disvelop 
disvelopt (dis-vel'qp), v. t. [< OF. desveloper: 
see develop.] To develop. Johnson. 
disveloped (dis-vel'opt), p. a. [Also written 
disvelloped; pp. of disvelop, v.] In her., unfurled 
and floating : said of a flag used as a bearing. 
Also developed. 
disventuret (dis-ven'tur), . [Contr. of disad- 
venture.] Disadventure. 
Don Quixote heard it and said, What noise is that. San- 
cho? I know not, quoth he, I think it be some new thing ; 
for adventures, or rather disventures, never begin with a 
little. Shellon, tr. of Don Quixote, I. iii. 6. 
diSTOUCht (dis-vouch'), v. t. [< dis- priv. + 
vouch.] To discredit ; contradict. 
Every letter he hath writ hath dismuch'd other. 
Shak., M. for M., Iv. 4. 
diswarnt (dis-warn'), v. t. [< dis- priv. (here 
intensive) + warn.] To warn against an in- 
tended course; dissuade or prevent by previ- 
ous warning. 
Lord Brook diswarning me (from his Majestic) from 
coming to Theobalds this day, I was enforced to trouble 
your lordship with these few lines. 
Lord Keeper Williams, To the Duke of Buckingham, 
[Cabala, p. 73. 
diswarren (dis-wor'en), v. t. [< dis- priv. + 
warren.] To deprive of the character of a war- 
ren ; make common. 
disweapon (dis-wep'n), v. t. [< dis- priv. + 
weapon.] To deprive of weapons; disarm. 
disweret, [ME. diswere, diswayre, < dis- priv. 
(here intensive) + were, doubt, hesitation.] 
Doubt. 
Dyswere, or dowte, dubium. Prompt. Pare., p. 123. 
diswittedt (dis-wit'ed), a. [< dis- priv. + wit 
+ -ed 2 .] Deprived of wits or understanding ; 
demented. 
Which when they heard, there was not one 
But hasted after to be gone, 
As she had been disunited. 
Drayton, Court of Fairy. 
diswontt (dis-wunf), v. t. [< dis- priv. + 
wont.] To deprive of wonted usage or habit ; 
disaccustom. 
As if my tongue and your eares could not easily be dis- 
wonted from our late parliamentary language, you have 
here in this text liberty, prerogative, the maintenance of 
both. Bp. Hall, Remains, p. 19. 
disworkmanshipt (dis-werk'man-ship), n. [< 
dis-, equiv. to mis-, T workmanship.] Bad work- 
manship. 
When I would have taken a particular account of the 
errata, the printer answered me he would not publish his 
own disworktnanship. Heywood, Apology for Actors. 
disworshipt (dis-wer'ship), n. [< dis-, equiv. 
to mis-, + worship.] A perversion or loss of 
worship or honor ; disgrace ; discredit. 
A reproach and disworship. Barret. 
A thing which the rankest politician would think it a 
shame and disworship that his laws should countenance. 
Milton, Divorce, i. 4. 
disworshipt (dis-wer'ship), v. t. [Early mod. 
E. also diswurship ; < disworship, n.] To dis- 
honor ; deprive of worship or dignity ; disgrace. 
By the vncomlynesse of any parte the whole body is 
diswurshipped. J. Udall, On 1 Cor. xii. 
diswortht (dis-werth'), v. t. 
worth.] To diminish the wort! 
There is nothing that diiworths a man like cowardice 
and a base fear of danger. Feltham, Resolves, 11. 37. 
disyntheme (di-sin'them), n. [< Gr. it-, two-, 
+ cvvthitM, aiivQefia, a collection, assembly, < 
awTiShai, put together: see synthesis.] A set 
of sets, each of the latter being formed of a 
certain number of elements out of a given col- 
lection of them, so that each element occurs 
just twice among all the sets. Thus, (AB) (BC)(CD) 
(AD) is a dyadic disyntheme that is, one composed of 
pairs. See dyadic. Also diplosyntheme. 
disyoke (dis-yok'), v. t. ; pret. and pp. disuoked, 
ppr. disyoking. [< dis- priv. + yoke.] To un- 
yoke ; free from any trammel. 
