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se information. Thence diffuse His good to worlds and ages infinite. Milton. We find this knowledge diffused among all civilized nations. Whewell.

diffused; a spreading; extension; dissemination; circulation; dispersion. A diffusion of knowledge which has undermined superstition. Burke.

f the fine arts; popularly, an amateur; especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge, desultorily, or for amusement only.

To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, an the like; to disclaim; to disown; as, he was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime. A solemn promise made and disavowed. Dryden.

The subject matter of instruction; a branch of knowledge. Bp. Wilkins.

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.

One who discovers; one who first comes to the knowledge of something; one who discovers an unknown country, or a new principle, truth, or fact. The discoverers and searchers of the land. Sir W. Raleigh.

o render unaccustomed or unfamiliar. We are hindered and disinured . . . towards the true knowledge. Milton.

To refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one's self; to disavow or deny, as connected with one's self personally; as, a parent can hardly disown his child; an author will sometimes disown his writings.

e; to spread; as, the Jews are dispersed among all nations. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge. Prov. xv. 7. Two lions, in the still, dark night, A herd of beeves disperse. Cowper.

Indistinct; faint; obscure, as from distance. Some distant knowledge. Shak. A distant glimpse. W. Irving.

A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man. [Obs.] One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel. Bacon.

a school, or a sect; a principle or position, or the body of principles, in any branch of knowledge; any tenet or dogma; a principle of faith; as, the doctrine of atoms; the doctrine of chances. "The doctrine of gravitation." I. Watts. Articles of faith and doctrine. Hooker. The Monroe doctrine (Politics), a policy enu…

iscernment; decision. [Obs.] And there he learned of things and haps to come, To give foreknowledge true, and certain doom. Fairfax.

A fluctuation of mind arising from defect of knowledge or evidence; uncertainty of judgment or mind; unsettled state of opinion concerning the reality of an event, or the truth of an assertion, etc.; hesitation. Doubt is the beginning and the end of our efforts to know. Sir W. Hamilton. Doubt, in order to be operative…

ttish-topped hill; -- usually in the plural. Hills afford prospects, as they must needs acknowledge who have been on the downs of Sussex. Ray. She went by dale, and she went by down. Tennyson.

ons and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline. He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay.

trine that all mankind are divided by the arbitrary decree of God, and in his eternal foreknowledge, into two classes, the elect and the reprobate.

To instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge; to teach. It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public. Gibbon.

The act or process of educating; the result of educating, as determined by the knowledge skill, or discipline of character, acquired; also, the act or process of training by a prescribed or customary course of study or discipline; as, an education for the bar or the pulpit; he has finished his education. To prepare us…