862 D I S 
To DISCE'RP, v. a. \_difcerpo, Lat.] To tear in pieces ; 
to break; to deftroy by reparation of its parts. 
DISCERP'TIBLE, adj. Frangible; feparable ; liable 
to be deftroyed by the difunion of its parts.—What is 
mod denfe, and lead porous, will be mod coherent and 
lead difcerptible. Glanville.- —Matter is moveable, this im¬ 
moveable ; matter difcerptible , this indifcerptible. More. 
DISCERPTIBl'LlTY, f. Liablenefs to be dedroyed 
by difunion of parts. 
DISCE'RPTION, f The adt of pulling to pieces, or 
deftroying by difuniting the parts. 
DISCES'SION,/! [from the Lat. de, from; and ccdo, 
togo.] A departure, the aft of going away. Notmvchvfed. 
To DISCHA'RGE, v. a. \_decharger,\''c.~\ To difbur- 
den; toexonerate; tofreefromanyloadorinconvenience: 
How rich in humble poverty is he, 
Who leads a quiet country life ; 
’Difc.ltarg'd of bufinefs, void of ftrife ! Drydcn. 
To unload ; to difembark.—I will convey them by fea, 
in floats, unto the place that thou flialt appoint me, and 
will caufe them to be difeharged. Kings. —To throw off 
any thing collected or accumulated ; to give vent to any 
thing ; to let fly. It is ufed of any thing violent or Bid¬ 
den.— Dfcharge thy (hafts ; this ready bofom rend. Pope. 
Infedted minds 
To their deaf pillows will dfcharge their feefets. Shake/. 
To unload a gun.—A conceit runneth abroad, that there 
(hould be a white powder, which will dfcharge a piece 
without noife. Bacon. —To clear a debt by payment: 
Death of one perfon can be paid but once, 
And that lhe has difeharged. Skakc/peare. 
To fend away a creditor by payment: 
If he had 
The prefent money to dfcharge the Jew, 
He would not take it. Shakefpcarc. 
To clear a debtor: 
A grateful mind 
By owing owes not, but dill pays; at once 
Indebted and dfeharg'd. Milton. 
To fet free from obligation.—If one man’s fault could 
difeharge another man of his duty, there would be no 
place left for the common offices of fociety. L’Ef range. 
To clear from an accufation or crime ; toabfolve: with 
of. —They are imprudent enough to dfcharge themfelves 
of this blunder, by laying the contradiftion at Virgil’s 
door. Dryden. —To perform; to execute : 
Had I a hundred tongues, a wit fo large 
As could their hundred offices dfcharge. Dryden. 
To put away; to obliterate ; to deftroy.—Trial would 
alfo be made in herbs poifonous and purgative, whofe 
ill quality, perhaps, may be difeharged, or attempered, 
by letting dronger poilons or purgatives by them. Bacon. 
—To dived of any office or employment; to difmifs from 
fervice : as, he discharged his deward ; the foldier was 
difeharged. To difmils ; to releafe ; to fend away from 
any bufinefs or appointment.— Difeharge your pow’rs unto 
their feveral counties. Shahcfpearc. —To emit.—The mat¬ 
ter being fuppurated, I opened an inflamed tubercle in 
the great angle of the left eye, and difeharged a well-con- 
codted matter. Wifeman. —To give an account of.—Or 
come before high Jove her doings to difeharge. Spenfer. 
To DISCHA'RGE, v. n. To difmifs itfelf; to break 
up.—'The cloud, if it were oily or fatty, would not df¬ 
charge. Bacon. 
DISCHA'RGE,/. Vent; explofion; emiffion.—As 
the heat of all fprings is owing to fubterraneous lire, fo 
wherever there are any extraordinary dfeharges of this 
fire, there alfo are the neighbouring fprings hotter than 
ordinary. Woodward. —Matter vented.—The haemorrhage 
being dopped, the next occurrence is a thin ferous dif- 
D I S 
charge. Sharp. —Difruption; evanefcence.—Marie the di 
charge of the little cloud upon g’afs or gems., or blades 
of fwords, and you fliall fee it ever break up fird in the 
Ikirts, and lad in the middle. Bacon. —Di (million from an 
office : as, the governor folicited his difeharge. Releafe 
from an obligation or penalty : 
He warns 
Us, haply too fecure of our dfcharge 
From penalty, becaufe from death releas'd. Milton. 
