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DIGLADIATION. n. s. [digladiatio, Lat.j
A combat with swords; any quarrel or

contest.

Aristotle seems purposely to intend the cherishing of controversial digladiations, by his own affection of an intricate obscurity. Glanville. DIGNIFIED. adj. [from dignify.] Invested with some dignity: it is used chiefly of the clergy.

Abbots are stiled dignified clerks, as having some dignity in the church. Ayliffe's Parergon. DIGNIFICATION. n. s. [from dignify.] Exaltation.

I grant that where a noble and ancient descent and merit meet in any man, it is a double dignification of that person. Walton's Angler. To DIGNIFY. v. a. [from dignus and facio, Latin.]

. To advance; to prefer; to exalt. Used chiefly of the clergy.

2. To honour; to adorn; to give lustre
to; to improve by some adventitious
excellence, or honourable distinction.
Such a day,

So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won,
Came not till now to dignify the times
Since Cæsar's fortunes!

Not that we think us worthy such a guest,
Shaksp. Henry wv.
But that your worth will dignify our feast.
Ben Jonson.
No turbots dignify my boards;
But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames af-
fords.

DIGNITARY. n. s. [from dignus, Latin.]
Pope.
A clergyman advanced to some dignity,
to some rank above that of a parochial
priest.

If there be any dignitaries, whose preferments are perhaps not liable to the accusation of superfluity, they may be persons of superior merit.

DIGNITY. . S. [dignitas, Latin.] 1. Rank of elevation.

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Swift.

Angels are not any where spoken so highly of as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and are not in dignity equal to him. 2. Grandeur of mien; elevation of aspect. Hooker Some men have a native dignity, which will procure them more regard by a look, than others can obtain by the most imperious commands. Clarissa.

3. Advancement; preferment; high place.
Faster than spring-time show'rs comes thought
on thought,

And not a thought but thinks on dignity. Shaks.
For those of old,

And these late dignities heap'd up to them. Shaks.
4. [Among ecclesiasticks.] By a dignity
we understand that promotion or pre-
ferment to which any jurisdiction is
annexed.
Ayliffe's Parergon.
5. Maxims; general principles: xveral
δεξαι.

The sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves, receive not satisfaction from probable reasons, much less from bare asseverations. Brown.

6. [In astrology.] The planet is in dignity when it is in any sign. DIGNOTION. n. s. [from dignosco, Lat.] Distinction; distinguishing mark.

That temperamental digmotions, and conjec

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Milton. Here some digression I must make, t'accuse Thee, my forgetful and ungrateful muse.

Denham

To content and fill the eye of the understanding, the best authors sprinkle their works with pleasing digressions, with which they recreate the minds of their readers. 2. Deviation. Dryden.

The digression of the sun is not equal; but,
near the equinoctial intersections, it is right and
greater; near the solstices more oblique and
lesser.
DIJUDICATION. n. s. [dijudicatio, Lat.}
Brown's Vulg. Errours.
Judicial distinction.

DIKE. n. s. [Dic, Saxon; dyk, Erse.]
1. A channel to receive water.

The dykes are fill'd, and with a roaring sound
The rising rivers float the nether ground. Dryd.
The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of
mud

With deeper sable blots the silver flood. 2. A mound to hinder inundations.

Pope.

God, that breaks up the flood-gates of so great a deluge, and all the art and industry of man is not sufficient to raise up dykes and ramparts against it.

To DILA CERATE. Cowley. v. a. [dilacero, Latin.] To tear; to rend; to force in two.

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The infant, at the accomplished period, struggling to come forth, dilacerates and breaks those parts which restrained him before. Brown. DILACERATION. n. s. [from dilaceratio, Latin.] The act of rending in two.

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The greatest sensation of pain is by the ob struction of the small vessels, and dilaceration of the nervous fibres. Arbuthnos

To DILA'NIATE. v. a. [dilanio, Latin.]
To tear; to rend in pieces.

Rather than they would dilaniate the entralls of their own mother, and expose her thereby to be ravished, they met half way in a gallant kind. Howel's England's Tears.

To DILAPIDATE. v. n. [dilapido, Latin.] To go to ruin; to fall by decay. DILAPIDATION. .s." [dilapidatio, Lat.] The incumbent's suffering the chancel, or any other edifices of his ecclesiastical living, to go to ruin or decay, by neglecting to repair the same: and it likewise extends to his committing, or suffering to be committed, any wilful waste in or upon the glebe-woods, or any other inheritance of the church..

