diffused wild, irregular, extravagant:
“some diffused song,”
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, iv. 4.
53
;
“diffused attire,”
HENRY V., v. 2. 61
;
“diffus'd infection of a man”
RICHARD III., i. 2. 78.
(
“I believe diffus'd in this place signifies irregular,
uncouth,”
JOHNSON
; (
“defused,”
Cambridge
)
“diffus'd infection of a
man may mean, ‘thou that art as dangerous as a pestilence that infects the air
by its diffusion,’”
STEEVENS
. The Cambridge reading of defused is
explained by Schmidt as meaning shapeless). (
“He that marketh our follies in being passing humorous for
the choyse of apparell, shall finde Ouids confused chaos to affoord a multitude of defused inuentions.”
Greene's Farewell to
Follie, sig. C 2 verso, ed. 1617.
)