Abfolution from a crime.—The text explodes the found 
edate of the confidence, not barely by its not accufing, 
but by its not condemning us.; which word imports pro¬ 
perly an acquittance or dfcharge of a man upon fome pre¬ 
cedent accufation, and a full trial and cognizance of his 
caufe. Scuth. —Ranfom ; price of ranfom : 
O, all my hopes defeated 
To free him hence! But death, who fets all free, 
Hath paid his ranfom now and full difeharge. Milton. 
Performance; execution.—The obligations of hofpita- 
lity and protediion are facred ; nothing can abfolve us 
from the difeharge of thofe duties. L'Ef range. —An ac¬ 
quittance from a debt. Exemption; privilege.—There 
is no difeharge in that war, neither (hall wickednefs de¬ 
liver thofe that are given to it. Eccl. viii. 8. 
DISCHAR'GER,/. He that difeharges in any man¬ 
ner. He that fires a gun.—To abate the bombilation of 
gunpowder, a way is promifed by Porta, by borax and 
butter, which he fays will make it fo go off, as fcarcely 
to be heard by the dfeharger. Brown. 
DISCI'NCT, adj. [dfcinBus, I.at.] Ungirded; loofely 
drelled. 
To DISCI'ND, v. a. [difeindo, Lat.] Todivide; to cut 
in pieces.—We found feveral concretions fo foft, that w® 
could eafily dfeind them betwixt our fingers. Boyle. 
DISCl'PLE,/. \_difcipulus, Lat.] A fcholar ; one that 
profefles to receive inftrudtions from another.—He re¬ 
buked dfciples who would call for fire from heaven upon 
whole cities, for the negledt of a few. King Charles. —A 
profeflor of the dodtrine of Jefus Chrift.—The comme¬ 
morating the death of Chrift, is the profeffing ourfelves 
the dfciples of the crucified Saviour; and that engageth 
us to take up his crofs and follow him. Hammond. 
In the ftridt Chriftian fenfe, dfciples were the early fol¬ 
lowers of Jefus Chrift, and of whom there were feventy 
or leventy-two. The names difciple and apofile are often 
fynonymoufly ufed in the gofpel-hiftory ; but fometimes 
the apoftles are diftinguilhed from difciples, as perfons 
feledted out of their number, to be the principal minif- 
ters of his religion : of thefe there were only twelve. The 
Latins kept the feftival of the feventy or feventy-two dif¬ 
ciples on July 15th, and the Greeks on January 4th. In 
Kett’s Bampton Lectures, publiihed in 1791, the cha- 
radter of a primitive difciple of Chrift is finely and juftly 
drawn: “ lmpreffed by the deepeft fenfe of duty, and 
eager to ditfufe that divine light of revelation which 
burned with undiminifhed heat in his bread, he difen- 
gaged himfelf from the ftrong attachments to his native 
country, and went forth to convert an idolatrous world. 
As his life was devoted to the interefts of his religion, 
all the caufes by which its pains were aggravated, or its 
continuance (hortened, were ftript of their terror. His 
imagination prefented to him the fcourge, the rack, and 
the crofs ; yet was his refolution unlhaken by the appre- 
henficrtis of perfecution and death. At the loud and fo- 
lema calls of duty, he was loofened even from the ties 
of confanguinity; and, with a fpirit not lefs dignified than 
that of the Roman heroes, he differed principle to pre¬ 
dominate over affedtion, turned afide from the tears of 
friendfhip, and was even deaf to the tender fupplications 
of love. The bright objedl of his ambition was not the 
barren praife of inflexible conftancy, but the crown of 
immortal happinefs. The dangers of travel, the preca- 
rioufnefs of fubliftence, the perfidy of pretended friends. 
