Encyclo - English definitions collated
Encyclopedia Sources Categories About Encyclo
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Index
Agriculture and Industry
Animals and Nature
Architecture and Buildings
Arts
Business and Law
Earth and Environment
Economy and Finance
Education
Electronics and Engineering
Film and Animation
Food and Drink
General
General technical and industrial
Government and organisations
Health and Medicine
History and Culture
Hobbies and Crafts
Language and Literature
Legal
Management
Mathematics and statistics
Meteorology and astronomy
Military and Defence
Music and Sound
People and society
Sciences
Sport and Leisure
Technical and IT
Travel and Transportation

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
You are here: Webster > Letter D > Page 126 of 135.
« Previous ¦118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 ¦ Next »
Drugger Drug"ger noun A druggist. [ Obsolete] Burton.

Drugget Drug"get noun [ French droguet , prop. dim. of drogue trash, stuff, perh, the same word as drogue drug, but confer also W. drwg evil, bad, Ir. & Gael. droch , Arm. droug , drouk . See 3d Drug .] (a) A coarse woolen cloth dyed of one color or printed on one side; generally used as a covering for carpets. (b) By extension, any material used for the same purpose.

Druggist Drug"gist noun [ French droguiste , from drogue . See 3d Drug .] One who deals in drugs; especially, one who buys and sells drugs without compounding them; also, a pharmaceutist or apothecary.

» The same person often carries on the business of the druggist and the apothecary. See the Note under Apothecary .

Drugster Drug"ster noun A druggist. [ Obsolete] Boule.

Druid Dru"id noun [ Latin Druides ; of Celtic origin; confer Ir. & Gael. draoi , druidh , magician, Druid, W. derwydd Druid.] 1. One of an order of priests which in ancient times existed among certain branches of the Celtic race, especially among the Gauls and Britons.

» The Druids superintended the affairs of religion and morality, and exercised judicial functions. They practiced divination and magic, and sacrificed human victims as a part of their worship. They consisted of three classes; the bards, the vates or prophets, and the Druids proper, or priests. Their most sacred rites were performed in the depths of oak forests or of caves.

2. A member of a social and benevolent order, founded in London in 1781, and professedly based on the traditions of the ancient Druids. Lodges or groves of the society are established in other countries.

Druid stones , a name given, in the south of England, to weatherworn, rough pillars of gray sandstone scattered over the chalk downs, but in other countries generally in the form of circles, or in detached pillars.

Druidess Dru"id·ess noun A female Druid; a prophetess.

Druidic, Druidical Dru·id"ic, Dru·id"ic·al adjective Pertaining to, or resembling, the Druids.

Druidical circles . See under Circle .

Druidish Dru"id·ish adjective Druidic.

Druidism Dru"id·ism noun The system of religion, philosophy, and instruction, received and taught by the Druids; the rites and ceremonies of the Druids.

Drum Drum noun [ Confer Dutch trom , trommel , LG. trumme , German trommel , Danish tromme , Swedish trumma , Old High German trumba a trumpet, Icelandic pruma a clap of thunder, and as a verb, to thunder, Danish drum a booming sound, drumme to boom; probably partly at least of imitative origin; perhaps akin to English trum , or trumpet .] 1. (Mus.) An instrument of percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band.

The drums cry bud-a-dub.
Gascoigne.

2. Anything resembling a drum in form ; as: (a) A sheet iron radiator, often in the shape of a drum, for warming an apartment by means of heat received from a stovepipe, or a cylindrical receiver for steam, etc. (b) A small cylindrical box in which figs, etc., are packed. (c) (Anat.) The tympanum of the ear; -- often, but incorrectly, applied to the tympanic membrane. (d) (Architecture) One of the cylindrical, or nearly cylindrical, blocks, of which the shaft of a column is composed; also, a vertical wall, whether circular or polygonal in plan, carrying a cupola or dome. (e) (Machinery) A cylinder on a revolving shaft, generally for the purpose of driving several pulleys, by means of belts or straps passing around its periphery; also, the barrel of a hoisting machine, on which the rope or chain is wound.

3. (Zoology) See Drumfish .

4. A noisy, tumultuous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout. [ Archaic]

Not unaptly styled a drum , from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment.
Smollett.

» There were also drum major , rout , tempest , and hurricane , differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares.

5. A tea party; a kettledrum. G. Eliot.

Bass drum . See in the Vocabulary. -- Double drum . See under Double .

Drum Drum intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Drummed ; present participle & verbal noun Drumming .] 1. To beat a drum with sticks; to beat or play a tune on a drum.

2. To beat with the fingers, as with drumsticks; to beat with a rapid succession of strokes; to make a noise like that of a beaten drum; as, the ruffed grouse drums with his wings.

Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair.
W. Irving.

3. To throb, as the heart. [ R.] Dryden.

4. To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to draw or secure partisans, customers, etc,; -- with for .

Drum Drum transitive verb 1. To execute on a drum, as a tune.

2. (With out ) To expel ignominiously, with beat of drum; as, to drum out a deserter or rogue from a camp, etc.

3. (With up ) To assemble by, or as by, beat of drum; to collect; to gather or draw by solicitation; as, to drum up recruits; to drum up customers.

Drum major Drum" ma"jor . 1. The chief or first drummer of a regiment; an instructor of drummers.

2. The marching leader of a military band. [ U.S.]

3. A noisy gathering. [ R.] See under Drum , noun , 4.

Drum winding Drum winding (Electricity) A method of armature winding in which the wire is wound upon the outer surface of a cylinder or drum from end to end of the cylinder; -- distinguished from ring winding , etc.

Drumbeat Drum"beat` noun The sound of a beaten drum; drum music.

Whose morning drumbeat , following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.
D. Webster.

Drumble Drum"ble intransitive verb [ See Drumly .] 1. To be sluggish or lazy; to be confused. [ Obsolete] Shak.

2. To mumble in speaking. [ Obsolete]

Drumfish Drum"fish` noun (Zoology) Any fish of the family Scićnidć , which makes a loud noise by means of its air bladder; -- called also drum .

» The common drumfish ( Pogonias chromis ) is a large species, common south of New Jersey. The southern red drum or red horse ( Scićna ocellata ), and the fresh-water drum or croaker ( Aplodionotus grunniens ), are related species.

Drumhead Drum"head` noun 1. The parchment or skin stretched over one end of a drum.

2. The top of a capstan which is pierced with sockets for levers used in turning it. See Illust. of Capstan .

Drumhead court-martial (Mil.) , a summary court-martial called to try offenses on the battlefield or the line of march, when, sometimes, a drumhead has to do service as a writing table.

Drumlin Drum"lin noun [ Gael. druim the ridge of a hill.] (Geol.) A hill of compact, unstratified, glacial drift or till, usually elongate or oval, with the larger axis parallel to the former local glacial motion.

Drumly Drum"ly adjective [ Confer Droumy .] Turbid; muddy. [ Scot. & Obsolete or Prov. Eng.] Wodroephe (1623). Burns.

Drummer Drum"mer noun 1. One whose office is to best the drum, as in military exercises and marching.

2. One who solicits custom; a commercial traveler. [ Colloq. U.S.] Bartlett.

3. (Zoology) A fish that makes a sound when caught ; as: (a) The squeteague. (b) A California sculpin.

4. (Zoology) A large West Indian cockroach ( Blatta gigantea ) which drums on woodwork, as a sexual call.

Drumming Drum"ming noun The act of beating upon, or as if upon, a drum; also, the noise which the male of the ruffed grouse makes in spring, by beating his wings upon his sides.

Drummond light Drum"mond light` [ From Thomas Drummond , a British naval officer.] A very intense light, produced by turning two streams of gas, one oxygen and the other hydrogen, or coal gas, in a state of ignition, upon a ball of lime; or a stream of oxygen gas through a flame of alcohol upon a ball or disk of lime; -- called also oxycalcium light , or lime light .

» The name is also applied sometimes to a heliostat, invented by Drummond, for rendering visible a distant point, as in geodetic surveying, by reflecting upon it a beam of light from the sun.

Drumstick Drum"stick` noun 1. A stick with which a drum is beaten.

2. Anything resembling a drumstick in form, as the tibiotarsus, or second joint, of the leg of a fowl.

Drunk Drunk adjective [ Middle English dronke , drunke , dronken , drunken , Anglo-Saxon druncen . Orig. the same as drunken , past participle of drink . See Drink .] 1. Intoxicated with, or as with, strong drink; inebriated; drunken; -- never used attributively , but always predicatively ; as, the man is drunk (not, a drunk man).

Be not drunk with wine, where in is excess.
Eph. v. 18.

Drunk with recent prosperity.
Macaulay.

2. Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid.

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood.
Deut. xxxii. 42.

Drunk Drunk noun A drunken condition; a spree. [ Slang]

Drunkard Drunk"ard noun [ Drunk + - ard .] One who habitually drinks strong liquors immoderately; one whose habit it is to get drunk; a toper; a sot.

The drunkard and glutton shall come to poverty.
Prov. xxiii. 21.

Drunken Drunk"en adjective [ Anglo-Saxon druncen , prop., that has drunk, past participle of drincan , taken as active. See Drink , intransitive verb , and confer Drunk .] 1. Overcome by strong drink; intoxicated by, or as by, spirituous liquor; inebriated.

