Deposit – Desiderate

Deposit

DEPOSIT, verb transitive

1. To lay down; to lay; to throw down. A crocodile deposits her eggs in the sand. A bird deposits eggs in a nest. An inundation deposits particles of earth on a meadow.

2. To lay up; to lay in a place for preservation. We deposit the produce of the earth in barns, cellars of storehouses. We deposit goods in a warehouse, and books in a library.

3. To lodge in the hands of a person for safe-keeping or other purpose; to commit to the care of; to entrust; to commit to one as a pledge. We say, the bond is deposited in the hands of an attorney; money is deposited as a pledge, or security.

4. To lay aside.

DEPOSIT, noun

1. That which is laid or thrown down; any matter laid or thrown down, or lodged.

The deposit already formed affording to the succeeding portions of the charged fluid, a basis.

2. Any thing entrusted to the care of another; a pledge; a pawn; a thing given as security, or for preservation; as, these papers are committed to you as a sacred deposit; he

has a deposit of money in his hands.

3. A place where things are deposited; a depository.

4. A city or town where goods are lodged for safe-keeping or for reshipment.

In deposit in a state of pledge, or for safe keeping.

Depositary

DEPOSITARY, noun

1. A person with whom any thing is left or lodged in trust; one to whom a thing is committed for safe keeping, or to be used for the benefit of the owner; a trustee; a guardian. The Jews were the depositaries of the sacred writings.

2. In law, one to whom goods are bailed to be kept for the bailor without a recompense.

Depositing

DEPOSITING, participle present tense Laying down; pledging; repositing.

Deposition

DEPOSITION, noun

1. The act of laying or throwing down; as, soil is formed by the deposition of fine particles, during a flood.

2. That which is thrown down; that which is lodged; as, banks are sometimes depositions of alluvial matter.

3. The act of giving testimony under oath.

4. The attested written testimony of a witness; an affidavit.

5. The act of dethroning a king, or the degrading of a person from an office or station; a divesting of sovereignty, or of office and dignity; a depriving of clerical orders. A deposition differs from abdication; an abdication being voluntary, and a deposition compulsory.

Depository

DEPOSITORY, noun A place where any thing is lodged for safe-keeping. A warehouse is a depository for goods; a clerks office, for records.

Depositum

DEPOSITUM, noun A deposit.

Depot

DEPOT. [A french word. See deposit.]

Depravation

DEPRAVATION, noun

1. The act of making bad or worse; the act of corrupting.

2. The state of being made bad or worse; degeneracy; a state in which good qualities are lost, or impaired. We speak of the depravation of morals, manners or goverment; of the heart or mind; of nature, taste, etc.

3. Censure; defamation.

Deprave

DEPRAVE, verb transitive [Latin Crooked, perverse, wicked.]

1. To make bad or worse; to impair good qualities; to make bad qualities worse; to vitiate; to corrupt; as, to deprave manners, morals, government, laws; to deprave the heart, mind, will, understanding, taste, principles, etc.

2. To defame; to vilify.

Depraved

DEPRAVED, participle passive

1. Made bad or worse; vitiated; tainted; corrupted.

2. adjective Corrupt; wicked; destitute of holiness or good principles.

Depravedly

DEPRAVEDLY, adverb In a corrupt manner.

Depravedness

DEPRAVEDNESS, noun Corruption; taint; a vitiated state.

Depravement

DEPRAVEMENT, noun A vitiated state.

Depraver

DEPRAVER, noun A corrupted; he who citiates; a vilifier.

Depraving

DEPRAVING, noun A traducing.

Depravity

DEPRAVITY, noun

1. Corruption; a vitiated state; as the depravity of manners and morals.

2. A vitiated state of the heart; wickedness; corruption of moral principles; destitution of holiness or good principles.

Deprecate

DEPRECATE, verb transitive [Latin To pray.]

1. To pray against; to pray or intreat that a present evil may be removed, or an expected one averted.

The judgments we would deprecate are not removed.

We should all deprecate the return of war.

2. More generally, to regret; to have or to express deep sorrow at a present evil, or at one that may occur. This word is seldom used to express actual prayer; but it expresses deep regret that an evil exists or may exist, which implies a strong desire that it may be removed or averted.

3. To implore mercy of.

Deprecated

DEPRECATED, participle passive Prayed against; deeply regretted.

Deprecating

DEPRECATING, participle present tense Praying against; regretting.

Deprecation

DEPRECATION, noun

1. A praying against; a praying that an evil may be removed or prevented.

2. Intreaty; petitioning; an excusing; a begging pardon for.

Deprecative

DEPRECATIVE, adjective

1. That serves to deprecate; tending to remove or avert evil by prayer; as deprecatory letters.

2. Having the form of prayer.

Deprecator

DEPRECATOR, noun One who deprecates.

