D E A 
628 
DE'A, a town of Perfia, in the province of Segeftan : 
fixty miles fouth-weft of Kin. 
DEABA'GEN, a town of Alia, in the country of Can- 
dahar : thirty miles north-weft of Candahar. 
DE'ACON,jft [diacre, Fr. diacono, It. Sp. and Port. 
diaconus, Lat. of hcixoi’oc, of Sicty.ovw, Gr. to minifter or 
ferve.] A minifter or fervant in the church, cf the loweft 
order of the clergy, whofe office is to affift the prieft in 
divine fervice, and the diftribution of the holy facra- 
ment, to inftrmft youth in the catechifm, &c.—The con- 
ftitutions that the apoftles made concerning deacons are 
urged by the difciplinarians. Bifiop Sander/on. —In Scot¬ 
land, an overfeer of the poor; and alfo the mafter of an 
incorporated company. 
DE'ACONESS, f. in the primitive church, a woman 
of probity, gravity, and piety, who was chofen to affift 
thofe of her own fex in religious concerns. 
DE'ACONRY, or Deaconship, [of deacon, and fhip, 
an Englifli termination for office.] The office or dignity of 
a deacon. 
DEAD, adj. Sax. doed, Dut.] Deprived of 
life; exanitnated,—A brute or a man are another thing 
when they are alive, from what they are when dead. Hale. 
She either from her hopelefs lover fled, 
Or with difdainful glances (hot him dead. Dryden. 
With of before the caufe of death.—This Indian told 
them, that, miftaking their courfe, the crew, all except 
himfelf, were dead of hunger. Arbuthnot. —Without life ; 
inanimate : 
All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the prefs, 
Like the laft gazette, or like tire laft addrefs. Pope. 
Imitating death ; fenfelefs ; motionlefs.—Ait thy rebuke, 
O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horfe are caft into 
a dead lleep. Pfalms. —Anointing of the forehead, neck, 
feet, and backbone, we know is ufed for procuring dead 
flecps. Bacon. —Unadlive; motionlefs.—The tin fold 
fometimes higher, and fometimes lower, according to 
the quick vent and abundance, or the dead f’ale and fcar- 
c i t y. Car an. 
Nay, there’s a time when e’en the rolling year 
Seems to ftand ftill: dead cairns are in the ocean, 
When not a breath difturbs the droufy main. Lee. 
Empty ; vacant.—This colour often carries the mind 
away ; yea, it deceiveth the fenfe; and it feemeth to the 
eye a (hotter diftance of way, if it be all dead and conti¬ 
nued, than if it have trees or buildings, or any other 
marks whereby the eye may divide. Bacon. 
Nought but a blank remains, a dead void fpace, 
A ftep of life, that promis’d fucli a race, Dryden. 
Ufelefs; unprofitable.'—The commodities of the king¬ 
dom they took, though they lay dead upon their hands 
for want of vent. Bacon. —Dull; gloomy; unemployed. 
—There is fomething unfpeakably chearful in a foot of 
ground which is covered with trees, that fmilesamidft all 
the rigours of winter, and gives us a view of the moft 
gay feafon in the midft of that which is the moft deada^B 
melancholy. Addifon. —Still; obfeure.—Their flight was 
only deferred until they might cover their diforders by 
the dead darknefs of the night. Hayward. —Having no 
refemblance of life.—At a fecond fitting, though 1 alter 
not the draught, 1 mu ft touch the fame features over 
again, and change the dead colouring of the whole. Dry- 
den. —Obtufe; dull; not fprightly ; ufed of founds.— 
We took a bell, of about two inches in diameter at tlm 
bottom, which Was fupported in the midft of the cavity 
of the receiver by a bent (lick, in which when it was 
clofed up, the bell leemed to found more dead than it did 
when juft before it founded in theopenair. Boyle. —Dull; 
frigid ; not animated ; not affecting.—How cold and dead 
does a prayer appear, that is compofed in the moft ele¬ 
gant forms of fpeech, when it is not heightened by fo- 
lemnity of phiufe from the facred writings. Addifon, —. 
