DISIMPROVEMENT, n. s. Dis and improvement. Reduction from a better to a worse state; the contrary to melioration; the contrary to improvement. The final issue of the matter would be, an utter neglect and disimprovement of the earth. Norris. I cannot see how this kingdom is at any height of improvement, while four parts in five of the plantations, for thirty years past, have been real disimproveSwift. DISINCARCERATE, v. a. Dis and incarcerate. To set at liberty; to free from prison. ments. What are those duties which we read or hear of from the word of God, to which we find ourselves most disinclined? This, in all likelihood, will help us to detect some of our peculiar sins of omission. Mason. DISINGENUITY, n. s. From disingenuous. Meanness of artifice; unfairness. They contract a habit of ill-nature and disingenuity necessary to their affairs, and the temper of those upon whom they are to work. Clarendon. DISINGEN'UOUS, adj. Dis and ingenuDISINGEN UOUSLY, adv. ous. Unfair; meanDISINGEN UOUSNESS, n.s.ly artful; subtle; sly; illiberal. Tis disingenuous to accuse our age Davies. Is it then just with us to disinherit The unborn nephews for the father's fault? Unmuffle, ye faiut stars; and thou, fair moon, Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, And disinherit chaos that reigns here In double night of darkness, and of slander. Milton. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity by one single prevarication! South. Nor how the Dryads and the woodland train, Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain. Dryden's Fables. DISINTER', v. a. From dis and inter. To unbury; to take as out of the grave. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero, the wise, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred. Addison. DISINTERESSED, adj. Dis and Fr. interessé. Written disinterested generally, and more properly. Without regard to private advantage; not biassed by particular views; impartial. Not that tradition's parts are useless here, When general, old, disinteressed, and clear. Dryden. DISINTERESSMENT, n. s. Dis and Fr. interessement. Disregard to private advantage; disinterest; disinterestedness. This word is merely a Gallicism. He has managed some of the charges of the kingdom with known ability, and laid them down with entire disinteressment. Prior's Postscript. DISINTEREST, n. s. Dis and interest. DISINTERESTED, adj. What is contrary to DISINTERESTEDLY, adv. one's interest, desire, DISINTERESTEDNESS,n.s.or prosperity; that which any one is concerned to prevent: indifference to one's own advantage. These expressions of selfishness and disinterestedness have been used in a very loose and indeterminate manner. They judge it the great disinterest to Rome. Browne. Glanville. Be all their ligaments at once unbound, And their disjointed bones to powder ground. Sandys. Yet what could swords or poison, racks or flame, But mangle and disjoint the brittle frame? More fatal Henry's words: they murdered Emma's fame. Prior. I asked a gentleman the other day that is famous for a good carver (at which acquisition he is out of countenance, imagining it may detract from some of his more essential qualifications) to help me to something that was near him; but he excused himself, and blushing told me, of all things he could never carve in his life; though it can be proved upon him that he cuts up, disjoints, and uncases, with incomparable dexterity. Spectator. Rotation must disperse in air All things which on the rapid orb appear; And if no power that motion should controul, It must disjoint and dissipate the whole. Blackman. Mouldering arches, and disjointed columns. Irene. Rocks reared on rocks in huge disjointed piles Form the tall turrets, and the lengthened aisles; Broad ponderous piers sustain the roof, and wide Branch the vast rainbow ribs from side to side. Darwin. DISJU’DICATION, n. s. Lat. dijudicatio. Judgment; determination: perhaps only mistaken for dijudication. Such principles, whose atoms are of that disjunctire nature, as not to be united in a sufficient number to make a visible mass. Grew. A disjunctive proposition, in logic, is when the parts are opposed to one another by disjunctive particles. The truth of disjunctives depends on the necessary and immediate opposition of the parts. Watts's Logick. There are such words as disjunctive conjunctions. Id. What he observes of the numbers disjunctively and apart, reason suggests to be applicable to the whole body united. Causes of the Decay of Piety. DISK, n. s. Lat. discus. A quoit. The face of the sun, or any planet, as it appears to the eye. The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, Appears at first but as a blood-shot eye. Dryden. The crystal of the eye, which in a fish is a ball, in any land animal is a disk or bowl; being hereby fitted for the clearer sight of the object. Grew. It is to be considered, that the rays, which are equally refrangible, do fall upon a circle answering to the sun's disk. Newton. In areas varied with mosaic art, I think it best, by an union of manners and conformity of minds, to bring them to be one people, and to put away the dislikeful conceit of the one and the other. Id. Ireland. What most he should dislike, seems pleasant to him; The disposition of the organ is of great importance What like, offensive in the disjudications we make of colours. Boyle on Colours. Lat. disjunctus. Dis