digger 
chiefly upon roots dug from the ground. Col- 
lectively called Digger Indians. 
Among all these Indians the most miserable are the 
root-diggers, who live almost entirely on the scanty roots 
of plants which are found in the ravines or plains. These 
poor wretches suffer all the hardships of hunger and want. 
They are compelled to spend two thirds of the year among 
the mountains, with no other resource than a little fish 
and roots. When both these provisions fail, it is impossible 
to picture the wretched state of these pariahs of the wil- 
derness. Yet they are not downcast ; they are ever cheer- 
fill, and endure their suffering with dignity. They are open 
and sociable with strangers and perfectly honest in their 
transactions. 
AbM Domenech, Deserts of North America (trans.), II. 60. 
3. pi. In entom., specifically, the hymenopter- 
ous insects called digger-wasps or Fossores. See 
Fossores and digger-wasp. 
digger-wasp (dig'er-wosp), n. The popular 
name of the f ossorial hymenopterous insects of 
the families Scoliidw, Pompilidai, and Sphegidw, 
most of which dig burrows in the ground, in 
which they lay their eggs, provisioning each 
1614 
To Cartage she had he shoulde Aim dighte. 
Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 1000. 
And after him, full many other moe, . . . 
'Gan dight theimdites t' express their inward woe 
With doleful lays unto the tune addrest. 
Lady Pembroke (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 265). 
3f. To put into a certain condition or posi- 
tion. 
"O stop! O stop! young man," she said, 
"For I in dule am dight." 
Sir Roland (Child's Ballads, I. 225). 
4f. To dispose of; treat. 
Say vs how thou wil him ditft, 
And we salle giue the dome fill rigt. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 111. 
5. To prepare ; make ready. [Obsolete or po- 
etical.] 
Nygh thi bestes dight 
A flre in colde ; it wol thyne oxen mende, 
And make hem faire, yf thai the fyre attende. 
Palladium, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 19. 
Digitaria 
was 18.5 millimeters or 0.73 of an English inch. 
See dactyl a.n&fingerbreadth.3. lnaxtron.,the 
twelfth part of the diameter of the sun or moon : 
used in expressing the quantity of an eclipse : 
as, an eclipse of six digits (one which hides one 
half of the diameter). 4. One of the first nine 
numbers, indicated by the fingers in counting 
on them ; also, one of the nine Arabic numer- 
als, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 
Any number which can be written with one figure onely 
is named a digit; and therefore 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are 
onely digits and all the diyitg that are. 
T. Hill, Arithmetic (1600), fol. 7 b. 
iigitt (dij'it), v. t. [< digit, n.; in allusion to 
the L. phrase digito monstrari (or demonstrari), 
be pointed out with the finger, i. e., be distin- 
guished, be famous.] To point at or out with 
the finger. 
I shall never care to be digited with a " That is he." 
Feltham, Resolves, i. 28. 
They promised to dight for him 
Gay chapelets of flowers and gyrlonds trim.^ 3^^ (distal), . and n. [= F. Sp. Pg. digital 
= It. digitale, < L. digitalis, < digitus, a finger : see 
digit.] I. a. 1. Of or pertaining to a digit or 
digits : as, the digital phalanges. 2. Resem- 
bling digits ; digitateDigital cavity, in anat., the 
posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle of the brain. 
Digital fossa, in anat., a pit on the greater trochanter 
of the thighbone, where five muscles (the pyriformis, the 
obturator externus and intemus, and the two gemelli) are 
inserted together. The depression is about large enough 
to admit the end of one's finger. Digital Impressions, 
in anat., the slight depressions on the inner surface of the 
cranial bones, which correspond to the cerebral convolu- 
tions. Digital sheaths, in anat., the sheaths of the 
flexor tendons of the digits. 
II. n. 1. A digit; a finger or toe. [Bare.] 
(a) To prepare or make ready by dressing or cooking. 
Jacob dight a mease of meete. Coverdale, Gen. xxv. 
Curls through the trees the slender smoke, 
Where yeomen dight the woodland cheer. 
Scott, Cadyow Castle. 
(ft) To prepare or make ready by equipping or arraying ; 
dress ; equip ; array ; deck ; adorn. 
Whan the kynge and his peple were armed, and redy 
dight, they com to the baill of the toure well arrayde hem 
to diffende. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 113. 
And the Crowne lythe in a Vesselle of Cristalle richely 
dyghte. Jlandemlle, Travels, p. 12. 
Oft had he seene her faire, but never so faire dight. 
Spenser, F. Q., I. xii. 23. 
