use. The affections were the authors of that unGlanville. happy defailance. To DEFA'LCATE. v. a. [from falx, falcis, a sickle, Latin; defalquer, Fr.] To cut off; to lop; to take away part of a pension or salary. It is generally used of money. DEFALCATION. n. s. [from defalcate.] Diminution; abatement; excision of any part of a customary allowance. The 'tea-table is set forth with its customary bill of fare, and without any defalcation. Addis. To DEFA'LK. v. a. [See DEFALCATE.] To cut off; to lop away. What he defalks from some insipid sin, is but to make some other more gustful. Decay of Piety. DEFAMATION. n. s. [from defame.] The act of defaming or bringing infamy upon another; calumny; reproach; censure; detraction. Defamation is the uttering of contumelious language of any one with an intent of raising an ill fame of the party: and this extends to writing, as by defamatory libels; and to deeds, as reproachful postures, signs, and gestures. Ayliffe. Be silent, and beware, if such you see; "Tis defamation but to say, That 's he. Dryden. Many dark and intricate motives there are to detraction and defamation; and many malicious spies are searching into the actions of a great Addison. man. DEFAMATORY. adj. [from defame.] Calumnious; tending to defame; unjustly censorious; libellous; falsely satirical. The most eminent sin is the spreading of defamatory reports. Government of the Tongue. Augustus, conscious to himself of many crimes, made an edict against lampoons and satires, and defamatory writings. Dryden To DEFA'ME. v. a. [de and fama, Lat.] To make infamous; to censure falsely in publiek to deprive of honour; to dishonour by reports; to libel; to calumniate; to destroy reputation by either acts or words. I heard the defaming of many. Fer. Many doughty knights he in his days And hung their conquer'd arms, for more defame, On gallowtrees. Spenser. DEFA'MER. H.S. [from defame.] One that injures the reputation of another; a detractor; a calumniator. It may be a useful trial of the patience of the defamed, yet the defamer has not the less crime. Government of the Tongue. To DEFA'TIGATE. v. a. [defatigo, Lat.] The power of these men's industries, never DEFAULT. n. s. defaut, French.], 2. Crime; failure; fault. Sedition tumbled into England more by the Had been fulfill'd, but through mine own de Whom have I to complain of but myself? Milt. 3. Defect; want. In default of the king's pay, the forces were laid upon the subject. Davies. Cooks could make artificial birds and fishes; in default of the real ones. Arbuthnot. 4. [In law.] Non-appearance in court at a day assigned. Corvell. To DEFAULT. v. n. [from the noun.] To fail in performing any contract or stipulation to forfeit by breaking a contract. DEFAULTER. n. s. [from the verb.] 2. Defeasance is a condition annexed to an 3. Discover'd, and defeated of your prey, You skulk'd. To DEFECT. v. n. [from the noun.] To be deficient; to fall short of; to fail. Obsolete. Some lost themselves in attempts above hu manity; yet the enquiries of most defected by the way, and tired within the sober circumference of knowledge. Milton. Brown's Vulgar Erreuri, DEFECTIBILITY. n. s. (from defectible.] The state of failing; deficiency; imperfection. Dryden. He finds himself naturally to dread a superior Being, that can defeat all his designs, and disappoint all his hopes. Tillotson. 3. To abolish; to undo; to change. DEFEATURE. n. s. [from de and feature.] Change of feature; alteration of countenance. Not in use. Grief hath chang'd me; And careful hours, with time's deformed hand, Hath written strange defeatures in my face. Shakspeare. To DEFECATE. v. a. [defeco, Latin.] 1. To purge liquors from lees or foulness; to purify; to cleanse. I practised a way to defecate the dark and muddy oil of amber. Boyle. The blood is not sufficiently defecated or clarified, but remains muddy. Provide a brazen tube Harvey. Inflext: self-taught and voluntary flies The defecated liquor, through the vent Ascending; then, by downward tract convey'd, Spouts into subject vessels lovely clear. Philips. 2. To purify from any extraneous or noxious mixture; to clear; to brighten. We defecate the notion from materiality; and abstract quantity, place, and all kind of corporeity, from it. Glanville. DEFECATE. adj. [from the verb.] Purged from lees or foulness. We are puzzled with contradictions, which are no absurdities to defecate faculties. Glanville. This liquor was very defecate, and of a pleasing golden colour. Bayle. DEFECATION. n. s. [defecatio, Latin.] Purification; the act of clearing or purifying. The spleen and liver are obstructed in their offices of defecation, whence vicious and dreggish Harvey. blood. DEFECT. n. s. [defectus, Latin.] 