Deprecatory

DEPRECATORY,

DEPRECIATE, verb transitive [Low Latin Price.]

1. To lessen the price of a thing; to cry down the price or value.

2. To undervalue; to represent as of little value or merit, or of less value than is commonly supposed; as, one author is apt to depreciate the works of another, or to depreciate their worth.

3. To lower the value. The issue of a superabundance of notes depreciates them, or depreciates their value.

DEPRECIATE, verb intransitive To fall in value; to become of less worth. A paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie. Estates are apt to depreciate in hte hands of tenants on short leases. Continental bills of credit, issued by the congress, during the revolution, depreciated to the one hundredth part of their nominal value.

Depreciate

DEPRECIATE, v.t. [Low L. Price.] 1. To lessen the price of a thing; to cry down the price or value.2. To undervalue; to represent as of little value or merit, or of less value than is commonly supposed; as, one author is apt to depreciate the works of another, or to depreciate their worth.3. To lower the value. The issue of a superabundance of notes depreciates them, or depreciates their value. DEPRECIATE, v.i. To fall in value; to become of less worth. A paper currency will depreciate, unless it is convertible into specie. Estates are apt to depreciate in hte hands of tenants on short leases. Continental bills of credit, issued by the congress, during the revolution, depreciated to the one hundredth part of their nominal value.

Depreciated

DEPRECIATED, participle passive Lessened in value or price; undervalued.

Depreciating

DEPRECIATING, participle present tense

1. Lessening the price or worth; undervaluing.

2. Falling in value.

Depreciation

DEPRECIATION, noun

1. The act of lessening or crying down price or value.

2. The falling of value; reduction of worth; as the depreciation of bills of credit.

Depredate

DEPREDATE, verb intransitive [Latin To plunder; prey.]

1. To plunder; to rob; to pillage; to take the property of an enemy or of a foreign country by force; as, the army depredated the enemys country.

That kind of war which depredates and distresses individuals.

2. To prey upon; to waste; to spoil.

3. To devour; to destroy by eating; as, wild animals depredate the corn.

DEPREDATE, verb intransitive To take plunder or prey; to commit waste; as, the troops depredated on the country.

Depredated

DEPREDATED, participle passive Spoiled; plundered; wasted; pillaged.

Depredating

DEPREDATING, participle present tense Plundering; robbing; pillaging.

Depredation

DEPREDATION, noun

1. The act of plundering; a robbing; a pillaging.

2. Waste; consumption; a taking away by any act of violence. The sea often makes depredations on the land. Intemperance commits depredations on the constitution.

Depredator

DEPREDATOR, noun One who plunders, or pillages; a spoiler; a waster.

Depredatory

DEPREDATORY, adjective Plundering; spoiling; consisting in pillaging.

Deprehend

DEPREHEND, verb transitive [Latin To take or seize.]

1. To catch; to take unawares or by surprise; to seize, as a person committing an unlawful act.

2. To detect; to discover; to obtain the knowledge of.

Deprehended

DEPREHENDED, participle passive Taken by surprise; caught; seized; discovered.

Deprehending

DEPREHENDING, participle present tense Taking unawares; catching; seizing; discovering.

Deprehensible

DEPREHENSIBLE, adjective That may be caught, or discovered.

Deprehensibleness

DEPREHENSIBLENESS, noun Capableness of being caught or discovered.

Deprehension

DEPREHENSION, noun A catching or seizing; a discovery.

Depress

DEPRESS, verb transitive [Latin To press.]

1. To press down; to press to a lower state or position; as, to depress the end of a tube, or the muzzle of a gun.

2. To let fall; to bring down; as, to depress the eye.

3. To render dull or languid; to limit or diminish; as, to depress commerce.

4. To sink; to lower; to deject; to make sad; as, to depress the spirits or the mind.

5. To humble; to abase; as, to depress pride.

6. To sink in altitude; to cause to appear lower or nearer the horizon; as, a man sailing towards the equator depresses the pole.

7. To impoverish; to lower in temporal estate; as, misfortunes and losses have depressed the merchants.

8. To lower in value; as, to depress the price of stock.

Depressing

DEPRESSING, participle present tense Pressing down; lowering in place; letting fall; sinking; dejecting; abasing; impoverishing; rendering languid.

Depression

DEPRESSION, noun

1. The act of pressing down; or the state of being pressed down; a low state.

2. A hollow; a sinking or falling in of a surface; or a forcing inwards; as roughness consisting in little protuberances and depressions; the depression of the skull.

