disperse 
The goods landed in the store houses hee sent from 
thence, and dispersed it to his workemen in general!. 
Quoted in Ca.pt. John Smith's True Travels, II. 136. 
3. To diffuse ; spread. 
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge. Prov. xv. 7. 
He hath dispersed good sentences, like Roses scattered 
on a dung-hill. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 255. 
He [the admiral] gave order that the sick Men should 
be scattered into divers Ships, which dispersed the Con- 
tagion exceedingly. Howell, Letters, I. iv. 17. 
It was the end of the adversary to siippresse, but Gods 
to propagate the Gospel ; theirs to smother and put out 
the light, Gods to communicate and disperse it to the ut- 
most corners of the Earth. 
T. Shepard, Clear Sunshine of the Gospel, Ded. 
4f. To make known ; publish. 
The poet entering on the stage to disperse the argument. 
B. Jonson. 
Their own divulged and dispersed ignominy. 
Benvemtto, Passengers' Dialogues. 
6. To dissipate ; cause to vanish : as, the fog 
is dispersed. 
I'll disperse the cloud 
That hath so long obscur'd a bloody act 
Ne'er equall'd yet. 
Fletcher (and another"?), Prophetess, ii. 2. 
=Syn. 1 and 5. Dispel, Scatter, etc. See dissipate. 3. 
To distribute, deal out, disseminate, sow broadcast. 
II. intrans. 1. To separate and move apart 
in different directions without order or regular- 
ity; become scattered: as, the company dis- 
persed at 10 o'clock. 
The clouds disperse in fumes, the wondering moon 
Beholds her brother's steeds beneath her own. 
Addison, tr. of Ovid's Metamorph., ii. 
The cadi went away, and the mob dispersed, and we di- 
rected a Moor to cry, That all people should in the night- 
time keep away from the tent, or they would be fired at. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, I. 110. 
2f. To become diffused or spread ; spread. 
Th' Almighties Care doth diuersly disperse 
Ore all the parts of all this Vniverse. 
Syloetter, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 7. 
3. To vanish by diffusion ; be scattered out of 
sight. 
Glory is like a circle in the water, 
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, 
Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., 1. 2, 
The dust towered into the air along the road and dis- 
persed like the smoke of battle. 
R. L. Stevenson, Silverado Squatters, p. 84. 
dispersed a. [ME. dispers, < OF. dispers, dis- 
pars, < L. dispcrsus, scattered, pp. of disper- 
gere, scatter: see disperse, v.~] Scattered; dis- 
persed. Gower. 
dispersed (dis-p6rsf ), p. a. [Pp. of disperse, .] 
Scattered: specifically, in entom., said of spots, 
punctures, etc., which are placed irregularly, 
but near together scattered being applied to 
spots that are both irregular and far apart. 
Dispersed harmony. See harmony. 
dispersedly (dis-per'sed-li), adv. In a dispersed 
manner; separately. Bailey, 1731. 
dispersedness (dis-per'sed-nes), . The state 
of being dispersed or scattered. Bailey, 1728. 
dispersenesst (dis-pers'nes), . A scattered 
state; sparseness; thinness. 
The torrid parts of Africk are by Piso resembled to a 
libbard's skin, the distance of whose spots represent the 
dispersenese of habitations or towns in Africk. 
Brerewood, Languages. 
disperser (dis-per'ser), . One who or that 
which disperses : as, a disperser of libels. 
The disperser of this copy was one Munsey, of that col- 
lege, whom (as he thought) they made their instrument. 
Strype, Abp. Whitgift (1595). 
An iron or stone plate, 4 or 5 feet square, called the dis- 
perser, is placed over each fire [in brewing] to disperse the 
heat and prevent the malt immediately above from taking 
fire. Encyc. Brit., IV. 269. 
dispersion (dis-per'shon), . [= P. dispersion 
= Pr. dispersio = Sp. dispersion = Pg. dispersSo 
= It. dispersione, spersione, < LL. dispersio(n-), 
a scattering, dispersion, < L. diypergere, pp. dis- 
persus, scatter: see disperse, v,~] 1. The act of 
dispersing or scattering. 
Norway . . . was the great centre of dispersion of the 
Ice [of the glacial epoch], and here it has been found that 
the sheet attained its greatest thickness. 
J. Croll, Climate and Cosmology, p. 247. 
2. The state of being dispersed or scattered 
abroad: as, the dispersion of the Jews. 
He appeared to men and women, to the clergy and the 
laity, ... to them In conjunction and to them in disper- 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 68. 
Thus, from the first, while the social structure of New 
England was that of concentration, the social structure 
of Virginia was that of dispersion. 