DISJUNCTIVE, adj. union; incapable of union. You may Enjoy your mistress now, from whom you see There's no disjunction to be made, but by Your ruin. Shakspeare. Winter's Tale. There is a great analogy between the body natural and politic, in which the ecclesiastical or spiritual Shakspeare. King Lear. Your dislikes, to whom I would be pleasing, Do cloud my joys with danger and with sorrow. Id. God's grace, that principle of his new birth, gives him continual dislike to sin. Hammond's Practical Catechism. True love to the person cannot long agree with dislike of the religion. Bp. Hall's Contemplations. This said Aletes, and a murmur rose That shewed dislike among the Christian peers. Fairfax. Whosoever dislikes the digressions, or grows weary of them, may throw them away. Temple Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken Shakspeare. Winter's Tale. DISLIKENESS, n. s. Dis and likeness. Dissimilitude; not resemblance; unlikeness. That which is not designed to represent any thing but itself, can never be capable of a wrong representation, nor mislead us from the true apprehension of any thing by its dislikeness to it; and such, excepting those of substances, are all our own complex ideas. Locke. DISLIMB', v. a. Dis and limb. To dilaniate; to tear limb from limb. DIS'MAL, adj. DIS'MALLY, adv. Dryden. Lat dies malus, an evil day. Sorrowful; dire; DIS'MALNESS, n. s. horrid; melancholy; un DISLIMN', v. a. Dis and limn. To unpaint; comfortable; unhappy; dark. to strike out of a picture. That which is now a horse, even with a thought The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct As water is in water. Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. DISLOCATE, v. a. Lat. dis and locus. To DISLOCATION, n. s. put out of the proper place: a luxation. Were't my fitness To let these hands obey my boiling blood, They 're apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones. Shakspeare. King Lear. The posture of rocks, often leaning or prostrate, shews that they had some dislocation from their natural site. Burnet. It might go awry either within or without the upper, as often as it is forcibly pulled to it, and so cause a dislocation, or a strain. Grew's Museum. After some time the strata on all sides of the globe were dislocated, and their situation varied, being elevated in some places, and depressed in others. Woodward. She neither broke nor dislocated any bones; but received such a contusion below the hip, as crippled her completely. Cowper. Private Correspondence. DISLODGE', v. a. & n. Dis and lodge. To remove from a place; to go away. The ladies have prevailed, The Volscians are dislodged, and Marcus gone. Shakspeare. Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour, Friendliest to sleep, and silence, he resolved With all his legions to dislodge. These senses lost, behold a new defeat, The soul dislodging from another seat. Milton. Dryden's Juvenal. The shell-fish which are resident in the depths live and die there, and are never dislodged or removed by storms, nor cast upon the shores; which the littorales usually arc. Woodward. DISMAL, GREAT, or DISMAL SWAMP, a large swamp, or bog, extending from north to south nearly thirty miles, and from east to west, at a medium, about ten miles, partly in Virginia and partly in North Carolina. No less than five navigable rivers, besides creeks, rise out of it; two of which run into Virginia, viz. the south branch of Elizabeth, and the south branch of Nansemond river, and three into North Carolina, namely, North River, North West River, and Perquimons. All these hide their heads, properly speaking, in the Dismal, there being no signs of them above ground. There must, for this reason, be plentiful subterraneous stores of water here, or else the soil is so replete with this element, poured down from the high lands that surround it, that it can abundantly afford these supplies. This is, perhaps, most probable, as the ground of the swamp is a mere quagmire, trembling under the feet of those who walk upon it, and every footstep The skirts of being instantly filled with water. the swamp, towards the east, are overgrown with reeds, ten or twelve feet high, interspersed with strong bamboo briars. Among these grow strip him of his other garrisons, having already dispossessed him of his strongest, by dismantling him of his honour, and seizing his reputation. South. Sees dancing slaves insult his martial plains Parts with chill stream the dim religious bower Time-mouldered bastion, and dismantled tower. Darwin. DISMA'SK, v. a. Dis and mask. To divest of a mask; to uncover from concealment. Fair ladies masked are roses in the bud, Or angels veiled in clouds; are roses blown, Dismasked, their damask sweet commixture shewn. Shakspeare. The marquis thought best to dismask his beard; and told him that he was going covertly. Wotton. DISMAY', v. a. & n. s. ¿ Sp. desmayer; old Fr. DISMAY EDNESS, n. s. Sesmayer. Minsheu after Sebastian, a Spanish etymologist, says, fancifully enough, 'from the moneth of Maye, for in that moneth the flowers of the field hang their heads and fade away' to discourage; divert of self-possession; terribly. here and there a cypress or white cedar, commonly mistaken for the juniper. Towards the south end of it is a large tract of reeds, which, being constantly green and waving in the wind, is called the Green Sea. In many parts, especially on the borders, grows