Ichneumon-like Digger-wasp (SfftfX ichnrumonea} . natural size. 
cell with the bodies of other insects, on which 
their larvee feed after hatching. Sphex ichneu- 
monea is a large rust-colored species which digs holes 
six inches deep and provisions them with grasshoppers ; 
Chlorion cm-uleum provisions the nest with spiders, and 
Ammophila pictipennis with cutworms. See also cut un- 
der Ammophila. 
digging (dig'ing), n. [Verbal n. of dig, v.~\ 1. 
The act of excavating, especially with spade 
or shovel, or, in general, with simple tools and 
without the aid of blasting. Excavation in this gen- 
eral sense receives various names, according to the nature 
and object of the work done. See excavation, mine, and 
warn/. 
if. The act of undermining ; plotting; manoau- 
vering. 
Let us not project long designs, crafty plots, and dig- 
gings so deep that the intrigues of a design shall never be 
unfolded till our grand-children have forgotten our vir- 
tues or our vices. Jer. Taylor, Holy Dying, i. 2 (Ord MS.). 
3f. pi. That which is dug out. 
What fouler object in the world, than to see a young, 
fair, handsome beauty unhandsomely dighted? 
Massinger, Fatal Dowry, iv. i 
How, in Sir William's armour dight 
Stolen by his Page, while slept the knight, 
He took on him the single fight. 
Scott, L. of L. M., v. 27. 
Beauish brigands who wear . . . paste rings upon un- 
washed digitals. Bulwer, What will he do with it? iv. 9. 
6. To put into the proper or any desired con- HiiHtalia 
dition by removing obstructions or inequali- v 1 s ame " as dioitaKn 
ties: di-fisa; Alfian a n <...i n .ii.. >~s T j q. _v. j name as rtiffzie wn. 
hgitalic 
Of, perts 
genus Di 
ligitalif( 
talis + I 
That were redder than the wine; ^ .^ ol . 1 . B ?. f P l! * ntl ? of - ? he 
2. The fifth and last joint of the pedipalp of a 
spider. It is generally larger than the preceding joints, 
sometimes much swollen, and in the males modified to form 
the complicated sexual or palpal organs. 
3. One of the keys or finger-levers of instru- 
ments of the organ or piano class. 
< Digitalis, 
i'a^sLe'trchiserng^aVo^d by "farT/ 4**^jW^S< NL ' O iM + *>] 
n. (1) By rubbing or wiping : as, to dight one s 0i pertaining to, or derived from plants of the 
genus Digitalis: as, digitalic acid, 
digitaliform (dij-i-tal'i-f6rm), a. | 
talis + L. forma, form.] 
ties ; dress ; clean. 
smooth, as 
(ft) To cleai . . . 
nose ; to dight away a tear. 
she's ta'en out her handkerchief, 
It was o' the holland sae fine, 
[< NL. Digi- 
In hot., like the co- 
q 
2 
Ye bonnie lasses, dight your een, 
For some o' you ha'e tint (lost] a frien'. 
Burns, Elegy on the Year 1788. 
(2) By sifting or winnowing: as, to dight corn. (In sense 
6, Scotch (pronounced dicht, and sometimes spelled dicht) 
and North. Eng.] To flight one's doublet, to give one 
a sound drubbing. [Scotch.] 
dightt (dit), adv. [< dight, pp.'] Finely; well. 
The birdie sat on the crap o' a tree, 
And I wat it sang fu' dight. 
4. pi, A 
carried on. 
Bacon, Impeachment of Waste. 
or locality 
U. g 
business is dull in these diggings. [Colloq.,' 
western U. S.] 
She won't be taken with a cold chill when she realizes 
what is being done in these diggings? 
Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxi. 
Dry diggings, placer mines at a distance from water, or 
where water cannot be conveniently got for washing the 
material excavated. 
digging-machine (dig'ing-ma-shen*), n. A 
machine for spading or breaking up the ground. 
It employs either a gang of spade-like tools thatare thrust 
into the ground and then withdrawn with a twisting mo- 
tion, or a wheel armed with shares like a plowshare, which 
are thrust into the ground as the wheel is revolved by the 
forward motion of the machine. 
dight (dit), v. t. ; pret. and pp. dight. [< ME. 
dighten, dihten, digten (later sometimes with- 
out the guttural, dyten, etc.), < AS. dihtan (pret. 
dihte, pp. ge-diht), set in order, arrange, direct 
dispose, prescribe, = D. dichten = OHG. dihton, 
MHG. G. dioiiten, invent, write verses, = Icel. 
dikta, compose in Latin, romance, lie, = Sw. 
dikta, feign, fable, = Dan. digte, invent, ro- 
mance, write verses, < L. dictare, repeat, pro- 
nounce, dictate for writing, compose, order, 
prescribe, dictate : see dictate, v.] If. To set 
in order ; arrange ; dispose. 
