<B>diurnal hibernation,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> hibernation that occurs at certain periods each day among some animals. Some bats spend the day in hibernation and become active at night. The diurnal hibernation of some hummingbirds takes place at night. </DL>
<A NAME="diurnality">
<B>diurnality, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the quality, condition, or habit of being diurnal. <BR> <I>Ex. Studies of the physiology of vertebrate eyes suggest that diurnality and nocturnality come and go as mutation and ecological expedience direct (J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="diurnallibration">
<B>diurnal libration,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an apparent oscillation of the moon as perceived by an observer, produced by the effect of the earth's rotation. </DL>
<A NAME="diurnalmotion">
<B>diurnal motion,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the apparent daily rotation of the heavenly bodies from east to west, an effect produced by the earth's rotation on its axis from west to east. </DL>
<A NAME="diurnalparallax">
<B>diurnal parallax,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the parallax that a heavenly body would have if viewed from two points on the earth separated by an angle of 90 degrees with the earth's center; geocentric parallax. </DL>
<A NAME="diurnation">
<B>diurnation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the habit of sleeping or being inactive during the day, as contrasted with being active at night. </DL>
<A NAME="diuron">
<B>diuron, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a highly toxic, white, crystalline solid used as a weedkiller. </DL>
<A NAME="diuturnal">
<B>diuturnal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of long duration. </DL>
<A NAME="diuturnity">
<B>diuturnity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> long duration; length of time. <BR> <I>Ex. I promise myself, if not immortality, yet diuturnity of being read (Charles Lamb).</I> </DL>
<B>diva, </B>noun, pl. <B>-vas.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a prima donna; famous woman opera singer. </DL>
<A NAME="divagate">
<B>divagate, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-gated,</B> <B>-gating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to wander; stray from one place or subject to another. </DL>
<A NAME="divagation">
<B>divagation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the action of divagating; wandering or straying; deviation; digression. <BR> <I>Ex. The only divagation from the story that he enjoys is the "spot" in which small children from the audience join him in the fun on the stage (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="divagatory">
<B>divagatory, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characterized by divagating; digressive. <BR> <I>Ex. It all makes for a relaxed, divagatory mode of speech (John Russell).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="divalence">
<B>divalence, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> divalent quality or condition. </DL>
<A NAME="divalent">
<B>divalent, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Chemistry.) having a valence of 2; bivalent. </DL>
<A NAME="divali">
<B>Divali, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the Hindu festival of lightsto commemorate the new year. <BR> <I>Ex. One of the prettiest of India's celebrations is Divali (Santha Rama Rau).</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> Also, <B>Dewalee,</B> <B>Diwali.</B> </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="divan">
<B>divan, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a long, low, soft couch or sofa. <DD><B> 2a. </B>a court or council in Turkey and other Oriental countries. <DD><B> b. </B>a council chamber or hall. <DD><B> 3. </B>a smoking room. <BR> <I>Ex. She ... directed him to the cigar divan on the other side of the street (Anthony Trollope).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a collection of Persian or other Oriental poems, especially a series by a single author. <BR> <I>Ex. His chief work was a divan ... of about 700 of his poems (Walter J. Fischel).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="divaricate">
<B>divaricate, </B>verb, <B>-cated,</B> <B>-cating,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to spread apart; branch; diverge. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Botany, Zoology.) to diverge at a wide angle, as certain plant branches or insect wings. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to divide into branches. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>spreading apart at a wide angle; widely divergent. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Botany, Zoology.) branching at a wide angle. adv. <B>divaricately.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="divarication">
<B>divarication, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a spreading apart or branching at a wide angle. <DD><B> 2. </B>divergence from a fixed standard of opinion; difference of opinion; disagreement. </DL>
<A NAME="divaricator">
<B>divaricator, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a thing that divaricates. </DL>
<A NAME="dive">