M. C. Tyler, Hist. Amer. Lit., I. 85. 
3. In optics, the separation of the different col- 
ored rays in refraction, arising from their dif- 
ferent wave-lengths. The point of dispersion is the 
1676 
point where refracted rays begin to diverge. When a ray 
of sunlight is made to pass through prisms of different 
substances, but of such angles as to produce the same 
mean deviation of the ray, it is found that the spectra 
formed are of different lengths. Thus, the spectrum 
formed by a prism of oil of cassia is found to be two or 
three times longer than one formed by a glass prism ; 
the oil of cassia is therefore said to disperse the rays of 
light more than the glass, or to have a greater dispersive 
power. It is also found that in spectra formed by prisms 
of different substances the colored spaces have to one an- 
other ratios differing from the ratios of the lengths of the 
spectra which they compose ; and this property has been 
called the irrationality of dispersion or of the colored 
spaces in the spectrum. See prism and refraction. 
Dispersion has been accounted for by the different speeds 
of light of different wave-lengths in the same refracting 
medium. Tail, Light, 72. 
In consequence of ... dispersion of the colours in va- 
rious directions of vibration, white light becomes broken 
up in a mode which is comparable with the dispersion of 
colour by ordinary refraction, and on this account has re- 
ceived the name of circular or rotary dispersion. 
Loinmel, Light (trans.), p. 334. 
4. In mcd. and surg., the scattering or remov- 
al of inflammation from a part and the resto- 
ration of the part to its natural state. 5. In 
maih.j the excess of the average value of a 
function at less than an infinitesimal distance 
from a point over the value at that point, this 
excess being divided by -rVr of the square of the 
limiting infinitesimal distance. Abnormal dis- 
persion, in optics, a phenomenon exhibited by solutions 
of some substances, as fuchsin, which give spectra differ- 
ing from the usual prismatic spectrum in the order of the 
colors. Cone of dispersion. See cone. Dispersion of 
the bisectrices, in crystal., the separation of the bisec- 
trices for different colors observed in many monoclinic and 
triclinic crystals when the position of the three axes of 
light-elasticity is not the same for all the rays of the spec- 
trum. It may be crossed, horizontal, or inclimd. It Is 
crossed when the acute bisectrix coincides with the ortho- 
diagonal axis. When a section of a biaxial crystal cut nor- 
mal to the acute bisectrix is viewed in converging polar- 
ized light, the dispersion of the optic axes or bisectrices is 
generally marked by the arrangement of the colors in the 
interference-figures seen. It is horizontal when the obtuse 
bisectrix coincides with the orthodiagonal axis; and in- 
clined, in monoclinic crystals, when the optic axes lie in the 
plane of symmetry. Dispersion of the optic axes, in 
crystal., the separation of the axes for different colors in 
biaxial crystals, which takes place when the axial angles 
have different values ; it is usually described as p > u, or p 
< v, according as the angle for red rays is greater or less 
than that for blue rays. EpipoliC dispersion. Seeepi- 
polic. The dispersion, the Jews dispersed among the 
Gentiles during and after the Babylonian captivity ; the 
diaspora : most frequently used of the scattered communi- 
ties of Jews referred to in the New Testament, either of 
such communities collectively and in general, or of the 
communities in some single country or group of countries : 
as, the Parthian dispersion; the dispersion of Asia Minor; 
the Egyptian dispersion; the dispersion in Rome. See 
diaspora- 
Trie epistle [of James] is addressed " to the twelve tribes 
which are of the dispersion." Encyc. Brit., XIII. 653. 
dispersive (dis-per'siv), a. [= OF. F. dispersif; 
as disperse + -ive.~\ Pertaining to dispersion; 
dispersing ; separating and scattering. 
By its dispersive power [that of a particular kind of glass, 
as flint, crown, etc.] is meant its power of separating the 
colors so as to form a spectrum, or to produce chromatic 
aberration. Newcorrib a-nd Iloldtn, Astron., p. 61. 
dispersively (dis-per'siv-li), adv. In a disper- 
sive manner; by dispersion : as, dispersively re- 
fracted light. 
dispersiveness (dis-per'siv-nes), n. Dispersive 
quality or state. 
dispersonalize (dis-per'son-al-iz), v. t; pret. 
and pp. dispersoualized, ppr'.' dispersonalizing. 
[< dis- priv. + personal + -ize.] To disguise 
the personality of; render impersonal ; disper- 
sonate. [Rare.] 
I regret that I killed off Mr. Wilbur so soon, for lie 
would have enabled me ... to dispersonalize myself into 
a vicarious egotism. Lowell, Biglow Papers, Int. 
dispersonate (dis-per'son-at), v. t. ; pret. and 
pp. dispersonated, ppr. dispersonating. [< dis- 
priv. + personate. Cf. ML. dispei-sonare, pp. 
dispersonatus, treat injuriously, insult.] To di- 
vest of personality or individuality ; disperson- 
alize. Hare. [Rare.] 
dispersonification (dis-per-son'i-fi-ka'shon), n. 
[< dif personify : see -fy and -ation.] Tfie act 
of divesting an animate object of whatever 
personal attributes had been ascribed to it. 
[Rare.] 
