de- 
dw-, di/-.] 1. A verb-prefix of Latin origin, 
expressing in Latin, and hence with modifica- 
tions in modern speech, various phases of the 
original meaning 'from, away from, down from.' 
(1) Separative, denoting departure or removal 'off, from 
nit, Mwny, down, out,' or cessation or removal of the fun- 
damental idea: de- privative, equivalent to nil- or dis- 
privutive. (2) Completive 'through, out, to the end,' 
etc. (3) Intensive : a force often lost in English. (See 
examples following.) In some words the separative or 
privative force of this prefix is felt in English, as in de- 
niiiiiKM', tli'Miiti'. bciiia; ill suc-li meaning often used as ail 
English prefix (de- privative), as in decentralize, de-Saxm- 
ize, derail, etc. It is less distinctly felt in words like 
depress, detract, etc. ; and in many words, where it has in 
Latin the completive or intensive force, its force is not 
felt in English, as in deride, denote, etc. 
2. In some words a reduced form of the origi- 
nal Latin prefix din-, Latin de- and <lis- being in 
Old French and Middle English more or less 
merged in form and meaning (see dis-). See 
defer 2 , deface, defame, decry, etc. 
-de. A form of -d l , -d 2 , or -ed 1 , -ed 2 in older 
English, as in solde, tolde, fleddc, etc., now ex- 
tant only in made, the (contracted) preterit and 
past participle of make. See -erf 1 , -ed 2 . 
deab. n. A kind of dog, the ekia (which see), 
deacidification (de"a-sid"i-fi-ka'snon), n. [< de- 
priv. + acidification.'] The removal or neutral- 
ization of an acid or of acidity. 
deacon (de'kn), . [Early mod. E. also deken ; <. 
ME. deken, dekyn, decon, deacon, diaene, deakite, 
< AS. deacon, didcon = D. deken, diaken = MLG. 
diaken = G. diakon, diacomts = Icel. djakn, djdk- 
ni, a deacon, = Dan. dean, a parish clerk, = Sw. 
djekne, a scholar (Dan. Sw. diakoiius, deacon), = 
OF. diaene, diacre, F. diacre = Pr. diacre, diague 
= Sp. didcono = Pg. It. diacono, < LL. diaconus 
= Goth, diakaunus, a deacon, < Gr. <Skovof, a 
servant, waitingman, messenger, eccles. a dea- 
con ; of uncertain origin ; perhaps related to 
Aiumiv, pursue, cause to run. The Teut. forms 
appear to have been in part confused with the 
forms belonging to L. decanus, a dean (see 
dean 2 ), and with those belonging with G. degen, 
etc., AS. tnegn, E. thane (see thane). ~\ 1. Ec- 
cles., one of a body of men, either forming an 
order of the ministry or serving merely as 
elected officers of individual churches, whose 
chief duty is to assist a presbyter, priest, or 
other clergyman, especially in administering 
the eucharist and in the care of the poor, (a) In 
the apostolic church, one of an order of ministers or 
church-officers, inferior to apostles and presbyters, whose 
duty it was to serve at the Lord's Supper, or agape, and to 
minister alms to the poor. It is generally believed that the 
institution of this office is recorded in Acts vi. 1-6, where, 
although the word deacon (JmKOKos, minister) is not used 
of the seven persons appointed, the corresponding words 
" to minister or serve " (Sco/coven') and "ministration " (Sia- 
jcoia'a) are employed. By an analogy with the Mosaic 
hierarchy, St. Clement of Rome in the apostolic age called 
the deacons Leuitex, and this use of the word Levite long 
remained frequent. (6) In the early Christian church, one 
of the third order of the ministry, of lower rank than 
bishops and presbyters. The deacons applied complete 
unction to men in preparation for baptism, but anointed 
women on the forehead only, assisted the celebrant at the 
eucharist, read the gospel and made proclamations dur- 
ing the liturgy, maintained order in the congregation, and 
cared for the poor and sick. Those attached to episcopal 
sees acted as the bishop's adjutants, messengers, and rep- 
resentatives, and when belonging to a great patriarchal or 
metropolitan see possessed much influence. Hence (c) 
In the Greek Church, one of the third order of the ministry, 
similar in rank and duties to the officer of the same name 
in the early church, (d) In the Roman Catholic Church, 
a member of the third order of the ministry. He assists 
