goG D I s 
to difquiet; to deprive of tranquillity.—He that has his 
own troubles, and the happinefs of his neighbours, to 
dijlurb him, has work enough. Collier. 
His youth with wants and hardships mud engage; 
Plots and rebellions muft dijlurb his age. Prior. 
To confound ; to put into irregular motions. To inter¬ 
rupt; to hinder: as, care dijlurbs ftudy. To turn off 
from any dire£tion : with from. This is not ufual: 
It oft-time may fucceed, fo as, perhaps, 
Shall grieve him, if I fail not; and dijlurb 
His inmoft counfels from their deftin’d aim. Milton. 
DISTU'RB,/ Confufion ; tumultuary emotion : 
Inftant without dijlurb they took alarm. 
And onward mov’d embattel’d. Milton. 
DISTURBANCE, f. Perplexity; interruption of a 
fettled date.—The denomination of money concerns trade, 
and the alteration of that neceffarily brings dijlurbance to 
it. Locke. —Confufion ; diforder of thoughts.—They can 
furvey a variety of complicated ideas without fatigue or 
dijlurbance. Watts. —Tumult; violation of peace : 
This mifchief had not then befall’n, 
And more that fhall befal: innumerable 
Dijlurbances on earth through female fnares. Milton. 
[In law.] Dijlurbance is a wrong done to fome incorpo¬ 
real hereditament, by hindering or difquieting the owners 
in their regular and lawful enjoyment of it. Blackjlone. 
DISTURBER, f. A violater of peace ; he that caufes 
tumults and public diforders.—Men that make an infult 
upon fociety, ought to be humbled, as dijlurbers of the 
public tranquillity. Addifon. 
Ye great dijlurbers, who in endlefs noife, 
In blood and horror, feek unnatural joys ; 
For what is all this buftle, but to ftmn 
Thofe thoughts with which you dare not be alone ? 
Granville. 
He that injures tranquillity ; he that caufes perturbation 
of mind: 
Two deep enemies, 
Foes to my reft, and my fweet fieep’s dijlurbers. Shakefp. 
To DISTU'RN, v. a. To turn off; to turn afide. Not 
in ufe: 
He glad was to dijturn that furious ftream 
Of war on us, that elfe haci fwallow’d them. Daniel. 
DISVALUA'TION, f. Di[grace ; diminution of re¬ 
putation.—What can be more to the difvaluation of the 
power of the Spaniard, than that eleven thoufand Eng- 
glifti ftiould have marched into the heart of his coun¬ 
tries i Bacon. 
To DISVA'LUE, v. a. To undervalue; to fet a low 
price upon.—The very fame pride which prompts-a man 
to vaunt and overvalue vVhat he is, does as forcibly in¬ 
cline him to contemn and dijavow what he has. Govern¬ 
ment of the Tongue. 
To DISVE'LOP, v. a. [ developer , Fr.] To uncover. 
DISVIR'GIN, v. a. To deflour. Not much ufed. 
DISU'NION, f. Separation; disjunction. — Reft is 
moft oppofite. to motion, the immediate eaufe of difunion. 
Glanville.—Difunion of the corporeal principles, and the 
vital, caufeth death. Grew. —Breach of concord. 
To DISUNI'TE, v. a. Tofeparate; to divide : 
The beaft they then divide, and difunite 
The ribs and limbs. Pope. 
To part friends or allies. 
To DISUNI'TE, v. n. To fall afunder; to become fe- 
parate.—While every particular member of the public 
provides folely for itfelf, the feveral joints of the body 
politic do feparate and difunite, and fo become unable to 
fupport the whole. South. 
DISU'NITY, f. A ftate of aCtual feparation.— Difu- 
2 
D I T 
nityis the natural property of matter, which is nothing 
elfe but an infinite congeries of phyfical monads. More. 
DISU'SAGE,/. The gradual ceffation of life or cuf. 
tom.—They cut off prefently fuch things as might be 
extinguifhed without danger, leaving the reft to be abo- 
lithed by difufage through traCl of time. Hooker. 
DISU'SE, f. Ceffation of ufe; defuetude ; want of 
practice.—The difufe of the tongue is the only effectual 
remedy againft thefe. Addifon .—Ceffation of cuftom.— 
That obligation upon the lands did not prefcribe, or come 
into difufe, but by fifty confecutive years. Arbuthnot. 
To DISU'SE, v. a. To ceafe to make ufe of: 
’Tis law, though cuftom now diverts the sourfe: 
As nature’s inftitute is yet in force, 
Uncancell’d, though dfus'd. Dryden. 
To difaccuftom : with from or to ; more properly from ; 
Difufe me from the queafy pain 
Of being belov’d and loving. Donne. 
He (lull his troops for fighting fields prepare, 
Dfus'd to toils and triumphs of the war. Dryden. 
To DISVOU'CH, v. a. To deftroy the credit of; to 
contradict.—Every letter he hath writ hath difvouch'd an¬ 
other. Shakejpeare. 
DISWIT'TED, adj. Deprived of the wits; mad; dif¬ 
fracted. Not in ufe: 
She ran away alone ; 
Which when they heard, there was not one 
But halted after to begone. 
As fhe had been difwitted. Drayton. 
DIT, f. [ dicht , Dut.] A ditty ; a poem ; a tune. Ob. 
folcte: 
No bird but did her flirill notes fweetly fing; 
No fong but did contain a lovely dit. Spenfer. 
DITA'TION,/. \_ditatus, Lat.] The aCt of enriching. 
—Thofe eaftern worfhippers intended rather homage than 
ditation ; the bleffed virgin comes in the form of poverty. 
Hall. 
DITCH,/, [bic, Sax. diik, Erfe. ] A trench cut in the 
ground, ufually between fields.-—Sudden the ditches {well, 
the meadows fwim. Thomfon. —Any long narrow recepta¬ 
cle of water: ufed fometimes of a fmall river in contempt. 
•—In the great plagues there were feen, in divers ditches 
and low grounds about London, many toads that had tails 
three inches long. Bacon. —The moat with which a for- 
trefs is furrounded. See Fortification. —Th e ditches, 
fuch as they were, were altogether dry, and eafy to be 
paffed over. Knolles. —-Ditch is ufed, in compofition, of 
any thing worthlefs, or thrown away into ditches.—Poor 
Tom, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for fallets, 
[wallows the old rat, and the ditch- dog. Shakejpeare. 
To DITCH, v. n. To make a ditch.—I have employed 
my time, belides ditching, in finiftiing my travels. Swift. 
DITCH-DELI VERED, adj. Brought forth in a ditch: 
Finger of birth-ftrangled babe, 
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab. Shakejpeare. 
DITCH-DOG,/. A dead dog taken out of,a ditch. 
Shakefpcare. 
DITCH'ER,/. One who digs ditches : 
You merit new employments daily, 
Our thatcher, ditcher, gard’ner, baiiy. Swift. 
DIT'FURT, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up¬ 
per Saxony, belonging- to the abbey of Quedlingburg s 
four miles north-eaft of Quedlingburg. 
DITHE'ISM,/. The doctrine of the Manichaeans. 
DITHE'IST, /. [from the Gr. < 5 k> twice, and Seoj, 
God.] One who advances the notion of two Gods, a 
kind of Manichaean. 
DITH'MAR, or Diethumar, a German prelate and 
hiftorian, born in .976, fon of Sigefrid count of Saxe. 
He embraced the monaftic life, and in 1018 was made bi- 
Ihop of Merfburg by the emperor Henry II. He wrote 
a Latin 