an ever-green shrub very plentifully, called the gall-bush. It bears a berry which dies a black color like the gall of an oak, whence its name. Near the middle of this swamp the trees grow much thicker, both cypress and cedar, and, being always green and loaded with very large tops, are much exposed to the wind and easily blown down. Neither beast, bird, insect, nor reptile, approach the heart of this horrible desert; perhaps deterred by the everlasting shade, occasioned by the thick shrubs and bushes, which the sun can never penetrate to warm the earth: nor indeed, on account of the noisome exhalations, do any birds fly over it. These noxious vapors infect the air all around. On the west border is a pine swamp, above a mile in breadth, great part of which is covered with water, knee-deep; the bottom, however, is firm, and the pines grow very tall. With all these disadvantages Dismal Swamp is, in many places, pleasing to the eye, though disagreeable to the other senses. It was judged impassable, till the line, dividing Virginia from North Carolina, was carried through it, in lat. 36° 28′ N., in 1728, by order of king George II. Although this was undertaken in a very dry season, the men who were employed were ten whole days before they could accomplish their dismayed with alarms as they have of late years been. work. In the middle is a lake about seven miles long, called Drummond's Pond, whose waters run south into Pasquotank River, which falls into Albemarle Sound; and on the north into Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers, which fall into James River. A navigable canal has, with immense labor, been cut through this swamp, connecting the waters of the Pasquotank, which fall into Albemarle Sound, and those of the Elizabeth, which is connected by means of James River with Chesapeak Bay. As the Dismal Swamp lies so near Norfolk, where there is a constant demand for shingles, staves, &c., for exportation; and as the best of these articles are made from the trees growing upon the swamp, it is on this account a valuable property. It chiefly belongs to two companies, the Virginia Company, who possess 100,000 acres of it, and the North Carolina Company, who possess 40,000. He that makes his prince despised and undervalued, and beats him out of his subjects' hearts, may easily He will not fail thee; fear not, neither be dismayed. But suddeine catching hold, did her dismay Spenser. Enemies would not be so troublesome to the western coasts, nor that country itself would be so often Raleigh's Essays. The valiantest feels inward dismayedness and yet the fearfullest is ashamed fully to shew it. Sidney, Nothing can make him remiss in the practice of his duty; no prospect of interest can allure him, no fear of danger dismay him. Atterbury. DI'SME, n. s. Fr. A tenth; the tenth part; tythe. Since the first sword was drawn about this question, Every tithe soul 'mongst many thousand dismes, Hath been as dear as Helen. Shakspeare. Troilus and Cressida. The pope began to exercise his new rapines by a compliance with king Edward, in granting him two years disme from the clergy. Ayliffe's Parergon. divide member from member; to dilacerate; to Him booteth not resist, nor succour call, Spenser. Faerie Queene. I am with both, each army hath a hand; Those who contemplate only the fragments or pieces of science dispersed in short unconnected discourses, can never survey an entire body of truth, but must always view it as deformed and dismembered. DISMISS', v. a. Watts. Acts, xix. 41. Until his army be dismissed from him. Shakspeare. Henry IV. DISNEY (John), an English divine and ma- You must not stay here longer; your dismission Is come from Cæsar. Not only thou degrad'st them, or remit'st If our young Iülus be no more, world. Mason. Puff not your cheeks, fond youths! dismiss the Poem on Gardens. 4. Remarks upon a Ser flute ! Hushed be the harp, the soft guitar be mute: Sheridan. DISMISSION OF A BILL, in chancery. If the plaintiff does not attend on the day fixed for the hearing, his bill is dismissed with costs. It may be also dismissed for want of prosecution, which is in the nature of a nonsuit at law, if he suffers three terms to elapse without moving forwards in the cause. DISMORTGAGE, v. a. Dis and mortgage. To redeem from mortgage. He dismortgaged the crown demesnes, and left behind a mass of gold. Howel's Vocal Forest. DISMOUNT', v. a. & v. n. Fr. demonter. To throw off a horse, or from an elevation: to alight from a horse; to descend. The champion stout Eftscones dismounted from his courser brave, From this flying steed unreined, as once Bellerophon, though from a lower clime, Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall. Milton. The Turks' artillery, planted against that tower, was by the Christian cannoneers dismounted with shot from the tower, and many of the gunners slain. Knolles. mon preached by Dr. Sacheverell. 5. A View of ancient Laws against Immorality and Profane This disobedience of the moon will prove This disobedience of the fibres of age to their usual stimuli, has generally been ascribed to repetition or habit, as those who live near a large clock, or a mill, or a waterfall, soon cease to attend to the perpetual noise of it in the day, and sleep during the night undisturbed. Darwin. Dis and oblige. To offend; disgust; give slight offence to. All the derivatives fol DISOBLIGE', v. a. low this sense. |