Who first had dared 
To leap the rotten pales of prejudice, 
Disyoke their necks from custom. 
Tennyson, Princess, ii. 
dit 1 (dit), v. t.; pret. and pp. ditted, ppr. dit- 
ting. [< ME. ditten, dutten, < AS. dyttan, stop 
up, close (an aperture, as the mouth, eye, ear), 
prob. connected with dott, a point, dot: see 
do* 1 .] To stop up ; close. [North. Eng. and 
Scotch.] 
The dor drawen, & dit with a derf haspe 
Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1233. 
Ditt your mouth with your meat. Scotch proverb. 
Foul sluggish fat dits up your dulled eye. 
Dr. H. More, Cupid's Conflict. 
[< dis- priv. + 
h of ; degrade. 
1700 
partly < OF. dit, diet, a saying, speech, word: 
see ditty, and diet, dictum.] 1. A word; a say- 
ing; a sentence. Kelham. 
From the second half of the 13th century the collections 
of sentences, dits, apologues, and moral tales become very 
numerous. Encyc. Brit., XXII. 354. 
2. A ditty ; anything sung. Chaucer. 
No song but did contain a lovely ditt. 
Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 13. 
dita, dita-bark (de'ta, -bark), n. Same as Al- 
stonia bark (which see, under bark 2 ). 
dital (dit'al), n. [< It. ditale, a thimble, finger- 
stall, < diio, < L. digitus, a finger: see digit.] 
In music, a thumb- or finger-key, by which the 
pitch of a guitar- or lute-string can be tempo- 
rarily raised a semitone : in contradistinction 
to pedal, a foot-key. Compare digital, n., 3. 
Dital harp, a kind of chromatic harp-lute, invented and 
named by Edward Light, an Englishman, in 1798, and im- 
proved by him in 1816. It resembled a guitar in shape 
but had from 12 to 18 strings, each string being furnished 
with a dital, which could raise its tone a half step, thus pro- 
ducing a complete chromatic scale. It is not now in use. 
ditamy (dit'a-mi), n. An old form of dittany. 
ditandert, . See dittander. 
ditanet, ditanyt. n. See dittany. 
ditationt (di-ta'shon), n. [< L. as if *ditatio(n-), 
< ditare, enrich, '<; dis (dit-), contr. of dives 
(dint-), rich.] The act of making rich. 
After all the presents of those easterne worshippers 
(who intended rather homage than dilation), the blessed 
Virgin comes in the forme of poverty witti her two doves 
unto God. Bp. Hall, The Purification. 
ditch (dich), n. [Early mod. E. also ditche, 
diche, dyche; < ME. diche, an assibilated form, 
with shortened vowel, of dike, die, < AS. die, 
a dike, ditch: see dike.] 1. A trench made 
by digging ; particularly, a trench for draining 
wet land, or for making a barrier to guard in- 
closures, or for preventing an enemy from ap- 
proaching a town or a fortress. In the latter sense 
It is also called a foss or moat, and is dug round the ram- 
part or wall between the scarp and the counterscarp. See 
cut under castle. 
For thei make Dyches in the Erthe alle aboute in the 
Halle, depe to the Knee, and thei do pave hem : and whan 
thei wil etc, thei gon there in and sytten there. 
MandeviUe, Travels, p. 29. 
Thou art no company for an honest dog, 
And so we'll leave thee to a ditch, thy destiny. 
Fletcher (and another), False One, iii. 2. 
The subsoil [in drainage] must be carefully examined by 
digging test-holes in various places, and also by taking 
advantage of any quarries, deep ditches, or other cuttings 
in the proximity. Encyc. Brit., I. 332. 
2. Any narrow open passage for water on the 
surface of the ground. 
