To write out of a copy: to order: to appoint: to assigne. to sort: to deuide or distribute: to place: to paint or write aduisedly: to declare or descrine. Describere librum ab aliquo. Cicer. To write out a booke by ones copie. Describere comœdias Græcas, pro verbis latinis eas exprimere, & ad exemplum earum similes, eiusdémque argumenti componere. Ter. Describere rationes. Cic. To wryte out his recknings or accounts in order. Describere. Cic. To deuide: to distribute: set in order or ap pointe. Duodena describit in singulos homines iugera. Cic. He appointeth out for euery man xii acres. Quum Athenienses, victis Persis, Græciæ tributum in tutela classis descripsissent. Iustin. When they had appointed or set a tare vpon the cities of Greece euery one ratably. Describere officia. Cic. To appoint out offices. Iura. Cic. To minister the sawe. Describere pecuniam inciuitates. To seaze summes of mony in a tare to be paide. Ciuitatibus pro numero militum, pecuniarum summas describere. Cicero. To taxe and set summes of money to bee paide of cities ratably according to the number of Souldiers. Describere vrbis partes ad incendia. Cice. To appoint or assigue certaine partes of the citie to be set on fire. In genera describere. Plioi. To distribute and diuide into their kindes. Descriptus populus censu, ordinibus, ætatibus. Ci. The people parted or diuided by rate of goodes, &c. Describere. Plaut. To describe: to expresse and declare by the properties. Mulierem aut alium quempiam describere. Cic. Ingenij sui finibus aliquid describere. Cicero. To describe a thing to be so large as his owne wit is able to compasse. Desiuire & describere verbum aliquod. Cice. Definire rem verbis, & breuiter describere. Cice. Naturam alicuius certis signis describere. Author ad Here. Latronem & sicarium aliquem describere. Cic. To note one by the name of a robber and murderer. Describere in deos. Pli. To appoint to be one of the gods.

I. To copy off, transcribe any thing from an original (freq. in Cic.; elsewh. rare): scripsit Balbus ad me, se a te (i. e. e tuo exemplo) quintum de Finibus librum descripsisse, Cic. Att. 13, 21; cf. id. Ac. 2, 4, 11: epistolam, id. Att. 8, 9; id. Fam. 12, 17, 2; 12, 7, 22: legem, Suet. Cal. 41; id. Dom. 20; so, to write down, write out: carmina in foliis, Verg. A. 3, 445; in carved letters: in viridi cortice carmina, id. E. 5, 14.— Class. and far more freq.,

II. To sketch off, to describe in painting, writing, etc.: delineare, definire.

A. Lit.: non potuit pictor rectius describere ejus formam, Plaut. As. 2, 3, 22; so, geometricas formas in harena, Cic. Rep. 1, 17 fin.: formas in pulvere, Liv. 25, 31; cf. Cic. Fin. 5, 19; id. Clu. 32, 87; id. Sen. 14, 49: sphaeram, id. Rep. 1, 14; cf. caelum, Varr. R. R. 2, 1, 7: caeli meatus radio, Verg. A. 6, 851; cf. id. E. 3, 41: vitam votivā tabellā, Hor. S. 2, 1, 33 et saep.—

B. Trop.

1. To represent, delineate, describe: malos mores, Plaut. Mil. 3, 1, 165; cf.: hominum sermones moresque, Cic. Or. 40, 138: definienda res erit verbis et breviter describenda, id. Inv. 1, 8 fin: qualem (mulierem) ego paulo ante descripsi, id. Cael. 20, 50; id. Phil. 2, 44; id. Sull. 29 fin.: me latronem ac sicarium, id. Mil. 18, 47: si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus ac fur, etc., Hor. S. 1, 4, 3: malo carmine, id. Ep. 2, 1, 154; Quint. 3, 4, 3: vulnera Parthi, Hor. S. 2, 1, 15: lucum, aram Dianae, flumen Rhenum, pluvium arcum, id. A. P. 18 et saep.: praecepta, id. S. 2, 3, 34: facta versibus, Nep. Att. 18, 6. —Rarely

(b). with acc. and inf.: nec qui descripsit corrumpi semina matrum, Ov. Tr. 2, 415; Gell. 9, 1.—Part. subst.: dēscrip-ta, ōrum, n.: recitari factorum dictorumque ejus descripta per dies jussit, the diary, Tac. A. 6, 24.—

2. To mark off, define, divide, distribute into parts. (But whenever the notion of distribution or division is implied, the form discribo seems to have been used by class. writers; and is now restored where de-scr. is found in earlier edd., e.g. Cic. Rep. 2, 8; id. de Or. 2, 71, 288; id. Sest. 30, 66 et saep.) Cf.: libertinos in quatuor urbanas tribus, Liv. 45, 15: annum in duodecim menses, Liv. 1, 19; Flor. 1, 2, 2. —Without in.: commode omnes descripti, aetates, classes, equitatus, Cic. Rep. 4, 2; and: classes centuriasque et hunc ordinem ex censu descripsit, Liv. 1, 42: terram, Vulg. Jos. 18, 6 al. et saep.—

3. Aliquid (alicui), to ascribe, apportion, appoint, assign to any one (cf. remark, no. 2 supra); cf.: vecturas frumenti finitimis civitatibus, Caes. B. C. 3, 42, 4; Liv. 1, 32 al.: officia, to define, Cic. Ac. 2, 36; id. Fam. 12, 1: vices (poetae), Hor. A. P. 86: munera pugnae, Sil. 9, 267 et saep.—Hence, dēscrip-tus, a, um, P. a., qs. marked out, i. e. precisely ordered, properly arranged (ap. Cic.): materies orationis omnibus locis descripta, instructa ornataque, Cic. de Or. 2, 34, 145; cf.: ordo verborum, id. Or. 59, 200: natura nihil est aptius, nihil descriptius, id. Fin. 3, 22, 74.—Neutr. plur. as subst.: dēscrip-ta, orum, things recorded, writings, Tac. A. 6, 24.—Sup. does not occur.— Adv.: dē-scriptē, distinctly, precisely: descripte et electe digerere, opp. confuse et permixte dispergere, Cic. Inv. 1, 30, 49.