D E A 
What foolifh boldnefs brought thee to their mercies, 
Whom thou in terms fo bloody, and fo dear, 
Haft made thine enemies ? Twelfth Night, 
Would I had met my dcarejl foe in heav’n, 
Or ever I had feen that day. Hamlet. 
DEAR, f. A word of endearment; darling.'—Go, 
dear ; each minute does new danger bring. Dryden. 
See, my dear, 
How lavifh nature has adorn’d the year. Dryden. 
DEAR'ADERE, a river of European Turkey, in Bul¬ 
garia, which runs into the Mariza near Demotica. 
DEAR'BOUGHT, adj. Purchafed at an high price : 
Such dcarbouglit bleftings happen ev’ry day, 
Becaufe we know not for what things to pray. Dryden. 
DE AR'LING, y. [now written darling.] Favourite: 
They do feed on neCtar, heavenly wife, 
Witli Hercules and Hebe, and the reft 
Of Venus’ dearlings, through her bounty bleft. Spenfer. 
DEAR'LY, adv. With great fondnefs.—For the.un- 
queftionable virtues of her perfon and mind, he loved her 
dearly. Wotton. —At an high price.—It is rarely bought, 
and then alfo bought dearly enough with fuch a fine. Bacon. 
My father dotes, and let him ftill dote on ; 
He buys his miftrefs dearly with his throne. Dryden. 
Earneftly : 
Her fea-god fire fhe dearly did perfuade 
T’ endow her fonne with treafure and rich (lore. Spenfer. 
To DEARN, v. a. [byjtnan, Sax. to hide.] To mend 
clothes. See Darn. 
DEAR'NESS, f. Fondnefs; kindnefs; love.'—My 
brother holds you well, and in dearnefs of heart hath 
holp to effeCt your enfuing marriage. Shakefpeare .—Scar¬ 
city ; high price.—Landlords prohibit tenants from plow¬ 
ing, which is feen in the dearnefs of corn. Swift. 
DEARN'LY, adv. [beojm, Sax.] Secretly; private¬ 
ly; unleen. Olfolete : 
At laft, as chanc’d them by a foreft fide 
To pals, for fuccour from the fcorching ray, 
They heard a rueful voice, that dearnly cried 
With piercing lkrieks. Spenfer. 
DEARTH, f. Scarcity which makes food dear.— 
There have been terrible years dearths of corn, and every 
place is ftrewed with beggars; but dearths are common 
in better climates, and our evils here lie much deeper. 
Swift. —Want; need ; famine : 
Of every tree that in the garden grows, 
Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth. Milton. 
Barrennefs; fterility.—The French have brought on 
themfelves that dearth ot plot, and narrownefs of imagi¬ 
nation, which may be obferved in all their plays. Dryden. 
To DEARTI'CULATE, v. a. [ de and articulus , Lat.] 
To disjoint; to difmember. 
DEATH, f. [beajj, Sax.] The extinction of life; 
the. departure of the foul from the body.—He is the 
mediator of the New Teftament, that by means of death, 
for the redemption of the tranfgreflions, they which are 
called might receive the promile of eternal inheritance. 
Heb. ix. 15. 
He muft his aCts reveal, 
From the firft moment of his vital breath. 
To his laft hour of unrepenting death. Dryden. 
Mortality; deftrudtion : 
How did you dare 
To trade and traffic with Macbeth, 
In riddles and affairs of death ? Shakefpeare. 
The ftate of the dead : 
In fwinifli fleep 
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death. Shakefpeare. 
D E A 631 
The manner of dying.-—Thou (halt die the deaths of them 
that are (lain in the midft of the feas. Ezck. xxviii. S.—• 
The image of mortality reprefented by a fkeleton .—1 had 
rather be married to a death's, head with a bone in his 
mouth, than to either of thele. Shakefpeare. 
If I gaze now, ’tis but to fee 
What manner of death's head ’twill be. Suckling. 
Murder; the aft of deftroying life unlawfully.—As in 
manifefting the fweet influence of his mercy, on the le- 
vere ftroke of his juftice ; fo in this, not to fuller a man 
of death to live. Bacon. —Caufe of death.—They cried 
out, and faid, O thou man of God, there is death in the 
pot. 2 Kings, iv. 40.—Deftroyer.—All the'endeavours 
Achilles tiled to meet with Hector, and be the death of- 
him, is the intrigue which comprehends the battle of 
the laft day. Broome. —[In poetry.] The inftrument of 
death : 
Sounded at once the bow, and fwiftly flies 
The feather’d death, and hides through the Ikies. Dryden , 
Oft, as in airy rings they Ikim the heath, 
The clam’rous lapwings feel the leaden death. Pope. 
[In theology. ] Damnation ; eternal torments.—We pray 
that God will keep us from all fin and vvickednefs, from 
our ghoftly enemy, and from everlafting death. Church 
Catechifn. 
Phylicians ufually define death by a total ftoppage of 
the circulation of the blood, and a celfation of the ani¬ 
mal and vital functions confequent thereon ; fuch as re- 
fpiration, pnlfation, &c. An animal body, by the actions 
infeparable from life, undergoes a continual change, and 
receives its diifolution by degrees. Its fmalleft fibres be¬ 
come rigid ; its minute velfels grow into folid fibres no 
longer pervious to the fluids; its greater velfels grow 
hard and narrow ; and every thing becomes contracted, 
clofed, and bound up : whence the drynefs, immobility, 
and extenuation, obferved in old age. By Inch means 
the offices of the minuter velfels are deftroyed ; the hu¬ 
mours ftagnate, harden, and at length coalefce with the 
folids. Thus are the fubtileft fluids in the body inter¬ 
cepted and loft, the concoCtion weakened, and the repa¬ 
ration prevented ; only the blood continues to run flowly 
through the greater velfels, affiduous to preferve life, 
even after the animal functions are deftroyed. At length, 
in the procefs of thele changes, death becomes inevita¬ 
ble, as the necelfary confequence of life. But it is rare 
indeed that life is thus long protracted, or that deatir 
fucceeds merely from the natural 4ecays and impairment 
of old age. Accidental difeafes, and our negleft of pre¬ 
ferring health, too often cut the work fhort. 
The figns of death are often very uncertain. If we 
confult what Window and Bruchier have faid on this 
fubjeCt, we (hall be convinced, that between life and 
death the fhade is fo very undiftinguiffiable, that even 
all the powers of art can fcarcely determine where the 
one ends, and the other begins. The colour of the vifage, 
the warmth of the body, and fupplenefs of the joints, 
are but uncertain figns of life ftill fubfifting; while, on 
the contrary, the palenefs of the complexion, the cold- 
nefs of the body, the ftitfnefs of the extremities, the 
celfation of all motion, and the total infenlibility of the 
parts, are but uncertain marks of death begun. In the 
fame manner alfo, with regard to the pulfe and breathing; 
thefe motions are fo often kept under, that it is impof- 
fible to perceive them. By bringing a looking-glafs near 
to the mouth of the perfon fuppofed to be dead, people 
often expeCt to find_ whether he breathes or not- But 
this is a very uncertain experiment: the glafs is frequent¬ 
ly fullied by the vapour of the dead man’s body ; and 
often the perfon is ftill alive, though the glafs is no way 
tarniftied. In the lame manner, neither burning nor fca- 
rifying, neither noifes in the ears, nor pungent fpirits 
applied to the noftrils, give certain figns of the difeonti- 
nuance of life ; and there are many inftances of perlons 
