PI'ACLE, noun [Latin piaculum.] An enormous crime. [Not used.]

PIAC'ULAR,

PIAC'ULOUS, adjective [Latin piacularis, from pio, to expiate.]

1. Expiatory; having power to atone.

2. Requiring expiation.

3. Criminal; atrociously bad.

[These words are little used.]

PI'ANET, noun [Latin pica or picus.] A bird, the lesser woodpecker.

1. The magpie.

PI'ANIST, noun A performer on the forte-piano, or one well skilled in it.

PIAS'TER, noun An Italian coin of about 80 cents value, or 3s.7d. sterling. But the value is different in different states or countries. It is called also, a piece of eight.

PIAZ'ZA, noun [Eng. id.] In building, a portico or covered walk supported by arches or columns.

PIB'-CORN, noun Among the Welsh, a wind instrument or pipe with a horn at each end.

PI'BROCH, noun A wild irregular species of music, peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland. It is performed on a bagpipe, and adapted to excite or assuage passion, and particularly to rouse a martial spirit among troops going to battle.

PI'CA, noun In ornithology, the pie or mag-pie, a species of Corvus.

1. In medicine, a vitiated appetite which makes the patient crave what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.

2. A printing type of a large size; probably named from litera picata, a great black letter at the beginning of some new order in the liturgy; hence,

3. pica pye or pie, formerly an ordinary, a table or directory for devotional services; also, an alphabetical catalogue of names and things in rolls and records.

Pica marina, the sea-pye, ostralegus, or oyster-catcher; an aquatic fowl of the genus Haematopus. This fowl feeds on oysters, limpets and marine insects.

PICAROON', noun A plunderer; a pirate. This word is not applied to a highway robber, but to pirates and plunderers of wrecks.

In all wars, Corsica and Majorca have been nests of picaroons.

PIC'CADIL

PICCADIL'LY

PIC'CAGE, noun Money paid at fairs for breaking ground for booths.

PICCADIL'LY

PIC'CAGE, n. Money paid at fairs for breaking ground for booths.

PICK, verb transitive [Latin pecto.]

1. To pull off or pluck with the fingers something that grows or adheres to another thing; to separate by the hand, as fruit from trees; as, to pick apples or oranges; to pick strawberries.

2. To pull off or separate with the teeth, beak or claws; as, to pick flesh from a bone; hence,

3. To clean by the teeth, fingers or claws, or by a small instrument, by separating something that adheres; as, to pick a bone; to pick the ears.

4. To take up; to cause or seek industriously; as, to pick a quarrel.

5. To separate or pull asunder; to pull into small parcels by the fingers; to separate locks for loosening and cleaning; as, to pick wool.

6. To pierce; to strike with a pointed instrument; as, to pick an apple with a pin.

7. To strike with the bill or beak; to puncture. In this sense, we generally use peck.

8. To steal by taking out with the fingers or hands; as, to pick the pocket.

9. To open by a pointed instrument; as, to pick a lock.

10. To select; to cull; to separate particular things from others; as, to pick the best men from a company. In this sense, the word is often followed by out.

To pick off, to separate by the fingers or by a small pointed instrument.

PICK out, to select; to separate individuals from numbers.

To pick up, to take up with the fingers or beak; also, to take particular things here and there; to gather; to glean.

To pick a hole in one's coat, to find fault.

PICK, verb intransitive To eat slowly or by morsels; to nibble.

1. To do any thing nicely or by attending to small things.

PICK, noun A sharp pointed tool for digging or removing in small quantities.

What the miners call chert and whern--is so hard that the picks will not touch it.

1. Choice; right of selection. You may have your pick

2. Among printers, foul matter which collects on printing types from the balls, bad ink, or from the paper impressed.

PICKAPACK, adverb In manner of a pack. [Vulgar.]

PICK'ARDIL , noun [probably from the root of pike, peak.]

A high collar or a kind of ruff.

PICK'AX, noun [pick and ax.] An ax with a sharp point at tone end and a broad blade at the other.

PICK'BACK, adjective On the back.

PICK'ED, participle passive Plucked off by the fingers, teeth or claws; cleaned by picking; opened by an instrument; selected.

PICK'ED

PICK'EDNESS, noun State of being pointed at the end; sharpness.

1. Foppery; spruceness.

PICKEE'R, verb transitive

1. To pillage; to pirate.

2. To skirmish, as soldiers on the outposts of an army, or in pillaging parties.

PICK'ER, noun One that picks or culls.

1. A pickax or instrument for picking or separating.

2. One that excites a quarrel between himself and another.

PICK'EREL, noun [from pike.] A small pike, a fish of the genus Esox.

PICK'ET, noun A stake sharpened or pointed; used in fortification and encampments.

1. A narrow board pointed; used in making fence.

2. A guard posted in front of an army to give notice of the approach of the enemy.

3. A game at cards. [See Piquet.]

4. A punishment with consists in making the offender stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

PICK'ET, verb transitive To fortify with pointed stakes.

1. To inclose or fence with narrow pointed boards.

2. To fasten to a picket

PICK'ETED, participle passive Fortified or inclosed with pickets.

PICK'ETING, participle present tense Inclosing or fortifying with pickets.

PICK'ING, participle present tense Pulling off with the fingers or teeth; selecting.

PICK'ING, noun The act of plucking; selection; gathering; gleaning.

PICK'LE, noun Brine; a solution of salt and water, sometimes impregnated with spices, in which flesh, fish or other substance is preserved; as pickle for beef; pickle for capers or for cucumbers; pickle for herring.

1. A thing preserved in pickle

2. A state of condition of difficulty or disorder; a word used in ridicule or contempt. You are in a fine pickle

How cam'st thou in this pickle?

3. A parcel of land inclosed with a hedge. [Local.]

PICK'LE, verb transitive To preserve in brine or pickle; as, to pickle herring.

1. To season in pickle

2. To imbue highly with any thing bad; as a pickled rogue.

PICK'LOCK, noun [pick and lock.] An instrument for opening locks without the key.

1. A person who picks locks.

PICK'NICK, noun An assembly where each person contributes to the entertainment.

PICK'POCKET, noun One who steals from the pocket of another.

PICK'PURSE, noun One that steals from the purse of another.

PICK'THANK, noun An officious fellow who does what he is not desired to do, for the sake of gaining favor; a whispering parasite.

PICK'TOOTH, noun An instrument for picking or cleaning the teeth. [But toothpick is more generally used.]

PICO, noun A peak; the pointed head of a mountain.

PIC'ROLITE, noun A mineral composed chiefly of the carbonate of magnesia, of a green color. [See Pikrolite.]

PIC'ROMEL, noun [Gr. bitter.] The characteristic principle of bile.

PICROTOX'IN, noun [Gr. bitter, and Latin toxicum.] The bitter and poisonous principle of the Cocculus Indicus.

PICT, noun [Latin pictus, pingo.] A person whose body is painted.

PICTO'RIAL, adjective [Latin pictor, a painter.] Pertaining to a painter; produced by a painter.

PIC'TURAL, noun A representation. [Not in use.]

PIC'TURE, noun [Latin pictura, from pingo, to paint.]

1. A painting exhibiting the resemblance of any thing; a likeness drawn in colors.

Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects.

2. The words of painters; painting.

Quintilian, when he saw any well expressed image of grief, either in picture or sculpture, would usually weep.

