disengagement, of an engagement ‘broken off’, as we say: S S 184 treating their disengagement … as an escape.
disgusting, as in the eighteenth century, was a much milder term than it is now: E 33 ‘The older a person grows … the more glaring and disgusting any loudness, or coarseness, or awkwardness becomes’; 169 (Jane Fairfax) was disgustingly, was suspiciously reserved.
A notorious passage in Johnson’s Life of Milton is perhaps not seldom misunderstood: ‘In this poem (Lycidas) there is no nature, for there is no truth; there is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting.’
dismission: P P 114.
distance: E 274 ‘We are rather out of distance of the very striking beauties which attract the sort of parties you speak of’.
distinguish: P P 235 The rest of the evening passed … with no farther attempt to distinguish Elizabeth. M P 238 (Sir Thomas) could not avoid perceiving … that Mr. Crawford was somewhat distinguishing his neice. E 21 Her (Miss Bates’s) youth had passed without distinction (this probably means, in effect, without offer of marriage).
division: M P 432 the warmest divisions of her aunt’s garden. E 26 two divisions of the grounds. M P 446 The first division of their journey.
do … do: S S 106 ‘How does Mrs. Dashwood do?’
doings: P P 304 ‘it must be my uncle’s doings!’; cf. Camilla, book v, ch. iii ‘she was sure it was all Miss Camilla’s doings his staying here’.
document: P 203 ‘I would not burn it, because … I was determined to preserve every document of former intimacy’ (i.e. documentary proof, as we should now say).
done: E 111 It was a done thing.
draw in: S S 23 the danger attending any young woman who attempted to draw him in (the expression is Mrs. John Dashwood’s).
dress = cook: M P 212; 215. E 28.
effect: N A 112 ‘if such a design is known beforehand, proper measures will … be taken … to prevent its coming to effect’.
elegant: M P 239 the dinner … was elegant and plentiful. P P 139 an amiable, intelligent, elegant woman (elegant female is common). E 35 a want of elegance of feature (Mr. Elton); 270 she suspected that there was no elegance; —ease, but not elegance (Mrs. Elton); 164 the rational pleasures of an elegant society.
elocution = power of expressing oneself: M P 186 better notions than his elocution would do justice to.
endow: N A 118 fond of her brother, and partial to all his endowments. P 37 Though better endowed than the elder sister, May had not Anne’s understanding or temper.
engage, in various senses: P P 216 ‘You see how continually we are engaged there’ (at Rosings; we should say invited). M P 263 ‘Wear the necklace, as you are engaged to do’. S S 361 engaged her mother’s consent; 320 ‘engage her regard’. P P 102 engaged Mrs. Collins’s conversation to herself. S S 321 ‘as soon as I could engage her alone’.