dainty 
I would he the girdle 
Al>out her dainty dainty waist. 
Tennyson, Miller's Daughter. 
3. Pleasing to the palate; toothsome; deli- 
cious: as, dainty food. 
His life abhorreth bread, and Ills soul dainty meat. 
Job xxxiii. 20. 
4. Of acute sensibility or nice discrimination; 
sensitive. 
The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. 
Skak., Hamlet, v. 1. 
Especially 5. Of nice discrimination as re- 
gards taste ; nice or over-nice in selecting what 
is preferred in any class of things, as food, cloth- 
ing, etc.; hence, squeamish: as, a dainty taste 
or palate ; dainty people. 
And never found . . . 
A daintier lip for syrup. Praed. 
It was time for them ... to take the best they could 
get ; for when men were starving they conld not afford to 
lie dainty. Motley, Dutch Republic, III. 521. 
6. Nice as regards behavior, decorum, inter- 
course, etc. ; fastidious ; hence, affectedly fine ; 
effeminate ; weak. 
Let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 
But shift away. Shak., Macbeth, ii. 3. 
Your dainty speakers have the curse 
To plead bad causes down to worse. 
Prior, Alma, ii. 
I am somewhat dainty in making a Resolution. 
Conyreve, Way of the World, Ml. 15. 
To make dalntyt, to affect to be dainty or delicate ; scrn- 
pie. 
Ah ha, my mistresses ! which of you all 
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she, 
I'll swear, hath corns. Shale., R. and J., i. v. 
=Syn.2. Pretty. 3. Savory, luscious, toothsome. Baud 
6. Nice, Fastidious, etc. See nice. 
daire, . [Turk, da'ire, a circle, a tambourine, 
= Pers. ddtrali, a circle, orbit, < AT. ddyira t acir- 
cle, < dur, go round, daur, circuit.] A kind of 
tambourine or cymbal. 
dairedt, n. See dayred. 
dairi (di're), n. [Chino-Jap., < dai, great, + ri, 
within.] The palace of the mikado of Japan ; 
the court: a respectful term used by the Jap- 
anese in speaking of the mikado or emperor, 
who was considered too august and sacred to 
be spoken of by his own name. 
dairi-sama (di're-sa'ma), it. [Chino-Jap., < 
dairi, the palace, + sama, "lord: see dairi.'] The 
mikado or emperor: one of many metonymic 
phrases used by the Japanese in speaking of 
their sovereign. 
dairous, a. [( dair, for dare 1 , + -OK*.] Bold. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
dairt, . [Ir., a calf, heifer.] A yearling calf. 
What has the law laid down as the fine of a pledged 
needle? Answer it is a dairt (or yearling calf) that is 
paid as the fine for it. O'Curry, Anc. Irish, II. xxiv. 
dairy (da'ri), w.; pi. dairies (-riz). [Early mod. 
E. also dairie; < ME. deyery, deyrye (> ML. daye- 
ria, daeria), < deye, deie, date (Sc. dey), a female 
servant, esp. a dairymaid: see dey and -//.] 1. 
That branch of farming which is concerned 
with the production of milk, and its conversion 
into butter and cheese. 
Grounds were turned much in England either to feeding 
or dairy ; and this advanced the trade of English butter. 
Temple. 
2. A house or room where milk and cream are 
kept and made into butter and cheese. 
The coarse and country fairy 
That doth haunt the hearth or dairy. B. Jonson. 
3. A shop where milk, butter, etc., are sold. 
4. A dairy-farm. [Bare.] 
dairy-farm (da'ri-farm), n. A farm the prin- 
cipal business of which is the production of 
milk and the manufacture of butter or cheese. 
dairying (da'ri-ing), . [< dairy + -ingr*.] The 
occupation or business of a dairy-farmer or 
dairyman : also attributively : as, a rich dairy- 
ing country. 
Grain-raising and dairying combined, however, work to 
the best advantage, not only financially, but also in the 
production of manure. Encyc. Amer., I. 99. 
dairymaid (da'ri-mad), n. A female servant 
whose business is to milk cows and work in the 
dairy. 
Come up quickly, or we shall conclude that thou art in 
love with one of Sir Roger's dairymaids. 
Addison, Spectator. 
dairyman (da'ri-man), n. ; pi. dairymen (-men). 
One who keeps cows for the production of milk 
and butter, and sometimes cheese, or one who 
attends to the sale of dairy produce. 
dais (da'is), n. [< ME. deis, deys, des, dees, in 
oblique cases dese, dece, etc., < OF. deis, also 
dot's, later dais, daiz, a high table in a hall, F. 
