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To discover; to reveal; to discoure. [Obs.] I will, if please you it discure, assay To ease you of that ill, so wisely as I may. Spenser.

n or investigation of a matter, with the arguments and facts bearing upon it; elaborate essay; dissertation. For accurate research or grave disquisition he was not well qualified. Macaulay.

A formal or elaborate argumentative discourse, oral or written; a disquisition; an essay; a discussion; as, Dissertations on the Prophecies.

e, a woman; women, collectively. His crown usurped, a distaff on the throne. Dryden. Some say the crozier, some say the distaff was too busy. Howell.

To intoxicate. [R.] The courtiers reeling, And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered, But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing. Massinger.

To extend in some one direction; to lengthen out; to stretch. [R.] But say, what mean those colored streaks in heaven Distended as the brow of God appeased Milton.

A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. O, too high ditty for my simple rhyme. Spenser.

A saying in which two members of the sentence are contrasted; an antithetical proverb. [Obs.] Italy, a paradise for horses, a hell for women, as the diverb goes. Burton.

ng divine or superhuman; supernatural power or virtue; something which inspires awe. They say there is divinity in odd numbers. Shak. There's such divinity doth hedge a king. Shak.

They are often used in emphatic construction. "You don't say so, Mr. Jobson. -- but I do say so." Sir W. Scott. "I did love him, but scorn him now." Latham. (c) In negative and interrogative constructions, do and did are in common use. I do not wish to see them; what do you think Did Cæsar cross the Tiber He did not.…

Proving by experiments or tests. Docimastic art, metallurgy, or the art of assaying metals; the art of separating metals from foreign matters, and determining the nature and quantity of metallic substances contained in any ore or mineral.

A treatise on the art of testing, as in assaying metals, etc.

A stupid person; a fool; a blockhead. Some will say, our curate is naught, an ass-head, a dodipoll. Latimer.

The nail or knob on which in ancient doors the knocker struck; -- hence the old saying, "As dead as a doornail."

To fall dead, or to fall in death. Nothing, says Seneca, so soon reconciles us to the thoughts of our own death, as the prospect of one friend after another dropping round us. Digby.

Originally, the highest note in the scale of Guido; hence, proverbially, any extravagant saying. "Why, this is above E-la!" Beau. & Fl.

h the edge towards anything; in the direction of the edge. Glad to get in a word, as they say, edgeways. Sir W. Scott.

n. There have been three talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists. Holmes.

ement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper. W. Irving. The embarrassments tom commerce growing out of the late regulations. Bancroft.

a person; an enemy to truth, or to falsehood. To all good he enemy was still. Spenser. I say unto you, Love your enemies. Matt. v. 44. The enemy (Mil.), the hostile force. In this sense it is construed with the verb and pronoun either in the singular or the plural, but more commonly in the singular; as, we have met th…