Both Uses of
diffuse
in
Washington Square
- …and the infant palate; it was here that you took your first walks abroad, following the nursery-maid with unequal step and sniffing up the strange odour of the ailantus-trees which at that time formed the principal umbrage of the Square, and diffused an aroma that you were not yet critical enough to dislike as it deserved; it was here, finally, that your first school, kept by a broad-bosomed, broad-based old lady with a ferule, who was always having tea in a blue cup, with a saucer…†
Chpt 3
- The peculiar fragrance of this vegetation used to diffuse itself in the evening air, and Mrs. Penniman, on the warm nights of July, often sat at the open window and inhaled it.†
Chpt 34 *
Definition:
-
(diffuse) to spread; or to soften or calm
or:
to be spread out (not concentrated) -- sometimes implying a lack of organization