Takes no more care thence-forth to those effects, 
But lets the stream run where his Ditch directs. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 7. 
It was characteristic of mining nomenclature that the 
stream of pure swift-running water which formed this 
peninsula, taken from the infant Arkansas, should be 
called a ditch. The Century, XXXI. 69. 
Advance-ditch. See advance, n., 6. Second ditch-in 
fort., in low wet ground, a ditch beyond the glacis. To 
die in the last ditch. SeecKei. 
ditch (dich), v. [Early mod. E. also ditche, diche, 
dyche; < ME. dichen, dychen, assibilated forms 
of difre,make a dike or ditch: see dike, v.] I. 
intrans. To dig or make a ditch or ditches: as, 
ditching and delving; hedging and ditching. 
n. trans. 1. To dig a ditch or ditches in; 
drain by a ditch: as, to ditch moist land. 
Lord. Where was this lane? 
Post. Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf. 
Shak., Cymbeline, v. 3. 
2. To surround with a ditch. 
Than next we come to Bethlem, which hath ben a stronge 
lytell Cytie, well walled and dyched. 
Sir R. Guylforde, Pylgrymage, p. 35. 
3. To throw or run into or as if into a ditch : as, 
to ditch a railway-train. 
Often ditched by washouts in wild, unsettled districts, 
there is no engine which can be so quickly set on its legs 
again. Sci. Amer. Supp., p. 8791. 
ditch-bur (dich'ber), n. [Formerly spelled 
dyche-bur; so called from its growing on sandy 
dikes.] The clot-bur, Xanthium strumarium. 
ditch-dog (dich'dog), n. A dead dog thrown 
into a ditch. 
Poor Tom, . . . that in the fury of his heart, when the 
foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets ; swallows the 
old rat and the ditch-dog. Shak., Lear, iii. 4. 
ditcher (dich'er), n. [< ME. dichere, assibilated 
form of dikere, < AS. dicere, ditcher, digger: 
see diker, digger, and ditch, dike.] One who or 
that which digs ditches. 
A combined cultivator and potato digger. ... It has 
a plow or ditcher shovel formed from a plate of metal 
Sci. Amer., N. S., LVII. 74. 
^fvtJ^H- "' f [ ^v j*f ' < M -H' dit> Par 5 y an ditch-fern (dich'fern), n. A name in England 
abbreviation of dite, ditee, a ditty, a sound, and for the royal fern, Osmunda regalis 
ditionary 
ditch-grass (dich'gras), n. An aquatic naiada- 
ceous plant, Buppia maritima, growing in salt 
or brackish water, with long thread-like stems 
and almost capillary leaves. 
ditch-water (dich 'waiter), n. The stale or 
stagnant water collected in a ditch. 
diteM, . *. An obsolete occasional spelling of 
dight. 
dite 2 (dit), v. t. ; pret. and pp. dited, ppr. diting. 
[< ME. diten, < OF. ditier, dieter, compose, write, 
indict, < L. dictare, dictate : see dictate, and in- 
dite, indict.] 1. To dictate: as, you write, I'll 
dite. 2. To write. [In both senses obsolete 
or prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
He made a boke, and let it write, 
Wherin his lif he did all dite [var. write]. 
Rom. of the Rose, 1. 6786. 
dite 3 t, n. A Middle English form of dit 2 and 
ditty. 
diteet, A Middle English form of ditty. 
dithecal (di-the'kal), a. [< Gr. Si-, two-, + dr/Kti, 
a case, -r -al: see theca.] In bot., two-celled. 
dithecous (di-the'kus), a. Same as dithecal. 
ditheism (di'the-izm), n. [= F. ditheisme ; < Gr. 
61-, two-, + feofj a god, + -ism. Cf. dyotheism.] 
The doctrine of the existence of two supreme 
gods ; religious dualism. See Manicheism. Arl- 
anism was called ditheism by the orthodox Christians, who 
asserted that the Arians believed in "one God the Father, 
who is eternal, and one God the Son, not eternal." 
