| deshabille | n. | state of being only partially or carelessly clothed | ||
| desideratum | n. | need or want, needed or desired thing | ||
| despise | v. | to view with contempt or disgust, to scorn, to disdain | ||
| despond | v. | to lose hope, to become depressed by loss of confidence or courage | ||
| desquamate | v. | to come off in scales; to shed, to peel | ||
| Desterham | n. | Turkish minister of finance | ||
| destine | v. | set apart for particular purpose [usually in passive] | ||
| destrier | n. | war-horse, charger | ||
| desuetude | n. | disuse, discontinuance of practice | ||
| desultory | adj. | halfheartedly jumping from one subject to another, fitful, disconnected; lacking consistency, unmethodical, random | ||
| detrition | n. | abrading, wearing away by rubbing | ||
| deturgescence | n. | relative dehydration by which the cornea is maintained in a transparent condition | ||
| deus otiosus | n. | deity which no longer interacts at all with humans after once creating the world and starting it in motion | Latin | |
| devil’s hour | n. | witching hour, late hour of night at which supernatural happenings occur | idiom | |
| devilfish | n. | octopus; piranha; devil ray; giant squid; other marine animals with (supposedly) malevolent mien | ||
| devocate | v. | to call down | ||
| devoir | n. | duty of civility or respect (usu. pl.) | ||
| devolve | v. | to be passed from one to another | ||
| diapason | n. | full harmonious sound; one of several organ stops | ||
| diaphoretic | adj. | inducing perspiration | ||
| diathesis | n. | habitual tendency or predisposition, esp. towards morbidity | ||
| dibble | n. | tool for making holes in ground for seeds, bulbs, seedlings, etc. | ||
| dibble | v. | to make a hole with a dibble | ||
| dibs | n. | small amounts of money | ||
| dicrotic | adj. | of a pulse having two beats for every heartbeat | ||
| didact | n. | pedant, person inclined to teach others | ||
| didicoy | n. | gypsy, esp. non-Romani traveler | ||
| dido | n. | bauble, trifle | ||
| diegetic | adj. | of a narration or narrative, told by a narrator; of events or objects within the world of a story | ||
| diehard | n. | a person obstinately resistant to change; someone holding to a tenet with no single inclination to question that belief; person devoted entirely to a lost cause | ||
| diekplous | n. | ancient naval battle maneuver in which a line of galleys rows between ships in an opposing line so as to attack the enemy’s weaker stern and sides; sometimes thought to be a maneuver wherein a single war galley shipps oars on one side and turns at the l | ||
| dielectric | adj. | non-conductor, insulator; electrically non-conducting | ||
| diencephalon | n. | back of the forebrain | ||
| dietrologia | n. | conspiracy theory, science of discerning hidden motives behind events | ||
| diffident | adj. | lacking confidence in one’s capability; timid | ||
| dight | v. | to dress | archaic | |
| diligence | n. | public stagecoach of early 18th Century, esp. in France | ||
| diluvial | adj. | of or related to flooding or floods, esp. to the Biblical flood | ||
| diminuendo | adv. | gradually decreasing in loudness | ||
| dimity | n. | stout thin cotton fabric, with raised stripes | ||
| dindle | v. | to tingle; to tremble | ||
| dingle | n. | wooded valley | ||
| dingle | adj. | clement, having nice weather | ||
| dioecious | adj. | having male and female sex organs in separate individuals (esp. of plants) | biology | |
| diplopia | n. | double vision | ||
| dirndl | n. | outfit patterned after that of Alps peasants, consisting of a bodice over a low-cut blouse with a full skirt and (possibly) an apron | ||
| disadorned | adj. | bereft of ornaments | ||
| disanalogy | n. | inaptness or lack of analogy between two things; failure of an analogy | ||
| disannul | v. | to abolish, to cancel utterly | ||
| disbound | adj. | (of a book) having the binding removed or loose |
