<B>detribalization, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of detribalizing. <DD><B> 2. </B>the condition of being detribalized. </DL>
<A NAME="detribalize">
<B>detribalize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to deprive of tribal character or organization. <BR> <I>Ex. It is not only the intelligentsia who are detribalized, but thousands of men ... have left their reserves to seek employment in Nairobi and elsewhere (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="detriment">
<B>detriment, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>loss, damage, or injury; harm; hurt. <BR> <I>Ex. No one can miss a month of school without detriment to his studies.</I> (SYN) impairment, deterioration. <DD><B> 2. </B>something that causes loss, damage, or injury. <BR> <I>Ex. His dishonesty was a detriment to his character. His lack of education was a serious detriment to his career.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="detrimental">
<B>detrimental, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> causing loss or damage; harmful; injurious. <BR> <I>Ex. Lack of sleep is detrimental to one's health.</I> (SYN) hurtful, disadvantageous. <DD><I>noun </I> a detriment; hindrance; handicap. <BR> <I>Ex. The sisters of the wife being considered detrimentals, are placed in Buddhist convents (C. F. Gordon-Cumming).</I> adv. <B>detrimentally.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="detrital">
<B>detrital, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with or composed of detritus. </DL>
<A NAME="detrited">
<B>detrited, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> reduced to detritus. </DL>
<A NAME="detrition">
<B>detrition, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of wearing away by rubbing. </DL>
<A NAME="detritus">
<B>detritus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Geology.) an accumulation of small fragments, such as sand or silt worn away from rock. <DD><B> 2. </B>any disintegrated material; debris. <BR> <I>Ex. The detritus left by the flood covered the highway. Its corners and closets were cluttered with the detritus of ages (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="detroiter">
<B>Detroiter, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a native or resident of Detroit. </DL>
<A NAME="detrop">
<B>de trop,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>too much or too many; superfluous. <BR> <I>Ex. Mentioning the weather is de trop, rather like bringing up the hopeless Parisian traffic situation (Saturday Review).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>unwelcome; in the way. <BR> <I>Ex. He assures me I won't be de trop (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="detrude">
<B>detrude, </B>transitive verb, <B>-truded,</B> <B>-truding.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to thrust out or away; expel. <DD><B> 2. </B>to thrust or force down. </DL>
<A NAME="detruncate">
<B>detruncate, </B>transitive verb, <B>-cated,</B> <B>-cating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to reduce by cutting off a part. </DL>
<A NAME="detruncation">
<B>detruncation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of reducing by cutting off a part. <BR> <I>Ex. detruncation of our syllables (Samuel Johnson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="detrusion">
<B>detrusion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of detruding. </DL>
<A NAME="detumescence">
<B>detumescence, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> cessation or reduction of swelling. </DL>
<A NAME="detumescent">
<B>detumescent, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characterized by detumescence; reduced in swelling. </DL>
<A NAME="detune">
<B>detune, </B>transitive verb, <B>-tuned,</B> <B>-tuning.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to reduce in tune; change from a tuned condition. <BR> <I>Ex. to detune an engine, detune a piano string.</I> noun <B>detuner.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="detur">
<B>detur, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a prize awarded annually to undergraduates who have attained superior work. It is a specially bound book on some subject in the winner's field of study. </DL>
<A NAME="deucalion">
<B>Deucalion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Mythology.) a son of Prometheus. He and his wife Pyrrha survived a flood sent by Zeus and became ancestors of the succeeding human race by casting stones behind them from which men and women sprang. </DL>
<A NAME="deuce">
<B>deuce</B> (1), noun, verb, <B>deuced,</B> <B>deucing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a playing card marked with a <I>2.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the side of a die having two spots. <DD><B> 3. </B>a dice throw of two aces (in craps, a losing point on first cast). <DD><B> 4. </B>(in a game of cards or dice) two. <DD><B> 5. </B>(Tennis.) <DD><B> a. </B>a tie score at 40 each, or any subsequent tie score in a game. <DD><B> b. </B>a tie score of five or more games each in a set. <DD><B> 6. </B>(U.S. Slang.) two dollars (originally, a two-dollar bill). <BR> <I>Ex. [He] slipped the judge a deuce to button up to the press (S. J. Perelman).</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> (Tennis.) to even the score of (a game or set) at deuce. </DL>