The ascription of social actions and political events en- 
tirely to natural causes, thus leaving out Providence as a 
factor, seems to the religious mind of our day as seemed 
to the mind of the pious Greek the dispersonijicatinn of 
Helios and the explanation of celestial motions otherwise 
than by immediate divine agency. 
11. Spencer, Study of Sociol., p. S92. 
dispersonify (dis-per-sou'i-fl), v. t. ; pret. and 
pp. dispersonified, ppr. dispersonifying. [< dis- 
priv. + personify.] To divest of ascribed per- 
sonality or personal attributes. [Rare.] 
displacement 
dispillt, " t. [< dis-, apart, + spill.'] To spill. 
For I have boldly blood full piteously dixpilled. 
The World and the Child (1522) (Hazlitt s Dodsley, I. 251). 
dispirit (dis-pir'it), v. t. [For disspirit, < dis- 
priv. + spirit.] 1. To depress the spirits of; 
deprive of courage; discourage; dishearten; 
deject ; cast down. 
Not dispirited with my afflictions. Drydcn. 
Our men are dispirited, and not likely to get anything 
by fighting with them. Ludlow, Memoirs, I. 268. 
The debilitating effect of the sirocco upon the system, 
and ita lowering and dispiriting influence upon the mind, 
are due to a heated atmosphere surcharged with moisture. 
Huxley and Youwans, Physiol., 382. 
2. To exhaust the spirits or bodily vigor of. 
[Rare.] 
He has dispirited himself by a debauch. Collier. 
= Syn. 1. To damp, depress, intimidate, daunt, 
dispirited (dis-pir'i-ted), p. a. [Pp. of dispirit, 
v.\ 1. Indicating depression of spirits; dis- 
couraged; dejected. 
Arribato . . . sees Revulgo at a distance, on a Sunday 
morning, ill-dressed, and with a dispirited air. 
Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 233. 
2. Spiritless; tame; wanting vigor: as, a poor, 
dispirited style. 
Dispirited recitations. Hammond, Works, IV., Pref. 
dispiritedly (dis-pir'i-ted-li), adv. In a dispirit- 
ed manner; dejectedly. 
dispiritedness (dis-pir'i-ted-nes), n. Depres- 
sion of spirits ; dejection. 
Arsenical appensa have . . . caused, in some, great faint- 
ness and dispiritedness. Boyle, Works, V. 45. 
dispiritment (dis-pir'it-ment), n. The act of 
dispiriting, or the state of being dispirited or 
dejected ; discouragement. 
You honestly quit your tools ; quit a most muddy, con- 
fused coil of sore work, short rations, of sorrows, dispirit- 
ments, and contradictions, having now done with it all. 
Carlyle. 
There are few men who can put forth all their muscle 
in a losing race ; and it is characteristic of Lessing that 
what he wrote under the dispiritment of failure should 
be the most lively and vigorous. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 328. 
dispiseti " ' An obsolete form of despise. 
dispitet, n. and v. An obsolete form of despite. 
dispiteoust, " See despiteous. 
dispitoust, dispitouslyt. See dcspitous, des- 
pitously. 
displace (dis-plaV), v. t. ; pret. and pp. displaced, 
ppr. displacing. [< OF. desplacer, F. deplacer, 
displace, < rfes-priv. + placer, place : see place.] 
1. To remove to a different place; put out of 
the usual or proper place : as, to displace books 
or papers. 
The greenhouse is my summer seat : 
My shrubs displac'd from that retreat 
Enjoy 'd the open air. 
Cowper, The Faithful Bird. 
2. To remove from any position, office, or 
dignity; depose: as, to displace an officer of 
government. 
Liable not only to have its acts annulled by him, but to 
be displaced, as regards the individuals composing it, or 
annihilated as an institution. flrouyham. 
The wish of the ministry was to displace Hastings, and 
to put Clavering at the head of the government. 
Macaulay, Warren Hastings. 
3f. To disorder ; disturb ; spoil. 
You have digplac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, 
With most admir'd disorder. Shak., Macbeth, iii. 4. 
4. To take the place of; replace. 
Each kingdom or principality had its bishop, who in no 
way displaced the king or ealdorman, but took his place 
alongside of him. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 143. 
= Syn. 2. To dislodge, oust, dismiss, discharge. 
displaceable (dis-pla'sa-bl), a. [< displace + 
-able.] Susceptible of being displaced or re- 
moved. Imp. Diet. 
displaced (dis-plasf ), p. a. [Pp. of displace, v.] 
Removed from a particular regiment, but at 
liberty to serve in some other corps: applied 
to certain officers in the British service when 
so transferred by reason of misconduct, or for 
any other cause. 
displacement (dis-plas'ment), n. [= F. de- 
placement; as displace + -nient.] 1. A putting 
out of place ; removal from a former or usual 
or proper place, or from a position, dignity, or 
office. 
The displacement of the centres of the circles. 
Asiatic Researches. 
Unnecessary displacement of funds. 
A. Hamilton. 
