<B>discretion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the quality of being discreet; good judgment; care in speech or action; wise caution. <BR> <I>Ex. My brother rushed in front of the car, but I showed more discretion. It requires discretion to criticize someone without hurting his feelings.</I> (SYN) prudence, sagacity. <DD><B> 2. </B>freedom to judge or choose. <BR> <I>Ex. It is within the principal's discretion to punish a pupil.</I> (SYN) choice. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) judgment; decision. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) separation; distinction. <BR><I>expr. <B>at the discretion of,</B> </I>according to the way one pleases, chooses, or thinks fit. <BR> <I>Ex. This fund will be used at the discretion of the chairman.</I> </DL>
<B>discretionarily, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> in a discretionary way. </DL>
<A NAME="discretionary">
<B>discretionary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> with freedom to decide or choose; left to one's own judgment. <BR> <I>Ex. The law gave the mayor certain discretionary powers. A discretionary account arises when an investor in effect says to his broker: "I trust you and I think your judgment is great. I don't have time to worry over my stocks. You buy and sell whenever you think best" (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discretionaryincome">
<B>discretionary income,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> disposable income in excess of the amount needed for necessities such as clothing, housing, and food. <BR> <I>Ex. Since 1940, U.S. discretionary income ... has increased six-fold (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discretive">
<B>discretive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>serving to separate or divide. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=disjunctive.</B> adv. <B>discretively.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminability">
<B>discriminability, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> capability of being distinguished. </DL>
<A NAME="discriminable">
<B>discriminable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that can be discriminated or distinguished. <BR> <I>Ex. It is estimated that there are ten million discriminable colors.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminance">
<B>discriminance, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> something that helps to discriminate or distinguish; discriminant. <BR> <I>Ex. Existing seismic capabilities for the identification of underground nuclear explosions can identify, in the northern hemisphere, 50 kiloton events in hard rock. By the inclusion of other types of discriminance this identification could, in principle, be reduced by a factor of about five (New Scientist and Science Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminant">
<B>discriminant, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>anything which serves as a discriminating or distinguishing quality or characteristic. <BR> <I>Ex. Length of flower stalk is another useful discriminant (R. H. Richens).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Mathematics.) an algebraic expression used to distinguish or separate other expressions in a quantity or equation. </DL>
<A NAME="discriminate">
<B>discriminate, </B>verb, <B>-nated,</B> <B>-nating,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to see or note a difference; make a distinction. <BR> <I>Ex. It is often difficult to discriminate between a mere exaggeration and a deliberate falsehood.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to show a difference in treatment. <BR> <I>Ex. It is wrong to discriminate against people because of their race, religion, or nationality.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to make or see a difference between. <BR> <I>Ex. Some boys cannot discriminate red from green easily. Can you discriminate a good book from a poor one?</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to constitute a difference between; differentiate. <BR> <I>Ex. Communicating knowledge discriminates human beings from animals.</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>having discrimination; making careful distinctions. <BR> <I>Ex. Bright students and slow students should have discriminate treatment.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) distinguished; distinct. adv. <B>discriminately.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminating">
<B>discriminating, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>able to discriminate well; discerning. <BR> <I>Ex. The art collector has discriminating taste.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>that discriminates. <BR> <I>Ex. She is discriminating in her choice of friends.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>differential. <BR> <I>Ex. Makers wanted a discriminating duty on imports.</I> <DD> Also, <B>discriminative.</B> adv. <B>discriminatingly.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="discrimination">
<B>discrimination, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of making or recognizing differences and distinctions. <BR> <I>Ex. Do not buy clothes without discrimination. Discrimination between fact and theory is sometimes difficult to make.</I> (SYN) discernment, insight, acumen. <DD><B> 2. </B>the ability to discriminate accurately between things that are very much alike; good judgment. <BR> <I>Ex. He lacked discrimination in his choice of friends. It does ... credit to your discrimination that you should have found such a very excellent young woman (Dickens).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a making a difference in favor of or against. <BR> <I>Ex. Racial or religious discrimination in hiring workers is against the law.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) something that serves to differentiate. </DL>
<A NAME="discriminational">
<B>discriminational, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with discrimination, especially racial discrimination. </DL>
<A NAME="discriminationreaction">
<B>discrimination reaction,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Psychology.) a reaction in which the movement of response is delayed until the mind of the subject has identified the stimulus. </DL>
<A NAME="discriminationtime">
<B>discrimination time,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Psychology.) the total duration of the time of a discrimination reaction, or the time necessary for the identification of the stimuli. </DL>
<B>discriminator, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that discriminates. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Electronics.) a circuit that converts one type of signal to another. <BR> <I>Ex. The original picture or composite telephone signals are obtained at the output of the discriminator, the FM counterpart of the detector in popular radio practice (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminatorily">
<B>discriminatorily, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> so as to discriminate; discriminatively. <BR> <I>Ex. ... punishing discriminatorily any person exercising or seeking to exercise his right to vote (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discriminatory">
<B>discriminatory, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> discriminative; showing partiality or prejudice. <BR> <I>Ex. Proponents of the bill argued that Federal regulation of natural-gas production ... was discriminatory, since the government did not attempt to fix prices on coal, iron, copper (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discrown">
<B>discrown, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to deprive of royal power; depose. (SYN) uncrown. </DL>
<A NAME="disculpate">
<B>disculpate, </B>transitive verb, <B>-pated,</B> <B>-pating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to free from blame or fault; exculpate. </DL>
<A NAME="disculpation">
<B>disculpation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> freedom from blame or fault; exculpation. </DL>
<B>discursion, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a digression. <BR> <I>Ex. The discussion of ghost stories turned into a discursion on personal experiences.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="discursive">
<B>discursive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>wandering from one subject to another; rambling. <BR> <I>Ex. His carefully planned speech was not discursive but stayed right on the subject. ... a slow-paced, leisurely, ... and discursive novel (New York Times).</I> (SYN) digressive. <DD><B> 2. </B>proceeding by reasoning or argument. <BR> <I>Ex. Johnson ... is always a man of intuitions rather than of discursive intellect (Leslie Stephen).</I> adv. <B>discursively.</B> noun <B>discursiveness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="discus">
<B>discus, </B>noun, pl. <B>-cuses</B> or <B>-ci.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a heavy, circular plate of rubber, plastic, or wood with a metal rim. It is used in athletic games as a test of skill and strength in throwing. Discuses were formerly made of stone or metal. <DD><B> 2. </B>the throwing of the discus as a test of skill or as a contest. </DL>
<A NAME="discuss">
<B>discuss, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to consider from various points of view; talk over. <BR> <I>Ex. His mother and father always discuss the news. Congress is discussing tax rates. Senior public education officials ... gathered here to discuss how to improve the big-city school systems (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) to try the qualities of (food or drink) by eating or drinking; consume. <BR> <I>Ex. They allowed him to discuss the question, while they discussed his port wine (Frederick Marryat).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(in civil law) to take all possible steps to recover a debt from (the person primarily liable) before proceeding against the person secondarily liable. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Archaic.) to dispel; disperse. <BR> <I>Ex. a pomade ... of virtue to discuss pimples (Samuel Johnson).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Obsolete.) to make known; reveal. <BR> <I>Ex. Art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss (Shakespeare).</I> noun <B>discusser.</B> </DL>
<B>discussant, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person participating in a discussion. <BR> <I>Ex. Let one of the discussants so much as intimate a fresh idea or engage another of the panelists in controversy, and there is Mr. Smith, quick on the switch, shunting the discussion into more neutral territory (Time).</I> </DL>
