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citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property; as, one banished or becoming a monk is civilly dead.

ndle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death. -- Death damp, a cold sweat at the coming on of death. -- Death fire, a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode death. And round about in reel and rout, The death fires danced at night. Coleridge. -- Death grapple, a grapple or struggle for life. -- Death in li…

The quality or state of being decent, suitable, or becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form in social intercourse, in actions, or in discourse; proper formality; becoming ceremony; seemliness; hence, freedom from obscenity or indecorum; modesty. Observances of time, place, and of decency in general. Burke. Imm…

Suitable in words, behavior, dress, or ceremony; becoming; fit; decorous; proper; seemly; as, decent conduct; decent language. Shak. Before his decent steps. Milton.

To deck with that which is becoming, ornamental, or honorary; to adorn; to beautify; to embellish; as, to decorate the person; to decorate an edifice; to decorate a lawn with flowers; to decorate the mind with moral beauties; to decorate a hero with honors. Her fat neck was ornamented with jewels, rich bracelets decora…

Suitable to a character, or to the time, place, and occasion; marked with decorum; becoming; proper; seemly; befitting; as, a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge. A decorous pretext the war. Motley. -- De*co"rous*ly, adv. -- De*co"rous*ness, n.

A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.

Becoming less and less; diminishing. -- De*creas"ing*ly, adv. Decreasing series (Math.), a series in which each term is numerically smaller than the preceding term.

The state of becoming gradually less; decrease; diminution; waste; loss. Twit me with the decrements of my pendants. Ford. Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement. Woodward.

Becoming less by gradual diminution; decreasing; as, a decrescent moon.

Disgraceful; unbecoming. [R.] Bailey.

The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiencyof blood." Arbuthnot. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle. Deficiency of a curve (Geom.), the amount by which the number of double point…

The act of becoming degenerate; a growing worse. Willful degeneracy from goodness. Tillotson.

t off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before. My lord delayeth his coming. Matt. xxiv. 48.

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

One who denounces, publishes, or proclaims, especially intended or coming evil; one who threatens or accuses.

The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up of hope. This desperation of success chills all our industry. Hammond.

ordinary 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 a…

The act of diminishing, or of making or becoming less; state of being diminished; reduction in size, quantity, or degree; -- opposed to augmentation or increase.

alidity of; to disown and reject; as, the judge disallowed the executor's charge. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. 1 Pet. ii. 4. That the edicts of Cæsar we may at all times disallow, but the statutes of God for no reason we may reject. Milton.