decus, a crown-piece. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior). A slang term; from the L. words decus et tutamen, engraved upon the rim.
deduce, to deduct. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Sir Moth). L. deducere, to lead away, withdraw.
deduct, to reduce. Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Gnotho). See NED.
deduction, a leading forth of a colony. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 455; used as a synonym for ‘dismission’ (i.e. dismissal), id., xix. 423, 427. L. deductio, a leading forth of a colony, deriv. of deducere, to lead forth, conduct a colony to a place.
deduit, diversion, enjoyment, pleasure. Deduytes, pleasures, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 27. 18. ME. deduit, pleasure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2177), OF. deduit (Bartsch), deduyt (Rabelais), Med. L. deductus, ‘animi oblectatio’ (Ducange).
defail, to defeat, cause to fail. Machin, Dumb Knight, i (Epire); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. Only found here in this sense.
defalcate, curtailed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 10, § 1. Med. L. defalcare, ‘deducere, subtrahere’ (Ducange).
defalk, to cut off, deduct; ‘I defalke, I demynysshe, I cutte awaye’, Palsgrave. See above.
defame, dishonour. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 316); Fletcher, Prophetess, i. 1 (Aurelia).
defeature, defeat, ruin. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 17; disfigurement, Com. Errors, ii. 1. 98; ii. 5. 299.