Deck – Deflection
Deck
a horizontal platform or floor extending from side to side of a ship, a ship , and formed of planking supported by the beams. In ships of large size there are several decks one over the other.
The quarter-deck is that above the upper-deck, reaching forward from the stern to the gangway.
Declension
in grammar, the aggregate of the inflections or changes of form which nouns, pronouns, and adjectives receive in certain languages according to their meaning or relation to other words in a sentence, such variations being comprehended under the three heads of number, gender, and case, the latter being the most numerous.
DECORATION DAY
Decoction
the term applied in pharmacy to the solution procured by boiling an organic substance with water.
DECOLORIMETER (de-kol-ō-rim'eter), an instrument for determining the power of portions of bone-black or animal charcoal to abstract coloring matter.
Decomposition
the rather comprehensive term applied to the breaking up of complex substances or substances of delicate stability, into others which are less complex or more stable. The term decomposition is constantly applied in chemistry to the changes which compounds undergo in the most varied circumstances when subjected to change of conditions.
Decrescent
a heraldic term by which the wane of the moon is indicated.
A moon decrescent is a half-moon with her horns turned to the (heraldic) sinister-i. e., the right of the spectator.
Deergrass
or MEADOW BEAU- TY, a genus of an Asiatic plant of the order Melastomacex, found chiefly in New England. It is noted for the beauty of its flowers, which have bright purple petals, and thrives best on meadow land.
It is said that there are but eight species of the order in the United States.
Defenders
a Catholic association in Ireland (1784-1798), the opponents of the Peep o' Day Boys.
Defiance
a city and county-seat of Defiance co., O.; on the Maumee river, the Wabash and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads, and the Miami and Erie canal; 50 miles S. of Toledo. It is a trade center and has woolen mills, flour mills, machine and carriage shops, 2 National banks, and daily and weekly newspapers.
Pop. (1910) 7,327; (1920) 8,876.
Defiance College
a coeducational (non-sect.) institution in Defiance, O.; founded in 1884; reported at the end of 1919: Professors and instructors, 25, students, 497; president A. G. Caris.
Defilading
that branch of the science of fortification, the object of which is to determine, when the intended work would be commanded by eminences within range, the directions or heights of the lines of rampart or parapet, so that the interior of the work may not be incommoded by a fire directed to it from such heights.
Definite Proportions
LAWS OF. See ATOMIC THEORY.
Deflection
in navigation, the departure of a ship from her true course; in optics, a deviation of the rays of light toward the surface of an opaque body.