the priest throughout the celebration of the eucharist or 
mass, and reads the gospel. The principal assistant to the 
celebrant at a solemn celebration is called the deacon, 
and vested accordingly, whether in deacon's, priest's, or 
bishop's orders. () In the Anglican ( hurch, a member 
of the third order of the ministry. His duties are to as- 
sist the priest in divine service, especially at the holy 
communion, help in distributing the elements to the peo- 
ple, read the Scriptures, especially the eucbaristic gospel, 
catechize, baptize infants in the absence of the priest 
preach if licensed by the bishop, and seek out the sick and 
poor and make their wants known to the curate. Deacons 
cannot consecrate the eucharist, pronounce absolution, or 
give benediction. The bishop, priest, or deacon who acts 
as principal assistant at the holy communion is called 
the deacon or gospeler. (/) In the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, a memter of an order of the ministry next below 
that of elder. The deacons are elected by the annual con- 
ference, are ordained by the bishop, and are authorized 
to assist in the administration of the encharist, to admin- 
ister the rites of baptism and marriage, and to perform 
the duties of a traveling preacher. (</) In the Baptist and 
Congregational churches, one of two or more officers 
elected by each church to distribute the elements in the 
communion after they have been consecrated by the minis- 
ter, and to act as the advisers of the pastor and as the al- 
moners of the charities of the church. (A) In the Presby- 
terian Church, one of a number of officers elected by a 
congregation and ordained by the minister to assist the 
session in the care of the poor and in the general manage- 
ment of the secular affairs of the church. Deacons are 
not always appointed, their place being sometimes sup- 
plied by the elders, (t) In the Lutheran Church in the 
United States, one of a number of laymen chosen to at- 
1468 
tend to the charities and temporalities of a congregation. 
With an equal number of elders and the pastor, the dea- 
cons constitute the council of each church to manage 
its temporal and spiritual affairs, (j) In the Mormon 
Church, a subordinate official who acts as an assistant to 
the teacher, but has no authority to baptize or administer 
the sacrament. Mormon Catechism, xvii. 
2. In Scotland, the president of an incorporated 
trade, who is the chairman of its meetings and 
signs its records. Before the passing of the Burgh 
Reform Act the deacons of the crafts or incorporated 
trades in royal burghs formed a constituent part of the 
town council, and were understood to represent the trades, 
as distinguished from the merchants and guild brethren. 
The deacon-convener of the trades in Edinburgh and Glas- 
gow still continues to be a constituent member of the town 
council. 
3. [Allusion not clear.] A green salted hide 
or skin weighing less than 8 pounds. Cardinal 
deacon. See cardinal. Deacons' seat, in New England, 
a pew formerly made in the front of the pulpit for deacons 
to occupy. Regionary deacon, in the early church, a 
deacon attached to one of the seven ecclesiastical regions 
into which Rome was divided from very early times. There 
was one deacon for each region. 
deacon (de'kn), r. t. [< deacon, n.~\ 1. To 
make or ordain deacon. 2. To read out, as 
a line of a psalm or hymn, before singing it : 
sometimes with off: from an ancient custom of 
reading the hymn one or two lines at a time, the 
congregation singing the lines as read. This office 
was frequently performed by a deacon. The custom is 
nearly as old as the Reformation, and was made necessary 
by the lack of hymn-books when congregational singing 
was introduced. See line, o. t. 
A prayer was made, and the chorister deaconed the first 
two lines. Goodrich, Reminiscences, I. 77. 
3. To arrange so as to present a specious and 
attractive appearance ; present the best and 
largest specimens (of fruit or vegetables) to 
view and conceal the defective ones: as, to 
deacon strawberries or apples. [Slang, U. S.] 
