<B>declivity, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a downward slope. <BR> <I>Ex. The declivity of the mountain pass was so steep that even the mules had difficulty.</I> (SYN) descent, inclination, gradient. </DL>
<B>Declomycin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Trademark.) a drug used to check or kill bacteria and viruses. It is an antibiotic of the tetracycline group, related to Aureomycin. </DL>
<A NAME="declutch">
<B>declutch, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to disengage (a clutch). <BR> <I>Ex. There's a control lever that allows the machine's pulling power to be stepped up without the driver having to declutch, shift gears, or touch the throttle (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decoct">
<B>decoct, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to extract desired substances from (something) by boiling. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) to boil down; boil; cook. </DL>
<A NAME="decoction">
<B>decoction, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of boiling to extract some desired substance. <DD><B> 2. </B>a preparation made by boiling a substance in water or other liquid; extract obtained by boiling. <BR> <I>Ex. They had drunk a decoction prescribed by a native doctor who claimed that those who drank it while the eclipse was on would become younger (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decode">
<B>decode, </B>transitive verb, <B>-coded,</B> <B>-coding.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to translate (secret or coded information) into ordinary language or understandable form; decipher. <BR> <I>Ex. Hittite hieroglyphics ... are being decoded (Newsweek). (Figurative.) The plot needs to be decoded and when it is, not much seems ... to be taking place (Harper's).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to apply the spelling-sound relationship to (reading), especially in the learning process. </DL>
<A NAME="decoder">
<B>decoder, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that decodes. <DD><B> 2. </B>a device designed to unscramble mixed signals or to select from many electronic signals those that correspond to the result of a situation. <BR> <I>Ex. The scrambled signals would produce a blur on the screens of TV sets not equipped with a decoder (Science News Letter). Transmitted signals will be picked up by a special decoder on each light that selects only the signals meant for its own intersection (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decohere">
<B>decohere, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb, <B>-hered,</B> <B>-hering.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Electricity.) to return to normal condition of sensitiveness; restore by means of a decoherer. </DL>
<B>decoherer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Electricity.) a device for restoring a coherer to normal condition after it has been affected by an electric wave. </DL>
<A NAME="decohesion">
<B>decohesion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Electricity.) <DD><B> 1. </B>the act of decohering. <DD><B> 2. </B>the effect of decoherence. </DL>
<A NAME="decollate">
<B>decollate, </B>transitive verb, <B>-lated,</B> <B>-lating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to remove the head of; behead. </DL>
<A NAME="decollation">
<B>decollation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of decollating; beheading. <DD><B> 2. </B>the fact of being beheaded. </DL>
<A NAME="decollator">
<B>decollator, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who decollates; headsman. </DL>
<A NAME="decollectivization">
<B>decollectivization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act or process of decollectivizing. <DD><B> 2. </B>that which has been decollectivized, as a farm group. </DL>
<A NAME="decollectivize">
<B>decollectivize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to remove from collective management. <BR> <I>Ex. Peasant families nibbled at the state farms, decollectivized an estimated six million acres (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decolletage">
<B>decolletage, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the neck of a dress cut low so as to leave the neck and shoulders exposed. <BR> <I>Ex. Decolletage has probably caused less stir than almost any facet of women's clothing (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a dress or blouse cut in this way. </DL>
<A NAME="decollete">
<B>decollete, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=low-necked.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>wearing a low-necked dress or blouse. </DL>
<A NAME="decolonization">
<B>decolonization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act or process of decolonizing. <BR> <I>Ex. In much of Africa south of the Sahara, decolonization is now in full swing (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>that which has been decolonized. </DL>
<A NAME="decolonize">
<B>decolonize, </B>verb, <B>-nized,</B> <B>-nizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to establish as a self-governing area; remove from colonial status. <BR> <I>Ex. Having achieved political freedom, most African states face the problem of decolonizing their economics (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to deprive of a colony or colonies. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to divest itself of a colony or colonies. <BR> <I>Ex. My country [Spain] is the only one in the world which, while it is decolonizing, is itself the victim of colonialism (Fernando Castiella y Maiz).</I> noun <B>decolonizer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="decolor">
<B>decolor, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to remove the color of; bleach; decolorize. Also, (British,) <B>decolour.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="decolorant">
<B>decolorant, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a substance that bleaches or removes color. <DD><I>adj. </I> that can remove color; bleaching. </DL>
<B>decommercialization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act or process of decommercializing. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the decommercialization of pharmacies, whereby the pharmacist would be prohibited from selling nonpharmaceutical goods (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decommercialize">
<B>decommercialize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to stop the commercialization of; remove the methods and spirit of commerce from (an institution, industry, or activity). <BR> <I>Ex. a crusade to decommercialize Christmas (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decommission">
<B>decommission, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to take out of active service; retire. <BR> <I>Ex. A short simple ceremony today decommissioned a great fighting ship--the battleship Missouri (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to deprive of one's commission. <BR> <I>Ex. to decommission an officer.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decommunization">
<B>decommunization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act or process of decommunizing. <BR> <I>Ex. ... a recent partial decommunization of agriculture [in China] to give peasants incentive to labor once again for good crops (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decommunize">
<B>decommunize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-nized,</B> <B>-nizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to undo the communization of; remove the methods and practices of communism from (an industry, society, or institution). <BR> <I>Ex. The Red-directed General Federation of Labor called the strike to protest [against] a bill designed to decommunize the printing trades (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decompartmentalization">
<B>decompartmentalization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act or process of decompartmentalizing. <BR> <I>Ex. The Renaissance was a period of decompartmentalization: a period which broke down the barriers which had kept things in order (Erwin Panofsky).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decompartmentalize">
<B>decompartmentalize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to undo the compartmentalization of; free of boundaries, divisions, categories, or the like. <BR> <I>Ex. To make Germany an operating concern ... Germany had to be decompartmentalized and the zones abolished (Theodore H. White).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decompensate">
<B>decompensate, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-sated,</B> <B>-sating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to suffer from decompensation. </DL>
<A NAME="decompensation">
<B>decompensation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Medicine.) failure of the heart to maintain normal circulation because of a loss in its ability to compensate for a defect. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Psychology.) loss of the ability or desire to compensate for some inadequacy; loss of compensation. <BR> <I>Ex. She had ... symptoms of hysteria and a tendency to decompensation (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="decomplex">
<B>decomplex, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>compounded of parts that are themselves complex. <DD><B> 2. </B>repeatedly complex. </DL>
<A NAME="decomposability">
<B>decomposability, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> decomposable quality or property. </DL>
