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All putrefaction, it dissolve not in rarefaction, will in the end issue into plants or living creatures bred of putrefaction.

Bacon.

As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run And trickle into drops before the sun, So melts the youth, and languishes away. Addison's Ovid. 1. To sink away; to fall to nothing. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this. Shakspeare's King Lear. 3. To melt away in pleasures. DISSOLVENT. adj. [from dissolve.] Having the power of dissolving or melting.

In man and viviparous quadrupeds, the food, moistened with the spittle, is first chewed, then swallowed into the stomach, where, being mingled with dissolvent juices, it is concocted, macerated, and reduced into a chyle. Ray. DISSOLVENT. n. s. [from the adjective.] That which has the power of disuniting the parts of any thing.

Spittle is a great dissolvent, and there is a great quantity of it in the stomach, being swallowed constantly. Arbuthnot. DISSOLVER. n. s. [from dissolve.] That which has the power of dissolving.

Fire, and the more subtle dissolver, putrefaction, by dividing the particles of substances, turn them black. Arbuthnot.

Hot mineral waters are the best dissolvers of phlegm. Arbuthnot. DISSOLVIBLE, adj. [from dissolve. It is commonly written dissolvable, but less properly.] Liable to perish by dissolution.

Man, that is even upon the intrinsick constitution of his nature dissolvible, must, by being in an eternal duration, continue immortal. Hale. DISSOLUTE. adj. [dissolutus, Latin.]

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DISSOLUTION. n. s. [dissolutio, Latin.] 1. The act of liquefying by heat or mois

ture.

2. The state of being liquefied.

3. The state of melting away; liquefac

4.

tion.

I am as subject to heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw. Destruction of any thing by the sepaShaksp. ration of its parts.

The elements were at perfect union in his body; and their contrary qualities served not for the dissolution of the compound, but the va riety of the composure. South.

5. The substance formed by dissolving any body.

6.

Weigh iron and aqua-fortis severally; then dissolve the iron in the aqua-fortis, and weigh the. dissolution.

Bacon.

Death; the resolution of the body inte its constituent elements.

The life of man is always either increasing towards ripeness and perfection, or declining and decreasing towards rottenness and dissolution.

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Raleigh.

Milton.

He determined to make a present dissolution of the world.

Hooker

He thence shall come, When this world's dissolution shall be ripe.

Milton

Would they have mankind lay aside all care of provisions by agriculture or commerce, be

cause possibly the dissolution of the world may happen the next moment?

Bentley.

8. Breach or ruin of any thing compacted or united.

Is a man confident of wealth and power? Why let him read of those strange unexpected dissolutions of the great monarchies and governments of the world. South.

9. The act of breaking up an assembly. 10. Looseness of manners; laxity; remissness; dissipation.

A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissoluties of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering, unapt for noble or spiritual employments. Fame makes the mind loose and gayish, scatBp. Taylor. ters the spirits, and leaves a kind of dissolution upon all the faculties. An universal dissolution of manners began to South. prevail, and a professed disregard to all fixed principles. Atterbury. DISSONANCE. n. s. [dissonans, Latin; dissonance, Fr.] A mixture of harsh, unpleasing, unharmonious sounds; unsuitableness of one sound to another. Still govern thou my song, But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers.

Milton.

The Latin tongue is a dead language, and none can decide with confidence on the harmony or tenance of the numbers of those times. Garth. DISSONANT. adj. [dissonans, Latin.] 1. Harsh; unharmonious.

2.

Dire were the strain, and dissonant, to sing The cruel raptures of the savage kind. Thomson. Incongruous; disagreeing: with from.

What can be more dissonant from reason and nature, than that a man, naturally inclined to clemency, should shew himself unkind and inhuman? Hake will on Providence.

3. With to: less properly. When conscience reports any thing dissonant to truth, it obliges no more than the falsehood reported by it. South.

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DISSUA ́DE. v. a. [dissuadeo, Lat.] 1. To dehort; to divert by reason or importunity from any thing.

We submit to Cæsar, promising

the mind off from any purpose or pursuit.

The meanness, or the sin, will scarce be dissuasives to those who have reconciled themselves to both. T DISSU ́NDER. v. a. [dis and sunder. Government of the Tongue. This is a barbarous word. See DisSEVER.] To sunder; to separate.

To pay our wonted tribute, from the which We were dissuaded by our wicked queen. Shaksp. 2. To represent any thing as unfit or dangerous.

This would be worse;

War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike
My voice dissuades.
Not diffident of thee, do I dissuade
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Thy absence from my sight.

Milton.

I'd fain deny this wish, which thou hast made; Or, what I can't deny, would fain dissuade.

