The unchaste are provoked to see their vice exposed, and the chaste cannot rake into such filth without danger of defilement. Spectator.

At the last tremendous day, I shall hold forth in my arms my much wronged child, and call aloud for vengeance on her defiler. Addison.

Thus when Cambyses led his barbarous hosts From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts, Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood, And, drunk with fury, swelled the Nile with blood. Darwin.

Defi'le, v. n.& n. s. Fr. defile, from file, a line of solders, itself derived from Lat. filum, a thread. To pass off in files; a narrow passage; a long narrow pass; a lane.

There is in Oxford a narrow defile, to use the military term, where the partisans used to encounter.

Addison.

DEFINE, v. a. & v n. DEFIN'ABLE, adj. DEFINER, n. s. DEFINITE, n. s. & adj. DEFINITENESS,

DEFINITION,

Fr. and Port. de

finer; Spanish, definir; Ital. diffinire; Lat. definire. From do and finem, to give a limit. To set DEFINITIVE, a limit by words or DEFINITIVELY. actions; to mark a DEFINITIVENESS. bound. As a neuter verb, to decide, determine. Definable is, capable of being defined. Definer, he who defines; and hence he who explains or describes a thing. Definite is, precise; exact; determined; and sometimes it is used as a substantive. Definiteness is, certainty; limitedness. Definition, the act or form of defining; the concise description of a thing. Definitive is, determinate; express; final. Definitiveness, decisiveness.

The unjust judge is the capital remover of landmarks, when he defineth amiss of lands and properBacon.

ties.

Idiots in this case of favour, Would be wisely definite.

VOL. VII.

Shakspeare.

Other authors write often dubiously, even in matters wherein is expected a strict and definitive truth. Browne's Vulgar Ervours.

is to be supposed before any definition is to be inDefinitions do not tell an sit, but quid sit; the first quired after. Bishop Taylor

The Supreme Nature we cannot otherwise define, finable, or infinity a subject for our narrow underthan by saying it is infinite; as if infinite were de Dryden.

standing.

Concerning the time of the end of the world the question is, whether that time be definable or Burnet's Theory.

So universally does repetition contribute to our pleasure in the fine arts, that beauty itself has been defined by some writers to consist in a due combination of uniformity and variety.

Your God, forsooth, is found

Darwin.

Incomprehensible and infinite;
Let your imperfect definition show,
But is he therefore found? Vain searcher. no:
That nothing you, the weak definer, know.

Prior.

When the rings appeared only black and white, blackness seemed as intense as that of the central they were very distinct and well defined, and the

spot.

Newton.

Id.

We have spent more time than the opinion of the ready deflagrability, if I may so speak, of salt petre did permit us to imagine. DEFLECT', v. n. From Lat. de and flecDEFLECTION, n. s. to, to turn. To turn DEFLEX'URE, n. s. Saside; to deviate.

At some parts of the Azores the needle deflecteth not, but lieth in the true meridian: on the other side of the Azores, and this side of the equator, the north point of the needle whecleth to the west.

As by the cultivation of various sciences, a language is amplified, it will be more furnished with words deflected from their original sense.

Johnson. Preface to Dictionary. DEFLECTION OF THE RAYS OF LIGHT, a property which Dr. Hook observed in 1675, and read an account of before the Royal Society, March 18th, the same year. He says he found it different both from reflection and refraction, and that it was made towards the surface of the opaque body, perpendicularly. This property Sir Isaac Newton calls inflection.

DEFLOUR, v. a. Fr. deflorer; Span. desDEFLOUR'ER, n. s. florar; Lat. deflorare; DEFLORATION, n. s. from de privative and floreo, flos, floris, a flower. To violate a virgin; hence to mar or deface any thing that is beautiful; to select the most valuable of a number of things. The meaning of the substantives is ob

DEFLY, adv. From DEFT, which see. Dexterously; skilfully. Obsolete. Properly deftly.

Lo, how finely the graces can it foot

To the instrument;

They dauncen defly, and singen soote, In their merriment.