1. Want; absence of something necessary; insufficiency; the fault opposed to superfluity. Errours have been corrected, and defects sup plied. Had this strange energy been less, Defect had been as fatal as excess. 2. Failing; imperfection. Oft 't is seen Davies. Blackmore. Our mean secures us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities. 3. A fault; mistake; errour. Shakspeare. We had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble them whom we love. Hooker. You praise yourself, By laying defects of judgment to me. Shakspeare. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry friend, and ev'ry foe. Pope. 4. Any natural imperfection; a blemish; a failure, without direct implication of any thing too little. Men, through some defect in the organs, want words, yet fail not to expresss their universal ideas by signs. Locke. The perfection and sufficiency of Scripture has been shewn, as also the defectibility of that par ticular tradition. Lord Digby to Sir Ken. Digby. The corruption of things corruptible depends upon the intrinsical defectibility of the connec tion or union of the parts of things corporeal. Hale's Origin of Mankind. DEFECTIBLE. adj. [from defect.] Imperfect; deficient; wanting. The extraordinary persons, thus highly favoured, were for a great part of their lives in a DEFECTION. n. s. [defectio, Latin.] defectible condition. 1. Want; failure. Hals. This defection and falling away from God was first found in angels, and afterwards in men. Raleigh If we fall away after tasting of the good word of God, how criminal must such a defection be! Atterbury. There is more evif owing to our original de fection from God, and the foolish and evil dispositions that are found in fallen man. Watts. 3. An abandoning of a king, or state; revolt. He was diverted and drawn from hence by the general defection of the whole realm. Davies. Neither can this be meant of evil governours or tyrants, but of some perverseness and defec tion in the very nation itself. Bacon. DEFECTIVE. adj. [from defectivus, Lat.] 1. Wanting the just quantity. Nor will polished amber, although it send forth a gross and corporeal exhalement, be found a long time defective upon the exactest scales. Brown. 2. Full of defects; imperfect; not suf ficient; not adequate to the purpose. It subjects them to all the diseases depending upon a defective projectile motion of the blood." Arbuthnot. It will very little help to cure my ignorance, that this is the best of four or five hypotheses proposed, which are all defective. Locke. If it renders us perfect in one accomplishment, it generally leaves us defective in another. Add. 3. Faulty; vicious; blamable. Our tragedy writers have been notoriously defective in giving proper sentiments to the persons they introduce. Addison. DEFECTIVE or deficient Nouns. [In gram mar.] Indeclinable nouns, or such as want a number or some particular Be thou my strong rock for an house of dePsalms. fence to save me. Against all this there seems to be no defence, but that of supporting one established form of doctrine and discipline. Swift. 2. Vindication; justification; apology. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. The youthful prince Acts. With scorn replied, and made this bold defence. Dryden. 3. Prohibition: this is a sense merely French. Severe defences may be made against wearing any linen under a certain breadth. Temple. 4. Resistance. 5. [In law.] The defendant's reply after declaration produced. 6. [In fortification.] The part that flanks another work. To DEFENCE. v. a. [defensus, Lat.] To defend by fortification. Not in use. The city itself he strongly fortifies, Three sides by six it well defenced has. Fairfax. DEFENCELESs. adj. [from defence.] 1. Naked; unarmed; unguarded; not provided with defence; unprepared. Captain, or colonel, or knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. My sister is not so defenceless left Milton. Milton. As you imagine; she has a hidden strength Which you remember not. Ah me! that fear Comes thund'ring back with dreadful revolution On my defenceless head. On a slave disarm'd, Milton. Defenceless, and submitted to my rage, A base revenge is vengeance on myself. Dryden. 2. Impotent; unable to make resistance. Will such a multitude of men employ Their strength against a weak defenceless boy? Addison. To DEFEND. v. a. [defendo, Latin; defendre, French.] 1. To stand in defence of; to protect; to support. Puah. There arose, to defend Israel, Tola the son of Judges. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. Psalms. Heav'n defend your souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant. Shakspeare. 2. To vindicate; to uphold; to assert; to maintain. The queen on the throne, by God's assistance, is able to defend herself against all her majesty's enemies and allies put together. 