3. Any resemblance or representation, either to the eye or to the understanding. Thus we say, a child is the picture of his father; the poet has drawn an exquisite picture of grief.

PIC'TURE, verb transitive To paint a resemblance.

Love is like a painter, who, in drawing the picture of a friend having a blemish in one eye, would picture only the other side of the face.

1. To represent; to form or present an ideal likeness.

I do picture it in my mind.

PIC'TURED, participle passive Painted in resemblance; drawn in colors; represented.

PICTURESK', adjective [Latin pictura, or pictor. In English, this would be picturish.] Expressing that peculiar kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture, natural or artificial; striking the mind with great power or pleasure in representing objects of vision, and in painting to the imagination any circumstance or event as clearly as if delineated in a picture.

PICTURESK'LY , adverb In a picturesque manner.

PICTURESK'NESS, noun The state of being picturesque.

PICTURESQUE

PICTURESQUELY

PICTURESQUENESS

PID'DLE, verb intransitive [This is a different spelling of peddle, or from the same source.]

1. To deal in trifles; to spend time in trifling objects; to attend to trivial concerns or the small parts rather than to the main.

2. To pick at table; to eat squeamishly or without appetite.

PICTURESQUELY

PICTURESQUENESS

PID'DLE, v.i. [This is a different spelling of peddle, or from the same source.]

PID'DLER, noun One who busies himself about little things.

1. One that eats squeamishly or without appetite.

PIE, noun [Gr. thick; or from mixing.]

An article of food consisting of paste baked with something in it or under it, as apple, minced meat, etc.

PIE, noun [Latin pica.] The magpie, a party-colored bird of the genus Corvus. It is sometimes written pye.

1. The old popish service book, supposed to be so called from the different color of the text and rubric, or from litera picata, a large black letter, used at the beginning of each order.

2. Printers' types mixed or unsorted.

Cork and pie an adjuration by the pie or service book, and by the sacred name of the Deity corrupted.

PI'EBALD, adjective Of various colors; diversified in color; as a piebald horse.

PIECE, noun [Heb. to cut off or clip.]

1. A fragment or part of any thing separated from the whole, in any manner, by cutting, splitting, breaking or tearing; as, to cut in pieces, break in pieces, tear in pieces, pull in pieces, etc.; a piece of a rock; a piece of paper.

2. A part of any thing, though not separated, or separated only in idea; not the whole; a portion; as a piece of excellent knowledge.

3. A distinct part or quantity; a part considered by itself, or separated from the rest only by a boundary or divisional line; as a piece of land in the meadow or on the mountain.

4. A separate part; a thing or portion distinct from others of a like kind; as a piece of timber; a piece of cloth; a piece of paper hangings.

5. A composition, essay or writing of no great length; as a piece of poetry or prose; a piece of music.

6. A separate performance; a distinct portion of labor; as a piece of work.

7. A picture or painting.

If unnatural, the finest colors are but daubing, and the piece is a beautiful monster at the best.

8. A coin; as a piece of eight.

9. A gun or single part of ordnance. We apply the word to a cannon, a mortar, or a musket. Large guns are called battering pieces; smaller guns are called field pieces.

10. In heraldry, an ordinary or charge. The fess, the bend, the pale, the bar, the cross, the saltier, the chevron are called honorable pieces.

11. In ridicule or contempt. A piece of a lawyer is a smatterer.

12. A castle; a building. [Not in use.]

A-piece, to each; as, he paid the men a dollar a-piece.

Of a piece like; of the same sort, as if taken from the same whole. They seemed all of a piece Sometimes followed by with.

The poet must be of a piece with the spectators to gain reputation.

PIECE, verb transitive To enlarge or mend by the addition of a piece; to patch; as, to piece a garment; to piece the time.

To piece out, to extend or enlarge by addition of a piece or pieces.

PIECE, verb intransitive To unite by coalescence of parts; to be compacted, as parts into a whole.

PIE'CED, participle passive Mended or enlarged by a piece or pieces.

PIE'CELESS, adjective Not made of pieces; consisting of an entire thing.

PIE'CEMEAL, adverb

1. In pieces; in fragments.

On which it piecemeal broke.

2. By pieces; by little and little in succession.

Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that.

PIE'CEMEAL, adjective Single; separate; made of parts or pieces.

PIE'CEMEALED, adjective Divided into small pieces.

PIE'CER, noun One that pieces; a patcher.

PI'ED, adjective [allied probably to pie, in piebald, and a contracted word, perhaps from the root of Latin pictus.]

Variegated with spots of different colors; spotted. We now apply the word chiefly or wholly to animals which are marked with large spots of different colors. If the spots are small, we use speckled. This distinction was not formerly observed, and in some cases, pied is elegantly used to express a diversity of colors in small spots.

Meadows trim with daisies pied

PI'EDNESS, noun Diversity of colors in spots.

PIE'LED, adjective [See Peel.] Bald; bare.

PIE'POUDRE, noun An ancient court of record in England, incident to every fair and market, of which the steward of him who owns or has the toll, is the judge. It had jurisdiction of all causes arising in the fair or market.

PIER, noun [Latin petra.]

1. A mass of solid stone work for supporting an arch or the timbers of a bridge or other building.

2. A mass of stone work or a mole projecting into the sea, for breaking the force of the waves and making a safe harbor.

PIERCE, verb transitive pers.

1. To thrust into with a pointed instrument; as, to pierce the body with a sword or spear; to pierce the side with a thorn.

2. To penetrate; to enter; to force a way into; as, a column of troops pierced the main body of the enemy; a shot pierced the ship.

3. To penetrate the heart deeply; to touch the passions; to excite or affect the passions. 1 Timothy 6:10.

4. To dive or penetrate into, as a secret or purpose.

PIERCE, verb intransitive pers. To enter; as a pointed instrument.

1. To penetrate; to force a way into or through any thing. The shot pierced through the side of the ship.

Her tears will pierce into a marble heart.

2. To enter; to dive or penetrate, as into a secret.

She would not pierce further into his meaning than himself should declare.

3. To affect deeply.

PIERCEABLE, adjective pers'able. That may be pierced.

PIERCED, participle passive pers'ed. Penetrated; entered by force; transfixed.

PIERCER, noun pers'er. An instrument that pierces, penetrates or bores.

1. One that pierces or perforates.

PIERCING, participle present tense pers'ing. Penetrating; entering, as a pointed instrument; making a way by force into another body.

1. Affecting deeply; as eloquence piercing the heart.

2. adjective Affecting; cutting; keen.

PIERCINGLY, adverb pers'ingly. With penetrating force or effect; sharply.

PIERCINGNESS, noun pers'ingness. The power of piercing or penetrating; sharpness; keenness.

PI'ETISM, noun [See Piety.] Extremely strict devotion, or affectation of piety.

PI'ETIST, noun One of a sect professing great strictness and purity of life, despising learning, school theology and ecclesiastical polity, as also forms and ceremonies in religion, and giving themselves up to mystic theology. This sect sprung up among the protestants of Germany, in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

PI'ETY, noun [Latin pietas, from pius, or its root, probably a contracted word.]

1. piety in principle, is a compound of veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being and love of his character, or veneration accompanied with love; and piety in practice, is

the exercise of these affections in obedience to his will and devotion to his service.

Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man.

2. Reverence of parents or friends, accompanied with affection and devotion to their honor and happiness.

PIEZOM'ETER, noun [Gr. to press, and measure.] An instrument for ascertaining the compressibility of water, and the degree of such compressibility under any given weight.

