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ious; effeminate. [Obs.] Others, lastly, of a more delicious and airy spirit, retire themselves to the enjoyments of ease and luxury. Milton.

a den; a cave. Which to that shady delve him brought at last The very tigers from their delves Look out. Moore.

uct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death. Shak. They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions. Clarendon.

nationalize. [R.] They also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or, in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy. Prescott.

Improperly, an heraldic bearing. Knights-errant used to distinguish themselves by devices on their shields. Addison. A banner with this strange device -Excelsior. Longfellow.

ns and pistil do not mature simultaneously, so that these plants can never fertilize themselves.

le; axiom; maxim. [Obs.] Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves. Sir T. Browne.

A state of things in which evils or obstacles present themselves on every side, and it is difficult to determine what course to pursue; a vexatious alternative or predicament; a difficult choice or position. A strong dilemma in a desperate case! To act with infamy, or quit the place. Swift. Horns of a dilemma, alternat…

and disabuse the people. South. If men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves or artifice, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. J. Adams.

especially, to dismiss from military service; as, to disband an army. They disbanded themselves and returned, every man to his own dwelling. Knolles.

or correspondence; inconsistency; disagreement. Those . . . in some disconformity to ourselves. Milton. Disagreement and disconformity betwixt the speech and the conception of the mind. Hakewill.

tress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him. 1 Sam. xxii. 2. -- Dis`con*tent"ed*ly, adv. -- Dis`con*tent"ed*ness, n.

best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon. We will discover ourselves unto them. 1 Sam. xiv. 8. Discover not a secret to another. Prov. xxv. 9.

to separate. To disentangle truth from error. Stewart. To extricate and disentangle themselves out of this labyrinth. Clarendon. A mind free and disentangled from all corporeal mixtures. Bp. Stillingfleet.

r withdraw from the condition of a friar. [Obs.] Many did quickly unnun and disfriar themselves. Fuller.

. He that is dishonorable in riches, how much more in poverty! Ecclus. x. 31. To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Shak. -- Dis*hon"or*a*ble*ness, n. -- Dis*hon"or*a*bly, adv.

In a disorderly manner; without law or order; irregularly; confusedly. Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. 2 Thess. iii. 6. Savages fighting disorderly with stones. Sir W. Raleigh.

iness; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform. Ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we The business we have talked of. Shak. [The] harvest men . . . almost in one fair day dispatcheth all the harvest work. Robynson (More's Utopia).

To send off with speed; to dispatch. [Obs.] Knolles. Then they dispeeded themselves of the Cid and of their mother-in-law, DoSouthey.

To deprive of personality or individuality. [R.] We multiply; we dispersonate ourselves. Hare.