3. The act of humbling; abasement; as the depression of pride; the depression of the nobility.

4. A sinking of the spirits; dejection; a state of sadness; want of courage or animation; as depression of the mind.

5. A low state of strength; a state of body succeeding debility in the formation of disease.

6. A low state of business or of property.

7. The sinking of the polar star towards the horizon, as a person recedes from the pole towards the equator. Also, the distance of a star from the horizon below, which is measured by an arch of the vertical circle or azimuth, passing through the star, intercepted between the star and the horizon.

8. In algebra, the depression of an equation, is the bringing of it into lower and more simple terms by division.

Depressive

DEPRESSIVE, adjective Able or tending to depress or cast down.

Depressor

DEPRESSOR, noun

1. He that presses down; an oppressor.

2. In anatomy, a muscle that depresses or draws down the part to which it is attached; as the depressor of the lower jaw, or of the eyeball. It is called also depriment or deprimens.

Deprivable

DEPRIVABLE, adjective That may be deprived.

A chaplain shall be deprivable by the founder, not by the bishop.

Deprivation

DEPRIVATION, noun

1. The act of depriving; a taking away.

2. A state of being deprived; loss; want; bereavement by loss of friends or of goods.

3. In law, the act of divesting a bishop or other clergyman of his spiritual promotion or dignity; the taking away of a preferment; deposition. This is of two kinds; a beneficio, and ab officio. The former is the deprivation of a minister of his living or preferment; the latter, of his order, and otherwise called deposition or degradation.

Deprive

DEPRIVE, verb transitive [Latin To take away.]

1. To take from; to bereave of something possessed or enjoyed; followed by of; as, to deprive a man of sight; to deprive one of strength, of reason, or of property. This has a general signification, applicable to a lawful or unlawful taking.

God hath deprived her of wisdom. Job 39:17.

2. To hinder from possessing or enjoying; to debar.

From his face I shall be hid, deprived of his blessed countenance.

[This use of the word is not legitimate, but common.]

3. To free or release from.

4. To divest of an ecclesiastical preferment, dignity or office; to divest of orders; as a bishop, prebend or vicar.

Deprived

DEPRIVED, participle passive Bereft; divested; hindered; stripped of office or dignity; deposed; degraded.

Deprivement

DEPRIVEMENT, noun The state of losing or being deprived.

Depriver

DEPRIVER, noun He or that which deprives or bereaves.

Depriving

DEPRIVING, participle present tense Bereaving; taking away what is possessed; divesting; hindering from enjoying; deposing.

Depth

DEPTH, noun

1. Deepness; the distance or measure of a thing from the surface to the bottom, or to the extreme part downwards or inwards. The depth of a river may be ten feet. The depth of the ocean is unfathomable. The depth of a wound may be an inch. In a vertical direction, depth is opposed to highth.

2. A deep place.

3. The sea, the ocean.

The depth closed me round about. Jonah 2:5.

4. The abyss; a gulf of infinite profundity.

When he set a compass on the face of the depth Proverbs 8:27.

5. The middle or highth of a season, as the depth of winter; or the middle, the darkest or stillest part, as the depth of night; or the inner part, a part remote from the border, as the depth of a wood or forest.

6. Abstruseness; obscurity; that which is not easily explored; as the depth of a science.

7. Unsearchableness; infinity.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Romans 11:33.

8. The breadth and depth of the love of Christ, are its vast extent.

9. Profoundness; extent of penetration, or of the capacity of penetrating; as depth of understanding; depth of skill.

10. The depth of a squadron or battalion, is the number of men in a file, which forms the extent from the front to the rear; as a depth of three men or six men.

11. depth of a sail, the extent of the square sails from the head-rope to the foot-rope, or the length of the after-leech of a stay-sail or boom-sail.

Depulsion

DEPULSION, noun [Latin To drive.] A driving or thrusting away.

Depulsory

DEPULSORY, adjective Driving or thrusting away; averting.

Depurate

DEPURATE, verb transitive To purify; to free from impurities, heterogeneous matter or feculence; a chimical term.

Depurated

DEPURATED, participle passive Purified from heterogeneous matter, or from impurities.

Depurating

DEPURATING, participle present tense Purifying; freeing from impurities.

Depuration

DEPURATION, noun

1. The act of purifying or freeing fluids from heterogeneous matter. This is done by decantation, when the feculent matter is deposited on the bottom of the vessel; or by despumation, effected by boiling or fermentation, and skimming; or by filtration; or by fining or clarification.

2. The cleansing of a wound from impure matter.

Depuratory

DEPURATORY, adjective Cleansing; purifying; or tending to purify. A depuratory fever, is a fever that expels morbid matter by a free perspiration.

Depure

DEPURE, verb transitive To depurate.

Deputation

DEPUTATION, noun

1. The act of appointing a substitute or representative to act for another; the act of appointing and sending a deputy or substitute to transact business for another, as his agent, either with a special commission and authority, or with general powers. This word may be used for the election of representatives to a legislature; but more generally it is employed to express the appointment of a special agent or commissioner, by an individual or public body, to transact a particular business.

