A Dictionary of Cont..

day before; day after. The omission of the definite
article before day before or day nfter (Day
after tomorrow is their anniversary) is accepted
usage.
dead as a doornail seems to have been established
as a proverbial expression by the time
(13.50) it first appeared in writing, yet no one
knows why a doornail should be deader than
any other inanimate thing. It has been conjectured
that the particular nail referred to was the
one upon which the knocker fell and that its
deadness may have been a whimsical assumption
from the pounding it received. It has also been
conjectured that its deadness may have been
suggested by the silence with which such pounding
was often received; for until the policed and
electrically lighted security of modern times people
did not open their doors, especially after
dark, merely because someone knocked. This
latter guess is supported by the fact that it was
sometimes as dumb as a doornail or as deaf as
a doornail or (IS dour as a doornail. But at the
best these are only theories. No one has ever
found a context that throws any light on the
problem. No one really knows what the simile
means, and a figure of speech that has been used
daily for six hundred years without anyone’s
knowing what it means must surely be granted
to be a clich6.
dead; deadly. Deadly means death-dealing, as in
a deadly weapon. It is an adjective and is used
to qualify a noun. Dead also qualifies a noun
when it is used in its literal sense, as in a dead
horse. But it may mean deathlike or deathly,
and in this sense is used to qualify adjectives, as
in dead white. We therefore say I was dead tired
and the conversation was deadly.
The adjective dead may be used as if it were
a noun meaning all people who have died, as the
second dead in and dead the dead will stay. Unlike
most adjectives, dead may also be used in
speaking about a particular group of people, as
in from these honored dead we take increased
devotion. It may also be used with a numeral,
as in there were twenty dead. At one time the
dead could be used in speaking of a single individual,
as in blessed is the dead that the rain
rains on and the dead raising himself the third
and last time. This use of the dead as a singular
is still heard in some parts of the United States,
but it is now rare in literary English.
deadly in the sense of awful or terrible or excessive
was once a fairly common colloquialism. Pepys
quaintly says that he was compelled on one
occasion to sign a deadly number of pardons
and one of the characters in She Stoops to Conquer
tells another that he is a deadly deal wrong.
deal. The past tense of the verb is dealt. The participle
is alsodealt. The noun deal means amount
and could once be used in just the way we now
use lot, as in they talked a deal of nonsense and
it wns a deal of trouble. It replaced the word
heap, which had once been used in this way, and
is now itself being replaced by lot.
In current English deal is used in the sense of
lot only in the expressions a good deal and a
great deal, These phrases require of immediately
127 deceit
before a noun, as in a great deal of money. But
they may be used without of before degree words
such as more, less, too much, too many, as in
a great deal more money. They may also be used
to qualify adjectives or adverbs in the comparative,
as in a good den1 cheaper, a great deal
faster.
At one time these phrases could be used before
plural nouns, as in a great deal of pieces of
timber. Today, they are only used before mass
words. We say a great deal of china but a great
many plates.
dear; dearly. Dear is both an adjective and an
adverb. It has been used as an adverb from the
earliest times, both in the sense of at a high
price, as in By God, he said, that bought me
dear, and in the sense of with deep affection, as
in Rosaline that thou didst love so dear. The
form dearly is never used to qualify a noun.
See also costly.
dear; my dear. Prefixing my to the usual dear in
the salutation of a letter intensifies either the
formality or the informality. My dear son is
more informal than Dear Son, but (in American
usage, not in English) My dear Mr. Smith is
more formal than Dear Mr. Smith.
dearth (scarcity, lack) is in most vocabularies restricted
entirely to the phrase a dearth of information.
It is hardly a clichC, since its meaning
is clear to all who use it and it doesn’t roll effortlessly
off every tongue, but it is worn and should
be watched.
deathless. See undying.
debar; disbar. To debar is to exclude, either literally
or figuratively (He was debarred from the
factory grounds. His lameness debarred him
from taking part in athletics). To disbar is a
technical legal term meaning to expel from the
legal profession or from the bar of a particular
court (Disbarment proceedings were instigated
at once against the attorneys who had offered
the bribe).
debenture. In England debenture is often used for
what in the United States is commonly called a
bond. In America a debenture or debenture
bond is merely a certificate of indebtedness.
decant; descant. To decant is to pour off gently,
without disturbing the sediment. Wines are decanted
from the bottle into a decanter (Attend
him daily as their chief/ Decant his wine and
carve his beef).
A descant is a melody or counterpoint accompanying
a simple musical theme and usually
written above it (You are too flat,/ And mar the
concord, with too harsh a descant). In part singing
it is the soprano (Children neigh forth the
descant. Composed for three voices--descant,
tenor, and buss). It also means to make comments
on, to discourse at length and with variety
(To see my shadow in the sun,/ And descant on
mine own deformity. Johnson never accustomed
himself to descant on the ingratitude of mankind).
decease. See die.
deceit; deception. Deceit is the quality of being
false (Deceit lay deep in his nature, hidden
under a semblance of hearty frankness), the act