3. To fortify; to secure. Swift. And here th' access a gloomy grove defends, And here th' unnavigable lake extends. Dryden. A village near it was defended by the river. Clarendon, To prohibit; to forbid. [defendre, French.] Where can you say, in any manner. age, That ever God defended matriage? Chaucer. So have I seen two rival wits contend: DEFENDABLE. adj. [from defend.] That Line and new repair our towns of war Those high towers, out of which the Romans might more conveniently fight with the defendants on the wall, those also were broken by Archimedes' engines. Wilkins' Math. Mag. 2. [In law.] The person accused or sued. This is the day appointed for the combat, And ready are the appellant and defendant. Shak. Plaintiff dog, and bear defendant." Hudibras. DEFENDER. n. s. [from defend.] 1. One that defends; a champion. Banish your defenders; tili at length As most abated captives, to some nation And the defenders of our city slain? Dryden. 2. An asserter; a vindicator. Undoubtedly there is no way so effectual to betray the truth, as to procure it a weak defender. South 3. [In law.] An advocate; one that de- * fends another in a court of justice. DEFENSATIVE. n. s. [from defence.] 1. Guard; defence. A very unsafe defensative it is against the fury of the lion, and surely no better than virginity, or blood royal, which Pliny doth place in cockbroth. Brown's Vulgar Errours. If the bishop has no other defensatives but excommunication, no other power but that of the keys, he may surrender up his pastoral staff. South 2. [In surgery.] A bandage, plaster, or the like, used to secure a wound from outward violence. DEFENSIBLE. adj. [from defence.] 1. That may be defended. A field, Which nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name Shakspeart. Did seem to make defensible. They must make themselves defensible both against the natives and against strangers. Bacon. Having often heard Venice represented as one of the most defensible cities in the world, I informed myself in what its strength consists.. Addison. 2. Justifiable; right; capable of vindica 1. Safeguard. Wars preventive, upon just fears, are true de Bacon. fensives, as well as on actual invasions. 2. State of defence. His majesty, not at all dismayed, resolved to Clarendon. stand upon the defensive only. DEFENSIVELY. adv. [from defensive.] In a defensive manner. DEFE'NST. part. pass. [from defence.] Defended. Obsolete. Stout men of arms, and with their guide of power, Like Troy's old town defenst with Ilion's tower. Fairfax. To DEFE'R. v. n. [from differo, Lat.] 1. To put off; to delay to act. He will not long defer To vindicate the glory of his name Against all competition, nor will long Endure it. Milton. Inure thyself betimes to the love and practice of good deeds; for the longer thou deferrest to be acquainted with them, the less every day thou wilt find thyself disposed to them. Atterbury. 2. To pay deference or regard to another's opinion. To DEFE'R. v. a. 1. To withhold to delay. Defer the promis'd boon, the goddess cries. Pope. Neither is this a matter to be deferred till a ⚫more convenient time of peace and leisure. Swift. 2. To refer to ; to leave to another's judgment and determination. The commissioners deferred the matter unto the earl of Northumberland, who was the principal man of authority in those parts. Bacon. DE'FERENCE. n. s. [deference, Fr.] 1. Regard; respect. Virgil could have excelled Varius in tragedy, and Horace in lyric poetry, but out of deference to his friends he attempted neither. Dryden. He may be convinced that he is in an error, by observing those persons, for whose wisdom and goodness he has the greatest deference, to be of a contrary sentiment. Swift. 2. Complaisance; condescension. A natural roughness makes a man uncomplaisant to others; so that he has no deference for their inclinations, tempers, or conditions. Locke. 3. Submission. Most of our fellow-subjects are guided either by the prejudice of education, or by a deference to the judgment of those who, perhaps, in their own hearts, disapprove the opinions which they industriously spread among the multitude. Addison. DE'FERENT. adj. [from deferens, of defero, Lat.] That carries up and down. The figures of pipes or concaves, through Nor is it just to bring Shakspear A war, without a just fiance made. Dryden 2. A challenge to make any impeachment good. 3. Expression of abhorrence or contempt. The Novatian heresy was very apt to attract well-meaning souls; who, seeing it bade such express defiance to apostacy, could not suspect that it was itself any detection from the faith. Decay of Picty. Nobody will so openly bid defiance to common sense, as to affirm visible and direct contradictions. Locke. DEFI'CIENCE. Įn. s. [from deficio, LaDEFICIENCY. tin.] 1. Want; something less than is necessary. What is to be considered in this case is chiefly. if there be a sufficient fulness or dejiciency of blood; for different methods are to be taken. Arbuthnot on Com:. There is no burden laid upon our posterity, nor any deficiency to be hereafter made up by ourselves, which has been our case in so many other subsidies. Addien. 