Thise were dij on the des, & derworthly serued 
& sithen mony siker segge at the sidbordez. 
Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 114. 
2f. Reflexively, to set or address. 
And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds, 
""at were redder than the wine. . ,,,..,. , ,. . ,-. . 
The Douglas Tragedy (Child's Ballads, II. 117). ulgltalin, dlgltaline (dij'i-tal-m), n. [< NL. 
Digitalis + -tn 2 , -ie 2 .] The substance or sub- 
stances isolated from the leaves of Digitalis 
purpurea as its active principle. There seem to 
be several different kinds, some crystallized and some 
amorphous, some soluble and some insoluble in water; 
and there is reason to think that each of these, even the 
crystallized, consists of a mixture of several things. They 
all have properties similar in varying degrees to those of 
the crude drug. Also digitalia. 
. , *. W^S S^J&M' ": C ^ L - ( ? ory ' 1824) J 
Lord Randal (A) (Child's Ballads, II. 25) * **; digitalis, digital, + -MO*.] A genus of 
'Mr), n. A person who dights ^^^'v^^l^ !^"' TefeTTeA to 
wood or stone, or winnows grim. ^ S^i^SS^SS^^^^^ 
Locoicn.j in fresh water, as the common water-flea, etc., covering 
QlgntingS (dich tmgz), n.pl. [< dight, V.] Ref- tn em so completely as to make it difficult for them to 
use. [Scotch.] Also spelled dichtinas. SSS.'S"* 1 ,., 
Digitalis (dij-i-ta'hs), n. [NL., < L. digital, 
pertaining to the fingers (see digital) : so named 
by Fuchs (A. D. 1542), 
after the G. name finger- 
hut(lit. 'finger-hat,'i.e., 
thimble); cf. the E. 
names foxglove, fox-fin- 
gers, ladies'-fingers, dead- 
men' s-betts, etc., F. gants 
de Notre Dame (Our 
Lady's gloves), doiyts de 
di h * er 
* 
An odder hag cou'd not come in his way. 
Ross, Helenore, p. 35. 
. (dit'li), adv. [< dight, pp., + -Iy2.~\ 
landsomely: as, "houses dightly furnished," 
Rev. T. Adams, Works, I. 27. 
iigit (dij'it), n. [< L. digitus, a finger, a toe, a 
finger's breadth, perhaps orig. 'decetos = Gr. 
(Micr-uA-of, a finger, a toe (whence ult. E. dactyl, 
q. v.), prob. akin to d%eo0at, dial. 6enea6ai, take, * - o /> a~ 
catch, receive; cf. E. finger, similarly related ' a Vierge (the Virgin's 
to fang, take, catch. Prob. not, as generally fingers), etc. The allu- 
supposed, cognate with E. toe, q. v. The Teut. s ' on is * * ne pendulous, 
word never means 'finger,' and the human toes finger-like flowers. See 
arenotused, normally, to 'take 'or 'catch 'any- foxglove.'} A genus of 
thing.] 1. A finger or toe; in the plural, the plants, natural order 
third segment of the hand (manus) or foot (pes), Serophulariaceai, con- 
consisting of the fingers or toes, each of which taining about 20 species 
has usually three, sometimes two, occasionally * ta ^ herbs, natives of 
one, and rarely more than three, joints or pha- Europe and western 
langes. In anatomy and zoology the term is generic, 
covering all the modifications of a hand or foot beyond 
the metacarpus or metatarsus. The digits are specified by 
qualifying terms: as, the index digit, the forefinger; the 
middle digit, etc. The inner digits of the hand and foot 
respectively, when there are five, as In man, are the thumb 
and great toe, or the pollex and hallux. See cuts under 
foot and hand. In common use digit is applied only to a 
finger. 
Asia. 
purea, the handsomes 
The foxglove, D. pur- 
t of the 
genus, bearing a tall raceme of 
lar 
Foxglove (Digitalis 
' 
rge, drooping, bell-shaped 
flowers, is common in culti- f _ f 
vation. It is used in medicine 
to increase vasomotor tone, raise the blood-tension, favor 
diuresis, and improve the nutrition of the heart. 
Digitaria (dij-i-ta/ri-a), n. [NL., < L. digitus, 
21. n -i JA *-o* w ****** V.*"J * **/7 *" I.* 1 - 4 -*'? x -*-* IwPj/eKtOf 
. A fingerbreadth ; a dactyl; one fourth of a finger: see digit.'] A genus of grasses with 
palm : a measure of length. The Roman digit digitate spikes, now referred to Panictim. 
