Word Meanings - DESCANT - Book Publishers vocabulary database

discantus, fr. L. dis + cantus singing, melody, fr. canere to sing. Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song. The

Additional info about word: DESCANT

discantus, fr. L. dis + cantus singing, melody, fr. canere to sing. Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song. The upper voice in part music. The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble. Grove. Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, as children make descant upon plain song. Tyndale. She all night long her amorous descant sung. Milton. Note: The term has also been used synonymously with counterpoint, or polyphony, which developed out of the French déchant, of the 12th century. 2. A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a musical air; a comment or comments. Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant! De Quincey.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of DESCANT)

• Dilate
• Stretch
• widen
• expand
• swell
• distend
• enlarge
• descant
• expatiate

Related words: (words related to DESCANT)

• ENLARGEMENT
  1. The act of increasing in size or bulk, real or apparent; the state of being increased; augmentation; further extension; expansion. 2. Expansion or extension, as of the powers of the mind; ennoblement, as of the feelings and character; as, an
• SWELLTOAD
  A swellfish.
• WIDEN
  To make wide or wider; to extend in breadth; to increase the width of; as, to widen a field; to widen a breach; to widen a stocking.
• EXPANDER
  Anything which causes expansion esp. a tool for stretching open or expanding a tube, etc.
• STRETCHING
  from Stretch, v. Stretching course , a course or series of stretchers. See Stretcher, 2. Britton.
• WIDENESS
  1. The quality or state of being wide; breadth; width; great extent from side to side; as, the wideness of a room. "I landed in a small creek about the wideness of my canoe." Swift. 2. Large extent in all directions; broadness; greatness; as, the
• DILATED
  Widening into a lamina or into lateral winglike appendages. (more info) 1. Expanded; enlarged. Shak.
• DILATER
  One who, or that which, dilates, expands, o r enlarges.
• SWELL
  1. To grow larger; to dilate or extend the exterior surface or dimensions, by matter added within, or by expansion of the inclosed substance; as, the legs swell in dropsy; a bruised part swells; a bladder swells by inflation. 2. To increase in
• DESCANT
  discantus, fr. L. dis + cantus singing, melody, fr. canere to sing. Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song. The
• STRETCH
  OHG. strecchen, Sw. sträcka, Dan. strække; cf. AS. stræck, strec, strong, violent, G. strack straight; of uncertain origin, perhaps 1. To reach out; to extend; to put forth. And stretch forth his neck long and small. Chaucer. I in
• SWELLDOM
  People of rank and fashion; the class of swells, collectively.
• DILATE
  word as latus, used as p. p. of ferre to bear ; or fr. dilatus, used as p. p. of differre to separate (see Delay, Tolerate, 1. To expand; to distend; to enlarge or extend in all directions; to swell; -- opposed to contract; as, the air dilates
• STRETCHER
  A brick or stone laid with its longer dimension in the line of direction of the wall. Gwilt. (more info) 1. One who, or that which, stretches.
• DILATEDLY
  In a dilated manner. Feltham.
• ENLARGED
  Made large or larger; extended; swollen. -- En*lar"ged*ly, adv. -- En*lar"ged*ness, n.
• ENLARGE
  Etym: 1. To make larger; to increase in quantity or dimensions; to extend in limits; to magnify; as, the body is enlarged by nutrition; to enlarge one's house. To enlarge their possessions of land. Locke. 2. To increase the capacity of; to expand;
• SWELLING
  an unnatural prominence or protuberance; as, a scrofulous swelling. The superficies of such plates are not even, but have many cavities and swellings. Sir I. Newton. (more info) 1. The act of that which swells; as, the swelling of rivers in spring;
• EXPAND
  To state in enlarged form; to develop; as, to expand an equation. See Expansion, 5. (more info) 1. To lay open by extending; to open wide; to spread out; to diffuse; as, a flower expands its leaves. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight.
• SWELLISH
  Dandified; stylish.
• UPSWELL
  To swell or rise up.
• UNSWELL
  To sink from a swollen state; to subside. Chaucer.
• HEARTSWELLING
  Rankling in, or swelling, the heart. "Heartswelling hate." Spenser.
• SUBDILATED
  Partially dilated.
• BOSWELLISM
  The style of Boswell.
• TRADESCANTIA
  A genus including spiderwort and Wandering Jew.
• ENWIDEN
  To widen.
• FAR-STRETCHED; FARSTRETCHED
  Stretched beyond ordinary limits.