2. Defect; failing; imperfection. Scaliger, finding a defect in the reason of Aristotle, introduceth one of no less deficiency him self. Brown's Vulgar Errors. Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee Is no deficience found. Millen We find, in our own natures, too great evidence of intellectual deficience, and deplorable ⚫ confessions of human ignorance. Glanville. What great deficience is it, if we come short of others? Sprate The characters of comedy and tragedy are never to be made perfect; but always to be drawn with some specks of frailty and deficient, such as they have been described to us in history. Dryden. DEFICIENT. adj. [deficiens, from deficia, Latin.] Failing; wanting; defective; imperfect. O woman! best of all things, as the will Of God ordain'd them: his creating hand Nothing imperfect or deficient left. Milton Figures are either simple or mixed: the sm ple be either circular or angular; and of circu lar, either complete, as circles, or deficient, as ovals. gether, make less than the integer whose parts they are. Chambers. DEFI'ER. n. s. [from defi, Fr.] A challenger; a contemner; one that dares and defies. Is it not then high time that the laws should provide, by the most prudent and effectual means, to curb those bold and insolent defiers of Heaven? To DEFILE. v. a. [apılan, Saxon; from Ful, foul.] Tillotson. 1. To make foul or impure; to make nasty or filthy; to dirty. There is a thing, Harry, known to many in our land by the name of pitch; this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile. Shaksp. He is justly reckoned among the greatest prelates of his age, however his character may be defiled by mean and dirty hands. Swift. 2. To pollute; to make legally or ritually impure. That which dieth of itself he shall not eat, to defile himself therewith. Lev. Neither shall he defile himself for his father. 1. To give the definition; to explain a thing by its qualities and circumstances. Whose loss canst thou mean, 1 That dost so well their miseries define? Sidney. Though defining be thought the proper way to make known the proper signification, yet there are some words that will not be defined. Locke. To circumscribe; to mark the limit; to bound. When the rings appeared only black and white, they were very distinct and well defined, and the blackness seemed as intense as that of the central spot. Newton. To DEFINE. v. n. To determine; to decide; to decree. The unjust judge is the capital remover of landmarks, when he defineth amiss of lands and properties. Bacon. DEFI'NER. n. s. [from define.] One that explains; one that describes a thing by its qualities. Your God, forsooth, is found But is he therefore found? Vain searcher! no: Prior. DEFINITE. adj. [from definitus, Lat.] 1. Certain; limited; bounded. Hither to your arbour divers times he repaired; and here, by your means, had the sight of the goddess, who in a definite compass can set forth infinite beauty. Sidney. 2. Exact; precise. Ideots, in this case of favour, would Be wisely definite. Shakspeare. In a charge of adultery, the accuser ought to set forth in the accusatory libel, or inquisition, which succeeds in the place of accusation, some certain and definite time. Ayliffe's Parergon. DEFINITE. n. s. [from the adjective ] Thing explained or defined. Special bastardy is nothing else but the definition of the general; and the general, again, is nothing else but a definite of the special. Dict. Ayliffe. DEFINITENESS. n. s. [from definite.] Certainty; limitedness. DEFINITION. n. s. [definitio, Lat. definitión, French.] 1. A short description of a thing by its properties. I drew my definition of poetical wit from my particular consideration of him; for propriety of thoughts and words is only to be found in him. Dryden. 2. Decision; determination. 3. [In logick.] The explication of the essence of a thing by its kind and`difference. What is man? Not a reasonable animal merely; for that is not an adequate and distinguishBentley. ing definition. DEFINITIVE. adj. [definitivus, Lat.] Determinate; positive; express. Other authors write often dubiously, even in matters wherein is expected a strict and defini tive truth. Brown's Vulgar Friours. I make haste to the casting and comparting of the whole work; it being indeed the very defini tive sum of this art, to distribute usefully and Wotton. gracefully a well chosen plot. DEFINITIVELY, adv. [from definitive.] Positively; decisively; expressly. |