2. A special commission or authority to act as the substitute of another; as, this man acts by deputation from the sheriff.

3. The person deputed; the person or persons authorized and sent to transact business for another; as, the General sent a deputation to the enemy to offer terms of peace.

Depute

DEPUTE, verb transitive To appoint as a substitute or agent to act for another; to appoint and send with a special commission or authority to transact business in anothers name. The sheriff deputes a man to serve a writ.

There is no man deputed by the king to hear. 2 Samuel 15:3.

The bishop may depute a priest to administer the sacrement.

Deputed

DEPUTED, participle passive Appointed as a substitute; appointed and sent with special authority to act for another.

Deputing

DEPUTING, participle present tense Appointing as a substitute; appointed and sent with special authority to act for another.

Deputize

DEPUTIZE, verb transitive To appoint a deputy; to empower to act for another, as a sheriff.

Deputy

DEPUTY, noun

1. A person appointed or elected to act for another, especially a person sent with a special commission to act in the place of another; a lieutenant; a viceroy. A prince sends a deputy to a diet or council, to represent him and his dominions. A sheriff appoints a deputy to execute the duties of his office. The towns in New England send deputies to the legislature. In the latter sense, a deputy has general powers, and it is more common to use the word representative.

2. In law, one that exercises an office in anothers right, and the forfeiture or misdemeanor of such deputy shall cause the person he represents to lose his office.

Deputy-Collector

DEPUTY-COLLECTOR, noun A person appointed to perform the duties of a collector of the customs, in place of the collector.

Deputy-Marshall

DEPUTY-MARSHALL, noun One appointed to act in the place of the marshal.

Deputy-Post-Master

DEPUTY-POST-MASTER, noun A person who is appointed to act as post-master, in subordination to the Post-Master General.

Deputy-Sheriff

DEPUTY-SHERIFF, noun A person deputed or authorized to perform the duties of the sheriff, as his substitute. In like manner, we use deputy-commissary, deputy-pay-master, etc.

Der

DER, prefixed to names of places, may be from Sax. deor, a wild beast, or from dur, water.

Deracinate

DERACINATE, verb transitive To pluck up by the roots; to extirpate.

Deracinated

DERACINATED, participle passive Plucked up by the roots; extirpated.

Deracinating

DERACINATING, participle present tense Tearing up by the roots; extirpating.

Deraign

DERAIGN or DERAIN, verb transitive To prove; to justify; to vindicate, as an assertion; to clear ones self.

Deraignment

DERAIGNMENT,

DERAINMENT, noun The act of deraining; proof; justification.

A like word was formerly used in the sense of disordering, derangement, a discharge from a profession, or departure from a religious order.

Derange

DERANGE, verb transitive

1. To put out of order; to disturb the regular order of; to throw into confusion; as, to derange the plans of a commander, or the affairs of a nation.

I had long supposed that nothing could derange or interrupt the course of putrefaction.

2. To embarrass; to disorder; as, his private affairs are deranged.

3. To disorder the intellect; to disturb the regular operations of reason.

4. To remove from place or office, as the personal staff of a principal military officer. Thus when a general officer resigns or is removed from office, the personal staff appointed by himself are said to be deranged.

Deranged

DERANGED, participle passive Put out of order; disturbed; embarrassed; confused; disordered in mind; delirious; distracted.

Derangement

DERANGEMENT, noun

1. A putting out of order; disturbance of regularity or regular course; embarrassment.

2. Disorder of the intellect or reason; delirium; insanity; as a derangement of the mental organs.

Deranging

DERANGING, participle present tense

1. Putting out of order; disturbing regularity or regular course; embarrassment; confusion.

2. Disordering the rational powers.

Deray

DERAY, verb transitive Tumult; disorder; merriment.

Dere

DERE, verb transitive To hurt.

Derelict

DERELICT, adjective [Latin To leave.] Left; abandoned.

DERELICT, noun

1. In law, an article of goods, or any commodity, thrown away, relinquished or abandoned by the owner.

2. A tract of land left dry by the sea, and fit for cultivation or use.

Dereliction

DERELICTION, noun

1. The act of leaving with an intention not to reclaim; an utter forsaking; abandonment.

2. The state of being left or abandoned.

3. A leaving or receding from; as the dereliction of the sea.

Deride

DERIDE, verb transitive [Latin To laugh.] To laugh at in contempt; to turn to ridicule or make sport of; to mock; to treat with scorn by laughter.

The Pharisees also-derided him. Luke 16:14.

Some, who adore Newton for his fluxions, deride him for his religion.

Derided

DERIDED, participle passive Laughed at in contempt; mocked; ridiculed.

