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DI ATRI'BUS, J. [of a, Gr. with; and tribus, of 
(res, Lat. three.] A compofition confiding of three in¬ 
gredients. 
DI ATRI'TION, f. [from l\a, through; and rpEKi Gr. 
three.] Abftinence for three days. 
DIATY'POSIS,/. [Gr.] A defeription ; a figure in 
rhetoric, whereby things are fo lively reprefented, that 
they feern, as it were, before our eyes. 
DIA'VOLO, an illand in the Grecian Archipelago. 
Lat. 37. 27. N. Ion. 40. 58. E. Ferro. 
DI'AZ (Bartholomew), a Portuguefe navigator, the 
difeoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. His didinguifhed 
fkill and refolution caufed him to be employed by king 
John II. of Portugal, in profecuting difeoveries on the 
coad of Africa. Proceeding fouthwards, in 14S6, he 
traced near a thoufand miles of new country ; and, after 
encountering violent tempeds, and lofing the company 
of the victualling bark which attended him, he came in 
fight of the cape which terminates Africa; but the date 
of his fhip, and the mutinous difpofition of his crew, 
obliged him to return without doubling it. Some ac¬ 
counts, indeed, fay, that he did fail round it; but it is 
more probable that what he palled was fome other head¬ 
land, and that he only deferied the real cape, to which 
he gave the name of CaboTormentofo, or The Stormy Cape. 
He returned to Lilbon, in December 1487, after a voyage 
of fixteen months and feven days. From his report the 
king, who now conceived the certainty of reaching the 
Indies by that track, named his difeovery Cabo del Bueno 
Efpcranza, or The Cape of Good Hope. 
DIAZEU'TIC Tone, [of ha. and fyvywpt, Gr. to dif- 
join.] In the ancient Greek mufic, disjoined two-fourths, 
one on each fide of it ; and which, being joined to either, 
made a fifth. This is, in our mufic, from A to B.—They 
allowed to this diazeutic tone which is our La, Mi, the 
proportion of nine to eight, as being the unalterable dif¬ 
ference of the fifth and fourth. Harris. 
DIB'BLE,/. [from dipfel, Dut. a fliarp point, Skinner ; 
from dabble, Junius.'] A final 1 fpade ; a pointed inftru- 
ment with which the gardeners make holes for planting: 
Through cunning, with dibble, rake, mattock, and fpade, 
By line and by level trim garden is made. Tujfer. 
DI'BE, or Peschiera, a town of Egypt, on the coad 
of the Mediterranean : eighteen miles foiUh-ealt of Da- 
mietta. 
DI'BI, a town of Egypt, on the well fide of the Nile : 
eight miles fouth-eaft of Rofetta. 
DPBIO, or Divio, anciently a town of the Lingones, 
in Gallia Belgica : Dibionenfes, the people. Now Dijon. 
DIB'LATH, (Ezekiel, vi. 14.) a town of Syria bor¬ 
dering upon the Holy Land. 
DI'BON, [Hebrew, underftanding,] or Dibon-Gad, 
(Numbers, xxi. 30. xxxiii. 45.) a town of Paleftine, 
in the tribe of Reuben, formerly fituated in the land of 
Moab, near the borders of Canaan, was the thirty-ninth 
place of encampment of the Ifraelites in their journey 
from Egypt; was deftroyed by them, in their battle with 
the kings of Midian, after the diftribution -of the fpoil to 
the two tribes and a half; it was rebuilt by the children 
of Gad, and thence obtained the name of Dibon-Gad. 
Numb, xxxii. 34. 
DI'BRA, a town of European Turkey, in Macedonia, 
on the confines of Albania. It was befieged by the Turks 
in 1442, who found means to convey a dead dog into the 
only fpring which fupplied the towns with water, which 
compelled the inhabitants to furrender : thirty miles 
north of Akrida. 
DIB'STONE,y. A little Hone which children throw 
at another done'.—I have feen little girls exercife whole 
hours together, and take abundance of pains, to be ex¬ 
pert at dibjlones. Locke. 
DICA'CITY,y. [dicacitas, Lat.] Pertnefs; faucinefs. 
