Both Uses of
diffuse
in
Middlemarch
- Signs are small measurable things, but interpretations are illimitable, and in girls of sweet, ardent nature, every sign is apt to conjure up wonder, hope, belief, vast as a sky, and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge.†
Chpt 1 *diffused = mixed in; or spread; or softened; or calmed
- She was so intensely conscious of having a cousin who was a baronet's son staying in the house, that she imagined the knowledge of what was implied by his presence to be diffused through all other minds; and when she introduced Captain Lydgate to her guests, she had a placid sense that his rank penetrated them as if it had been an odor.†
Chpt 6
Definition:
to spread; or to soften or calm
or:
to be spread out (not concentrated) -- sometimes implying a lack of organization
or:
to be spread out (not concentrated) -- sometimes implying a lack of organization