Derider

DERIDER, noun

1. One who laughs at another in contempt; a mocker; a scoffer.

2. A droll or buffoon.

Deriding

DERIDING, participle present tense Laughing at with contempt; mocking; ridiculing.

Deridingly

DERIDINGLY, adverb By way of derision or mockery.

Derision

DERISION, noun

1. The act of laughing at in contempt.

2. Contempt manifested by laughter; scorn.

I am in derision daily. Jeremiah 20:7.

3. An object of derision or contempt; a laughing-stock.

I was a derision to all my people. Lamentations 3:14.

Derisive

DERISIVE, adjective Containing derision; mocking; ridiculing.

DERISIVE taunts.

Derisively

DERISIVELY, adverb With mockery or contempt.

Derisory

DERISORY, adjective Mocking; ridiculing.

Derivable

DERIVABLE, adjective

1. That may be derived; that may be drawn, or received, as from a source. Income is derivable from land, money or stocks.

2. That may be received from ancestors; as an estate derivable from an ancestor.

3. That may be drawn, as from premises; deducible; as an argument derivable from facts or preceding propositions.

4. That may be drawn from a radical word; as a word derivable from an Oriental root.

Derivate

DERIVATE, noun A word derived from another.

Derivation

DERIVATION, noun

1. The act of deriving, drawing or receiving from a source; as the derivation of an estate from ancestors, or of profits from capital, or of truth or facts from antiquity.

2. In grammar, the drawing or tracing of a word from its root or original; as, derivation is from the Latin Derivo, and the latter from rivus, a stream.

3. A drawing from, or turning aside from, a natural course or channel; as the derivation of water from its channel by lateral drains.

4. A drawing of humors from one part of the body to another; as the derivation of humors from the eye, by a blister on the neck.

5. The thing derived or deduced.

Derivative

DERIVATIVE, adjective

1. Derived; taken or having proceeded from another or something preceding; secondary; as a derivative perfection; a derivative conveyance, as a release.

2. A derivative chord, in music, is one derived from a fundamental chord.

DERIVATIVE, noun

1. That which is derived; a word which takes its origin in another word, or is formed from it. Thus, depravity is a derivative from the Latin Deravo, and acknowledge, from knowledge, and this from know, the primitive word.

2. In music, a chord not fundamental.

Derivatively

DERIVATIVELY, adverb In a derivative manner; by derivation.

Derive

DERIVE, verb transitive [Latin A stream.]

1. To draw from, as in a regular course or channel; to receive from a source by a regular conveyance. The heir derives an estate from his ancestors. We derive from Adam mortal bodies and natures prone to sin.

2. To draw or receive, as from a source or origin. We derive ideas from the senses, and instruction from good books.

3. To deduce or draw, as from a root, or primitive word. A hundred words are often derived from a single monosyllabic root, and sometimes a much greater number.

4. To turn from its natural course; to divert; as, to derive water from the main channel or current into lateral rivulets.

5. To communicate from one to another by descent.

An excellent disposition is derived to your lordship from your parents.

6. To spread in various directions; to cause to flow.

The streams of justice were derived into every part of the kingdom.

DERIVE, verb intransitive To come or proceed from.

Power from heaven derives.

Derived

DERIVED, participle passive Drawn, as from a source; deduced; received; regularly conveyed; descended; communicated; transmitted.

Deriver

DERIVER, noun One who derives, or draws from a source.

Deriving

DERIVING, participle present tense Drawing; receiving; deducing; communicating; diverting or turning into another channel.

Dermal

DERMAL, adjective Pertaining to skin; consisting of skin.

Dermoid

DERMOID, adjective Pertaining to the skin; a medical term.

Dern

DERN, adjective Solitary; sad; cruel.

Dernful

DERNFUL, adjective Sad; mournful.

Dernier

DERNIER, adjective Last; final; ultimate; as the dernier resort.

Dernly

DERNLY, adverb Sadly; mournfully.

Derogate

DEROGATE, verb transitive [Latin To ask, to propose. In ancient Rome, rogo was used in proposing new laws, and derogo, in repealing some section of a law. Hence the sense is to take from or annul a part.]

1. To repeal, annul or destroy the force and effect of some part of a law or established rule; to lessen the extent of a law; distinguished from abrogate.

By several contrary customs, many of the civil and canon laws are controlled and derogated.

2. To lessen the worth of a person or thing; to disparage.

DEROGATE, verb intransitive

1. To take away; to detract; to lessen by taking away a part; as, say nothing to derogate from the merit or reputation of a brave man.

2. To act beneath ones rank, place or birth.

Derogated

DEROGATED, participle passive Diminished in value; degraded; damaged.

Derogately

DEROGATELY, adverb In a manner to lessen or take from.

Derogating

DEROGATING, participle present tense Annulling a part. Lessening by taking from.

