Digging

( Hort.) The operation of moving, or stirring, or breaking up earth with a spade, pickaxe, or other sharp instrument. It is mostly performed in gardening, and its chief use is to mix the surface by burying it and bringing what is below to the top. In private gardens, D. is often much neglected; but commercial growers, who have to make the most of their ground, pay particular attention to the subject, and the result is seen in their superior productions. -pl . Certain localities, gulches, mines, ., in certain counties in California, Australia, ., where gold is obtained by digging beneath the soil; as, the Bendigo dig gings . -pl . Place of residence, busine , or resort; as, what sort of diggings is he in? (Vulgar.) Dight, ( dit ,) v . a . ( imp . and pp . DIGHT OF DIGHTED.) [A.S. glove ought perhaps to be folk's -glove, or the gloves of the "good people," the fairies, whom pastoral fables represent to have been in the habit of using these flowers for caps. The French call it "Doigt de la Vierge," "Gantelée," "Gant de Notre Dame," . In Scotland they are called "witches' thimbles," and "dead men's Fig . 822.- IS. bells." The leaves have an acrid, bitter, disagreeable taste, and their effects on the human system require this plant to be employed medicinally with great caution. The first effects of an over-dose are a painful sense of constriction of the throat and stomach; then follows great excitement, vomiting, severe purging, and finally death. Employed in small doses, D. acts as a diuretic and a sedative of the circulation, and its continued use causes great slowne of the pulse, rendering it extremely useful in diseases of the heart, and in inflammation. It is prescribed as a diuretic in dropsies of all kinds, but is most useful in those a ociated with a debilitated and generally diseased state of the constitution. It is a vio lent poison, and great care is requisite in prescribing it, as its use, even in small doses, has been productive of fatal results; for it accumulates in the system. The active principle of fox-glove is termed digit a line . nacea. See MILLET. Digita'ria, n. ( Bot . ) A genus of plants, order Grami Dig'itate, Dig'itated, a. [Lat. digit at us .] ( Bot . ) dihtan.] To dre ; to deck; to adorn; to embellish. (R.) Branching into several leaflets like fingers, as a leaf. "Just so the proud insulting la Array'd and dighted Hudibras." - Butler . Dighter, ( dit'er ,) n. One who dights, bedecks, or adorns. Dighton, ( dit'n ), in Ma achusetts, a town and township of Bristol co., on the N. side of Taunton river, about 35 m. S. by W. of Boston. Pop . (1897) 1,910. On the E. side of the river there is a remarkable rock, which is exposed and covered at every ebb and flow of the tide, and which presents a number of rudely engraved characters attributed by some to the Norsemen. Digit, ( dij'it ,) n. [Lat. digit us , allied to Gr. deiknnmi , to show, to point out; Sansk. dic , to show.] A finger; as, the ten digits of the hands. (Vulgar.) - A measure of a finger's breadth, or 34ths of an inch. (Arith.) A term employed to signify any symbol or number from 0 to 9: thus, 10 is a number of two digits. (Astron.) The twelfth part of the sun or moon's di ameter. , a. [Lat. is.] Pertaining or relating to the fingers, or to digits; as, the extremities. D. exercises. ( Mus .) The exercises employed for the purpose of rendering the fingers independent of each other. As the third finger is the weakest, it is very nece ary for all who practise the pianoforte, ., to cultivate its volition , and strengthen it by exercise adapted to that purpose.