PIG, noun

1. The young of swine, male or female.

2. An oblong mass of unforged iron, lead or other metal. A pig of lead is the eighth of a fother, or 250 pounds.

PIG, verb transitive or i. To bring forth pigs.

PIG'EON, noun A fowl of the genus Columba, of several species, as the stock dove, the ring dove, the turtle dove, and the migratory or wild pigeon of America. The domestic pigeon breeds in a box, often attached to a building, called a dovecot or pigeon-house. The wild pigeon builds a nest on a tree in the forest.

PIG'GIN, noun A small wooden vessel with an erect handle, used as a dipper.

PIG'HEADED, adjective Having a large head; stupid.

PIGHT, participle passive pite. Pitched; fixed; determined.

PIGHT, verb transitive To pierce.

PIGHTEL, noun A little inclosure. [Local.]

PIGME'AN, adjective [from pigmy.] Very small; like a pigmy; as an image of pigmean size.

PIG'MENT, noun [Latin pigmentum, from the root of pingo, to paint.]

Paint; a preparation used by painters, dyers, etc. to impart colors to bodies.

PIG'MY, noun [Latin pygmoeus; Gr. the fist.] A dwarf; a person of very small stature; a name applied to a fabled nation said to have been devoured by cranes.

PIG'MY, adjective Very small in size; mean; feeble; inconsiderable.

PIGNORA'TION, noun [Latin pignero, to pledge.] The act of pledging or pawning.

PIG'NORATIVE, adjective Pledging; pawning. [Little used.]

PIG'NUT, noun [pig and nut.] The ground nut, a plant of the genus Bunium; also, a tree and its fruit of the genus Juglans.

PIG'SNEY, noun A word of endearment to a girl. [Little used.]

PIG'TAIL, noun [pig and tail.] A cue; the hair of the head tied in the form of a pig's tail.

1. A small roll of tobacco.

PIGWID'GEON, noun [pig and widgeon.] A fairy; a cant word for any thing very small.

PIKE, noun [This word belongs to a numerous family of words expressing something pointed, or a sharp point, or as verbs, to dart, to thrust, to prick.]

1. A military weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a flat steel head pointed; called the spear. This weapon was formerly used by infantry, but its use is now limited to officers, and it is called a sponton or spontoon. Its use among soldiers is superseded by the bayonet.

2. A fork used in husbandry; but we now use fork or pitchfork.

3. Among turners, the iron sprigs used to fasten any thing to be turned.

4. In ichthyology, a fish of the genus Esox, so named from its long shape or from the form of its snout. It is a fresh water fish, living in deep water and very voracious, but very palatable food.

The pike the tyrant of the flood.

PIK'ED, adjective Ending in a point; acuminated.

PIK'ED, adjective Pointed; sharp.

Let the stake be made picked at the top.

PI'KEMAN, noun A soldier armed with a pike.

PI'KESTAFF, noun The staff or shaft of a pike.

PIK'ROLITE, noun [Gr.bitter, and a stone.] A mineral found at Taberg, in Sweden, supposed to be a variety of serpentine.

PILAS'TER, n. A square column, sometimes insulated; but usually pilasters are set within a wall, projecting only one quarter of their diameter. Their bases, capitals and entablatures have the same parts as those of columns.

PILCH, noun [Latin pellis, a skin.] A furred gown or case; something lined with fur. [Not used.]

PIL'CHARD, noun A fish resembling the herring, but thicker and rounder; the nose is shorter and turns up; the under jaw is shorter; the back more elevated, and the belly less sharp. These fishes appear on the Cornish coast in England, about the middle of July, in immense numbers, and furnish a considerable article of commerce.

PILE, noun [Latin pila.]

1. A heap; a mass or collection of things in a roundish or elevated form; as a pile of stones; a pile of bricks; a pile of wood or timber; a pile of ruins.

2. A collection of combustibles for burning a dead body; as a funeral pile

3. A large building or mass of buildings; an edifice.

The pile o'erlook'd the town and drew the sight.

4. A heap of balls or shot laid in horizontal courses, rising into a pyramidical form.

PILE, noun [Latin palus.]

1. A large stake or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building or other superstructure. The stadthouse in Amsterdam is supported by piles.

2. One side of a coin; originally, a punch or puncheon used in stamping figures on coins, and containing the figures to be impressed. Hence the arms-side of a coin is called the pile and the head the cross, which was formerly in the place of the head. Hence cross and pile

3. In heraldry, an ordinary in form of a point inverted or a stake sharpened.

PILE, noun [Latin pilum.] The head of an arrow.

PILE, noun [Latin pilus.] Properly, a hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton and the like; hence, the nap, the fine hairy substance of the surface of cloth.

PILE, verb transitive To lay or throw into a heap; to collect many things into a mass; as, to pile wood or stones.

1. To bring into an aggregate; to accumulate; as, to pile quotations or comments.

2. To fill with something heaped.

3. To fill above the brim or top.

4. To break off the awns of threshed barley. [Local.]

PIL'EATE

PIL'EATED, adjective [Latin pileus, a cap.] Having the form of a cap or cover for the head.

PIL'EATED, a. [L. pileus, a cap.] Having the form of a cap or cover for the head.

PI'LEMENT, noun An accumulation. [Not used.]

PI'LER, noun [from pile, a heap.] One who piles or forms a heap.

PILES, noun plural The hemorrhoids, a disease.

PI'LEWORM, noun A worm found in piles in Holland.

PI'LEWORT, noun A plant of the genus Ranunculus.

PIL'FER, verb intransitive To steal in small quantities; to practice petty theft; as a boy accustomed to pilfer

A pilfering hand.

PIL'FER, verb transitive To steal or gain by petty theft; to filch.

He would not pilfer the victory, and the defeat was easy.

PIL'FERED, participle passive Stolen in small parcels.

PIL'FERER, noun One that pilfers or practices petty theft.

PIL'FERING, participle passive Stealing; practicing petty thefts.

PIL'FERING, noun Petty theft.

Pilfering was so universal in all the South sea islands, that it was hardly recognized in the moral code of the natives as an offense, much less a crime.

PIL'FERINGLY, adverb With petty theft; filchingly.

PIL'GRIM, noun [Latin peregrinus. Gu. Latin peragro, to wander, palor.]

1. A wanderer; a traveler; particularly, one that travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to the remains of dead saints. [See Pilgrimage.]

2. In Scripture, one that has only a temporary residence on earth. Hebrews 11:13.

PIL'GRIM, verb intransitive To wander or ramble. [Not used.]

PIL'GRIMAGE, noun A long journey, particularly a journey to some place deemed sacred and venerable, in order to pay devotion to the relics of some deceased saint. Thus in the middle ages, kings, princes, bishops and others made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, in pious devotion to the Savior. Pilgrims now resort to Loretto, in Italy, to visit the chamber of the blessed virgin, and the Mohammedans make pilgrimages to Mecca, where their prophet was buried.

1. In Scripture, the journey of human life. Genesis 47:9.

2. Time irksomely spent.

PIL'GRIMIZE, verb intransitive To wander about as a pilgrim. [Not used.]

PILL, noun [Latin pila, a ball; pilula, a little ball.]