[This sense contains a humorous allusion to the 
thrifty habits ascribed to the rural New Eng- 
land deacons.] Hence 4. To sophisticate; 
adulterate; "doctor": as, to deacon wine or 
other liquor. [Slang.] Deaconed veal, veal unfit 
for use, as when killed too young. [Connecticut. ] 
deaconess (de'kn-es), . [Formerly also dea- 
r.onisse ; = D. diakones = G. diakoniss-in = Dan. 
diakonisse = F. diaconesse, diaconisse = Sp. Pg. 
diaconisa = It. diaconessa, < ML. diaconissa, 
fern, of diaconus, deacon: see deacon and -ess.'] 
1. One of an ecclesiastical order of women in 
the early church, who discharged for members of 
their own sex those parts of the diaconal office 
which could not conveniently or fitly be per- 
formed by men. They acted as doorkeepers and kept 
order on the women's side of the congregation, assisted 
at the baptism of women and administered the unction 
before baptism except the anointing of the forehead, 
instructed female catechumens, took charge of sick and 
poor women, and were present at interviews of the clergy 
with women. Such an order was especially needed in 
those Christian countries where Oriental seclusion of wo- 
men prevailed. Deaconesses were required to remain un- 
married, and were generally selected from the consecrat- 
ed virgins or from the order of widows. In the Eastern 
Church the order continued into the middle ages, but it 
is not certain when it became extinct. In the Western 
Church it was abolished by successive decrees of council 
during the fifth and succeeding centuries, and became fi- 
nally extinct about the tenth. Abbesses were sometimes 
called deaconesses after the order became obsolete. 
And Rom. xvi., I commende vnto you Phebe, the deacon- 
isse of the church of Cenchris. Tyndale, Works, p. 260. 
So Epiphanius : There is an order of deaconesses in the 
church, but not to meddle, or to attempt any of the holy 
offices. Jer. Taylor, Office Ministerial. 
2. A member of an order of women more or less 
fully established in recent times in several Prot- 
estant churches, with duties similar to the pre- 
ceding; also, a member of the Institution of Dea- 
conesses first established by Pastor Fliedner, 
of the United Evangelical Church of Prussia, at 
Kaiserswerth in 1836. The latter are wholly devoted, 
by engagements for fixed periods, to charitable work, as the 
nursing of the sick, etc. They reside in special houses, 
which have been established in many parts of the world. 
deaconhood (de'kn-hud), . [< deacon + -hood.'] 
1 . The office or ministry of a deacon ; deacon- 
ship. 2. A body of deacons taken collectively. 
deaconry (de'kn-ri), n. [< deacon + -n/.] Dea- 
couship. 
The deacons of all those churches should make up a 
common deaconry, and be deacons in common unto all 
those churches in an ordinary way, as the other elders. 
Goodwin, Works, IV. iv. 188. 
deacon-seat (de'kn-set), n. A long settee used 
by lumbermen in camp, it is hewn from a single 
log, is usually a foot wide and five or six inches thick, anil 
is raised about eighteen inches from the floor. [U. S. and 
Canada.] 
deaconship (de'kn-ship), n. [< deacon + -#/iip.] 
The office, dignity, or ministry of a deacon or 
deaconess. 
Even the apostolate itself [was] called a deaconship. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 31. 
dead 
dead (ded), a. and n. [Early mod. E. also ded; 
< ME. ded, deed, dead, dyad, < AS. dead = OS. 
dod = OFries. dad, datlt = MD. D. dood = MLG. 
dot, dod, LG. dod = OHG. MHG. tot, G. tot, todt 
= Dan. dod = Sw. dod = Icel. daudhr = Goth. 
dauths, dead ; orig. a pp. (with suffix -d, -th, 
etc. : see -ed 2 and -d 2 ) of the strong verb repre- 
sented by Goth, "diiran (pret. "dan, pp. diwaiis) 
= Icel. deyja (pret. do, pp. ddinn), die : see die 1 . 