<B>dive, </B>verb, <B>dived</B> or (U.S. Informal and British Dialect) <B>dove,</B> <B>dived,</B> <B>diving,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to plunge headfirst into water. <DD><B> 2. </B>to go down or out of sight suddenly. <BR> <I>Ex. The thief dived into an alley to escape from the police.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to plunge the hand suddenly into anything. <BR> <I>Ex. He dived into his pockets and brought out a dollar.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Figurative.) to plunge with the mind; begin with energy and zeal. <BR> <I>Ex. She dived into her work with enthusiasm. He has been diving into the history of the Incas.</I> <DD><B> 5a. </B>to plunge downward at a steep angle. <BR> <I>Ex. The hawk dived straight at the field mouse.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(of a submarine) to submerge. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to cause to dive; direct into a dive. <BR> <I>Ex. to dive an airplane or a submarine.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the act of diving. <BR> <I>Ex. We applauded the swimmer's graceful dive.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a downward plunge at a steep angle. <BR> <I>Ex. The submarine made a dive toward the bottom.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Football.) a play in which the quarterback jumps head foremost and runs parallel to the line of scrimmage giving the ball to a back. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Informal.) a low, cheap tavern or night club. </DL>
<A NAME="divebomb">
<B>dive-bomb, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to bomb at low altitude with a dive bomber. </DL>
<A NAME="divebomber">
<B>dive bomber,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a bomber that releases its bomb load just before it pulls out of a dive toward the target. <BR> <I>Ex. Stuka dive bombers screamed down on roads clogged with refugees (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="divebrake">
<B>dive brake,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a speed brake attached to a wing or a fuselage for use in a dive. </DL>
<A NAME="diver">
<B>diver, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that dives. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person whose occupation is working or diving under water. <BR> <I>Ex. a pearl diver. The diver went down to examine the ship that had sunk.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a diving bird. Loons, grebes, penguins, and auks are divers. </DL>
<A NAME="diverge">
<B>diverge, </B>verb, <B>-verged,</B> <B>-verging.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to move or lie in different directions from the same point; branch off. <BR> <I>Ex. Their paths diverged at the fork in the road; he turned left, and she turned right. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by (Robert Frost).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to differ; vary; deviate. <BR> <I>Ex. Contestants who diverge from the rules will be eliminated from the competition. Pronunciations which diverged too far from the prevailing usage of polite society were publicly discouraged (Simeon Potter).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Mathematics.) to increase indefinitely as more terms are added to a series. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to cause to diverge. <BR> <I>Ex. A lens thicker at the edges than in the center tends to diverge incident parallel rays (Shortley and Williams).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="divergence">
<B>divergence, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act or state of diverging; a deviating or differing; difference. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) divergence from the rules. The committee couldn't come to an agreement because of the wide divergence of opinion among its members.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Mathematics.) the fact of diverging. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Meteorology.) the flowing of air out of a particular region. </DL>
<A NAME="divergency">
<B>divergency, </B>noun, pl. <B>-cies.</B> <B>=divergence.</B></DL>
<A NAME="divergent">
<B>divergent, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>diverging; different. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) a welter of divergent opinions.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>for use in different directions. <BR> <I>Ex. a divergent nozzle.</I> adv. <B>divergently.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="divergentsquint">
<B>divergent squint</B> or <B>strabismus,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a squint characterized by the turning of the eye outward. </DL>
<A NAME="diverger">
<B>diverger, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that diverges. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Psychology.) a person who excels in far-ranging and imaginative thought. <BR> <I>Ex. Among the "trendy" biological subjects during the past few years have been both the psychological aspects of dreaming and the personality differences between convergers and divergers (New Scientist and Science Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="diverginglens">
<B>diverging lens,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a concave lens which causes a beam of light to diverge upon passing through it. </DL>
<A NAME="divergingly">
<B>divergingly, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> in a diverging manner. </DL>
<A NAME="divers">
<B>divers, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>more than one; several different; various. <BR> <I>Ex. A well-balanced diet is made up of divers foods. Divers queens who die with Antony But live a great while first with Julius (James Branch Cabell).</I> (SYN) sundry. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) diverse. </DL>
<A NAME="diverse">
<B>diverse, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>different; completely unlike. <BR> <I>Ex. A great many diverse opinions were expressed at the meeting. But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes That look on it! the diverse things they see (George Meredith).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>varied. <BR> <I>Ex. A person of diverse interests can talk on many subjects.</I> (SYN) multiform, diversified. adv. <B>diversely.</B> noun <B>diverseness.</B> </DL>