1. In pharmacy, a medicine in the form of a little ball or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.

2. Any thing nauseous.

PILL, verb transitive To rob; to plunder; to pillage, that is, to peel, to strip. [See Peel, the same word in the proper English orthography.]

PILL, verb intransitive To be peeled; to come off in flakes.

1. To rob. [See Peel.]

PILL'AGE, noun

1. Plunder; spoil; that which is taken from another by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war.

2. The act of plundering.

3. In architecture, a square pillar behind a column to bear up the arches.

PILL'AGE, verb transitive To strip of money or goods by open violence; as, troops pillage the camp or towns of an enemy; to plunder; to spoil. It differs from stealing, as it implies open violence, and from robbery, which may be committed by one individual on another; whereas pillaging is usually the act of bands or numbers. To pillage and to rob are however sometimes used synonymously.

PILL'AGED, participle passive Plundered by open force.

PILL'AGER, noun One that plunders by open violence; a plunderer.

PILL'AGING, participle present tense Plundering; stripping.

PIL'LAR, noun [Latin pila, a pile, a pillar a mortar and pestle. The Latin pila denotes a heap, or things thrown, put or driven together.]

Literally, a pile or heap; hence,

1. A kind or irregular column round an insulate, but deviating from the proportions of a just column. Pillars are either too massive or too slender for regular architecture; they are not restricted to any rules, and their parts and proportions are arbitrary. A square pillar is a massive work, called also a pier or piedroit, serving to support arches. etc.

2. A supporter; that which sustains or upholds; that on which some superstructure rests. Galatians 2:9.

3. A monument raised to commemorate any person or remarkable transaction.

And Jacob set a pillar on her grave. Genesis 35:14. 2 Samuel 18:18.

4. Something resembling a pillar; as a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26.

So a pillar of a cloud, a pillar of fire. Exodus 13:21.

5. Foundation; support. Job 9:6.

6. In ships, a square or round timber fixed perpendicularly under the middle of the beams for supporting the decks.

7. In the manege, the center of the volta, ring or manege ground, around which a horse turns. There are also pillars on the circumference or side, placed at certain distances by two and two.

PIL'LARED, adjective Supported by pillars.

1. Having the form of a pillar.

PILL'ER, noun One that pills or plunders. [Not used.]

PILL'ERY, noun Plunder; pillage; rapine. [Not in use.]

PILLION, noun pil'yun, [Latin pilus, hair, or from stuffing. See Pillow.]

1. A cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on horseback.

2. A pad; a pannel; a low saddle.

3. The pad of a saddle that rests on the horse's back.

PIL'LORIED, adjective Put in a pillory.

PIL'LORY, noun [Latin palus, a stake, a pile.] A frame of wood erected on posts, with movable boards and holes, through which are put the head and hands of a criminal for punishment.

PIL'LORY, verb transitive To punish with the pillory

PIL'LOW, noun [Latin pulvinar; from Latin pilus, hair, or from stuffing.]

1. A long cushion to support the head of a person when reposing on a bed; a sack or case filled with feathers, down or other soft material.

2. In a ship, the block on which the inner end of a bowsprit is supported.

The pillow of a plow, is a cross piece of wood which serves to raise or lower the beam.

PIL'LOW, verb transitive To rest or lay on for support.

PIL'LOWED, participle passive or adjective Supported by a pillow.

PIL'LOWING, participle present tense Resting or laying on a pillow.

PILO'SE

PILOS'ITY, noun [supra.] Hairiness.

PILOS'ITY, n. [supra.] Hairiness.

PI'LOT, noun

1. One who steers a ship in a dangerous navigation, or rather one whose office or occupation is to steer ships, particularly along a coast, or into and out of a harbor, bay or river, where navigation is dangerous.

2. A guide; a director of the course of another person. [In colloquial use.]

PI'LOT, verb transitive To direct the course of a ship in any place where navigation is dangerous.

PI'LOTAGE, noun The compensation made or allowed to one who directs the course of a ship.

1. The pilot's skill or knowledge of coasts, rocks, bars and channels. [Not now used.]

PI'LOTING, participle present tense Steering; as a ship in dangerous navigation.

PI'LOTING, noun The act of steering a ship.

PI'LOTISM

PI'LOTRY, noun Pilotage; skill in piloting. [Not used.]

PI'LOUS, adjective [Latin pilosus. See Pilose.] Hairy; abounding with hair.

1. Consisting of hair.

PI'LOTRY, n. Pilotage; skill in piloting. [Not used.]

PI'LOUS, adjective [Latin pilosus, from pilus, hair.] Hairy. A pilose leaf, in botany, is one covered with long distinct hairs. A pilose receptacle has hairs between the florets.

PIL'SER, noun The moth or fly that runs into a flame.

PIM'ELITE, noun [Gr. fat, and stone.] A terrene substance of an apple green color, fat and unctuous to the touch, tender and not fusible by the blowpipe. It is supposed to be colored by nickel. It is a variety of steatite.

PI'MENT, noun Wine with a mixture of spice or honey.

PIMEN'TO, noun Jamaica pepper, popularly called allspice. The tree producing this spice is of the genus Myrtus, and grows spontaneously in Jamaica in great abundance.

PIMP, noun A man who provides gratifications for the lust of others; a procurer; a pander.

PIMP, verb intransitive To pander; to procure lewd women for the gratification of others.

PIM'PERNEL

PIM'PILLO, noun A plant of the genus Cactus.

PIM'PILLO, n. A plant of the genus Cactus.

PIM'PINEL, noun [Latin pimpinella.] The name of several plants of different genera. The scarlet pimpernel is of the genus Anagallis, the water pimpernel of the genus Veronica, and the yellow pimpernel of the genus Lysimachia.

PIMPINEL'LA, noun A genus of plants, including the burnet saxifrage and the anise.

PIMP'ING, participle present tense Pandering; procuring lewd women for others.

PIMP'ING, adjective Little; petty.

PIM'PLE, noun A small pustule on the face or other part of the body, usually a red pustule.

PIM'PLED, adjective Having red pustules on the skin; full of pimples.

PIMP'LIKE, adjective Like a pimp; vile; infamous; mean.

PIN, noun [Latin penna, pinna.]

1. A small pointed instrument made of brass wire and headed; used chiefly by females for fastening their clothes.

2. A piece of wood or metal sharpened or pointed, used to fasten together boards, plank or other timber. The larger pins of metal are usually called bolts, and the wooden pins used in ship building are called treenails [trunnels.] A small wooden pin is called a peg.

3. A thing of little value. It is not a pin's matter. I care not a pin

4. A linchpin.

5. The central part.

6. A peg used in musical instruments in straining and relaxing the strings.

7. A note or strain.

8. A horny induration of the membranes of the eye.

9. A cylindrical roller made of wood.

10. A noxious humor in a hawk's foot.

11. The pin of a block is the axis of the sheave.

PIN, verb transitive To fasten with a pin or with pins of any kind; as, to pin the clothes; to pin boards or timbers.

1. To fasten; to make fast; or to join and fasten together.

Our gates--we have but pinned with rushes.

She lifted the princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart.

2. To inclose; to confine. [See the verbs Pen and Pound.]

PINAS'TER, noun [Latin See Pine.] The wild pine.

PIN'CASE, noun A case for holding pins.

PINCERS, an erroneous orthography of pinchers, which see.