Dead is thus nearly equiv. to died, pp. of die. 
Cf. death.'] I. a, 1. Having ceased to live; 
being deprived of life, as an animal or vege- 
table organism ; in that state in which all the 
functions of life or vital powers have ceased 
to act ; lifeless. 
The men are dead which sought thy life. Ex. iv. 19. 
Old Lord Dartmouth is dead of age. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 234. 
Hence 2. Having ceased from action or 
activity; deprived of animating or moving 
force ; brought to a stop or cessation, final or 
temporary : as, dead machinery ; dead affec- 
tions. 
All hopes of Virginia thus abandoned, it lay dead and 
obscured from 1590. till this yeare 1002. that Captaine 
Gosnoll, with 32. and himselfe in a small Barke, set sayle 
from Dartmouth vpon the 26. of March. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's True Travels, I. 105. 
The crackling embers on the hearth are dead. 
//. Coleridge, Night. 
The winds were dead for heat. Tennyson, Tiresias. 
3. Not endowed with life ; destitute of life ; 
inanimate : as, dead matter. 4. Void of sen- 
sation or perception ; insensible ; numb : as, 
he was dead with sleep ; dead to all sense of 
shame. 
The messenger of so unhappie newes 
Would faine have dyde : dead was his hart within. 
Spenser, V. Q., I. vii. 21. 
Everything, 
Yea, even pain, was dead a little space. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, II. 367. 
That white dome of St. Mark's had uttered In the dead 
ear of Venice "Know thou that for all these God will 
bring thee into judgment." Ituskin. 
5f. Having the appearance of being lifeless, as 
in a swoon. 
Sir .1. Minues fell sick at Church, and going down the 
gallery stairs, fell down dead, but came to himself again, 
and is pretty well. Pepys, Diary, II. 166. 
I presently fell dead on the floor, and it was with great 
difficulty I was brought back to life. 
Fielding, Amelia, i. 9. 
6. Resembling death; still; motionless; deep: 
as, a dead sleep ; a dead calm. 
But ill the dead time of the night, 
They set the field on fire. 
The Boyite Water (Child's Ballads, VII. 256). 
In the dead waste and middle of the night. 
Shot., Hamlet, i. 2. 
Her hand shook, and we heard 
In the dead hush the papers that she held 
Rustle. Tennyson, Princess, iv. 
Slowly down the narrow canal, in that dead stillness 
which reigns in Venice, swept the sombre flotilla, bearing 
its unconscious burden to the Campo Santo. 
T. B. Aldrich, Ponkapog to Pesth, p. 30. 
7. Utter ; entire ; complete ; full : as, a dead 
stop. 
I was at a dead Stand in the Course of my Fortunes, 
when it pleased God to provide me lately an Employment 
to Spain, whence I hope there may arise both Repute and 
Profit. Howell, Letters, I. iii. e. 
8. Unvarying; unbroken by projections or ir- 
regularities. 
For every dead wall is covered with their names, their 
abilities, their amazing cures, and places of abode. 
Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Ixviii. 
The long dead level of the marsh between 
A coloring of unreal beauty wore. 
Whittier, Bridal of Pennacook, v. 
9. Unemployed; useless; unprofitable: as, dead 
capital or stock (such as produces no profit). 
Our people, having plied their business hard, had al- 
most knit themselves out of work ; and now caps were 
become a very dead commodity, which were the chief stay 
they had heretofore to trust to. 
JR. Knox (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 390). 
10. Dull ; inactive : as, a dead market. 
All trades 
Have their dead time, we see. 
Middleton (and others), The Widow, iv. 2. 
They came away, and brought all their substance in to- 
bacco, which came at so dead a market as they could not 
get above two pence the pound. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 10. 
11. Producing no reverberation ; without reso- 
nance; dull; heavy: as, a dead sound. 
The bell seemed to sound more dt'ud than it did when, 
just before, it sounded in the open air. Boyle. 