Ayliffe's Parergon.

'Tis the duty of all church-wardens to prevent the dilapidations of the chancel and mansionhouse belonging to the rector or vicar. Ayliffe. DILATABILITY. n. 5. [from dilatable.] The quality of admitting extension.

We take notice of the wonderful dilatability er extensiveness of the gullets of serpents: I have taken two adult mice out of the stomach of an adder, whose neck was not bigger than my little finger. By this continual contractibility and dilatibiRay. lity, by different degrees of heat, the air is kept in a constant motion. Arbuthnot.

DILATABLE. adj. [from dilate.] Capa

ble of extension.

The windpipe divides itself into a great number of branches, called bronchia: these end in small air bladders, dilatable and contractible, capable to be inflated by the admission of air, and to subside at the expulsion of it. DILATATION. n. s. [from dilatatio, Lat.] Arbuthnot. 1. The act of extending into greater space: opposed to contraction,

The motions of the tongue, by contraction and dilatation, are so easy and so subtle, that you can hardly conceive or distinguish them aright. Holder.

2. The state of being extended; the state in which the parts are at more distance

from each other.

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Diffus'd, it rises in a higher sphere;
Dilates its drops, and softens into air.

Prior.
I mark the various fury of the winds;
These neither seasons guide, nor order binds:
They now dilate and now contract their force;
Various their speed, but endless is their course.
Prior.

The second refraction would spread the rays one way as much as the first doth another, and o dilate the image in breadth as much as the first doth in length. Newton

2. To relate at large; to tell diffusely and copiously.

Joy causeth a cheerfulness and vigour in the eyes; singing, leaping, dancing, and sometimes tears: all these are the effects of the dilatation, and coming forth of the spirits into the outward parts. The image of the sun should be drawn out Bacon's Natural History. into an oblong form, either by a dilatation of every ray, or by any other casual inequality of the refractions. Newton.

To DILATE. v. a. [dilato, Latin.]
1. To extend; to spread out; to enlarge:
opposed to contract.

But ye thereby much greater glory gate,
Than had ye sorted with a prince's peer;
For now your light doth more itself dilate,
And in my darkness greater doth appear.

Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
Satan alarm'd,
Like Teneriff, or Atlas, unremov'd.

Dim

Opener of mine eyes,

Spenser.

But he would not endure that woful theam For to dilate at large; but urged sore, With piercing words, and pitiful implore, Him hasty to arise. Fairy Queen.

I observing, Took once a pliant hour, and found good means To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not distinctively. Shaksp. Othello

To DILATE. v.n.

Milton.

erst; dilated spirits, ampler heart, And growing up to godhead: which for thee Chiefly I sought; without thee can despise.

I.

2.

Milton.

To widen to grow wide.

His heart dilates and glories in his strength.
Addison.

To speak largely and copiously.

It may be behoveful for princes, in matters of grace, to transact the same publickly, and by themselves; or their ministers to dilate upon it, and improve their lustre, by any addition or eloquence of speech. Clarendon. DILA TOR. n. s. [from dilate.] That which widens or extends.

The buccinatores, or blowers up of the cheeks, and the dilators of the nose, are too strong in DILATORINESS. n. s. [from dilatory.] cholerick people. Arbuthnot. The quality of being dilatory; slowDILATORY. adj. [dilatiore, Fr. dilaness; sluggishness. torius, Lat.] Tardy; slow; given to procrastination; addicted to delay; sluggish; loitering.

Through all the air his sounding strings dilate Sorrow, like that which touch'd our hearts of Waller.

late,

An inferior council, after former tedious suits in a higher court, would be but dilatory, and so to little purpose. Hayward

What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft?

Shaksp.

And wit depends on dilatory time.
These cardinals trifle with me;
I abhor
This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome. Shaks.
Dilatory fortune plays the jilt
With the brave, noble, honest, gallant man,
To throw herself away on fools and knaves.

Otway.

A dilatory temper commits innumerable cruelties without design. Addison's Spectator. DILECTION. n. s. [dilectio, Latin.] The act of loving; kindness.

So free is Christ's dilection, that the grand condition of our felicity is our belief. Boyle. DILEMMA. Π.Σ. [δίλημμα.] 1. An argument equally conclusive by contrary suppositions. A young rhetorician applied to an old sophist to be taught the art of pleading, and bargained for a certain reward to be paid, when he should gain a cause. The master sued for his reward, and the scholar endeavoured to elude his claim

by a dilemma: If I gain my cause, I shall withhold your pay, because the judge's award will be against you; if I lose it, I may withhold it, because I shall not yet have gained a cause. On the contrary, says the master, if you gain your cause, you must pay me, because you are to pay me when you gain a cause; if you lose it, you must pay me, because the judges will award it.

