Cos DEG 
amine : you mud call the watch that are their accnfers. 
-Yea, marry, that’s the deftfi way. Shakfipeare. — 
Ready; dexterous: 
Loud fits of laughter feiz’d the guefts, to fee 
The limping god l'o deft at his new niiniftry. Dryden. 
The wanton calf may fkip with many a bound, 
And my cur, Tray* play deftcjl feats around. Gay. 
DEFT'LY, adv. ObJ'olete. Neatly; dexteroufly: 
Come, high or low, 
Thyfelf and offic £ deftly fliow. Shahefpeare. 
In a Ikilful manner: 
Young Colin Clout, a lad of peerlefs meed, 
Full well could dance, and deftly tune the reed. Cay. 
DEFU'NCT, adj. [defunSus, L.'dt -2 Dead; deceafed : 
Here entity and quiddity, 
The fouls of dcfunEl bodies fly. Hitdibras. 
DEFU'NCT,ye One that is deceafed ; a dead man or 
woman.—In many cafes, the fearchers are able to report 
the opinion of the phylician who was with the patient, 
as they receive the fame from the friends of the dfiunEl. 
Grauvt. 
Nature doth abhor to make his couch 
With the defunct, or lleep upon the dead. Shahefpeare. 
DEFUNC’TION,/. Death : 
Nor did the French polfefs the Salique land 
Until four hundred one-and-twenty years 
After dcfunElion of king Pharamond. Shahefpeare. 
To DEFY', v. a. dcjf.cr, Fr. from de fde dccidere, to fall 
from allegiance to rebellion, contempt, or infult.] To 
call to combat; to challenge : 
Agis, the Lycian, ftepping forth with pride, 
To Angle fight the boldest foe defied. Dryden. 
To treat with contempt; to flight: 
As many fools that fcand in better place, 
Garniih’d like him, that for a trickly fword 
Defy the matter. Shahefpeare. 
DEFY', f. A challenge ; an invitation to fight: now 
hardly ijed: 
At this the challenger, with fierce defy. 
His trumpet founds ; the challeng’d makes reply : 
With clangour rings the field, refounds the vaulted fky. ” 
Dryden. 
DEFY'ER, f. A challenger ; one that invites to fight: 
more properly defier .—God may revenge the affronts put 
upon them by Rich impudent defers of both, as neither 
believe a God, nor ought to be believed by man. South. 
DEGAGNA -', a town of France, in the department 
of the Lot : four leagues and a half north .of Cahors. 
DEGE'NERACY, f. [from degeneratio, Lat.] A de¬ 
parture from the virtue of our anceflors. A defertion of 
that which is good.—The ruin of a (fate is generally 
preceded by an tmiverfal degeneracy of manners, and con¬ 
tempt of religion, which is entirely our cafe at prefent. 
Swift. —Meannefs.—There is a kind of fluggifh religna- 
tion, as well as poornefs and degeneracy offpirit, in a ftate 
of flavery. Addijon. 
To DEGE'NER ATE, v. n. [dcgcncrare, Lat. degenerer, 
Fr. degenerar, Span.] To fall from the virtue of ancef- 
tors. To fall from a more noble to a bafe ftate.—When 
wit tranfgre.ffeth decency, it degenerates into infolence and 
impiety. Tillotfon. —TcGo.il from its kind ; to grow wild 
tor bafe.—Moil of thofe fruits that ufe to be grafted, if 
they be fet of kernels or ftones, degenerate. Bacon. 
DEGE'NERATE, adj. Unlike his-anceltors; fallen 
from the virtue and merit of his anceflors; 
DEG 
Thou art like enough 
To fight again ft me under Piercy’s pay; 
To dog his heels, and ciirt’fy at his frowns, 
To flie.w how much thou art degenerate. Shahefpeare. 
Unworthy; bafe; departing from its kind or nature,— 
When a man fo far becomes degenerate as to quit the prin¬ 
ciples of human nature, and to be a noxious creature, 
there is commonly an injury done fome perfon or other. 
Locke. 
So all (It all turn .degen'rate, all deprav’d ; 
Juftice and temperance, truth and faith, forgot! 
One man except. Milton. 
DEGE'NER ATELY, adv. In a bafe manner.—That 
faw not, haw degenerately I ferv’d. Milton. 
DEGE'NER ATENESS,yi Degeneracy; abeinggrown 
wild, or out of kind. 
DEGEN ERA' ITON, f. A deviation from the virtue 
of one's anceflors. A falling from a more excellent ftate 
to one of lefs worth. The thing changed from its pri¬ 
mitive ftate.—In plants, tliefe tranfplantations are ob¬ 
vious ; as that of barley into oats, of wheat into darnell; 
and thofe grains which generally arife among corn, as 
cockle, aracus, cegilops, and other degenerations. Brown. 
DEGE'NERKD, part. adj. [from degener, Lat. ] De¬ 
generated : 
And if than thofe may any worfe be red, 
They into that ere long will be degenered. Spenfer. 
DEGE'NEROUS, adj. [from degener, Lat. ] Degene¬ 
rated; fallen from the virtue and merit of anceflors. 
Vile ; bafe ; infamous ; unworthy.—Let not the tumul¬ 
tuary violence of fome men’s immoderate demands ever 
betray me to that degencrous and unmanly flaveiy, which 
fliould make me ftrengthen them by my confent. King 
Charles. 
Degenerous paflion, and for man too bafe, 
It feats its empire in the female race ; 
There rages, and, to make its blow fecure. 
Puts fiatt’ry on, until the aim be fure, Dryden.' 
DEGE'NEROUSLY, adv. In a degenerate manner; 
bafely; meanly.—How wounding a fpeftacle is it to fee 
heroes, like Hercules at the diftaff, thus degencroufly em¬ 
ployed ! Decay of piety. 
DEGI.I'GI, a town of the iflana of Ceylon: fixteea 
miles miles north-eaft of Candy. 
DEGLUTT'TION, f. [ deglutition , Fr. from deglutie, 
Lat.] The aft or power of lwallowing.—When the de¬ 
glutition is totally aboliflied, the patient may be nouriftied 
by clyfters. Arbut'inot. 
DEG'MUS,yi [from cay.yu, Gr. to bite. ] A term with 
phyficians for a biting pain in the orifice of the ftomach, 
DEG'NECAM, or Dennecham, a town of the United 
Dutch States, in Overiffel, on the Dinckel : ten miles 
north-weft of Bentheim. 
DEGNE'ZO, a town of Tranfylvania : ten miles north- 
weft of Biftricz. 
DEG'NIZLU,orDENizsLEY, a town of AfiaticTurkey, 
in the province of Natolia, near the ruins of the ancient 
Laodicea, deftroyed by an earthquake, which fwallowed 
up many of the inhabitants; excellent grapes grow in the 
environs; to the eaft and fouth are mountains covered 
with fnow : 10S miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Smyrna. Lat. 37, 
51. N. Ion. 46.5S.E. Ferre. 
DE'GO, a village of Italy, in the duchy of Montfer- 
rat, near which a battle was fought in the month of 
April, 1796, between the Auftrians and the French 
republican army, in which the former were defeated, 
leaving 600 dead, and 1400 prifoners : fifteen miles fouth- 
fouth-weft of Acqui. 
DEGRADA'TION,/I [degradation, Fr.] A depriva¬ 
tion of dignity ; difmiffion from office. Degeneracy ; 
bafenefs,—So deplorable is the degradation of our nature, 
that 
