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Something difficult; a thing hard to do or to understand; that which occasions labor or perplexity, and requires skill perseverance to overcome, solve, or achieve; a hard enterprise; an obstacle; an impediment; as, the difficulties of a science; difficulties in theology. They lie under some difficulties by reason of th…

To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. [Cant, U.S.]

ia; the greater Dionysia were held at Athens in March or April, and were celebrated with elaborate performances of both tragedies and comedies.

of crime is a disqualification of a person for office; sickness is a disqualification for labor. I must still retain the consciousness of those disqualifications which you have been pleased to overlook. Sir J. Shore.

examination or investigation of a matter, with the arguments and facts bearing upon it; elaborate essay; dissertation. For accurate research or grave disquisition he was not well qualified. Macaulay.

A formal or elaborate argumentative discourse, oral or written; a disquisition; an essay; a discussion; as, Dissertations on the Prophecies.

action; as, to do a good or a bad act; do our duty; to do what I can. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. Ex. xx. 9. We did not do these things. Ld. Lytton. You can not do wrong without suffering wrong. Emerson. Hence: To do homage, honor, favor, justice, etc., to render homage, honor, etc.…

ives in the family of an other, as hired household assistant; a house servant. The master labors and leads an anxious life, to secure plenty and ease to the domestic. V. Knox.

te direction. Doubling and turning like a hunted hare. Dryden. Doubling and doubling with laborious walk. Wordsworth.

o trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing. Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust. Denham. The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. Tenn…

To break and train for use, as a horse or other animal. To dress up or out, to dress elaborately, artificially, or pompously. "You see very often a king of England or France dressed up like a Julius Cæsar." Addison. -- To dress a ship (Naut.), to ornament her by hoisting the national colors at the peak and mastheads,…

Mean labor; toil.[Obs.]

s no honey. See Honeybee. All with united force combine to drive The lazy drones from the laborious hive. Dryden.

To perform menial work; to labor in mean or unpleasant offices with toil and fatigue. He gradually rose in the estimation of the booksellers for whom he drudged. Macaulay.

The act of drudging; disagreeable and wearisome labor; ignoble or slavish toil. The drudgery of penning definitions. Macaulay. Paradise was a place of bliss . . . without drudgery and with out sorrow. Locke.

In a drudging manner; laboriously.

To drudge; to toil laboriously. [Obs.] "To drugge and draw." Chaucer.

riage ceremonies. They are communistic, opposed to any violence, and unwilling to use the labor of animals. Driven out of Russia proper, many have emigrated to Cyprus and Canada. See Raskolnik, below.

is due; payment. [Obs. as signifying a material thing.] When thou receivest money for thy labor or ware, thou receivest thy duty. Tyndale.

To merit or deserve, as by labor or service; to do that which entitles one to (a reward, whether the reward is received or not). The high repute Which he through hazard huge must earn. Milton.