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ed over; private; hid; secret; disguised. How covert matters may be best disclosed. Shak. Whether of open war or covert guile. Milton

The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point. This hour's the very crisis of your fate. Dryden. The very times of crisis for the fate of the country. Brougham.

ually form's right angle. Cross and pile, a game with money, at which it is put to chance whether a coin shall fall with that side up which bears the cross, or the other, which is called pile, or reverse; the game called heads or tails. -- Cross bottony or bottoné. See under Bottony. -- Cross estoilé (Her.). a cross,…

A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. Priesthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning. Motley. My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine. T…

Any ornamental appendage at the wrist, whether attached to the sleeve of the garment or separate;especially, in modern times, such an appendage of starched linen, or a substitute for it of paper, or the like.

A day's work; also, a fixed amount of work, whether more or less than that of a day. [Local, Eng. & Scott]

wholesaler; as, they deal in fish. -- To deal with. (a) To treat in any manner; to use, whether well or ill; to have to do with; specifically, to trade with. "Dealing with witches." Shak. (b) To reprove solemnly; to expostulate with. The deacons of his church, who, to use their own phrase, "dealt with him" on the sin…

That which is due from one person to another, whether money, goods, or services; that which one person is bound to pay to another, or to perform for his benefit; thing owed; obligation; liability. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. Shak. When you run in debt, you give to another power over your liberty. Fran…

Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, Make use of every friend -- any every foe. Pope. Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects. Macaula…

The act of defiling, or state of being defiled, whether physically or morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness. Defilements of the flesh. Hopkins. The chaste can not rake into such filth without danger of defilement. Addison.

A stop or pause by a party to an action, for the judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further. Demurrer to evidence, an e…

To deprive of inhabitants, whether by death or by expulsion; to reduce greatly the populousness of; to dispeople; to unpeople. Where is this viper, That would depopulate the city Shak.

According to desert (whether good or evil); justly.

ble necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual. But who can turn the stream of destiny Spenser. Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. Longfellow. The Destinies (Anc. Myth.), the three Parc…

r metaphysics. By Kant, it was employed to signify the logic of appearances or illusions, whether these arise from accident or error, or from those necessary limitations which, according to this philosopher, originate in the constitution of the human intellect.

diet or food; rules for diet. To suppose that the whole of dietetics lies in determining whether or not bread is more nutritive than potatoes. H. Spencer.

The supposed act or tendency in being of every kind, whether organic or inorganic, to assume or produce a more complex structure or functions.

r learner; education; development of the faculties by instruction and exercise; training, whether physical, mental, or moral. Wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity. Bacon. Discipline aims at the removal of bad habits and the substitution of good ones, especially those of order, regularity, and obedienc…

To uncover. [Obs.] Whether any man hath pulled down or discovered any church. Abp. Grindal.

To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. Shak. The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties. Buckminster.