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Pertaining to deliberation; proceeding or acting by deliberation, or by discussion and examination; deliberating; as, a deliberative body. A consummate work of deliberative wisdom. Bancroft. The court of jurisdiction is to be distinguished from the deliberative body, the advisers of the crown. Hallam.…

Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.

To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, and alkalies. In very moist air crystals of strontites deliquesce. Black.

Dissolving; liquefying by contact with the air; capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere and becoming liquid; as, deliquescent salts.

Demur; delay in acting or deciding. The same causes of demurral existed which prevented British troops from assisting in the expulsion of the French from Rome. Southey.

Manner of deporting or demeaning one's self; manner of acting; conduct; carrige; especially, manner of acting with respect to the courtesies and duties of life; behavior; demeanor; bearing. The gravity of his deportment carried him safe through many difficulties. Swift.

Tending to derogate, or lessen in value; expressing derogation; detracting; injurious; -- with from to, or unto. Acts of Parliament derogatory from the power of subsequent Parliaments bind not. Blackstone. His language was severely censured by some of his brother peers as derogatory to their other. Macaulay. Derogatory…

To take credit or reputation from; to defame. That calumnious critic . . . Detracting what laboriously we do. Drayton.

The quantity by which one quantity differs from another, or the remainder left after subtracting the one from the other. Ascensional difference. See under Ascensional.

retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body. Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting. -- Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said "I can not come;" -- correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not c…

One of a species of coccoliths, having an oval discoidal body, with a thick strongly refracting rim, and a thinner central portion. One of them measures about

One of the dark particles forming the doubly refracting disks of muscle fibers.

Not acting in an orderly way, as the functions of the body or mind.

The process of extracting soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent. Piston displacement (Mech.), the volume of the space swept through, or weight of steam, water, etc., displaced, in a given time, by the…

Distracting. [R.] Heywood.

The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet.

Causing perplexity; distracting. "Distractive thoughts." Bp. Hall.

Tending to pull asunder, tear, or rend; distracting.

The fictitious lessee acting as plaintiff in the common-law action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being usually denominated Richard Roe. Hence, a fictitious name for a party, real or fictitious, to any action or proceeding.

A piece in machinery acting as a catch or clutch; especially, the carrier of a lathe, also, an adjustable stop to change motion, as in a machine tool.