Dictionary: DIRE'NESS – DIS-A'BLING

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DIRE'NESS, n.

Terribleness; horror; dismalness. – Shak.

DI-REP'TION, n. [L. direptio.]

The act of plundering.

DIRGE, n. [durj; Usually supposed to be a contraction of L. dirige, a word used in the funeral service. In Sw. dyrka, Dan. dyrker, signifies to worship, honor, reverence.]

A song or tune intended to express grief, sorrow and mourning; as, a funeral dirge.

DIR'I-GENT, a.

Directing. – Baxter.

DIR'I-GENT, or DI-RECT'RIX, n. [See Direct.]

In geometry, the line of motion along which the describent line or surface is carried in the generation of any plane or solid figure. – Encyc.

DIRK, a. [durk.]

Dark. [Obs.] – Spenser.

DIRK, n. [durk; Scot. durk.]

A kind of dagger or poniard.

DIRK, v.t. [durk.]

  1. To darken. [Obs.] – Spenser.
  2. To poniard; to stab.

DIRK'ED, pp.

Stabbed.

DIRK'ING, ppr.

Stabbing.

DIRT, n. [durt; Sax. gedritan; D. dryten; Ice. drit, cacare.]

  1. Any foul or filthy substance; excrement; earth; mud; mire; dust; whatever adhering to any thing, renders it foul or unclean. The fat closed, and the dirt came out. – Judges iii. Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. – Is. lvii.
  2. Meanness; sordidness. [Not in use.]

DIRT, v.t. [durt.]

To make foul or filthy; to soil; to bedaub; to pollute; to defile. – Swift.

DIRT'I-ED, pp.

Made filthy.

DIRT'I-LY, adv. [durt'ily; from dirty.]

  1. In a dirty manner; foully; nastily; filthily.
  2. Meanly; sordidly; by low means.

DIRT'I-NESS, n. [durt'iness.]

  1. Filthiness; foulness; nastiness.
  2. Meanness; baseness; sordidness.

DIRT'Y, a. [durt'y.]

  1. Foul; nasty; filthy; not clean; as, dirty hands.
  2. Not clean; not pure; turbid; as, dirty water.
  3. Cloudy; dark; dusky; as, a dirty white.
  4. Mean; base; low; despicable; groveling; as, a dirty fellow; a dirty employment.

DIRT'Y, v.t. [durt'y.]

  1. To foul; to make filthy; to soil; as, to dirty the clothes or hands.
  2. To tarnish; to sully; to scandalize; applied to reputation.

DIRT'Y-ING, ppr.

Making filthy; soiling.

DI-RUP'TION, n. [L. diruptio; dirumpo, to burst.]

A bursting or rending asunder. [See Disruption.]

DIS, prep. [DIS-.]

A prefix or inseparable preposition, from the Latin, whence Fr. des, Sp. dis, and de may in some instances be the same word contracted. Dis denotes separation, a parting from; hence it has the force of a privative and negative, as in disarm, disoblige, disagree. In some cases, it still signifies separation, as in distribute, disconnect.

DIS-A-BIL'I-TY, n. [from disable.]

  1. Want of competent natural or bodily power, strength, or ability; weakness; impotence; as, disability arising from infirmity or broken limbs.
  2. Want of competent intellectual power, or strength of mind; incapacity; as, the disability of a deranged person to reason or to make contracts.
  3. Want of competent means or instruments. [In this sense, inability is generally used.]
  4. Want of legal qualifications; incapacity; as, a disability to inherit an estate, when the ancestor has been attainted. [In this sense, it has a plural.] – Blackstone. Disability differs from inability, in denoting deprivation of ability; whereas inability denotes destitution of ability, either by deprivation or otherwise.

DIS-A'BLE, v.t. [dis and able.]

  1. To render unable; to deprive of competent natural strength or power. A man is disabled to walk by a broken or paralytic leg, by sickness, &c.
  2. To deprive of mental power, as by destroying or weakening the understanding.
  3. To deprive of adequate means, instruments, or resources. A nation may be disabled to carry on war by want of money. The loss of a ship may disable a man to prosecute commerce, or to pay his debts.
  4. To destroy the strength; or to weaken and impair so as to render incapable of action, service, or resistance. A fleet is disabled by a storm, or by a battle. A ship is disabled by the loss of her masts or spars.
  5. To destroy or impair and weaken the means which render any thing active, efficacious, or useful; to destroy or diminish any competent means.
  6. To deprive of legal qualifications, or competent power; to incapacitate; to render incapable. An attainder of the ancestor corrupts the blood, and disables his children to inherit. – Eng. Law.

DIS-A'BLED, pp.

Deprived of competent power, corporeal or intellectual; rendered incapable; deprived of means.

DIS-A'BLE-MENT, n.

Weakness; disability; legal impediment. – Bacon.

DIS-A'BLING, a.

That disables or disqualifies; depriving of moral power or right; as, a disabling statute.