1444 
da-is, a canopy, < ML. discus, a table, in L. a 
plate, platter, quoit, discus, whence also E. 
dish, disk, and desk: see these words.] 1. A 
platform or raised floor at one end or one side 
of a reception-room or hall, upon which seats 
Dais. Throne-room, Windsor Castle, England. 
for distinguished persons are placed; especial- 
ly, such a platform covered with a canopy: 
formerly often called specifically high dais. 
Wel semede ech of hem a fair burgeys, 
To sitten in a yeldehalle on a deyx. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 370. 
Am peres with the apostles this pardoun Piers sheweth, 
And at the day of dome atte hrigh deyse to sytte. 
Piers Plowman (B), vii. 17. 
I sail saye, syttande at the douse, 
I tuke thi speche byyonde the see. 
Thomas of Ersseldoune (Child's Ballads, I. 105). 
With choice paintings of wise men I hung 
The royal dais round. Tennyson, Palace of Art. 
Hence 2. Any similar raised portion of the 
floor of an apartment, used as the place at which 
the most distinguished guests at a feast are 
seated, as a platform for a lecturer, etc. 
As a lecturer he was not brilliant ; he appeared shy and 
nervous when on the dais. Nature, XXXVII. 299. 
3. A canopy or covering. 4. (a) A long board, 
seat, or settle erected against a wall, and some- 
times so constructed as to serve for both a set- 
tee and a table ; also, a seat on the outer side 
of a country-house or cottage, frequently f ormed 
of turf. (6) A pew in a church. [Scotch.] 
Whan she came to Mary-kirk, 
And sat down in the dealt, 
The light that came frae fair Annie 
Enlighten'd a' the place. 
Sweet Willie and Fair Annie (Child's Ballads, II. 136). 
daise, (' See daze. 
daisied (da'zid), . [< daisy + -e<?2.] Full of 
daisies ; set or adorned with daisies. 
Let us 
Find out the prettiest dai-sied plot we can. 
Shak., Cymbeline, iv. 4. 
daising (da'zing), n. [Sc. (= E. as if "dazing), 
verbal n. of dam, dase, stupefy, make or be- 
come numb, wither, = E. daze, q. v.] A dis- 
ease of sheep ; the rot. 
daisterret, n. An obsolete form of day-star. 
daisy (da'zi), n. and a. [Early mod. E. also 
daisie, daysie, etc. ; < ME. daysie, daysy, daysey, 
dayesye, daiseie, daieseyghe, etc., < AS. dteges 
edge, that is, 'day's eye,' so called in allusion to 
the form of the flower: see day and eye^.] I. 
n.; pi. daisies (-ziz). 1. A common plant, Bel- 
lis perennis, natural order Composite, one of the 
most familiar wild plants of Europe, found in all 
pastures and meadows, and growing at a consid- 
erable height on mountains. The daisy is a great 
favorite, and several varieties are cultivated in gardens. 
In Scotland the field-daisy is called gowan. See gowan. 
The dayesye or elles the eye of day, 
The emperice and flour of floures alle. 
Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 184. 
Dairies pied and violets blue. Shak. , L. L. L. , v. 2 (song). 
2. One of various plants of other genera to 
which the name is popularly applied. The wild 
plant generally known in the United States as the daisy 
is the Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. (See oxeye daisy, 
below.) In Australia the name daisy is given to several 
Composites, especially to species of Vitadenia and to 
Brarhycmne iberidifolia of the Swan River region, which 
is occasionally cultivated ; in New Zealand, to species of 
Lagenophora. See phrases below. 
3. Something pretty, fine, charming, or nice: 
as, she is a daisy. [Colloq. or slang.] African 
daisy, lianas inodora, of northern Africa, formerly culti- 
Dakotan 
vated for ornament. Blue or globe daisy, the (ilubularia- 
culgaris. Butter-daisy, a name of species of Kanuncu 
tug. Cabbage-daisy, the globe-flower, Trolli-tts Eiti-ojiit-- 
tis. Christmas daisy, in England, :i name of several cul- 
tivated species of aster : other species are called Michael- 
mas daisies. French daisy, the Chrysanthemum frutr- 
ci. Hen-and-Chickens daisy, a proliferous variety 
of Belli* perennis, in which the (lower-head branches and 
forms several smaller ones. Michaelmas daisy, a name 
applied in England to various species of aster, commonly 
cultivated in flower-borders and blooming about Michael- 
mas. Oxeye daisy, the Chrysanthemum Leucanthf- 
mum. Also called lull-, devil's, dog-, golden, great, mid- 
summer, moon-, and horse-daisy, and uhitewecd, but in 
the United States most commonly daisy alone. (See also 
sea-daisy.) 