DISSUADER. 2, s.

that dissuades.

Addison's Ovid.

[from dissuade.]

He

But when her draught the sea and earth dissunder'd,

The troubled bottoms turn'd up, and she thunDISSY'LLABLE. n. s. [diooúrral☺.] A der'd. Chapman word of two syllables.

No man is tied, in modern poetry, to observe any farther rule in the feet of his verse, but that they be dissyllables; whether spondee, trochee, DI STAFF. n. s. [distæf, Saxon.] or íambique, it matters not. Dryden. 1. The staff from which the flax is drawn in spinning.

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2.

DISSUA ́SION. n. s. [dissuasio,Latin.] Urgency of reason or importunity against any thing; dehortation. Endeavour to preserve yourself from relapse by such dissuasions from love, as its votaries call invectives against it. DISSUASIVE. adj. [from dissuade.] DeBoyle. hortatory; tending to divert or deter from any purpose.

DISSUASIVE. . . Dehortation; argu-
ment or importunity employed to turn

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Dryden

It is used as an emblem of the female So the French say, The crown of France never falls to the distaff

sex.

In my civil government some say the crosier, some say the distaff, was too busy.

Howel.

See my royal master murder'd, His crown usurp'd, a distaff in the throne.

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Dryden. A species of

To DISTA'IN. v. a. [dis and stain.] 1. To stain; to tinge with an adventitious colour.

Nor ceas'd his arrows, till the shady plain Sev'n mighty bodies with their blood distain. Dryden's Virgil.

Place on their heads that crown distain'd with

gore,

Which those dire hands from my slain father

tore.

2. To blot; to sully with infamy.

He understood,

Poft

That lady, whom I had to me assign'd,
Had both distain'd her honourable blood,
And eke the faith which she to me did bind."
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
Fairy Queen.
If he that's prais'd himself bring the praise
Shaksp.

forth.

Some theologicians defile places erected for religion, by defending oppressions, distaiming their professions by publishing odious untruths upon report of others. Sir John Hay. DISTANCE. n. s. [distance, Fr. distantie, Latin.]

1. Distance is space considered barely in length between any two beings, without considering any thing else between them. Locke It is very cheap, notwithstanding the great

Estance between the vineyards and the towns that sell the wine. Addison on Italy.

As he lived but a few miles distance from her father's house, he had frequent opportunities of seeing her. Addison.

2. Remoteness in place.

Cæsar is still dispos'd to give us terms, And waits at distance till he hears from Cato. Addison. These dwell at such convenient distance, That each may give his friend assistance. Prior. 3. The space kept between two antagonists in fencing.

Shaksp.

We come to see fight; to see thy pass, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance. 4. Contrariety; opposition.

Banquo was your enemy,

So is he mine, and in such bloody distance,
That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near'st of life.

Shaksp. Macbeth. 5. A space marked on the course where horses run.

This was the horse that ran the whole field out of distance, and won the race. L'Estrange. 6. Space of time.

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4. Reserved; shy.

5. Remote in nature; not allied.

What besides this unhappy servility to cus tom can reconcile men, that own christianity, to a practice so widely distant from it?

Government of the Tongue. 6. Not obvious; not plain.

It was one of the first distinctions of a wellbred man to express every thing obscene in modest terms and distant phrases; while the clown clothed those ideas in plain homely terms that Addison.

are the most obvious and natural.

You must do it by distance of time. 2 Esdras. I help my preface by a prescript, to tell that there is ten years distance between one and the other. Prior. DISTA ́STE. n. s. [dis and taste.] 7. Remoteness in time either past or 1. Aversion of the palate; disrelish ; future. disgust.

We have as much assurance of these things, as things future and at a distance are capable of. Tillotson.

To judge right of blessings prayed for, and Jet at a distance, we must be able to know things future. Smalridge. §. Ideal disjunction; mental separation.

The qualities that affect our senses are, in the things themselves, so united and blended, that there is no separation, no distance between them. Locke.

9. Respect; distant behaviour.

I hope your modesty

Will know what distance to the crown is due.

Dryden. "Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld. Atterbury. If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time. Swift.

10. Retraction of kindness; reserve; alienation.

On the part of heav'n

Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger, and just rebuke, and jugment giv'n.

Milton:

To DISTANCE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To place remotely; to throw off from the view.

That which gives a relievo to a bowl, is the quick light, or white, which appears to be on the side nearest to us; and the black by consequence distances the object. Dryden's Dufresnoy. 2. To leave behind at a race the length of a distance; to conquer in a race with great superiority.

