des pec if i cation (despes"ifikashon)

[ It is their des pec if i cation -not the words themselves that belongs to our period. IMG:content-2474.png:[blocks in formation] And when the pibroch bids the battle rave, And level for the charge your arms are laid, Where lives the desperate foe that for such onset staid? Scott . 3. Done or resorted to without regard to consequences, or in the last extremity; showing despair or reckle ne ; extremely hazardous: as, a desperate undertaking; desperate remedies. Som new disguised garment, or desperate hat, fond [foolish] in facion. Ascham, The Scholemaster, p. 54. Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pa ed away. Cowper, Needle Alarm. IMG:content-2475.png:[blocks in formation] ficult to do, manage, cure, or reclaim. 5. Such as to be despaired of; extremely dif- Your bended honesty we shall set right, sir; We surgeons of the law do desperate cures, sir. Fletcher , Spanish Curate, iii. 1. Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, That durst depart from Aristotle's rules. Pope, E ay on Criticism, 1. 271. spectus, look down upon: see despise, and cf. despite, a doublet of despect.] Despection; contempt. Cole ridge. [Rare.] despectant (dē-spek'tant), a. [ L.despectan (t-)s, ppr. of despectare, look down upon: see despite, v.] In her., looking downward; having the head bent downward: said of an animal used as a bearing. Also deject ant. despection (dē-spek's hon), n. [= OF. despec tion, They who take either of these guides, reason or grace, to carry them up to this cliff of meditation, may cast down their thoughts in a calm despection of all those shining attractions which they see to be so transitory. W. Montague, Devoute E ays, I. xix. § 6. despencet, n. An obsolete form of dispense . despendt, v. t. See dispend. despenset, n. An obsolete form of dispense . desperado (des-pe-ra'dō), n.; pl. desperados or -does (-dōz). [ desperado , des per at us , pp., desperate: see desperate .) A desperate or reckle man; one urged by furious pa ions; one habituated to lawle deeds either for himself or for others. This dismal tragedy, perpetrated not by any private desperadoes of that faction. The Cloak in its Colours , p. 9 (1679). A frowzy desperado, shaggy as a bison, in a red shirt and jack-boots, hung about the waist with an a ortment of six shooters and bowie-knives. T. Winthrop, Love and Skates. With a cool, profe ionally murderous look, like that of our border desperadoes. Lathrop, Spanish Vistas, p. 26.