Derogation

DEROGATION, noun

1. The act of annulling or revoking a law, or some part of it. More generally, the act of taking away or destroying the value or effect of any thing, or of limiting its extent, or of restraining its operation; as, an act of parliament is passed in derogation of the kings prerogative; we cannot do any thing in derogation of the moral law.

2. The act of taking something from merit, reputation or honor; a lessening of value or estimation; detraction; disparagement; with from or of; as, I say not this in derogation of Virgil; let nothing be said in derogation from his merit.

Derogative

DEROGATIVE, adjective Derogatory.

Derogatorily

DEROGATORILY, adverb In a detracting manner.

Derogatoriness

DEROGATORINESS, noun The quality of being derogatory.

Derogatory

DEROGATORY, adjective

1. Detracting or tending to lessen by taking something from; that lessens the extent, effect or value; with to. Let us entertain no opinions derogatory to the honor of God, or his moral government. Let us say nothing derogatory to the merit of our neighbor.

2. A derogatory clause in a testament, is a sentence or secret character inserted by the testator, of which he reserves the knowledge to himself, with a condition that no will be may make hereafter shall be valid, unless this clause is inserted word for word; a precaution to guard against later wills extorted by violence or obtained by suggestion.

Derring

DERRING, adjective Daring.

Dervis

DERVIS, noun A turkish priest or monk, who professes extreme poverty, and leads an austere life.

Descant

DESCANT, noun

1. A song or tune composed in parts.

2. A song or tune with various modulations.

The wakeful nightingale

All night long her amourous descant sung.

3. A discourse; discussion; disputation; animadversion, comment, or a series of comments.

4. The art of composing music in several parts. descant is plain, figurative and double.

Plain descant is the ground-work of musical compositions, consisting in the orderly disposition of concords, answering to simple counterpoint.

Figurative or florid descant is that part of an air in which some discords are concerned.

Double descant is when the parts are so contrived, that the treble may be made the base, and the base the treble.

DESCANT, verb intransitive

1. To run a division or variety with the voice, on a musical ground in true measure; to sing.

2. To discourse; to comment; to make a variety of remarks; to animadvert freely.

A virtuous man should be pleased to find people descanting on his actions.

Descanting

DESCANTING, participle present tense Singing in parts or with various modulations; discoursing freely; commenting.

DESCANTING, noun Remark; conjecture.

Descend

DESCEND, verb intransitive [Latin To climb.]

1. To move or pass from a higher to a lower place; to move, come or go downwards; to fall; to sink; to run or flow down; applicable to any kind of motion or of body. We descend on the feet, on wheels, or by falling. A torrent descends from a mountain.

The rains descended, and the floods came. Matthew 7:25.

2. To go down, or to enter.

He shall descend into battle and perish. Sam. 26.

3. To come suddenly; to fall violently.

And on the suitors let thy wrath descend

4. To go in; to enter.

He, with honest meditations fed, into himself descended.

5. To rush; to invade, as an enemy.

The Grecian fleet descending on the town.

6. To proceed from a source or original; to be derived. The beggar may descend from a prince, and the prince, from a beggar.

7. To proceed, as from father to son; to pass from a preceding possessor, in the order of lineage, or according to the laws of succession or inheritance. Thus, an inheritance descends to the son or next of kin; a crown descends to the heir.

8. To pass from general to particular considerations; as, having explained the general subject, we will descend to particulars.

9. To come down from an elevated or honorable station; in a figurative sense. Flavius is an honorable man; he cannot descend to acts of meanness.

10. In music, to fall in sound; to pass from any note to another less acute or shrill, or from sharp to flat.

DESCEND, verb transitive To walk, move or pass downwards on a declivity; as, to descend a hill; to descend an inclined plain. [But this may be considered as elliptical; on or along being understood.]

Descendant

DESCENDANT, noun Any person proceeding from an ancestor in any degree; issue; offspring, in the line of generation, ad infinitum. We are all the descendants of Adam and Eve.

Descendent

DESCENDENT, adjective

1. Descending; falling; sinking.

2. Proceeding from an original or ancestor.

Descendibility

DESCENDIBILITY, noun The quality of being descendible, or capable of being trnasmitted from ancestors; as the descendibility of an estate or of a crown.

Descendible

DESCENDIBLE, adjective

1. That may be descended, or passed down; as, the hill is descendible

2. That may descend from an ancestor to an heir; as a descendible estate.

Descension

DESCENSION, noun

1. The act of going downwards; descent; a falling or sinking; declension; degradation.

2. In astronomy, right descension is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the intersection of the meridian, passing through the center of the object, at its setting, in a right sphere.

Oblique descension is an arch of the equinoctial, intercepted between the next equinoctial point and the horizon, passing through the center of the object, at its setting, in an oblique sphere.

