delay, to temper, assuage, quench. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30; iii. 12. 42; Prothalamion, 3; to dilute, ‘She can drink a cup of wine not delayed with water’, Davenport, City Nightcap, 1 (Dorothea); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiii. 114. OF. (Norm.) desleier, to unbind, soften by steeping, Romanic type disligare, to unbend; see NED.
delewine, deal-wine, an unidentified wine; supposed to have been a Rhenish wine. B. Jonson, Mercury Vindicated (Mercury’s second speech); Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1; where Sir T. Bornwell says—‘Where deal and backrag [Bacharach] and what strange wine else’, &c.
delibate, to taste, to taste a little of. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Duke). L. delibare, to taste slightly.
delice, delight, pleasure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 28; iv. 10. 6. F. délices, pl, L. deliciae, delights.
delirement, a crazy fancy, delusion. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii (Amphitrio); vol. iii, p. 107; id., Dialogue 4; vol. vi, p. 179. F. délirement; L. deliramentum, madness.
deliver, active, nimble, agile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12, § last; ‘Delyver of ones Gunnes as they that prove mastryes, souple. Delyver redy quicke to do anythyng, agile, delivré’, Palsgrave. ME. deliver, quick, active (Chaucer, C. T. A. 84). OF. delivre, deslivre, prompt, alert, O. Prov. deliure, ‘libre, délivré; alerte; non chargé; en parlant d’une bête’; see Levy. Med. L. deliberare, ‘liberare, redimere’ (Ducange).
dell, a virgin, a wench. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 75.
deluvye, the deluge. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 273, back, 30. L. diluvium, the deluge (Vulgate).
demain, demesne, domain. Dryden, On Mrs. A. Killigrew, 103; demeanes, pl., Romeo, iii. 5. 182 (1592). ME. demayn, a possession (Trevisa), see NED. (s.v. Demesne, 3); OF. demeine, Med. L. ‘dominicum quod ad dominum spectat’ (Ducange). See [payne mayne].
demean(e, behaviour, demeanour; ‘Another Damsell . . . modest of demayne’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 40; treatment (of others), id. vi. 6. 18. See Dict. (s.v. Demean (1)).