Drunken men imagine everything turneth round.
Bacon.

2. Saturated with liquid or moisture; drenched.

Let the earth be drunken with our blood.
Shak.

3. Pertaining to, or proceeding from, intoxication.

The drunken quarrels of a rake.
Swift.

Drunkenhead Drunk"en·head noun Drunkenness. [ Obsolete]

Drunkenly Drunk"en·ly adverb In a drunken manner. [ R.] Shak.

Drunkenness Drunk"en·ness noun 1. The state of being drunken with, or as with, alcoholic liquor; intoxication; inebriety; -- used of the casual state or the habit.

The Lacedemonians trained up their children to hate drunkenness by bringing a drunken man into their company.
I. Watts.

2. Disorder of the faculties, resembling intoxication by liquors; inflammation; frenzy; rage.

Passion is the drunkenness of the mind.
South.

Syn. -- Intoxication; inebriation; inebriety. -- Drunkenness , Intoxication , Inebriation . Drunkenness refers more to the habit; intoxication and inebriation , to specific acts. The first two words are extensively used in a figurative sense; a person is intoxicated with success, and is drunk with joy. "This plan of empire was not taken up in the first intoxication of unexpected success." Burke.

Drunkenship, Drunkship Drunk"en·ship, Drunk"ship noun The state of being drunk; drunkenness. [ Obsolete] Gower.

Drupaceous Dru·pa"ceous adjective [ Confer French drupacé .] (Botany) Producing, or pertaining to, drupes; having the form of drupes; as, drupaceous trees or fruits.

Drupal Drup"al adjective (Botany) Drupaceous.

Drupe Drupe noun [ French drupe , Latin drupa an overripe, wrinkled olive, from Greek ....] (Botany) A fruit consisting of pulpy, coriaceous, or fibrous exocarp, without valves, containing a nut or stone with a kernel. The exocarp is succulent in the plum, cherry, apricot, peach, etc.; dry and subcoriaceous in the almond; and fibrous in the cocoanut.

Drupel, Drupelet Drup"el, Drupe"let noun [ Dim. of Drupe .] (Botany) A small drupe, as one of the pulpy grains of the blackberry.

Druse Druse noun [ Confer German druse bonny, crystallized piece of ore, Bohem. druza . Confer Dross .] (Min.) A cavity in a rock, having its interior surface studded with crystals and sometimes filled with water; a geode.

Druse Druse noun One of a people and religious sect dwelling chiefly in the Lebanon mountains of Syria.

The Druses separated from the Mohammedan Arabs in the 9th century. Their characteristic dogma is the unity of God.
Am. Cyc.

Drusy, Drused Dru"sy, Drused adjective (Min.) Covered with a large number of minute crystals.

Druxey, Druxy Drux"ey, Drux"y adjective [ Etymol. uncertain.] Having decayed spots or streaks of a whitish color; -- said of timber. Weale.

Dry Dry adjective [ Compar. Drier ; superl. Driest .] [ Middle English dru...e , druye , drie , Anglo-Saxon dryge ; akin to LG. dröge , Dutch droog , Old High German trucchan , German trocken , Icelandic draugr a dry log. Confer Drought , Drouth , 3d Drug .] 1. Free from moisture; having little humidity or none; arid; not wet or moist; deficient in the natural or normal supply of moisture, as rain or fluid of any kind; -- said especially: (a) Of the weather: Free from rain or mist.

The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season.
Addison.

(b) Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay. (c) Of animals: Not giving milk; as, the cow is dry . (d) Of persons: Thirsty; needing drink.

Give the dry fool drink.
Shak

(e) Of the eyes: Not shedding tears.

Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
Prescott.

(f) (Medicine) Of certain morbid conditions, in which there is entire or comparative absence of moisture; as, dry gangrene; dry catarrh.

2. Destitute of that which interests or amuses; barren; unembellished; jejune; plain.

These epistles will become less dry , more susceptible of ornament.
Pope.

3. Characterized by a quality somewhat severe, grave, or hard; hence, sharp; keen; shrewd; quaint; as, a dry tone or manner; dry wit.

He was rather a dry , shrewd kind of body.
W. Irving.

4. (Fine Arts) Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring.

Dry area (Architecture) , a small open space reserved outside the foundation of a building to guard it from damp. -- Dry blow . (a) (Medicine) A blow which inflicts no wound, and causes no effusion of blood. (b) A quick, sharp blow. -- Dry bone (Min.) , Smithsonite, or carbonate of zinc; -- a miner's term. -- Dry castor (Zoology) a kind of beaver; -- called also parchment beaver . -- Dry cupping . (Medicine) See under Cupping . - - Dry dock . See under Dock . -- Dry fat . See Dry vat (below). -- Dry light , pure unobstructed light; hence, a clear, impartial view. Bacon.