PINCH, verb transitive

1. To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers, the teeth, claws, or with an instrument, etc.

2. To squeeze or compress between any two hard bodies.

3. To squeeze the flesh till it is pained or livid.

4. To gripe; to straiten; to oppress with want; as, to pinch a nation; to pinch the belly; to be pinched for want of food.

5. To pain by constriction; to distress; as pinching cold. The winter pinches.

6. To press; to straiten by difficulties; as, the argument pinches the objector.

The respondent is pinched with a strong objection.

7. To press hard; to try thoroughly.

PINCH, verb intransitive To act with pressing force; to bear hard; to be puzzling. You see where the reasons pinch

1. To spare; to be straitened; to be covetous.

The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare,

Starve, steal and pilfer to enrich an heir.

PINCH, noun A close compression with the ends of the fingers.

1. A gripe; a pang.

2. Distress inflected or suffered; pressure; oppression; as necessity's sharp pinch

3. Straits; difficulty; time of distress from want.

PINCH'BECK, noun [said to be from the name of the inventor.]

An alloy of copper; a mixture of copper and zink, consisting of three or four parts of copper with one of zink.

PINCH'ER, noun He or that which pinches.

PINCH'ERS, noun plural [from pinch, not from the French pincette.]

An instrument for drawing nails from boards and the like, or for griping things to be held fast.

PINCH'FIST

PINCH'PENNY, noun A miser; a niggard.

PIN'CUSHION, noun A small case stuffed with some soft material, in which females stick pins for safety and preservation.

PINDAR'IC, adjective After the style and manner of Pindar.

PINDAR'IC, noun An ode in imitation of the odes of Pindar the Grecian, and prince of the lyric poets; an irregular ode.

PIN'DUST, noun Small particles of metal made by pointing pins.

PINE, noun [Latin pinus.] A tree of the genus Pinus, of many species, some of which furnish timber of the most valuable kind. The species which usually bear this name in the United States, are the white pine Pinus strobus, the prince of our forests; the yellow pine Pinus resinosa; and the pitch pine Pinus rigida. The other species of this genus are called by other names, a fir, hemlock, larch, spruce, etc.

PINE, verb intransitive

1. To languish; to lose flesh or wear away under any distress of anxiety of mind; to grow lean; followed sometimes by away.

Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities. Ezekiel 24:23.

2. To languish with desire; to waste away with longing for something; usually followed by for.

Unknowing that she pin'd for your return.

PINE, verb transitive To wear out; to make to languish.

Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime.

Beroe pined with pain.

1. To grieve for; to bemoan in silence.

Abashed the devil stood--

Virtue in her own shape how lovely, saw,

And pined his loss.

[In the transitive sense, this verb is now seldom used, and this use is improper, except by ellipsis.]

PINE, noun Woe; want; penury; misery.

[This is obsolete. See Pain.]

PIN'EAL, adjective [Latin pinus.] The pineal gland is a part of the brain, about the bigness of a pea, situated in the third ventricle; so called from its shape. It was considered by Descartes as the seat of the soul.

PI'NEFUL, adjective Full of woe. [Not used.]

PI'NERY, noun A place where pine-apples are raised.

PIN'-FETHER, noun A small or short fether.

PIN'-FETHERED, adjective Having the fethers only beginning to shoot; not fully fledged.

PIN'FOLD, noun [pin or pen and fold; Eng. to pound.]

A place in which beasts are confined. We now call it a pound.

PIN'GLE, noun A small close. [Not used.]

PIN'GUID, adjective [Latin pinguis; Gr. compact; Latin pactus; Eng.pack.]

Fat; unctuous. [Not used.]

PIN'HOLE, noun A small hole made by the puncture or perforation of a pin; a very small aperture.

PI'NING, participle present tense Languishing; wasting away.

PINION, noun pin'yon.

1. The joint of a fowl's wing, remotest from the body.

2. A fether; a quill.

3. A wing.

Hope humbly then, on trembling pinions soar.

4. The tooth of a smaller wheel, answering to that of a larger.

5. Fetters or bands for the arms.

PINION, verb transitive pin'yon. To bind or confine the wings.

1. To confine by binding the wings.

2. To cut off the first joint of the wing.

3. To bind or confine the arm or arms to the body.

4. To confine; to shackle; to chain; as, to be pinioned by formal rules of state.

5. To bind; to fasten to.

PIN'IONED, participle passive Confined by the wings; shackled.

1. adjective Furnished with wings.

PIN'IONIST, noun A winged animal; a fowl. [Not used.]

PINIRO'LO, noun A bird resembling the sandpiper, but larger; found in Italy.

PIN'ITE, noun [from Pini, a mine in Saxony.]

A mineral holding a middle place between steatite and mica; the micarel of Kirwan. It is found in prismatic crystals of a greenish white color, brown or deep red. It occurs also massive.

PINK, noun

1. An eye, or a small eye; but now disused except in composition, as in pink-eyed, pink-eye.

2. A plant and flower of the genus Dianthus, common in our gardens.

3. A color used by painters; from the color of the flower.

4. Any thing supremely excellent.

5. A ship with a very narrow stern.

6. A fish, the minnow.

PINK, verb transitive To work in eyelet-holes; to pierce with small holes.

1. To stab; to pierce.

PIN'NACE, noun A small vessel navigated with oars and sails, and having generally two masts rigged like those of a schooner; also, a boat usually rowed with eight oars.

PIN'NACLE, noun [Latin pinna.]

1. A turret, or part of a building elevated above the main building.

Some metropolis

With glistering spires and pinnacles adorn'd.

2. A high spiring point; summit.

PIN'NACLE, verb transitive To build or furnish with pinnacles.

PIN'NACLED, participle passive Furnished with pinnacles.

PIN'NAGE, noun Poundage of cattle. [Not used.] [See Pound.]

PIN'NATE

PIN'NATED, adjective [Latin pinnatus, from pinna, a fether or fin.]

In botany, a pinnate leaf is a species of compound leaf wherein a simple petiole has several leaflets attached to each side of it.

PIN'NATED, a. [L. pinnatus, from pinna, a fether or fin.]

In botany, a pinnate leaf is a species of compound leaf wherein a simple petiole has several leaflets attached to each side of it.

PIN'NATIFID, adjective [Latin pinna, a fether, and findo, to cleave.]

In botany, fether-cleft. A pinnatifid leaf is a species of simple leaf, divided transversely by oblong horizontal segments or jags, not extending to the mid rib.

PIN'NATIPED, adjective [Latin pinna and pes, foot.] Fin-footed; having the toes bordered by membranes.

PIN'NED, participle passive Fastened with pins; confined.

PIN'NER, noun One that pins or fastens; also, a pounder of cattle, or the pound keeper.

1. A pin-maker.

2. The lappet of a head which flies loose.

PIN'NITE, noun Fossil remains of the Pinna, a genus of shells.

PIN'NOCK, noun A small bird, the tomtit.

PIN'NULATE, adjective A pinnulate leaf is one in which each pinna is subdivided.

PINT, noun Half a quart, or four gills. In medicine, twelve ounces. It is applied both to liquid and dry measure.

PIN'TLE, noun A little pin. In artillery, a long iron bolt.

PIN'ULES, noun plural In astronomy, the sights of an astrolabe.

PIONEE'R, noun

1. In the art and practice of war, one whose business is to march with or before an army, to repair the road or clear it of obstructions, work at intrenchments, or form mines for destroying an enemy's works.

2. One that goes before to remove obstructions or prepare the way for another.

PI'ONING, noun The work of pioneers. [Not used.]