A dilemma, that Morton used to raise bene-
volence, some called his fork, and some his
crotch.
Bacon's Henry VII.

Hope, whose weak being ruin'd is
Alike if it succeed, and if it miss;
Whom good or ill does equally confound,
And both the horns of fate 's dilemma wound.

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Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. 2 Timothy. Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. DILIGENT. adj. [diligens, Latin.] 1. Constant in application; persevering in endeavour; assiduous; not idle; not negligent; not lazy.

Proverbs.

Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. 2. Constantly applied; prosecuted with activity and perseverance; assiduous.

And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. Deuteronomy. DILIGENTLY. adv. [from diligent.] With assiduity; with heed and perseverance ; not carelessly; not idly; not negligently.

If you inquire not attentively and diligently, you shall never be able to discern a number of mechanical motions. Bacon.

The ancients have diligently examined in what consists the beauty of good postures. Dryden. DILL. n. s. [dile, Saxon.] An herb, which hath a slender, fibrose, annual root; the leaves are like those of fennel; the seeds are oval, plain, streaked, and bordered.

Dill is raised of seed, which is ripe in August.
Mortimer.

DILU’CID. adj. [dilucidus, Latin.]
1. Clear; not opaque.
2. Clear; plain; not obscure.
To DILUCIDATE. v. a. [from dilucidare,
Latin.] To make clear or plain; to
explain; to free from obscurity.

I shall not extenuate, but explain and dilucidate, according to the custom of the ancients: Brown's Vulg. Erreurs.

DILUCIDATION. #... [from dilucidatio, Latin.] The act of making clear; explanation; exposition.

DI'LUENT. adj. [diluens, Latin.] Hav-
ing the power to thin and attenuate
other matter.

DILUENT. z. s. [from the adjective.}
That which thins other matter.

There is no real diluent but water: every fluid
is diluent, as it contains water in it. Arbuthnot,
To DILUTE. v. a. [diluo, Latin.]
1. To make thin; to attenuate by the
admixture of other parts.

Drinking a large dose of diluted tea, as she was ordered by a physician, she got to bed.

Locke.

The aliment ought to be thin to diiute, de mulcent to temper, or acid to subdue. Arbuth. 2. To make weak.

The chamber was dark, lest these colours should be diluted and weakened by the mixture DILU TE. adj. Thin; attenuated. of any adventitious light. Newton.

If the red and blue colours were more dilute and weak, the distance of the images would be less than an inch; and if they were more intense and full, that distance would be greater. Newton.

That

DILUTER. N. s. [from dilute.]
which makes any thing else thin.
Water is the only diluter, and the best dissol-
vent of most of the ingredients of our aliment.
Arbuthnot on Aliments.
DILUTION. n. s. [dilutio, Latin.] The
act of making any thing thin or weak.

Opposite to dilution is coagulation or thicken-
ing, which is performed by dissipating the most
liquid parts by heat, or by insinuating some sub-
stances, which make the parts of the fluid co-
here more strongly.
DILUVIAN. adj. [from diluvium, Latin.]
Arbuthnot on Aliments.
Relating to the deluge.

Suppose that this diluvian lake should rise to the mountain tops in one place, and not diffuse itself equally into all countries about. Burnet DIM. adj. [dimme, Saxon; dy, Welsh; dow, Erse.]

1. Not having a quick sight; not seeing clearly.

For her true form how can my spark discern, Which, dim by nature, art did never clear? Davies.

2. Dull of apprehension.

3.

The understanding is dim, and cannot by its natural light discover spiritual truths. Not clearly seen; obscure; imperRogers. fectly discovered.

We might be able to aim at some dim and seeming conception, how matter might begin to exist by the power of that eternal first Being.

Locke.

Pope

Something, as dim to our internal view, Is thus perhaps the cause of all we do. 4. Obstructing the act of vision; not luminous; somewhat dark.

Her face right wondrous fair did seem to be, That her broad beauty's beam great brightness

threw

Through the dim shade, that all men might it see.
Spenser.

To DIM. v. a. [from the adjective.]
1. To cloud; to darken; to hinder from

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a full perception of light, and free ex-
ercise of vision.

As where the Almighty's lightning brand does
light,

dims the dazed eyen, and daunts the senses
quite.

