📖 D — The English dictionary · page 20

desalt — Everyday, meaning 1: To desalt something is to remove salt from it, such as seawater or salty food.↗ Example: The plant desalts seawater to make drinking water.↗ · Soak the salty fish overnight to desalt it.↗ · Boiling and catching the steam can desalt water.↗ · Some dry countries desalt sea water for their cities.↗ · We desalted salty water in a science experiment using evaporation.↗ · Desalted water must still be clean to drink safely.↗

descend — Everyday, meaning 1: To descend is to go or come down, or to move downwards.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To be descended from someone means to come from them in your family history (to be their great-great-grandchild, and so on).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To descend on a place means to arrive there suddenly in large numbers.↗ Early Modern English, meaning 1: To go or come down, or to fall.↗ Example: The plane began to descend towards the airport.↗ · We carefully descended the steep hill.↗ · Put these numbers in descending order: 3, 8, 5.↗ · She is descended from a family of sailors.↗ · Night descended on the town.↗ · Hundreds of fans descended on the stadium.↗ · The divers descended to the bottom of the lake.↗ · She then descended from the chariot and made her reverence.↗ · And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.↗ (Torah EXO.34.5, JPS 1917)↗ · And it came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent; and the LORD spoke with Moses.↗ (Torah EXO.33.9, JPS 1917)↗ · And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.↗ (Torah GEN.28.12, JPS 1917)↗ · Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended?↗ (Writings PRO.30.4, JPS 1917)↗ · For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; his wealth shall not descend after him.↗ (Writings PSA.49.18, JPS 1917)↗ · And it shall hail, in the downfall of the forest; but the city shall descend into the valley.↗ (Prophets ISA.32.19, JPS 1917)↗ · And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.↗ (Torah EXO.34.5, JPS 1917) · "To-morrow the sun will shine, or the rain descend.↗ (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen) · This way of thinking about language imbues the Hebrew root itself with a certain metaphysical reality, an entity from which more concrete instantions of individual words may ontologically descend and ultimately crystallize into concrete speech or material reality.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)

descendant — Everyday, meaning 1: A person who comes later in the same family line: a child, grandchild, great-grandchild and so on.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An animal or plant that has developed from an earlier kind.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something that has grown out of an earlier thing.↗ Example: She is a descendant of Irish farmers.↗ · Birds are descendants of dinosaurs.↗ · The old queen had dozens of descendants.↗ · We drew a family tree with Great-Gran at the top and her descendants below.↗ · Modern dogs are descendants of wolves.↗ · He claims to be a descendant of a famous pirate.↗ · Today's computers are descendants of huge early machines.↗ · Daedalus, a descendant of Erechtheus, was an Athenian architect, sculptor, and mechanician.↗

descendants — Everyday, meaning 1: Your descendants are your children, their children, their children's children and so on into the future.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (science) Animals or plants that come from an older kind of living thing, like birds being descendants of dinosaurs.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something new that grew out of an older thing (formal), like modern languages from older ones.↗ Example: The old farmer had twenty descendants at his birthday party.↗ · Birds are the living descendants of dinosaurs.↗ · Many people in New Zealand are descendants of Māori voyagers.↗ · Her descendants still live in the same village in Ireland.↗ · Our class drew a family tree showing a great-grandmother's descendants.↗ · Dogs are descendants of wolves.↗ · The queen's descendants include princes and princesses.↗ · “Descendants are only children,” said John.↗ · == Chapter 6 == [6:1] Three Fathers and their descendants, and Seven Stars [another version: Conquerors] and their hosts, and Twelve Diagonal Borders.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)↗

descender — Everyday, meaning 1: (writing, typing) The part of a lower-case letter that goes below the line, as in g, j, p, q and y; also a letter that has such a part.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A person or thing that goes down: «a fast descender» (cyclist or skier).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (climbing, abseiling) A metal device that controls the speed of going down a rope.↗ Example: The letters g, j, p, q and y all have descenders.↗ · Make sure your descenders go below the line.↗ · In our handwriting book, ascenders go up and descenders go down.↗ · The cyclist was a brilliant descender on the mountain roads.↗ · The climber clipped the descender onto the rope.↗ · In this font, the descenders are very long and curly.↗

descent — Everyday, meaning 1: A descent is a way or act of going down, like going down a hill, stairs or from the sky.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Descent means your family background, the people and places your family comes from.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A descent can be a slope that goes downward.↗ Example: The plane began its descent to the airport.↗ · The climbers made a slow descent down the icy mountain.↗ · The path has a steep descent to the beach.↗ · She is of Italian descent.↗ · The balloon's descent took ten minutes.↗ · On the descent the bus went very slowly.↗ · In later times the noblest Theban families proudly claimed their descent from these mighty earth-born warriors.↗