PI'ONY

PE'ONY, noun [Latin poeonia; Gr. from Apollo, a physician, and a hymn.]

An herbaceous perennial plant of the genus Paeonia, with tuberous roots, and bearing large beautiful red flowers.

PI'OUS, adjective [Latin pius.]

1. Godly; reverencing and honoring the Supreme Being in heart and in the practice of the duties he has enjoined; having due veneration and affection for the character of God, and habitually obeying his commands; religious; devoted to the service of God; applied to persons.

2. Dictated by reverence to God; proceeding from piety; applied to things; as pious awe; pious services of affections; pious sorrow.

3. Having due respect and affection for parents or other relatives; practicing the duties of respect and affection towards parents or other near relatives.

4. Practiced under the pretense of religion; as pious frauds.

PI'OUSLY, adverb In a pious manner; with reverence and affection for God; religiously; with due regard to sacred things or to the duties God has enjoined.

1. With due regard to natural or civil relations and to the duties which spring from them.

PIP, noun A disease of fowls; a horny pellicle that grows on the tip of their tongue.

1. A spot on cards.

PIP, verb intransitive [Latin pipio.] To cry or chirp, as a chicken; commonly pronounced peep.

PIPE, noun [Eng. fife.]

1. A wind instrument of music, consisting of a long tube of wood or metal; as a rural pipe The word, I believe, is not now the proper technical name of any particular instrument, but is applicable to any tubular wind instrument, and it occurs in bagpipe.

2. A long tube or hollow body; applied to the veins and arteries of the body, and to many hollow bodies, particularly such as are used for conductors of water or other fluids.

3. A tube of clay with a bowl at one end; used in smoking tobacco.

4. The organs of voice and respiration; as in windpipe.

5. The key or sound of the voice.

6. In England, a roll in the exchequer, or the exchequer itself. Hence, pipe-office is an office in which the clerk of the pipe makes out leases of crown lands, accounts of sheriffs, etc.

7. A cask containing two hogsheads or 120 gallons, used for wine; or the quantity which it contains.

8. In mining, a pipe is where the ore runs forward endwise in a hole, and does not sink downwards or in a vein.

PIPE, verb intransitive To play on a pipe fife, flute or other tubular wind instrument of music.

We have piped to you, and ye have not danced. Matthew 11:17.

1. To have a shrill sound; to whistle.

PIPE, verb transitive To play on a wind instrument. 1 Corinthians 14:7.

PI'PED, adjective Formed with a tube; tubular.

PI'PER, noun One who plays on a pipe or wind instrument.

PIP'ERIDGE, noun A shrub, the berberis, or barberry.

The piperidge of New England is the nyssa villosa, a large tree with very tough wood.

PIP'ERIN, noun A concretion of volcanic ashes.

1. A peculiar crystalline substance extracted from black pepper. The crystals of piperin are transparent, of a straw color, and they assume the tetrahedral prismatic form with oblique summits.

PI'PING, participle present tense Playing on a pipe.

1. adjective Weak; feeble; sickly. [Vulgar and not in use in America.]

2. Very hot; boiling; from the sound of boiling fluids. [Used in vulgar language.]

PIPIS'TREL, noun A species of bat, the smallest of the kind.

PIP'KIN, noun [dim. of pipe.] A small earthen boiler.

PIP'PIN, noun A kind of apple; a tart apple. This name in America is given to several kinds of apples, as to the Newtown pippin an excellent winter apple, and the summer pippin a large apple, but more perishable than the Newtown pippin

PIQUANCY, noun pik'ancy. [infra.] Sharpness; pungency; tartness; severity.

PIQUANT, adjective pik'ant.

1. Pricking; stimulating to the tongue; as rock as piguant to the tongue as salt.

2. Sharp; tart; pungent; severe; as piquant railleries.

PIQUANTLY, adverb pik'antly. With sharpness or pungency; tartly.

PIQUE, noun peek. An offense taken; usually, slight anger, irritation or displeasure at persons, rather temporary than permanent, and distinguished either in degree or temporariness from settled enmity or malevolence.

Out of personal pique to those in service, he stands as a looker on, when the government is attacked.

1. A strong passion.

2. Point; nicety; punctilio.

Add long prescription of established laws,

And pique of honor to maintain a cause.

PIQUE, verb transitive peek.

1. To offend; to nettle; to irritate; to sting; to fret; to excite a degree of anger. It expresses less than exasperate.

The lady was piqued by her indifference.

2. To stimulate; to excite to action; to touch with envy; jealousy or other passion.

Piqu'd by Protogenes'fame,

From Co to Rhodes Apelles came--

3. With the reciprocal pronoun, to pride or value one's self.

Men pique themselves on their skill in the learned languages.

PIQUED, participle passive pee'ked. Irritated; nettled; offended; excited.

PIQUEER. [See Pickeer.]

PIQUEE'RER, noun A plunderer; a freebooter. [See Pickeerer.]

PIQUET. [See Picket.]

PIQUET, noun piket'. A game at cards played between two persons, with only thirty two cards; all the deuces, threes, fours, fives and sixes being set aside.

PIQUING, participle present tense pee'king. Irritating; offending; priding.

PI'RACY, noun [Latin piratica, from Gr. to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence Latin periculum, experior; Eng. to fare.]

1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land.

Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.

2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

PIRAGUA, noun pirau'gua. This word is variously written, periagua or pirogue. The former is the spelling of Washington and Jefferson; the latter of Charlevoix.]

1. A canoe formed out of the truck of a tree, or two canoes united.

2. In modern usage in America, a narrow ferry boat carrying two masts and a leeboard.

PI'RATE, noun [Latin pirata.]

1. A robber on the high seas; one that by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas. In strictness, the word pirate is one who makes it his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas.

2. An armed ship or vessel which sails without legal commission, for the purpose of plundering other vessels indiscriminately on the high seas.

3. A bookseller that seizes the copies or writings of other men without permission.

PI'RATE, verb intransitive To rob on the high seas.

PI'RATE, verb transitive To take by theft or without right or permission, as books or writings.

They advertised they would pirate his edition.

PI'RATED, participle passive Taken by theft or without right.

PIRAT'ICAL, adjective [Latin piraticus.] Robbing or plundering by open violence on the high seas; as a piratical commander or ship.

1. Consisting in piracy; predatory; robbing; as a piratical trade or occupation.

2. Practicing literary theft.

The errors of the press were multiplied by piratical printers.

PIRAT'ICALLY, adverb By piracy.

PI'RATING, participle present tense Robbing on the high seas; taking without right, as a book or writing.

1. adjective Undertaken for the sake of piracy; as a pirating expedition.

PIROGUE piro'ge

PIR'RY, noun A rough gale of wind; a storm. [Not used.]

PIS'CARY, noun [Latin piscis, a fish; piscor, to fish.]

In law, the right or privilege of fishing in another man's waters.

PISCA'TION, noun [Latin piscatio. See Piscary and Fish.]

The act or practice of fishing.

PIS'CATORY, adjective [Latin piscatorius.] Relating to fishes or to fishing; as a piscatory eclogue.

PIS'CES, noun plural [Latin piscis.] In astronomy, the Fishes, the twelfth sign or constellation in the zodiac.

PIS'CINE, adjective [Latin piscis, a fish.]

Pertaining to fish or fishes; as piscine remains.

