Search the Dictionary

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.

Milton. By him were all things created . . . whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. Col. i. 16.

A sketch, outline, or representation, whether written, designed, or drawn; a delineation. A draught of a Toleration Act was offered to the Parliament by a private member. Macaulay. No picture or draught of these things from the report of the eye. South.

y cylindrical, blocks, of which the shaft of a column is composed; also, a vertical wall, whether circular or polygonal in plan, carrying a cupola or dome. (e) (Mach.)

A composition for two performers, whether vocal or instrumental.

The state of compulsion or necessity in which a person is influenced, whether by the unlawful restrain of his liberty or by actual or threatened physical violence, to incur a civil liability or to commit an offense.

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.

Any construction, whether a temporary breastwork or permanent fortification, for attack or defense, the material of which is chiefly earth.

d uses of parts, conceived as the result of wise and economical adaptation in the author, whether human or divine; as, the animal or vegetable economy; the economy of a poem; the Jewish economy. The position which they [the verb and adjective] hold in the general economy of language. Earle. In the Greek poets, as also…