delinition

English

Etymology

From Latin delinere (“to smear”). See liniment.

Noun

delinition

1. (obsolete) A smearing.
   • 1664, H[enry] More, chapter XVIII, in A Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity, […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher for W[illiam] Morden […], →OCLC, book I, pages 68–69:

     The Delinition alſo of the Infant's Ears and Noſtrils with the Spittle of the Prieſt may ſometimes ſtrike harſhly upon the ſpirits of the more delicate; but it makes much for the opinion of his Sanctity, vvhoſe ſpumeous excrement is of ſo ſacred a virtue, and vvill gain alſo the prayers of all the vvomen in the Tovvn, that he may ever be an hail and ſound man.

Anagrams

• leontiniid

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “delinition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)