DICE, f. The plural of die. —It is above a hundred 
to one againd any particular throw, that you do not cad 
Vol. V. No. 315. 
any given fet of faces with four cubical dice ; becaufe 
there are fo many feveral combinations of the fix faces 
of four dice : now, after you have call: all the trials but 
one, it is fiill as much odds at the lad remaining time, 
as it was at the fird. Bentley. 
To DICE, v. n. To game with dice.—I was as virtu- 
oufly given as a gentleman need to be ; virtuous enough ; 
fvvore little ; diced not above feven times a week. ShakeJ'. 
-DICE-BOX, f. The box from which the dice are 
thrown.—What would you fay, lhould you fee the fpark- 
ler diaking her elbow for a whole night together, and 
thumping the table with a dice-box. Addifon. 
DICEAR'CHUS, fon of Phidias, an eminent Greek 
philofopher and hidorian, native of Medina, in Sicily, 
He was a difciple of Aridotle,, and compofed a number 
of works which were much edeemed. One of the mod 
important of his writings was a treatjfe, in three books, 
on the diderent people and cities of Greece, their man¬ 
ners, inditutions, &c. Of this there is either an epitome 
or a confiderable fragment remaining. His account of 
the republic of Sparta was edeemed fo accurate, that a 
law was made for its annual recital in the hall of the 
ephori, in prefence of the young men of the city ; which 
cudom was long obferved. He alfo compofed a work on 
the meafurement of the mountains in Peloponnefus, of 
which there remains a defeription of Mount Pelion, print¬ 
ed in the Geographic Veter. Script. Grac. rninores. Other 
writings are attributed to him, which prove the extent 
of his learning and enquiries. 
DICENE'LJS, an Egyptian philofopher, who fiouridi- 
ed under the reign of Augudus. He was furnamed Bo. 
roijla, after a king of the Scythians fo called, whom he 
taught philofophy, and to whom he became one of his 
principal counlellors and advifers. Although few par¬ 
ticulars have reached us concerning him, he is entitled 
to refpeftful remembrance, on account of his having been 
one of the fird civilifers of the barbarous Scythian hordes. 
He is reported to have acquired with them fo high a de¬ 
gree of refpeCt and veneration, that they were induced 
to dedroy all their vines, upon his reprelentation of the 
mifehiefs and diforders occafioned by an improper ufe of 
the juice of the grape. 
DI'CER^yi A player at dice ; a gameder : 
They make marriage vows 
As falfe as dicers' oaths. Shakcfpeare. 
DI'CERA,yi [from ok, twice, and xepa?, a horn ; on 
account of its two-horned antherae.] I11 botany, a genus 
of the clafs polyandria, order monogynia. The generic 
characters are—Calyx : perianthium four or five parted ; 
leaflets equal. Corolla : petals four or five, obovate, 
trifid; fegments obtufe, the middle one longed ; neCtary 
of four or five fmall emarginate corpufcles furrounding 
the germ. Stamina: filaments (twelve to tw r enty) feve¬ 
ral, between the neftary and the germ, capillary, Ihort; 
antherae linear, tivo-horned at the top. Pidillum : germ 
roundifh ; dyle awl-diaped, longer than the damens ; 
digma fimple. Pericarpium : berry, ovate, two-celled. 
Seeds: very many.— EJfential CharaEler. Petals, four or 
five obovate, trifid ; nettary, of four or five emarginate 
corpufcles ; antherae, two-horned. 
Species. 1. Dicera dentata, or toothed dicera: dyle 
one; leaves oblong, acuminate, toothed ; racemes fim¬ 
ple, axillary, loofe. This is an elegant tree, bearing at 
the extremities of the branches abundance of leaves, 
which are alternate, oval, or oval-oblong, bluntidi, 
fmooth, veined, bluntly ferrate, petioled, with a double 
gland at their bafe; flowers on very minute pedicels, 
nodding; damens fixteen when there are four, and twenty 
when there are five, petals. Linnteus remarked twenty 
damens in the Ceylonefe plant, and only eight in that 
from Java. Piflil fingle; fruit an oval berry, with a 
hard done in it. It is preferved whild unripe after the 
manner of olives. Native of New Zealand. See Elao- 
carpus ferratus . 
9 S 2. Dicera 
