Search the Dictionary

Diminution or reduction of strength, efficacy, or value; degeneration; deterioration. The development and degradation of the alphabetic forms can be traced. I. Taylor (The Alphabet).

Free; nimble; sprightly; active. [Obs.] Wonderly deliver and great of strength. Chaucer.

The act of exerting one's strength or limbs. Neater limbs and freer delivery. Sir H. Wotton.

reduce by destroying or consuming the vital powers of; to exhaust, as a country of its strength or resources, a treasury of money, etc. Saturday Review.

Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judg. i. 23. Edmund, I think, is gone . . . to descry The strength o' the enemy. Shak. And now their way to earth they had descried. Milton.

elops 100 horse power. These serve to develop its tenets. Milner. The 20th was spent in strengthening our position and developing the line of the enemy. The Century.

To appropriate for strengthening and comfort. Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. Book of Common Prayer.

A medicine or an article of food that aids digestion, or strengthens digestive power. Rice is . . . a great restorer of health, and a great digester. Sir W. Temple.

; to expand; to swell or extend in all directions. His heart dilates and glories in his strength. Addison.

To diminish the strength, flavor, color, etc., of, by mixing; to reduce, especially by the addition of water; to temper; to attenuate; to weaken. Lest these colors should be diluted and weakened by the mixture of any adventitious light. Sir I. Newton.

Reduced in strength; thin; weak. -- Di*lut"ed*ly, adv.

w you weep; and, I perceive, you feel The dint of pity. Shak. It was by dint of passing strength That he moved the massy stone at length. Sir W. Scott.

To deprive of buds or shoots, as for training, or economizing the vital strength of a tree.

a circular plate of some heavy material intended to be pitched or hurled as a trial of strength and skill.

To deprive of power; to divest of strength. H. Bushnell.

or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness; disparity; as, the disproportion of strength or means to an object.

ssation of use, practice, or exercise; inusitation; desuetude; as, the limbs lose their strength by disuse. The disuse of the tongue in the only . . . remedy. Addison. Church discipline then fell into disuse. Southey.

The process of adding some ingredient, as to wine, to give flavor, character, or strength.

The process of redistilling spirits, to improve the strength and flavor. Doubling a cape, promontory, etc. (Naut.), sailing around or passing beyond a cape, promontory, etc.

To pull; to exert strength in drawing anything; to have force to move anything by pulling; as, a horse draws well; the sails of a ship draw well.