Each daring lover, with advent'rous pace, Pursued his wishes in the dang'rous race; Like the swift hind the bounding damsel flies, Strains to the goal; the distanc'd lover dies.

DISTANT. adj. [distans, Latin.] 1. Remote in place; not near.

He gives the reason of the distaste of satiety, and of the pleasure in novelty in meats and Bacon's Nat. History.

drinks.

2. Dislike; uneasiness.

Prosperity is not without many fears and dis tastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. Bacon's Essays.

3. Anger; alienation of affection.

Julius Cæsar was by acclamation termed king, to try how the peoole would take it: the people shewed great murmur and distaste at it. Bacon.

The king having tasted of the envy of the peo ple, for his imprisonment of Edward Plantage net, was doubtful to heap up any more distastes of that kind by the imprisonment of De la Pole also. Bacon's Henry VIL On the part of heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger, and just rebuke. Milton's Par. Lost.

With stern distaste avow'd, To their own districts drive the suitor crowd. Pope's Odyssey. To DISTA STE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To fill the mouth with nauseousness, or disrelish.

Dang'rous conceits are in their nature poisons, Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, But, with a little act upon the blood, Burn like the mines of sulphur.

2. To dislike; to loathe.

Shaksp

I'd have it come to question; If he distaste it, let him to my sister. Shak p I am unwilling to believe that he doth it with a design to play tricks, and fly-blow my words to make others distaste them. Stilling fleet. 3. To offend; to disgust.

He thought it no policy to distaste the English or Irish by a course of reformation, but sought to please them. Davies.

4. To vex; to exasperate; to sour. Gay.

The whistling of the winds is better musick to contented minds, than the opera to the spleenful, ambitious, diseased, distasted, and distracted Pope

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DISTA STEFUL. adj. [distaste and full.]
1. Nauseous to the palate; disgusting.
What to one palate is sweet and delicious, to
another is odious and distasteful.
Glanville.
2. Offensive; unpleasing.

The visitation, though somewhat distasteful to
the Irish lords, was sweet and welcome to the
common people.
Davies.
None but a fool distasteful truth will tell;
new and please, 'tis full as well.

So it

Dryden. Distasteful humours, and whatever else may render the conversation of men grievous and uneasy to one another, are forbidden in the New Testament. Tillotson.

3. Malignant; malevolent.

After distasteful looks,

With certain half-caps, and cold moving nods,
They froze me into silence.
The ground might be the distasteful averse-
Shaksp. Timon.
ness of the Christian from the Jew.

Brown.

DISTEMPER. n. s. [dis and temper.] 1. A disproportionate mixture of parts; want of a due temper of ingredients. 2. A disease; a malady; the peccant predominance of some humour; properly a slight illness; indisposition. They heighten distempers to diseases.

It argues sickness and distemper in the mind, Suckling. as well as in the body, when a man is continually turning and tossing. South.

3. Want of due temperature.

It was a reasonable conjecture, that those countries which were situated directly under the tropick, were of a distemper uninhabitable. 4. Bad constitution of the mind; predoRaleigh's History. minance of any passion or appetite.

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If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our

1 eye

At capital crimes? 5. Want of due balance between contraShakspeare's Henry v. ries.

state.

They will have admirers among posterity, and be equally celebrated by those whose minds will not be distempered by interest, passion, or partiality. Addison's Freeholder. 5. To make disaffected, or malignant.

The true temper of empire is a thing rare, and hard to keep; for both temper and distemper consist of contraries.

Bacon.

6. Ill humour of mind; depravity of inclination.

Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords; The king by me requests your presence straight. Shaksp. DISTEMPERATE. adj. [dis and temperate.] Immoderate.

I was not forgetful of those sparks, which some men's distempers formerly studied to kindle in parliament. King Charles.

7. Tumultuous disorder.

Still as you rise, the state, exalted too, Finds no distemper while 'tis chang'd by you.

8. Disorder; uneasiness.

There is a sickness,

Which puts some of us in distemper; but

Aquinas objecteth the distemperate heat, which DISTEMPERATURE. n. s. [from distemhe supposeth to be in all places directly under Raleigh's History. perate.]

Waller.

I cannot name the disease, and it is caught

Of you that yet are well.

1. To disease.

To DISTEMPER. v. a.

Shaksp.

[dis and temper.]

the sun.

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1. Intemperateness; excess of heat or
cold, or other qualities.

Through this distemperature we see
The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.

Shaksp.

They were consumed by the discommodities of the country, and the distemperature of the air. 2. Violent tumultuousness; outrageousAbbot.

Young son, it argues a distemper'd head,
So soon to bid good-morrow to thy bed.
Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet.

2. To disorder.

In madness,

ness.