Spenser.

DE FOE (Daniel), a celebrated miscellaneous writer of the last and preceding century. When kingWilliam, to allay the dissent of the people, was obliged to dimiss his Dutch guards, De Foe ridiculed the enemies of government in a well-known poem, called the True-Born Englishman. He next wrote a tract, called the Shortest Way with the Dissenters, a satire on those who now, having the power, wished to retaliate on the Romanists and dissenters those persecutions they had loudly complained of when inflicted on themselves. For this he was sentenced to the pillory, which so little intimidated him, that, in defiance of this usage, he wrote a Hymn to the Pillory. It is unnecessary to enumerate all his publications: the following are the principal. The History of the Plague in 1665; a novel, entitled The History of Colonel Jack; a New Voyage Round the World by a Company of Merchants, printed for Bettesworth, 1725; The History of Roxana; Memoirs of a Cavalier; The History of Moll Flanders; a religious romance, entitled Religious Courtship; and The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a well-known tale, of which there have been editions without number. The basis of this popular story was afforded by the real history of a Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who had been left ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez. Selkirk used to relate his adventures at a coffee-house in London, where money where De Foe so often heard them, that out of was frequently given him by the company, and them he formed the above mentioned history. De Foe's malignant enemies have misrepresented this to his disadvantage. He died at Islington

in 1731.

DEFODATION, n. s. Lat. from defadus, of de and fadus, foul. The act of making filthy; pollution. This is not an English word; at least, to make it English, it should be written defedation, says Dr. Johnson.

What native unextinguishable beauty must be impressed and instincted through the whole, which the defœdation of so many parts by a bad printer, and worse editor, could not hinder from shining forth. Bentley.

DEFORCEMENT, n. s. from force. A with holding of lands and tenements by force from the right owner. It may be grounded,' says Blackstone, on the disability of the party deforced.'

It is well known what strange work there has been in the world, under the name and pretence of reformation; how often it has turned out to be, in reality, deformation; or, at best, a tinkering sort of business, where, while one hole has been mended, two have been made. Bishop Horne.

Affectation is certain deformity; by forming themselves on fantastic models, the young begin with being Blair. ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.

Had no Power presented me

The possibility of change, I would

Have done the best which Spirit may, to make
Its way, with all Deformity's dull, deadly,
Discouraging, weight upon me, like a mountain.

Byron.

DEFORMITY may be defined, in general, the want of uniformity; though it certainly does not, as some have supposed, include the want of that perfect degree of uniformity that is necessary to constitute beauty. Many are the objects in nature that cannot be said to be beautiful, and yet are by no means deformed. Deformity is either natural or moral. These are both referred by

Mr. Hutcheson to an internal sense; and our perceptions of them, as he supposes, arise from an original arbitrary structure of our own minds, by which certain objects, when observed, are rendered the occasions of certain sensations and affections. See BEAUTY.

DEFRAUD,v.u. DEFRAUDATION, n. s. DEFRAUDER.

Fr. defrauder; Span defraudár; Lat. defraudare, from de and fraus, fraudis, deceit. To cheat; deceive; beguile of something: always taking of before the thing gained. Defraudation is privation by deceit or guile. Defrauder, he who cheats another of his property.

My son, defraud not the poor of his living, and make not the needy eyes to wait long. Eccl. iv. 1.

Churches seem injured and defrauded of their rights, when places, not sanctified as they are, prevent them sanecessarily in that pre-eminence and honour.

Hooker.

DEFRA'Y, v. a. Fr. defrayer, accordDEFRAY ER, n. s.' ing to Minsheu, from DEFRAY'MENT, n. s. the old Fr. fredum, a fine. Rather, from de, and frais, Fr. expense. It may, however, be nothing more than a compound of the English verb, free. To pay expenses; to discharge a charge made; defrayment is, compensation; satisfaction. Defrayer, he who pays or discharges an account.