II. . Pretty; fine; charming; nice. [Colloq. 
or slang.] 
Cap. I am to request, and yon are to command. 
3/rs. Cad. Oh, daisy! that's charming. 
Foote, The Author, ii. (1757). 
daisy-bush (da'zi-bush), . A New Zealand 
name for several species of the genus Oleria, 
shrubby composites nearly allied to the aster, 
but with terete achenes and the anther-cells 
more shortly caudate. 
daisy-CUtter (da/zi-kufer), n. 1. A trotting 
horse ; specifically, in recent use, a horse that 
in trotting lifts its feet only a little way from 
the ground. 
The trot is the true pace for a hackney ; and, were we 
near a town, I should like to try .that da ;/- of yours 
upon a piece of level road. Scott, Rob Roy, iii. 
2. In base-ball and cricket, a ball batted so that 
it skims or bounds along the ground. 
dajaksch (di'aksh), n. The arrow-poison of 
Borneo, of unknown origin, but thought to be 
distinct from the Java arrow-poison. U. S. 
Ui.tpensatory. 
dak, dawk'^ (dak), . [Also written dank; < 
Hind, dak, post, post-office, a relay of men.] 
In the East Indies, the post ; a relay of men, as 
for carrying letters, despatches, etc., or travel- 
ers in palanquins. The route is divided into stages, 
and each bearer or set of bearers serves only for a single 
stage. In some places there are horse-daks, or mounted 
runners. Dak-bungalow, dawk-bungalow. Seefrtm- 
</a(ow. To lay a dale, to station a relay of men, or men 
and horses. TO travel dak, to journey in palanquins 
carried by relays of men or by government post-wagons. 
daker 1 , . See daeker. 
daker' 2 (da'ker), n. Same as dicker^-. 
daker-hen (da'ker-hen), n. The corn-crake or 
land-rail, Crex pratensis. See crake 2 , Crex. 
dakoit, dacoit (da-koif), n. [Also written de- 
coit; < Hind, ddkait, a robber, one of a gang 
of robbers, < daka, an attack by robbers, esp. 
armed and in a gang.] One of a class of rob- 
bers in India and Burma who plunder in bands. 
The term was also applied to the pirates who infested the 
rivers between Calcutta and Burhampore, but who are 
now suppressed. 
The country [India] was then full of freebooters, thugs, 
or professional murderers, and dacoits, or professional rob- 
bers, whose trade was to live by plunder. 
Contemporary Rev., XLIX. 810. 
dakoitage, dacoitage (da-koi'taj), . [< da- 
koit, dacoit, + -age.] Same as dakoity. 
We may expect soon to hear that Dacoitage has begun 
with as much vigor as ever, and our missionary stations 
will again be compelled to defend themselves with the 
rifle. Sew York Examiner, May 12, 1887. 
dakoitee, dacoitee (da-koi-te'), n. [< dakoit, 
dacoit, + -ee 1 .] One who is robbed by a dakoit. 
[Bare.] 
It may be a pleasanter game to play the dacoit than the 
dacoitee, to go out . . . and harry your neighbours than 
to stay at home and run the chance of being robbed and 
murdered yourself. Edinburgh Sec., CLXV. 499. 
dakoity, dacoity (da-koi'ti), n. [Also written 
decoity; < Hind. Beng., etc., dakaiti, or ddkd- 
ti, gang-robbery, < ddkait, dakoit: see dakoit.'] 
The system of robbing in bands practised by 
the dakoits. 
Dacoity, in the language of the Indian Penal Code, is 
robbery committed or attempted by five or more persons 
conjointly. Edinburgh Rev., CLXV. 498. 
Dakosaurus (dak-o-sa'rus), . [NL., for *Da- 
cosaurits, < Gr. iaitof, an animal whose bite is 
dangerous (see Dacus), + aavpof, a lizard.] A 
genus of extinct Mesozoic crocodiles with am- 
phicoelous vertebne. 
Dakotan (da-ko'tan), a. and . [< Dakota + 
-.] I. a. 1. Belonging or relating to the Da- 
kotas or Sioux, an Indian people of the north- 
western United States. 2. Of or pertaining 
to Dakota, a former Territory in the northern 
part of the United States, or to North Dakota 
or South Dakota, into which it was divided by 
act of February 22d, 1889. The same act pro- 
vided for the admission of these two parts as 
States into the Union. 
II. n. An inhabitant of Dakota, or of North 
or South Dakota. 