Oblique descension is an arch of the equator which descends with the sun below the horizon of an oblique sphere.

DESCENSION of a sign, is an arch of the equator, which sets with such a sign or part of the zodiac, or any planet in it.

Right descension of a sign, is an arch of the equator, which descends with the sign below the horizon of a right sphere; or the time the sign is setting in a right sphere.

Descensional

DESCENSIONAL, adjective Pertaining to descent.

Descensive

DESCENSIVE, adjective Tending downwards; having power to descend.

Descent

DESCENT, noun

1. The act of descending; the act of passing from a higher to a lower place, by any form of motion, as by walking, riding, rolling, sliding, sinking or falling.

2. Inclination downward; obliquity; slope; declivity; as the descent of a hill, or a roof.

3. Progress downward; as the descent from higher to lower orders of beings.

4. Fall from a higher to a lower state or station.

5. A landing from ships; invasion of troops from the sea; as, to make a descent on Cuba.

6. A passing from an ancestor to an heir; transmission by succession or inheritance, as the descent of an estate or a title from the father to the son. descent is lineal, when it proceeds directly from the father to the son, and from the son to the grandson; collateral, when it proceeds from a man to his brother, nephew or other collateral representative.

7. A proceeding from an original or progenitor. The Jews boast of their descent from Abraham. Hence,

8. Birth; extraction; lineage; as a noble descent

9. A generation; a single degree in the scale of genealogy; distance from the common ancestor.

No man is a thousand descents from Adam.

10. Offspring; issue; descendants.

The care of our descent perplexes most.

11. A rank in the scale of subordination.

12. Lowest place.

13. In music, a passing from a note or sound to one more grave or less acute.

Describable

DESCRIBABLE, adjective That may be described; capable of description.

Describe

DESCRIBE, verb transitive [Latin To write.]

1. To delineate or mark the form or figure; as, to describe a circle by the compasses.

2. To make or exhibit a figure by motion; as, a star describes a circle or an ellipsis in the heavens.

3. To show or represent to others in words; to communicate the resemblance of a thing, by naming its nature, form or properties. The poet describes the Trojan horse. The historian describes the battle of Pharsalia. The moralist describes the effects of corrupt manners. The geographer describes countries and cities.

4. To represent by signs. A deaf and dumb man may describe a distant object. Our passions may be described by external motions.

5. To draw a plan; to represent by lines and other marks on paper, or other material; as, to describe the surface of the earth by a map or chart.

6. To define laxly.

Described

DESCRIBED, participle passive Represented in form by marks or figures; delineated; represented by words or signs.

Describer

DESCRIBER, noun One who describes by marks, words or signs.

Describing

DESCRIBING, participle present tense Representing the form or figure of, by lines or marks; communicating a view of, by words or signs, or by naming the nature and properties.

Descried

DESCRIED, participle passive Espied; discovered; seen.

Descrier

DESCRIER, noun One who espies, or discovers; a discoverer; a detecter.

Description

DESCRIPTION, noun

1. The act of delineating, or representing the figure of any thing by a plan, to be presented to the eye.

2. The figure or appearance of any thing delineated, or represented by visible lines, marks, colors, etc.; as the description of a country, or of Solomons temple.

3. The act of representing a thing by words or by signs, or the passage containing such representation; a representation of names, nature of properties, that gives to another a view of the thing. Homer abounds with beautiful and striking descriptions.

4. A definition. All definitions must be less perfect descriptions of a material thing, than a visible figure or delineation.

5. The qualities expressed in a representation; as, a man of this description Hence,

6. The persons having the qualities expressed; a class of persons to whom a description is applicable, or who are in a similar condition.

The secretary proceeds to examine, whether a difference ought to be permitted to remain between them and another description of public creditors.

Persons of different descriptions.

Descriptiv

DESCRIPTIV, E, adjective Containing description; tending to describe; having the quality of representing; as a descriptive figure; a descriptive narration; a story descriptive of the age.

Descry

DESCRY, verb transitive

1. To espy; to explore; to examine by observation.

The house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. Judges 1:23.

2. To detect; to find out; to discover any thing concealed.

3. To see; to behold; to have a sight of from a distance; as, the seamen descried land.

4. To give notice of something suddenly discovered.

DESCRY, noun Discovery; thing descovered.

Descrying

DESCRYING, participle present tense Descovering; espying.

Desecrate

DESECRATE, verb transitive [Latin To consecrate, from sacred.]

1. To divert from a sacred purpose or appropriation; opposed to consecrate; as, to desecrate a donation to a church.

2. To divest of a sacred character or office.

The clergy-cannot suffer corporal punishment, without being previously desecrated.

Desecrated

DESECRATED, participle passive Diverted from a sacred purpose or appropriation; divested of a sacred character or office.