3. Perturbation of the mind.

Being full of supper and distemp'ring draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
To start my guilt?
Shakspeare's Othello.

and hard study.

He distempered himself one night with long
Boyle's History of Fluids,

VOL. II,

Thy earliness doth me assure
Thou art uprous'd by some distemperature.

Shaksp.

4. Confusion; commixture of contrarieties; loss of regularity.

At your birth

Our grandame earth, with this distemperature,
In passion shook.
Tell how the world fell into this disease,
Shakspeare's Henry IV.
And how so great distemperature did grow.

Daniel.

To DISTE'ND. v. a. [distendo, Latin.]
To stretch out in breadth.

Avoid enormous heights of seven stories, as
well as irregular forms; and the contrary fault
of low distended fronts, is as unseemly. Wotton.
Thus all day long the full distended clouds
Indulge their genial stores.
Thomson.
DISTENT. part. pass. [distentus, Latin.]
Spread. Not used.

Some others were new driven and distent
Into great ingots and to wedges square,
Some in round plates withouten moniment.

Spenser. DIST ENT. n. s. [from distend.] The space through which any thing is spread; breadth. Not much in use.

Those arches are the gracefulness, which,
keeping precisely the same height, shall yet be
distended one fourteenth part longer; which ad-
dition of distent will confer much to their
beauty, and detract but little from their strength.
Watton.

DISTENTION. n. s. [distentio, Latin.]
1. The act of stretching; state of things
stretched.

Wind and distention of the bowels are signs of

F

a bad digestion in the intestines; for in dead animals, when there is no digestion at all, the distention is in the greatest extremity. Arbuth. 2. Breadth; space occupied by the thing distended.

3. The act of separating one part from another; divarication.

Our legs do labour more in elevation than in distention. Wotton's Architecture. TO DESTHRO ́NIZE. v. a. [dis and throne.] To dethrone; to depose from sovereignty. Not used.

By his death he it recovered;
But Peridure and Vigent him distbronized.

Fairy Queen. DISTICH. n. s. [distichon, Latin.] A couplet; a couple of lines; an epigram consisting only of two verses.

The French compare anagrams, by themselves, to gems; but when they are cast into a distich, or epigram, to gems enchased in enamelled gold. Camden's Remains.

The bard, whose distich all commend, In power, a servant; out of power, a friend.

To DISTIL. v. n. [distillo, Latin.] 1. To drop; to fall by drops.

Pope.

In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain; Soft show'rs distill'd, and suns grew warm, in vain. Pope. Crystal drops from min'ral roofs distil. Pope. 2. To flow gently and silently.

The Euphrates distilleth out of the mountains of Armenia, and falleth into the gulph of Persia. Raleigh's History. 3. To use a still; to practise the art of distillation.

Have I not been

Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how To make perfumes, distil, preserve. Sbaksp.

To DISTIL. v. a.

1. To let fall in drops; to drop any thing down.

They pour down rain, according to the thereof, which the clouds do drop and distil upon vapour man abundantly.

The dew, which on the tender grass

To pure rose-water turned was,

The evening had distill'd,

The shades with sweets that fill'd.

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Job.

Drayton.

Prior.

The roof is vaulted, and distils fresh water from every part of it, which fell upon us as fast as the first droppings of a shower.

Addison.

2. To force by fire through the vessels of distillation; to exalt, separate, or purify

by fire: as, distilled spirits.

There hangs a vap'rous drop, profound;

I'll catch it ere it comes to ground;
And that, distill'd by magick slights,
Shall raise up artificial sprights.

Shaksp.

3. To draw by distillation; to extract by the force of fire.

The liquid distilled from benzoin is subject to frequent vicissitudes of fluidity and firmness.

4. To dissolve or melt.

.

Boyle.

Addison.

Swords by the lightning's subtle force distill'd, And the cold sheath with running metal fill'd. DISTILLATION. n. s. [distillatio, Lat.] 1. The act of dropping, or falling in drops. The act of pouring out in drops.

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Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, And in the porches of mine ear did pour DISTINCT. adj. [distinctus, Latin.] The leperous distilment. Shaksp. Hamlet. 1. Different; not the same in number or in kind.

Bellarmin saith, it is idolatry to give the same worship to an image which is due to Ged: Vasquez saith, it is idolatry to give distinct worship: therefore, if a man would avoid idolatry, he must give none at all. Stilling feet. Fatherhood and property are distinct titles, and began presently, upon Adam's death, to be in distinct persons. Lacke

2. Different; separate; being apart, not conjunct.

The intention was that the two armies, which marched out together, should afterwards be dis Clarendon

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