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desiccate: a tour of this smokehouse will give you an idea of how the pioneers used to desiccate food in order to preserve it

despondent: to the dismay of his parents, he became seriously despondent after he broke up with Jane

detached: a psychoanalyst must maintain a detached point of view and stay uninvolved with his patients' personal lives

deterrent: does the threat of capital punishment serve as a deterrent to potential killers?

detrimental: the candidate's acceptance of major financial contributions from a well-known racist ultimately proved detrimental to his campaign.

devious: the Joker's plan was do devious that it was only with great difficulty we could folloe its shifts and dodges

devise: how clever he must be to have devised such a devious plan!

diffidence: you must overcome your diffidence if you intend to become a salesperson

diffuse: if you pay authors by the word, you tempt them to produce diffuse manuscripts rather than brief ones

digression: nobody minded when his lectures wandered away from their official theme; his digressions were always more fascinating than the topic of the day

dilatory: if you are dilatory in paying bills, your credit rating may suffer

diminution: he was as sharp at eighty as he had been at fifty; increasing age led to no diminution of hid mental acuity

discerning: though no genius, the star was sufficiently discerning to tell her true friends from the countless phonies who flattered her.

disclose: although competitors offered him bribes, he refused to disclose any information about his company's forthcoming product

discordant: nothing is quite discordant as the sound of a junior high school orchestra tuning up

discount: be prepared to discount what he has to say about his ex-wife

discourse: the young Plato was drawn to the Agora to hear the philosophical discourse of Socrates and his followers

discrepancy: the police noticed some discrepancies in his description of the crime and did not believe him

disdain: in the film, the bookish heroine disdained fashion models for their lack of intellectual interests