He would, out of his own revenue, defray the 2 Mac. ix. 16. charges belonging to the sacrifices. It is easy to lay a charge upon any town; but to foresee how the same may be answered and defrayed, is the chief part of good advisement.

Spenser's State of Ireland.

Sax, and Teut. figan; Goth. figa; Fr. defier; Span. desufier; Ital. dissidere, from Lat. dissidere, to differ; because,

says Minsheu, we differ with those whom we defy. To dare; to challenge; to call to combat; to despise; to disdain; to deny. Defy is used as a substantive by Dryden, but not comnonly. Defiance is the instrument or mode of challenge; any expression of enmity, abhorrence, or contempt.

I knowe her eke a false dissimulour,
For finally fortune I do defie.

Chaucer. Prol. to Cant. Tales.
As many fools that stand in better place,
Garnished like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter.

Shakspeare.

And one enormous shout of Allah!' rose In the same moment, loud as even the roar Of war's most mortal engines, to their foes Hurling defiance. Byron. DEGENERATE, v. n. & adj.) Fr. degenerer; DEGENERACY, n. s. Span. degenerar; Ital. degenerare; Latin, degenero; from de and

DEGENERATENESS,

DEGENERATIVE,

DEGENEROUS, adj. DEGENEROUSLY, adv. genere errare, to wander from its kind. To fall off from the virtue or fame of one's ancestors; to decline in station, in kind, or in class: as an adjective, unlike or unequal to ancestry; unwor thy; base. Degeneracy, degenerateness, and degeneration are synonymous, and signify a state or act that exhibits degradation from the excellence or honor of ancestors; an apostasy or declining from that which is good. Degenerous is synonymous with degenerated.

Most of those fruits that used to be grafted, if they be set of kernels or stones, degenerate.

Bacon.

Thou art like enough To fight against me under Piercy's pay; To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns, To show how much thou art degenerate.

Shakspeare.

When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety. Tillotson.

"Tis true, we have contracted a great deal of weakness and impotency by our wilful degeneracy from goodness; but that grace, which the gospel offers to us for our assistance, is sufficient for us.

Fair, tall, his limbs with due proportion joined; But of a heavy dull degenerate mind,

Id.

His soul belied the features of his face;
Beauty was there, but beauty in disgrace. Dryden.
Degenerous passion, and for man too base,
It seats its empire in the female race;
There rages, and, to make its blow secure,
Puts flattery on, until the aim be sure.
When a man so far becomes degenerate as to quit
ne principles of human nature, and to be a noxious
creature, there is commonly an injury done some
person or other.
Locke.

Degenerate from their ancient brood,
Since first the court allowed them food.

Id.

Swift.

The ruin of a state is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners, and contempt of religion, which is entirely our case at present. Id.

How wounding a spectacle is it to see heroes, like Hercules at the distaff, thus degenerously employed! Decay of Piety.

There is a kind of sluggish resignation, as well as poorness and degeneracy of spirit, in a state of slavery. Addison.

When we think of the infinite purity of God, who cannot behold iniquity; and consider the corrupted and degenerate state of human nature; this is apt to make us more apprehensive than is reasonable, of the Clarke's Sermons. difficulty of our duty.

Tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our lanJohnson. Preface to Dictionary. guage. DEGLUTITION, n. s. Lat. deglutio, of de and glutio, from Gr. yλuw, to swallow.-Ainsworth. The act or power of swallowing.

When the deglutition is totally abolished, the patient may be nourished by clysters. Arbuthnot on Diet.

DEGLUTITION, in the animal economy, is performed in the first place by means of the tongue, driving the aliment into the œsophagus or gullet, and then, by the contraction of the sphincter, and the fleshy fibres of the œsophagus, which, lessening its aperture, protrude the contents downward into the stomach. In its course, by pressing the glands, the food itself increases the mucus required for lubrication, and thus easily passes without irritation.

DEGRADE', v. a. I Fr. degrader; Span. DEGRADATION, n. s. ) degradár; Ital. disgra-· dáre; from Lat. de privative, and gradus a step.