D E A 
Taftelefs; vapid ; fpiritlefs; ufed of liquors : uninha¬ 
bited.—Somewhat is left under dyad walls and dry 
ditches. Arbuthnot. —Without the natural force or effica¬ 
cy : as, a dead fire. —-Without the power of vegetation 
as, a dead bough. [In theology. ] The ftate of fpiritu al 
death ; lying under the power of (in.—You hath he 
quickened, who Were dead in trefpallesand fins. Ep/icf. ii„ 
1.—Inanimate by nature ; 
The very dead creation front thy touch 
Alfumes a mimic life, Thomfon. 
Unvaried.—In a dead plain the waj feemeth the longer, 
becaufe the eye hath preconceived it fliorter than the 
truth. Bacon. 
The DEA.D, f. Dead men.—The ancient Romans ge¬ 
nerally buried their dead near the great roads. Addifon. 
Jove faw from high, with juft difdain, 
The dead infpir’d with vital life again. Dryden. 
DEAD,yi Time in which there is remarkable ftill- 
nefs or gloom; as at mid-winter and midnight.—After 
this life, to hope for the favours of mercy then, is toex- 
pe£t an harveft in the dead of winter. South. 
At length in dead of night, the ghoft appears 
Of her unhappy lord. Dryden. 
“ Who gives away his goods before he is dead,” 
Take a beetle and knock him on the head. 
The Italians fay, Chi c/t il fuo inanzi morire, s’apparechia 
aJJ'aipatire ; He goes the way to fuffer fufficiently himfelf. 
—At a certain city of Saxony (Wittemberg) is to be 
feen, hanging over one of the city-gates, a large club, 
and under it an infeription to this effedt, of which they 
give the following relation: A wealthy merchant of that 
city, having divided his eftate among his children, and 
put them in pofteffion of it in his life-time, was afterwards 
reduced to extreme poverty ; and his own children were 
fo far from being grateful, that they refufed him the 
common neceflaries of life, and obliged him to afk cha¬ 
rity elfewhere. He lived to be again mafter of a plenti¬ 
ful fortune, which he bequeathed to the public for cha¬ 
ritable ufes, on condition of having this proverb ex- 
pofed to public view for ever. The Scots tell much the 
fame ftory of one John Bell. 
DEAD, a river of South Wales, which runs into the 
Nevern, near Newport, in the county of Pembroke. 
To DEAD, v. n. To lofe force, of whatever kind.—-- 
Iron, as foon as it is out ol the fire, deadeth Itraitways. 
Bacon. 
To DEAD, or Deadfn, v. a. To deprive of any kind 
of force or fenfation.—-Our dreams are great inftances of 
that activity which is natural to the human foul, and 
which is not in the power of fleep to deaden or abate. 
SpeBator. —Anodynes are fuch things as relax the tenfion 
of the affedted nervous fibres, or deftroy the particular 
acrimony which occafions the pain; or what deadens the. 
fenfation of the brain, by procuring deep. Arbuthnot .— 
To make vapid, or fpiritlefs.—The beer and the win?, 
as well within water as above, have not been palled or 
dcaded at all. Bacon. 
DEAD-DO'ING, part. adj. Deftrudtive; killing; 
mifehievous; having the power to make dead.—Hold, 
O dear lord, your dead-doing hand ! Spcnfcr. 
They never care how many others 
They kill, without regard of mothers, 
Or wives, or children, fo they can 
Make up fome fierce dead-doing man. Hudibras. 
D^AD-KIL'LING, part. adj. Killing at once.— Or 
elfe I fwoon w ith this dead-killing new'S. "Shahcfpeare. 
DEAD-LIFT, f Hopelefs exigence : 
And have no power at all, nor Ihift, 
To help itfclf at a dead-lift. Hudibras. 
DEAD-NET'TLE, f. See Galeopsis and Lamium, 
DEAD-KECK'ONINGp f [A lea term.] That efti- 
mation 
