Chapter Dinde to Diptych of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Dinde to Diptych

Dinde (1 syl.). The French for a turkey is poulet d'Inde (an Indian fowl). This is an error as the bird comes from America unless indeed the whole Western continent with all its contiguous islands be called by the name of West Indies. Our word "turkey" is no better if indeed it means a native of Turkey.

Dine (To).
   Qui dort dine. The seven sleepers and others required no food till they woke from their long sleep. The same may be said of all hibernating animals.
   To dine with Democritos. To be cheated out of one's dinner. Democritos was the derider or philosopher who laughed at men's folly.
   To dine with Sir Thomas Gresham. To go without one's dinner; to be dinnerless; Sir Thomas Gresham founded the Royal Exchange which was a favourite lounge for those who could not afford to provide themselves with a dinner.
   To dine with Duke Humphrey. (See Humphrey.)
   To dine with Mahomet. To die and dine in paradise.
   To dine with the cross-legged knights. (See next column Dinnerless.)

Dine Out (To). To be dinnerless to go without a dinner.

Ding (A). A blow. To ding it in one's ears. To repeat a subject over and over again; to teach by repetition.
   To ding. To strike. (Anglo-Saxon dencg [an] to knock strike beat.) Hence "ding-dong" as "They were at it ding-dong."

"The butcher's axe like great Achilles' bat
Dings deadly downe ten-thousand-thousand flat." Taylor: Works (1630).

Ding-dong They went at it ding-dong. Fighting in good earnest. To ding is to beat or bruise (Saxon dencgan) dong is a responsive word. One gives a ding and the other a dong.
    Din is the Anglo- Saxon dyn-ian to make a din; dinung a dinning noise.

Dingley Dell The home of Mr. Wardle and his family, and the scene of Tupman's love adventure with Miss Rachel. (Dickens. Pickwick Papers.)

Dinner (Waiting for). The "mauvais quart d'heure. "

Dinnerless Their hosts are the cross-legged knights. That is, the stone effigies of the Round Church. In this church at one time lawyers met their clients, and here a host of vagabonds used to loiter about all day, under the hope of being hired as witnesses. Dining with the cross-legged knights meant much the same thing as dining with duke Humphrey (q.v.).

Dinos (See Horse .)

Dint By dint of war; by dint of argument; by dint of hard work. Dint means a blow or striking (Anglo- Saxon, dynt) whence perseverance, power exerted, force; it also means the indentation made by a blow.

Diocletian The Roman Emperor, noted for his fierce persecution of the Christians, 303. The Emperor Constantine, on the other hand, was the "nursing father" of the Church.

"To make the Church's glory shine
Should Diocletian reign not Constantine."
Crabbe: Borough.

Diocletian was the king, and Erastus the prince, his son, in the Italian version of the Seven Wise Masters (q.v.).

Diogenes (4 syl. g=j). The cynic philosopher is said to have lived in a tub.

"The whole world was not half so wide
To Alexander when he cried
Because he had but one to subdue
As was a paltry narrow tub to
Diogenes." Butler Hudibras i. 3.

   Diogenes. Romanus IV. emperor of the East (1067-1071).

Diomed's Horses Dinos (dreadful) and Lampon (bright-eyed). (See Horse.)