deaconship (deknship)

[ ment of the secular affairs of the church. Deacons are not always appointed, their place being sometimes supplied by the elders. (1) In the Luther an Church in the United States, one of a number of laymen chosen to at All trades Have their dead time, we see. Middle ton ( and others ), The Widow, iv. 2. They came away, and brought all their substance in tobacco, which came at so dead a market as they could not get above two pence the pound. Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 10. 11. Producing no reverberation; without resonance; dull; heavy: as, a dead sound. deacone . Even the apostolate itself [was] called a deaconship . The bell seemed to sound more dead than it did when, Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 31. just before, it sounded in the open air. Boyle . dead 12. Tastele ; vapid; spiritle ; flat: said of liquors.-13. Without spiritual life: as, dead works; dead faith. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in tres. pa es and sins. Eph. ii. 1. 14. Fixed; sure; unerring: as, a dead certainty. The author... has been out with you sands of sportsmen, but he never yet saw a dead shot-one who can kill every time. R. B. Roosevelt , Game Water-Birds, p. 401. 15. Being in the state of civil death; cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of ts of property, as one sentenced to imprisonment for life for crime, or, formerly, one who was banished or became a monk. - 16. Not communicating motion or power: as, dead steam; the dead spindle of a lathe.-17. Not glo y or brilliant: said of a color or a surface. - 18. Out of the game; out of play: said of a ball or a player: as, a dead ball; he is dead.-19. In golf, said of a ball when it falls without rolling. - Absolution for the dead. See absolution. - Baptism for the dead. See baptism. - Dead-alive, or dead-and-alive, dull; inactive; moping. [Colloq.] If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be le in pro portion as he is dead - and - alive to begin with. Thoreau , Walden, p. 168. Dead angle, in fort . See angle3. - Dead as a doornail, utterly, completely dead. As ded as dornayl te deme the so the. William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3396. Dead axle, beat, block, calm, copy, escapement, file, force, gold, etc. See the nouns. - Dead cotton, unripe cotton fibers which will not take dye. - Dead floor, a floor so constructed as to absorb or prevent the pa age of sounds.- Dead freight, in maritime law, the amount paid by agreement, by a charterer, for that part of a ve el which he does not occupy. - Dead ground. Same as dead angle. Dead heat. See heat. - Dead hedge, a hedge made with the prunings of trees, or with the tops of old hedges which have been cut down. - Dead holes. See hole1.-Dead language, lift, matter. See the nouns. -Dead letter. (a) A letter which lies unclaimed for a certain time at a post-office, or which for any reason, a defect of addre , cannot be delivered, and is sent to the dead-letter office. (b) A law, ordinance, or legal instrument which, through long-continued and uninterrupted disuse or disregard, has lost its actual although not its formal authority. - Dead-letter office, a department of a general post-office where dead letters are examined and returned to the writers when an addre is found within, or, if the addre is not given, destroyed after a fixed time. In the United States this department is called the Division of Dead Letters, and is under the supervision of the Third A istant Postmaster-General. - Dead men. ( a ) Bottles emptied at a banquet, carouse, etc. [Slang.] Lord Sm. Come, John, bring us a fresh bottle. Col. Ay, my lord, and pray let him carry off the dead men, as we say in the army (meaning the empty bottles). Swift, Polite Conversation, ii. (b) Naut., an old name for the reef or gasket-ends carele ly left dangling under the yard when the sail is furled, instead of being tucked in. [Rare.] - Dead men's shoes, a situation or po e ion formerly held by a person who has died. 'Tis tedious waiting dead mens shoes. Fletcher, Poems, p. 256. And ye're e'en come back to Libber ton to wait for dead men's shoon. Scott , Heart of Mid-Lothian, v. Dead on end ( naut.), said of the wind when it blows in direct opposition to a ship's course. - Dead pallet, in watch -making. See dead beat (b), under IMG:content-2098.png:[blocks in formation] A sad course I liue now; heauen's sterne decree With many an ill hath numbed and deaded me. Chapman , Ody ey, xviii. Why lose you not your powers, and become Dulled, if not deaded , with this spectacle? B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, i. 1. 2. To cause to fail in recitation: said of a teacher who puzzles a scholar. [School slang.] dead (ded), adv. [ IMG:content-2099.png:[blocks in formation] At a most rich succe strikes all dead sure. Middle ton, Changeling, v. 1. 4. Directly; exactly; diametrically: as, the wind was dead ahead. - Dead beat. See beat1, pp.- To be dead set against, to be wholly and resolutely opposed to. [Colloq.]- To be dead up to, to know or understand thoroughly; be expert in. [Thieves' slang.] - To lie dead, in golf, to lie so near the hole that a player is certain to put it in with his next stroke: said of a ball. dead-beat (ded'bēt'), a. and n. I. a. Making succe ive movements with intervals of rest and no recoil; free from oscillatory movement. - Dead-beat escapement, etc. See the nouns. II. n. 1. A dead-beat escapement. - 2. See dead beat ( a ), under beat1, n. dead-bell (ded'bel), n. Same as death - bell. And every jow that the dead - bell geid, It cry'd, Woe to Barbara Allan! Herd's Collection, I. 20.