PISCIV'OROUS, adjective [Latin piscis, a fish, and voro, to eat.]

Feeding or subsisting on fishes. Many species of aquatic fowls are piscivorous

PISH, exclamation A word expressing contempt; sometimes spoken and written pshaw.

PISH, verb intransitive To express contempt.

PIS'IFORM, adjective [Latin pisum, a pea, and forma, form.]

Having the form of a pea.

Masses of pisiform argillaceous iron ore.

PIS'MIRE, noun The insect called the ant or emmet.

PIS'OLITE, noun [Gr. a pea, and a stone.] Peastone, a carbonate of lime, slightly colored by the oxyd of iron. It occurs in little globular concretions of the size of a pea or larger, which usually contain each a grain of sand as a nucleus. These concretions in union sometimes compose entire beds of secondary mountains. It is sometimes called calcarious tufa.

PIS'OPHALT, noun Pea-mineral or mineral-pea; a soft bitumen, black and of a strong pungent smell. It appears to be petrol passing to asphalt. It holds a middle place between petrol, which is liquid, and asphalt, which is dry and brittle.

PISS, verb transitive To discharge the liquor secreted by the kidneys and lodged in the urinary bladder.

PISS, noun Urine; the liquor secreted by the kidneys into the bladder of an animal and discharged through the proper channel.

PISS'ABED, noun The vulgar name of a yellow flower, growing among grass.

PIS'SASPHALT, noun [Gr. pitch, and asphalt.] Earth-pitch; pitch mixed with bitumen, natural or artificial; a fluid opake mineral substance, thick and inflammable, but leaving a residuum after burning.

PISS'BURNT, adjective Stained with urine.

PIST

PISTA'CHIO, noun [Latin pistachia.] The nut of the Pistacia terebinthus or turpentine tree, containing a kernel of a pale greenish color, of a pleasant taste, resembling that of the almond, and yielding a well tasted oil. It is wholesome and nutritive. The tree grows in Syria, Arabia and Persia.

PISTA'CHIO, n. [L. pistachia.] The nut of the Pistacia terebinthus or turpentine tree, containing a kernel of a pale greenish color, of a pleasant taste, resembling that of the almond, and yielding a well tasted oil. It is wholesome and nutritive. The tree grows in Syria, Arabia and Persia.

PIS'TACITE

PISTAREE'N, noun A silver coin of the value of 17 or 18 cents, or 9d sterling.

PISTAREE'N, n. A silver coin of the value of 17 or 18 cents, or 9d sterling.

PIS'TAZITE, [See Epidote.]

PISTE, noun The track or foot-print of a horseman on the ground he goes over.

PIS'TIL, noun [Latin pistillum, a pestle.] In botany, the pointal, an organ of female flowers adhering to the fruit for the reception of the pollen, supposed to be a continuation of the pith, and when perfect, consisting of three parts, the germ or ovary, the style, and the stigma.

PISTILLA'CEOUS, adjective Growing on the germ or seed bud of a flower.

PIS'TILLATE, adjective Having or consisting in a pistil.

PISTILLA'TION, noun [Latin pistillum, a pestle, that is, a beater or driver.] The act of pounding in a mortar. [Little used.]

PISTILLIF'EROUS, adjective [pistil and Latin fero, to bear.]

Having a pistil without stamens; as a female flower.

PIS'TOL, noun A small fire-arm, or the smallest fire-arm used, differing from a musket chiefly in size. Pistols are of different lengths, and borne by horsemen in cases at the saddle bow, or by a girdle. Small pistols are carried in the pocket.

PIS'TOL, verb transitive To shoot with a pistol

PISTO'LE, noun A gold coin of Spain, but current in the neighboring countries.

PIS'TOLET, noun A little pistol.

PIS'TON, noun [Latin pinso, the primary sense of which is to press, send, drive, thrust or strike, like embolus.]

A short cylinder of metal or other solid substance, used in pumps and other engines or machines for various purposes. It is fitted exactly to the bore of another body so as to prevent the entrance or escape of air, and is usually applied to the purpose of forcing some fluid into or out of the canal or tube which it fills, as in pumps, fire-engines and the like.

1. An artificial cavity made in the earth by digging; a deep hole in the earth.

2. A deep place; an abyss; profundity.

Into what pit thou seest

From what height fallen.

3. The grave. Psalms 28:1 and 30.

4. The area for cock-fighting; whence the phrase, to fly the pit.

5. The middle part of a theater.

6. The hollow of the body at the stomach. We say, the pit of the stomach.

7. The cavity under the shoulder; as the arm-pit.

8. A dint made by impression on a soft substance, as by the finger, etc.

9. A little hollow in the flesh, made by a pustule, as in the small picks.

10. A hollow place in the earth excavated for catching wild beasts; hence in Scripture, whatever ensnares and brings into calamity or misery, from which it is difficult to escape. Psalms 7:1. Proverbs 22:1. and 23.

11. Great distress and misery, temporal, spiritual or eternal. Isaiah 38:1. Psa 40.

12. Hell; as the bottomless pit. Revelation 20:1.

PIT, verb transitive To indent; to press into hollows.

1. To mark with little hollows, as by variolous pustules; as the face pitted by the small pocks.

2. To set in competition, as in combat.

PITAHA'YA, noun A shrub of California, which yields a delicious fruit, the Cactus Pitajaya.

PIT'APAT, adverb [probably allied to beat.] In a flutter; with palpitation or quick succession of beats; as, his heart went pitapat

PIT'APAT, noun A light quick step.

Now I hear the pitapat of a pretty foot, through the dark alley.

PITCH, noun [Latin pix; Gr. most probably named from its thickness or inspissation; Latin figo.]

1. A thick tenacious substance, the juice of a species of pine or fir called abies picea, obtained by incision from the bark of the tree. When melted and pressed in bags of cloth, it is received into barrels. This is white or Burgundy pitch; by mixture with lampblack it is converted into black pitch When kept long in fusion with vinegar, it becomes dry and brown, and forms colophony. The smoke of pitch condensed forms lampblack.

2. The resin of pine, or turpentine, inspissated; used in caulking ships and paying the sides and bottom.

PITCH, noun [from the root of pike, peak.]

1. Literally, a point; hence, any point or degree of elevation; as a high pitch; lowest pitch

How high a pitch his resolution soars.

Alcibiades was one of the best orators of his age, notwithstanding he lived when learning was at its highest pitch

2. Highest rise.

3. Size; stature.

So like in person, garb and pitch

4. Degree; rate.

No pitch of glory from the grave is free.

5. The point where a declivity begins, or the declivity itself; descent; slope; as the pitch of a hill.

6. The degree of descent or declivity.

7. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.

8. Degree of elevation of the key-note of a tune or of any note.

PITCH, verb transitive [Latin figo, to fix, and uniting pike, pique with fix.]

1. To throw or thrust, and primarily, to thrust a long or pointed object; hence, to fix; to plant; to set; as, to pitch a tent or pavilion, that is, to set the stakes.

2. To throw at a point; as, to pitch quoits.

3. To throw headlong; as, to pitch one in the mire or down a precipice.

4. To throw with a fork; as, to pitch hay or sheaves of corn.

5. To regulate or set the key-note of a tune in music.

6. To set in array; to marshal or arrange in order; used chiefly in the participle; as a pitched battle.

7. [from pitch ] To smear or pay over with pitch; as, to pitch the seams of a ship.

