Search the Dictionary

vertical axis; -- distinguished from elevation. The direction is given when the plane of sight passes through the object. Wilhelm.

, or causes loss or injury. I was brought here under the disadvantage of being unknown by sight to any of you. Burke. Abandoned by their great patron, the faction henceforward acted at disadvantage. Palfrey.

The act of disappearing; cessation of appearance; removal from sight; vanishing. Addison.

scerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. Prov. vii. 7. Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to discern the minute texture of visible objects. Beattie. I wake, and I discern the truth. Tennyson.

Acute; shrewd; sagacious; sharp-sighted. Macaulay.

ations and tendencies; penetrative and discriminate mental vision; acuteness; sagacity; insight; as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment.

To obtain for the first time sight or knowledge of, as of a thing existing already, but not perceived or known; to find; to ascertain; to espy; to detect. Some to discover islands far away. Shak.

rence; distinguishing. -- Dis*crim"i*na`ting*ly, adv. And finds with keen discriminating sight, Black's not so black; -- nor white so very white. Canning.

To disdain. [Obs.] Guyon much disdeigned so loathly sight. Spenser.

To disable; to disqualify. The sight of it might damp me and disenable me to speak. State Trials (1640).

o disgrace; to bring reproach or shame on; to treat with indignity, or as unworthy in the sight of others; to stain the character of; to lessen the reputation of; as, the duelist dishonors himself to maintain his honor. Nothing . . . that may dishonor Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite. Milton.

the muzzle, or near the trunnions, on the top of a piece of ordnance, to make the line of sight parallel to the axis of the bore; -- called also dispart sight, and muzzle sight.

To spread before the view; to show; to exhibit to the sight, or to the mind; to make manifest. His statement . . . displays very clearly the actual condition of the army. Burke.

To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse; as, to distract the eye; to distract the attention. Mixed metaphors . . . distract the imagination. Goldsmith.

A dog which suddenly drops upon the ground when it sights game, -- formerly a common, and still an occasional, habit of the setter.

Sharp-sighted as an eagle. "Inwardly eagle-eyed." Howell.

ing elder. Presiding elder (Meth. Ch.), an elder commissioned by a bishop to have the oversight of the churches and preachers in a certain district. -- Ruling elder, a lay presbyter or member of a Presbyterian church session. Schaff.

ine character after childhood or early youth, was shown in the General's fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. Hawthorne.

To move with passion; to affect strongly. See Impassion. [Obs.] Those sights empassion me full near. Spenser.

ry; -- said especially of medical practice, remedies, etc.; wanting in science and deep insight; as, empiric skill, remedies. Empirical formula. (Chem.) See under Formula.