What judgment I had, increases rather than diminishes; and thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only dif ficulty is to chuse or to reject.

Dryden,

Pope

Crete's ample fields diminish to our eye;
DIMINISHINGLY. adv. [from diminish.]
Before the Boreal blasts the vessels fly.
Spenser's Fairy Queen.
In a manner tending to vilify, or les-

It hath been observed by the ancients, that
much use of Venus doth dim the sight; and yet
eunuchs, which are unable to generate, are ne-
vertheless also dim sighted.
Bacon.
Every one declares against blindness, and yet
who almost is not fond of that which dims his
sight?
For thee I dim these eyes, and stuff this head,
Locke
With all such reading as was never read. Pope.
2. To make less bright; to obscure.

A ship that through the ocean wide,
By conduct of some star, doth make her way,
When as a storm hath dim'd her trusty guide,

Out of her course doth wander iar astray.

All of us have cause

Spenser.

To wail the dimming of our shining star. Shaksp.
Thus while he spake, each passion dimm'd his
face,

Thrice chang'd.
The principal figure in a picture is like a king
Milton.
among his courtiers, who dims all his attendants.
DIMENSION. n. s. [dimensio, Latin.]
Dryden.
Space contained in any thing; bulk;
extent; capacity. It is seldom used
but in the plural. The three dimen-
sions are length, breadth, and depth.

He tried

The tomb, and found the straight dimensions

wide.

My gentleman was measuring my walls, and Dryden. taking the dimensions of the room. DIMENSIONLESS. adj. [from dimension.] Swift.

Without

any definite bulk.

In they pass'd

Dimensionless through heav'nly doors. Milton. DIMENSIVE. adj. [dimensus. Lat.] That marks the boundaries or outlines.

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All bodies have their measure, and their space;
But who can draw the soul's dimensive lines?

Davies.

sen.

1 never heard him censure, or so much as speak diminishingly of any one that was absent. Locke. DIMINUTION. n. s. [diminutio, Latin.] 1. The act of making less: opposed to augmentation.

DIMICA'TION. n. s. [dimicatio, Lat.] A the act of fighting; contest.

battle;

Dict.

DIMIDIA'TION. n. s. [dimidiatio, Latin.] The act of halving; division into two equal parts.

Dict.

[diminuo, Latin.]

2.

To DIMINISH. v. a.
1. To make less by abscission or destruc-
tion of any part; the opposite to in-

crease.

Locke.

Milton.

The one is not capable of any diminution or The state of growing less: opposed to augmentation at all by men; the other apt to admit both. Hooker.

3.

increase.

The gravitating power of the sun is transmitted through the vast bodies of the planets without any diminution, so as to act upon all their parts, to their very centres, with the same force, and according to the same laws, as if the part upon which it acts were not surrounded with the body of the planet. Newton.

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Finite and infinite seem to be looked upon as the modes of quantity, and to be attributed primarily to those things which are capable of increase or diminution. Locke.

Discredit; loss of dignity; degrada

tion.

Gladly to thee

Heroick laurel'd Eugene yields the prime;
Nor thinks it diminution to be rank'd
In military honour next.

Philips

Deprivation of dignity; injury of reputation.

Make me wise by thy truth, for my own soul's salvation, and I shall not regard the world's opinion or diminution of me. King Charles.

They might raise the reputation of another, though they are a diminution to his. Addison. 5. [In architecture.] of the diameter of a column, as it The contraction ascends. DIMINUTIVE. adj. [diminutivus, Latin.] Small; little; narrow; contracted.

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That we call good which is apt to cause or increase pleasure, or diminish pain in us. 2. To impair; to lessen; to degrade. Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw Impiously they thought The number of thy worshippers. 3. To take any thing from that to which it belongs: the contrary to add. Nothing was diminished from the safety of the king by the imprisonment of the duke. Hayru. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from Deuteronomy.

To DIMINISH. V. 7. To grow less; to be impaired,

The poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. It is the interest of mankind, in order to the Shaksp. Macbeth. advance of knowledge, to be sensible they have yet attained it but in poor and diminutive meaThe light of man's understanding is but a Glanville's Scepsis. short, diminutive, contracted light, and looks not beyond the present. South.

sure.

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If the ladies should once take a liking to such a diminutive race of lovers, we should, in a little time, see mankind epitomized, and the whole species in miniature. Addison. They know how weak and aukward many of those little diminutive discourses are. Watts. DIMINUTIVE. n. s. [from the adjective.] 1. A word formed to express littleness:

as lapillus, in Latin, a little stone; maisonette, in French, a little house; maniken, in English, a little man.