Zoroastrism is practically ditheism, and Buddhism any- 
theisni. Huxley, in Nineteenth Century, XIX. 601. 
ditheist (dl'the-ist), n. [As ditheism + -ist.] 
One who believes in ditheism. Cudworth. 
ditheistic, ditheistical (di-thf-is'tik, -ti-kal), 
a. Pertaining to or of the nature of ditheism. 
Cudworth. 
dither (dith'er), v. i. [A var. of didder^, q. v.] 
To shake; tremble: same as didder^, Mackay. 
dither (dith'er), n. [< dither, v.] A trembling; 
vibration. 
The range of the reciprocation of the tool is so small 
that it is not much more than a vibration or dither. 
The Engineer, LXV. 163. 
dithering-grass (dith'er-ing-gras), . Quak- 
ing-grass, Briza media. 
dithionic (dith-i-on'ik), a. [< Gr. dt-, two-, + 
6elov, sulphur, + -on-ic.] In chem., an epithet 
applied to an acid (H 2 S 2 Oe) formerlv called 
hyposulphuric acid. It is a dibasic acid which 
cannot be isolated in the pure state, but forms 
crystallizable salts. 
Dithyrat (dith'i-ra), n. pi. [NL. , < Gr. it-, two-, 
+ 6i>pa = E. door.] The Lamellibranchiata : so 
called from being bivalve. 
dithyramb, dithyrambus (dith'i-ramb, dith-i- 
ram'bus), n.; pi. dithyrambs, dithyrambi (-rambz, 
-ram'bi). [< L. dithyrambus, < Gr. dtmipafi/3ofj 
origin unknown.] A form of Greek lyric com- 
position, originally a choral song in honor of 
Dionysus, afterward of other gods, heroes, etc. 
First given artistic form by Arion (about 626 B. 0.) and ren- 
dered by cyclic choruses, It was perfected, about a century 
later, by Lasos of Hermione, and at about the same time 
tragedy was developed from it in Attica. Its simpler and 
more majestic form, as composed by Lasos, Simonides, 
Bacchylides, and Pindar, assumed in the lattr part of the 
fifth century a complexity of rhythmical and musical form 
and of verbal expression which degenerated in the fourth 
century into a mimetic performance rendered by a single 
artist. From these different stages in its history the word 
dithyramb has been used in later ages both for a nobly 
enthusiastic and elevated and for a wild or inflated com- 
position. In its distinctive form the dithyramb is aAAoio- 
orpo^os (consists of a number of strophes no two of which 
are metrically identical). 
I will not dwell on Naumann's . . . dithyrambs about 
Dorothea's charm. George Eliot, Middlemarch, I. 238. t 
dithyrambic (dith-i-ram'bik), a. and n. [< L. 
ditliyrambicus, < Gr. SiOvpa/ifitKof, < iMpa/tflof, 
a dithyramb: see dithyramb.] I. a. 1. In the 
style of a dithyramb. Hence 2. Intensely 
lyrical; bacchanalian. 
So Pindar does new Words and Figures roll 
Down his impetuous Dithiframbique Tide. 
Cowley, Pindaric Odes, iii. 2. 
II. n. A dithyramb. 
Pindar, and other writers of dithyrambics. Walsh. 
dithyrambus, i. See dithyramb. 
ditiont (dish'on), n. [< L. ditio(n-), prop, di- 
cio(n-), dominion, power, jurisdiction, < dicere, 
speak, say : see diction. Cf. condition.] Rule; 
power; government; dominion. 
He [Mohammed] destroyit the Christian religion throuch 
out al tha pairtis quhilk nou ar vndir the dition of the 
Turk. Nicol Burne, F. 129, 1). 
ditionaryt (dish'on-a-ri), a. and n. [< L. as if 
"ditionarius, prop. *dicionarius, < dicio(n-), do- 
minion, power: see dition.] I. a. Under rule; 
subject; tributary. 
II. w. A subject; a tributary. 