The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and color the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects.
J. C. Shairp.

-- Dry masonry . See Masonry . -- Dry measure , a system of measures of volume for dry or coarse articles, by the bushel, peck, etc. -- Dry pile (Physics) , a form of the Voltaic pile, constructed without the use of a liquid, affording a feeble current, and chiefly useful in the construction of electroscopes of great delicacy; -- called also Zamboni's , from the names of the two earliest constructors of it. -- Dry pipe (Steam Engine) , a pipe which conducts dry steam from a boiler. -- Dry plate (Photog.) , a glass plate having a dry coating sensitive to light, upon which photographic negatives or pictures can be made, without moistening. -- Dry-plate process , the process of photographing with dry plates. -- Dry point . (Fine Arts) (a) An engraving made with the needle instead of the burin, in which the work is done nearly as in etching, but is finished without the use acid . (b) A print from such an engraving, usually upon paper. (c) Hence: The needle with which such an engraving is made. -- Dry rent (Eng. Law) , a rent reserved by deed, without a clause of distress. Bouvier. -- Dry rot , a decay of timber, reducing its fibers to the condition of a dry powdery dust, often accompanied by the presence of a peculiar fungus ( Merulius lacrymans ), which is sometimes considered the cause of the decay; but it is more probable that the real cause is the decomposition of the wood itself. D. C. Eaton. Called also sap rot , and, in the United States, powder post . Hebert. -- Dry stove , a hothouse adapted to preserving the plants of arid climates. Brande & C. -- Dry vat , a vat, basket, or other receptacle for dry articles. -- Dry wine , that in which the saccharine matter and fermentation were so exactly balanced, that they have wholly neutralized each other, and no sweetness is perceptible; -- opposed to sweet wine , in which the saccharine matter is in excess.

Dry Dry transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Dried ; present participle & verbal noun Drying .] [ Anglo-Saxon drygan ; confer drugian to grow dry. See Dry , adjective ] To make dry; to free from water, or from moisture of any kind, and by any means; to exsiccate; as, to dry the eyes; to dry one's tears; the wind dries the earth; to dry a wet cloth; to dry hay.

To dry up . (a) To scorch or parch with thirst; to deprive utterly of water; to consume.

Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Is. v. 13.

The water of the sea, which formerly covered it, was in time exhaled and dried up by the sun.
Woodward.

(b) To make to cease, as a stream of talk.

Their sources of revenue were dried up .
Jowett (Thucyd. )

-- To dry, or dry up , a cow , to cause a cow to cease secreting milk. Tylor.

Dry Dry intransitive verb 1. To grow dry; to become free from wetness, moisture, or juice; as, the road dries rapidly.

2. To evaporate wholly; to be exhaled; -- said of moisture, or a liquid; -- sometimes with up ; as, the stream dries , or dries up.

3. To shrivel or wither; to lose vitality.

And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
I Kings xiii. 4.

Dry dock Dry" dock` (Nautical) See under Dock .

Dry goods Dry" goods` A commercial name for textile fabrics, cottons, woolens, linen, silks, laces, etc., -- in distinction from groceries . [ U.S.]

Dry nurse Dry" nurse` A nurse who attends and feeds a child by hand; -- in distinction from a wet nurse , who suckles it.

Dry-beat Dry"-beat` transitive verb To beat severely. Shak.

Dry-boned Dry"-boned` adjective Having dry bones, or bones without flesh.

Dry-eyed Dry"-eyed` adjective Not having tears in the eyes.

Dry-fisted Dry"-fist`ed adjective Niggardly.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
You are here: Webster > Letter D > Page 126 of 135.
« Previous ¦118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 ¦ Next »

Webster's 1913

This dictionary from 1913 contains about 100,000 words. Use the search box below if you want to search in Websters only, use the search box at the right to search all of Enyclo.

Search title (starts with...)
Search all (contains...)

Search

Type a word and press the `Search` button.

Recent searches

The most recent searches on Encyclo. Between brackets you will find the number of results and number of related results.
AL-LAD (17/0)
canavan (7/20)
hydrotubation (3/0)
Duong (2/8)
Pseudocheiridae (2/0)
Birk (8/25)
orgies (3/0)
Partygoer (2/0)
apodysophilia (2/0)
Pseudocheiridae (2/0)
Crazed (3/4)
NaHSO4 (2/0)
invictus (7/1)
Hempen (2/9)
Backup (17/25)
Stapedius (2/2)
Pycnostyle (3/0)
Great (7/25)
Come-out (14/2)
S (19/25)
senco (11/2)
Donard (2/1)
Perfectly (2/14)
Establishment, (2/2)

© Encyclo MMXI
Contact Privacy