describe — Everyday, meaning 1: To say or write what someone or something is like: how it looks, sounds, feels, smells or behaves.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To tell what happened, step by step.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To draw or make a shape or line (formal maths: describe a circle).↗ Example: Describe your favourite place using all five senses.↗ · Can you describe the person who took the bike?↗ · Describe what happened when we added vinegar to the baking soda.↗ · The book describes life on a farm long ago.↗ · Describe this shape: it has four equal sides and four right angles.↗ · I can't describe how happy I was!↗ · He described the castle as dark and cold.↗ · It was a pleasure to hear Alfred describe anything.↗ · However, only one, ספ״ר SPR, is capable of describing all three: counting (סָפַר safar 'he counted', מִסְפָּר mispar 'number, count'), writing (סֵפֶר sefer 'book, scroll'), and speaking (סִפֵּר sipper 'he told, accounted', סִפּוּר sippur 'telling, account').↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)↗ · He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters, unto the confines of light and darkness.↗ (Writings JOB.26.10, JPS 1917)↗ · And ye shall describe the land into seven portions, and bring the description hither to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.↗ (Prophets JOS.18.6, JPS 1917)↗ · And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven portions in a book, and they came to Joshua unto the camp at Shiloh.↗ (Prophets JOS.18.9, JPS 1917)↗

description — Everyday, meaning 1: A description is words that tell what someone or something is like — how it looks, sounds, feels or behaves.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A description is the act of describing.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A description can also mean a kind or sort of person or thing.↗ Example: Write a description of your favourite place.↗ · She gave the police a description of the man.↗ · The book has a lovely description of the sea.↗ · The puppy fits the description of the lost dog.↗ · His description of the storm made me shiver.↗ · Add a description under each picture.↗ · The view was beautiful beyond description.↗ · Here lies a maiden of another description.↗ · And ye shall describe the land into seven portions, and bring the description hither to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.↗ (Prophets JOS.18.6, JPS 1917)↗

descriptive — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: Telling what something is like.↗ Example: The tongue is, as it were, the descriptive pen of all the spiritual issues, and the genital parts are the originators of the corporeal substances.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗

descriptor — Everyday, meaning 1: A word or phrase that describes something or tells you what kind of thing it is.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (formal, school) A sentence that explains what a pupil must show to reach a level or grade in a mark scheme.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (computing) A label or piece of data that describes a file or item.↗ Example: «Spooky» is a good descriptor for the old house.↗ · Pick three descriptors for your main character.↗ · The teacher read us the descriptors for each grade.↗ · (formal) Candidates should consult the assessment descriptors.↗ · «Large» and «huge» are both size descriptors.↗ · (computing) Each file has a descriptor that tells the computer its type.↗

desert — Everyday, meaning 1: A desert (DEZ-ert) is a large area of land that gets very little rain, so few plants grow; it may be sandy, rocky, hot or cold.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To desert (di-ZURT) someone or somewhere is to leave and not come back, when you should stay.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A deserted place has nobody in it.↗ Example: The Sahara is a huge hot desert.↗ · Cacti grow in the desert.↗ · Camels can go days without water in the desert.↗ · Antarctica is a cold desert.↗ · Take lots of water when you visit the desert.↗ · The soldier deserted his post.↗ · The beach was deserted in winter.↗ · Imagine you are on a desert island.↗ · Now the desert lies behind them.↗ · And Balak took Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh down upon the desert.↗ (Torah NUM.23.28, JPS 1917)↗ · and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, by the top of Pisgah, which looketh down upon the desert.↗ (Torah NUM.21.20, JPS 1917)↗ · He found him in a desert land, and in the waste, a howling wilderness; He compassed him about, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.↗ (Torah DEU.32.10, JPS 1917)↗ · But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tried God in the desert.↗ (Writings PSA.106.14, JPS 1917)↗ · I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.↗ (Prophets ISA.43.19, JPS 1917)↗ · They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way; they found no city of habitation.↗ (Writings PSA.107.4, JPS 1917)↗

deserter — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: A person who leaves his own side and goes over to the enemy.↗ Example: Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, the deserters also, that fell away to him, with the rest of the people that remained.↗ (Prophets JER.39.9, JPS 1917)↗

deserve — Everyday, meaning 1: If you deserve something, you should get it because of what you have done or what you are like.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It can be used for good things (a reward) or bad things (a punishment).↗ Example: You've tidied your room, so you deserve a treat.↗ · She deserved the prize for her amazing painting.↗ · Everyone deserves to be treated kindly.↗ · The team played well and deserved to win.↗ · Nobody deserves to be bullied.↗ · What did I do to deserve this?↗ · After a long walk, we deserved a rest.↗ · And I deserve it, as usual!↗ · then it shall be, if the wicked man deserve to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to the measure of his wickedness, by number.↗ (Torah DEU.25.2, JPS 1917)↗ · As the LORD liveth, ye deserve to die, because ye have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD'S anointed.↗ (Prophets 1SA.26.16, JPS 1917)↗ · For all my father's house were deserving of death at the hand of my lord the king; yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table.↗ (Prophets 2SA.19.29, JPS 1917)↗ · And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, seeing that Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such a remnant, (Writings EZR.9.13, JPS 1917)↗

deservedly — Everyday, meaning 1: Rightly, because someone has earned it or deserves it.↗ Example: The team won deservedly after hard practice.↗ · She was deservedly proud of her painting.↗ · He was deservedly rewarded for his kindness.↗

desiccate — Everyday, meaning 1: To desiccate something is to remove all the water from it so it becomes completely dry.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Desiccated (adjective) means completely dried out; desiccated coconut is dried, shredded coconut for baking.↗ Example: Sprinkle desiccated coconut on top of the cake.↗ · The hot wind desiccated the crops.↗ · Silica gel packets desiccate the air in a shoe box.↗ · The desiccated leaves crumbled in my hand.↗ · Egyptians desiccated bodies with salt to make mummies.↗ · Drought desiccates the soil until it cracks.↗