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; -- opposed to circumstantial, or indirect, evid…

, trust, and the like; hence, to perform or ex Had I a hundred tongues, a wit so large As could their hundred offices discharge. Dryden.

t was entitled to, whereby the party ousted or injured was driven to his real action, and could not enter. This effect of such alienation is now obviated by statute in both England and the United States.

locate; as, to disjoint limbs; to disjoint bones; to disjoint a fowl in carving. Yet what could swords or poisons, racks or flame, But mangle and disjoint the brittle frame Prior.

to root out; as, to displant inhabitants. I did not think a look, Or a poor word or two, could have displanted Such a fixed constancy. Beau. & Fl.

To divert or amuse; to make merry. They could disport themselves. Buckle.

o divert by persuasion; to turn from a purpose by reasons or motives; -- with from; as, I could not dissuade him from his purpose. I have tried what is possible to dissuade him. Mad. D' Arblay.

low's noise disturbed his quiet rest. Spenser. The utmost which the discontented colonies could do, was to disturb authority. Burke.

tim is stabbed and done for. Thackeray. -- To do withal, to help or prevent it. [Obs.] "I could not do withal." Shak. -- To do without, to get along without; to dispense with. -- To have done, to have made an end or conclusion; to have finished; to be quit; to desist. -- To have done with, to have completed; to be t…

The day of the final judgment. I could not tell till doomsday. Chaucer. Doomsday Book. See Domesday Book.

making up a sum; as, the money was paid in dribblets. When made up in dribblets, as they could, their best securities were at an interest of twelve per cent. Burke.

her; to lose vitality. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. I Kings xiii. 4.

flattered; but he neither loves, Nor either cares for him. Shak. Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three. Bacon. There have been three talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists. Holmes.