PITCH, verb intransitive To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.

Take a branch of the tree on which the bees pitch and wipe the hive.

1. To fall headlong; as, to pitch from a precipice; to pitch on the head.

2. To plunge; as, to pitch into a river.

3. To fall; to fix choice; with on or upon.

PITCH upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the most easy.

4. To fix a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.

Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead. Genesis 31:25.

5. In navigation, to rise and fall, as the head and stern of a ship passing over waves.

6. To flow or fall precipitously, as a river.

Over this rock, the river pitches in one entire sheet.

PITCH'ED, participle passive Set; planted; fixed; thrown headlong; set in array; smeared with pitch.

PITCH'ER, noun

1. An earthen vessel with a spout for pouring out liquors. This is its present signification. It seems formerly to have signified a water pot, jug or jar with ears.

2. An instrument for piercing the ground.

PITCH'FARTHING, noun A play in which copper coin is pitched into a hole; called also chuck-farthing, from the root of choke.

PITCH'FORK, noun A fork or farming utensil used in throwing hay or sheaves of grain, in loading or unloading carts and wagons.

PITCH'INESS, noun [from pitch.] Blackness; darkness. [Little used.]

PITCH'ING, participle present tense Setting; planting or fixing; throwing headlong; plunging; daubing with pitch; setting, as a tune.

1. adjective Declivous; descending; sloping; as a hill.

PITCH'ING, noun In navigation, the rising and falling of the head and stern of a ship, as she moves over waves; or the vertical vibration of a ship about her center of gravity.

PITCH'-ORE, noun Pitch-blend, an ore of uranium.

PITCH'PIPE, noun An instrument used by choristers in regulating the pitch or elevation of the key or leading note of a tune.

PITCH'-STONE, noun A mineral, a sub-species of quartz, which in luster and texture resembles pitch, whence its name. It is sometimes called resinite. Its colors are, several shades of green; black with green, brown or gray; brown, tinged with red, green or yellow; sometimes yellowish or blue. It occurs in large beds and sometimes forms whole mountains.

PITCH'Y, adjective Partaking of the qualities of pitch; like pitch.

1. Smeared with pitch.

2. Black; dark; dismal; as the pitchy mantle of night.

PIT'EOUS, adjective [See Pity.] Sorrowful; mournful; that may excite pity; as a piteous look.

1. Wretched; miserable; deserving compassion; as a piteous condition.

2. Compassionate; affected by pity.

3. Pitiful; paltry; poor; as piteous amends.

PIT'EOUSLY, adverb In a piteous manner; with compassion.

1. Sorrowfully; mournfully.

PIT'EOUSNESS, noun Sorrowfulness.

1. Tenderness; compassion.

PIT'FALL, noun A pit slightly covered for concealment, and intended to catch wild beasts or men.

PIT'FALL, verb transitive To lead into a pitfall

PITH, noun

1. The soft spungy substance in the center of plants and trees.

2. In animals, the spinal marrow.

3. Strength or force.

4. Energy; cogency; concentrated force; closeness and vigor of thought and style.

5. Condensed substance or matter; quintessence. The summary contains the pith of the original.

6. Weight; moment; importance.

Enterprises of great pith and moment.

PITH'ILY, adverb With strength; with close or concentrated force; cogently; with energy.

PITH'INESS, noun Strength; concentrated force; as the pithiness of a reply.

PITH'LESS, adjective Destitute of pith; wanting strength.

1. Wanting cogency or concentrated force.

PIT'HOLE, noun A mark made by disease.

PITH'Y, adjective Consisting of pith; containing pith; abounding with pith; as a pithy substance; a pithy stem.

1. Containing concentrated force; forcible; energetic; as a pithy word or expression.

This pithy speech prevailed and all agreed.

2. Uttering energetic words or expressions.

In all these, Goodman Fact was very short, but pithy

PIT'IABLE, adjective Deserving pity; worthy of compassion; miserable; as pitiable persons; a pitiable condition.

PIT'IABLENESS, noun State of deserving compassion.

PIT'IED, participle passive Compassionated. [See the verb, to pity.]

PIT'IFUL, adjective [See Pity.] Full of pity; tender; compassionate; having a heart to feel sorrow and sympathy for the distressed. James 5:11. 1 Peter 3:8. [This is the proper sense of the word.]

1. Miserable; moving compassion; as a sight most pitiful; a pitiful condition.

2. To be pitied for its littleness or meanness; paltry; contemptible; despicable.

That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.

3. Very small; insignificant.

PIT'IFULLY, adverb With pity; compassionately.

Pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts.

1. In a manner to excite pity.

They would sign and groan as pitifully as other men.

2. Contemptibly; with meanness.

PIT'IFULNESS, noun Tenderness of heart that disposes to pity; mercy; compassion.

1. Contemptibleness.

PIT'ILESS, adjective Destitute of pity; hardhearted; applied to persons; as a pitiless master.

1. Exciting no pity; as a pitiless state.

PIT'ILESSLY, adverb Without mercy or compassion.

PIT'ILESSNESS, noun Unmercifulness; insensibility to the distresses of others.

PIT'MAN, noun The man that stands in a pit when sawing timber with another man who stands above.

PIT'-SAW, noun A large saw used in dividing timber, and used by two men, one of whom stands in a pit below.

PIT'TANCE, noun [The word signifies primarily, a portion of food allowed to a monk. The Spanish has pitar, to distribute allowances of meat, and pitancero, a person who distributes allowances, or a friar who lives on charity.]

1. An allowance of meat in a monastery.

2. A very small portion allowed or assigned.

3. A very small quantity.

PITU'ITARY, adjective [Latin pituita, phlegm, rheum; Gr. to spit.]

That secretes phlegm or mucus; as the pituitary membrane.

The pituitary gland is a small oval body on the lower side of the brain, supposed by the ancients to secrete the mucus of the nostrils.

PIT'UITE, noun [Latin pituita.] Mucus.

PITU'ITOUS, adjective [Latin pituitosus.] Consisting of mucus, or resembling it in qualities.

PITY, noun [The Latin, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages unite pity and piety in the same word, and the word may be from the root of compassion; Latin patior, to suffer.]

1. The feeling or suffering of one person, excited by the distresses of another; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion or fellow-suffering.

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord. Proverbs 19:17.

In Scripture however, the word pity usually includes

compassion accompanied with some act of charity or benevolence, and not simply a fellow feeling of distress.

PITY is always painful, yet always agreeable.

2. The ground or subject of pity; cause of grief; thing to be regretted.

What pity is it

That we can die but once to serve our country!

That he is old, the more is the pity his white hairs do witness it.

In this sense, the word has a plural. It is a thousand pities he should waste his estate in prodigality.

PIT'Y, verb transitive To feel pain or grief for one in distress; to have sympathy for; to compassionate; to have tender feelings for one, excited by his unhappiness.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psalms 103:1.

Taught by that power who pities me,

I learn to pity them.

PIT'Y, verb intransitive To be compassionate; to exercise pity

I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy. Jeremiah 13:14.

[But this may be considered as an elliptical phrase.]

PIV'OT, noun A pin on which any thing turns.

PIX, noun [Latin pyxis.] A little box or chest in which the consecrated host is kept in Roman catholic countries.

1. A box used for the trial of gold and silver coin.

PIZ'ZLE, noun In certain quadrupeds, the part which is official to generation and the discharge of urine.