Search the Dictionary

tering or dispersing, or the state of being scattered or separated; as, the Jews in their dispersion retained their rites and ceremonies; a great dispersion of the human family took place at the building of Babel. The days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished. Jer. xxv. 34.

Expressing a relation of dispersion, distribution, etc.; also, a relation of reciprocal action. What news among the merchants Shak. Human sacrifices were practiced among them. Hume. Divide that gold amongst you. Marlowe. Whether they quarreled among themselves, or with their neighbors. Addison.

Disruption; a separation and dispersion of the parts or members; as, a break-up of an assembly or dinner party; a break-up of the government.

istance (usually 2½ to 3 inches) to the rear of the muzzle, in order to prevent the rapid dispersion of the shot.

g or separating. Clarke. Dialytic telescope, an achromatic telescope in which the colored dispersion produced by a single object lens of crown glass is corrected by a smaller concave lens, or combination of lenses, of high dispersive power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the converging cone of rays, usual…

sing, or the state of being diffused; a spreading; extension; dissemination; circulation; dispersion. A diffusion of knowledge which has undermined superstition. Burke.

The quality or state of being diffusive or diffuse; extensiveness; expansion; dispersion. Especially of style: Diffuseness; want of conciseness; prolixity. The fault that I find with a modern legend, it its diffusiveness. Addison.

Destruction; dispersion. Bp. Horsley.

The act or result of dispersing or scattering; dispersion. Darwin.

To spread or extend by dispersion. A nearly uniform and constant fire or heat disseminated throughout the body of the earth. Woodward.

To scatter completely; to disperse and cause to disappear; -- used esp. of the dispersion of things that can never again be collected or restored. Dissipated those foggy mists of error. Selden. I soon dissipated his fears. Cook. The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy. Hazlitt.…

The act of dissipating or dispersing; a state of dispersion or separation; dispersion; waste. Without loss or dissipation of the matter. Bacon. The famous dissipation of mankind. Sir M. Hale.

The dispersion of an assembly by terminating its sessions; the breaking up of a partnership. Dissolution is the civil death of Parliament. Blackstone.

nt of two lenses for a microscope, designed to correct spherical aberration and chromatic dispersion, thus rendering the image of an object more clear and distinct. W. H. Wollaston.

nd two equal and parallel triangular ends or bases; -- used in experiments on refraction, dispersion, etc.

Natural dispersion of seeds. Martyn.

nning away, of a number of animals; usually caused by fright; hence, any sudden flight or dispersion, as of a crowd or an army in consequence of a panic. She and her husband would join in the general stampede. W. Black.

of two plano-convex lenses. It is designed to correct spherical aberration and chromatic dispersion.