He afterwards proving a dainty and effeminate youth, was commonly called, by the diminutive of his name, Peterkin or Perkin. Bacon.

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'Tis true, but let it not be known,

Swift.

My eyes are somewhat dimish grown; For nature, always in the right, To your decays adapts my sight. DIMISSORY. adj. [dimissorius, Latin.] That by which a man is dismissed to another jurisdiction.

A bishop of another diocess ought neither to erdain or admit a clerk, without the consent of his own proper bishop, and without the letters dimissory. Ayliffe's Parergon. DIMITTY. n. s. A fine kind of fustian, or cloth of cotton."

I directed a trowze of fine dimitty. Wiseman. DIMLY. adv. [from dim.]

1. Not with a quick sight; not with a clear perception.

Unspeakable! who sitt'st above these heav'ns, To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works. 2. Not brightly; not luminously.

Milton.

In the beginning of our pumping the air, the match appeared well lighted, though it had almost filled the receiver with fumes; but by deBoyle. grees it burnt more and more dimly.

I saw th' angelick guards from earth ascend, Griev'd they must now no longer man attend; The beams about their temples dimly shone; One would have thought the crime had been their own.

DIMNESS. 7. s. [from dim.] 1. Dulness of sight.

Dryden.

2. Want of apprehension; stupidity. Answerable to this dimness of their perception, was the whole system and body of their religion. Decay of Piety. 3. Obscurity; not brightness. DIMPLE. n. s. [dint, a hole; dintle a little hole; by a careless pronunciation dimple. Skinner.] A small cavity or depression in the cheek, chin, or other part.

The dimple of the upper lip is the common measure of them all.

In her forehead's fair half-round,
Love sits in open triumph crown'd;
He in the dimple of her chin,
In private state, by friends is seen.

Grew.

Prior.

To DIMPLE. V. n. [from the noun.] To sink in small cavities, or little inequalities.

The wild waves master'd him, and suck'd

him in,

And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. Dryd. Eternal smiles his emptiness betray, As shallow streams run dimpling all the way. Pope. DIMPLED. adj. [from dimple.] Set with dimples.

On each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys like smiling Cupids.

DIMPLY. adj. [from dimple.] Full of dimples; sinking in little inequalities. As the smooth surface of the dimply flood The silver-slipper'd virgin lightly trod. Warton. DIN. n. s. [dýn, a noise; Sýnan, to make a noise, Saxon; dyna, to thunder, Islandick.] A loud noise; a violent and continued sound.

And all the way he roared as he went, That all the forest with astonishment Thereof did tremble; and the beasts therein Fled fast away from that so dreadful din.

Hubberd's Tale. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear; To make an earthquake: sure, it was the roar Of a whole herd of lions. Shaksp. Tempest.

While the cock with lively din Scatters the rear of darkness thin; And to the stack, or the barn door, Stoutly struts his dame before.

Milton

Now night over heav'n Inducing darkness, grateful truce impos'd, And silence, on the odious din of war. Milton. How, while the troubled elements around, Earth, water, air, the stunning din resound, Thro' streams of smoke and adverse fire he rides, While every shot is levelled at his sides. Smith.

Some independent ideas, of no alliance to one another, are, by education, custom, and the constant din of their party, so coupled in their minds, that they always appear there together. To DIN. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To stun with noise; to harass with clamour.

Rather live

Locke.

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To DINE. v. n. [diner, Fr.] To eat the chief meal about the middle of the day.

Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he 's somewhere gone to dinner:

Good sister, let us dine, and never fret. Shaksp.
Myself, he, and my sister,

To-day did dine together.

Shaksp
He would dine with him the next day. Claren.
Thus, of your heroes and brave boys,
With whom old Homer makes such noise,
The greatest actions I can find,

Are, that they did their work, and din'd. Prier. To DINE. v. a. To give a dinner to; to feed.

Boil this restoring root in gen'rous wine, And set beside the door the sickly stock to dine. Dryden's Virgil. DINE TICAL. adj. [dimTix] Whirling round; vertiginous.

Some of late have concluded, from spots in the sun, which appear and disappear again, that, besides the revolution it maketh with its orbs, it hatli also a dinetical motion, and rolls upon its own poles. Brown's Vulgar Erreurs. A spherical figure is most commodious for dinetical motion, or revolution upon its own Ray

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axis.

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