Desecrating

DESECRATING, participle present tense Diverting from a purpose to which a thing is consecrated; divested of a sacred character or office.

Desecration

DESECRATION, noun The act of diverting from a sacred purpose or use to which a thing had been devoted; the act of diverting from a sacred character or office.

Desert

DESERT, adjective S as z [Latin To sow, plant or scatter.]

1. Literally, forsaken; hence, uninhabited; as a desert isle. Hence, wild; untilled; waste; uncultivated; as a desert land or country.

2. Void; emprty; unoccupied.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.

DESERT, noun An uninhabited tract of land; a region in its natural state; a wilderness; a solitude; particularly, a vast sandy plain, as the deserts of Arabia and Africa. But the word may be applied to an uninhabited country covered with wood.

DESERT, verb transitive [Latin To forsake.]

1. To forsake; to leave utterly; to abandon; to quit with a view not to return to; as, to desert a friend; to desert our country; to desert a cause.

2. To leave, without permission, a military band, or a ship, in which one is enlisted; to forsake the service in which one is engaged, in violation of duty; as, to desert the army; to desert ones colors; to desert a ship.

DESERT, verb intransitive To run away; to quit a service without permission; as, to desert from the army.

DESERT, noun

1. A deserving; that which gives a right to reward or demands, or which renders liable to punishment; merit or demerit; that which entitles to a recompense of equal to the offense; good conferred, or evil done, which merits an equivalent return. A wise legislature will reward or punish men according to their deserts.

2. That which is deserved; reward or punishment merited. In a future life, every man will receive his desert

Deserted

DESERTED, participle passive Wholly forsaken; abandoned; left.

Deserter

DESERTER, noun A person who forsakes his cause, his post, or his party or friend; particularly, a soldier or seaman who quits the service without permission, and in violation of his engagement.

Desertful

DESERTFUL, adjective High in desert; meritorious.

Deserting

DESERTING, participle present tense Forsaking utterly; abandoning.

Desertion

DESERTION, noun

1. The act of forsaking or abandoning, as a party, a friend, a country, an army or military band, or a ship; the act of quitting, with an intention not to return.

2. The state of being forsaken by God; spiritual despondency.

The agonies of a soul under desertion

Desertless

DESERTLESS, adjective Without merit or claim to favor or reward.

Desertlessly

DESERTLESSLY, adverb Undeservedly.

Desertrice

DESERTRICE,

DESERTRIX, noun A female who deserts.

Desertrix

DESERTRIX, n. A female who deserts.

Deserve

DESERVE, verb transitive [Latin To serve.]

1. To merit; to be worthy of; applied to good or evil.

2. To merit by labor or services; to have a just claim to an equivalent for good conferred. The laborer deserves his wages; he deserves the value of his services.

3. To merit by good actions or qualities in general; to be worthy of, on account of excellence. The virtuous man deserves esteem and commendation. A work of value deserves praise.

4. To be worthy of, in a bad sense; to merit by an evil act; as, to deserve blame or punishment.

God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job 11:1.

DESERVE, verb intransitive To merit; to be worthy of or deserving; as, he deserves well or ill of his neighbor.

Deserved

DESERVED, participle passive Merited; worthy of.

Deservedly

DESERVEDLY, adverb Justly; according to desert, whether of good or evil. A man may be deservedly praised, blamed or punished.

Deserver

DESERVER, noun He who deserves or merits; one who is worthy of; used generally in a good sense.

Deserving

DESERVING, participle present tense

1. Meriting; having a just claim to reward; justly meriting punishment.

2. Worthy of reward or praise; meritorious; possessed of good qualities that entitle to approbation; as a deserving officer.

DESERVING, noun The act of meriting; desert; merit.

If ye have done to him according to the deserving of his hands. Judges 9:16.

Deservingly

DESERVINGLY, adverb Meritoriously; with just desert.

Deshabille

DESHABILLE or DESHABIL, noun An undress; a loose morning dress; hence, any home dress; as, the lady is in deshabille [It would be well to anglicize the orthography.]

Desiccant

DESICCANT, adjective Drying.

DESICCANT, noun A medicine or application that dries a sore.

Desiccate

DESICCATE, verb transitive [Latin To dry.] to dry; to exhaust of moisture; to exhale or remove moisture from.

DESICCATE, verb intransitive To become dry.

Desiccated

DESICCATED, participle passive Dried.

Desiccating

DESICCATING, participle present tense Drying; exhausting moisture.

Desiccation

DESICCATION, noun The act of making dry; the state of being dried.

Desiccative

DESICCATIVE, adjective Drying; tending to dry; that has the power to dry.

Desiderate

DESIDERATE, verb intransitive [from the Latin ] To want; to miss.