<A NAME="deuce">
<B>deuce</B> (2), interjection, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) a mild oath or exclamation of annoyance; the dickens; the devil. <BR> <I>Ex. Who the deuce is he?</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>deuce of a,</B> (Informal.) <DD><B> a. </B>exceptional; extraordinary. </I> <I>Ex. It was a deuce of a game.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>exceptionally. <BR> <I>Ex. We had a deuce of a good time.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="deuceace">
<B>deuce-ace, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a low throw with dice, of deuce and ace. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) bad luck. </DL>
<B>deuces wild,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a card game in which a deuce represents any card in the deck. Deuces wild is played in some forms of poker and in canasta. </DL>
<A NAME="deurbanize">
<B>deurbanize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to deprive (a district or city) of its urban character. </DL>
<A NAME="deusexmachina">
<B>deus ex machina,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a person, god, or event that comes just in time to solve a difficulty in a story, play, or other literary or dramatic work, especially when the coming is contrived or artificial. <BR> <I>Ex. There is ... Ferral, a French representative of big business, whom Malraux uses as the novel's deus ex machina (New Yorker). (Figurative.) Mr. Galbraith rejects the notion that somewhere in Wall Street there was a deus ex machina who somehow engineered the boom and bust (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(literally) a god from a machine (referring to a mechanical device used in the ancient Greek and Roman theater by which actors who played the parts of gods were lowered from above the stage to end or resolve the dramatic action). </DL>
<A NAME="deusmisereatur">
<B>Deus Misereatur,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) (may) God have mercy (the first words of, and a title for, Psalm 67). </DL>
<A NAME="deusvobiscum">
<B>Deus vobiscum,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) God be with you. </DL>
<A NAME="deusvult">
<B>Deus vult,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) God wills (it), the battle cry of the Crusades. </DL>
<A NAME="deut">
<B>Deut.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Deuteronomy (book of the Old Testament). </DL>
<A NAME="deuteragonist">
<B>deuteragonist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the character of second importance in the ancient Greek drama (after the protagonist). <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) any secondary or minor character. <BR> <I>Ex. Like the philosopher McIndoe, the deuteragonist in Mr. Lister's poem, I have had thoughts in midair (Eli Waldron).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="deuteranope">
<B>deuteranope, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person suffering from deuteranopia. </DL>
<A NAME="deuteranopia">
<B>deuteranopia, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> lack of ability to see the color green. </DL>
<A NAME="deuteranopic">
<B>deuteranopic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with deuteranopia. </DL>
<B>deuteration, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the condition of becoming or being deuterated. </DL>
<A NAME="deuteride">
<B>deuteride, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a compound of deuterium containing some other element or radical, as of lithium. </DL>
<A NAME="deuterium">
<B>deuterium, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an isotope of hydrogen; heavy hydrogen. Its atoms have about twice the mass of ordinary hydrogen. Deuterium occurs in heavy water. <BR> <I>Ex. Deuterium or double-weight hydrogen if "fused" into heavier elements would constitute a source of energy virtually without limit since it occurs in great abundance in sea water (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<B>deuterocanonical, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with a second canon; forming a second canon. </DL>
<A NAME="deuterocanonicalbooks">
<B>deuterocanonical books,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> those books or sections of books of the Biblical canon as defined by the Council of Trent that include most of the Old Testament Apocrypha of the King James Version and are regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as constituting a second canon, accepted later than the first, but of equal authority. </DL>
<A NAME="deuterocone">
<B>deuterocone, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the inner and anterior cusp of an upper premolar of mammals. </DL>
<A NAME="deuterogamist">
<B>deuterogamist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who marries a second time. </DL>
<A NAME="deuterogamy">
<B>deuterogamy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a second marriage, after the death or divorce of a first husband or wife; digamy. <DD><B> 2. </B>the custom of contracting such marriages. </DL>
