PRACTICABIL'ITY

PRAC'TICABLE, adjective

1. That may be done, effected or performed by human means, or by powers that can be applied. It is sometimes synonymous with possible, but the words differ in this; possible is applied to that which might be performed, if the necessary powers or means could be obtained; practicable is limited in its application to things which are to be performed by the means given, or which may be applied. It was possible for Archimedes to lift the world, but it was not practicable.

2. That may be practiced; as a practicable virtue.

3. That admits of use, or that may be passed or traveled; as a practicable road. In military affairs, a practicable breach is one that can be entered by troops.

PRAC'TICABLE, a.

PRACTICABLENESS, noun [from practicable.] The quality or state of being practicable; feasibility.

PRAC'TICABLY, adverb In such a manner as may be performed. 'A rule practicably applied before his eyes, ' is not correct language. It is probably a mistake for practically.

PRAC'TICAL, adjective [Latin practicus.] Pertaining to practice or action.

1. Capable of practice or active use; opposed to speculative; as a practical understanding.

2. That may be used in practice; that may be applied to use; as practical knowledge.

3. That reduces his knowledge or theories to actual use; as a practical man.

4. Derived from practice or experience; as practical skill or knowledge.

PRAC'TICALLY, adverb In relation to practice.

1. By means of practice or use; by experiment; as practically wise or skillful.

2. In practice or use; as a medicine practically safe; theoretically wrong, but practically right.

PRAC'TICALNESS, noun The quality of being practical.

PRAC'TICE, noun [Gr. to act, to do, to make; Eng. to brook, and broker; Latin fruor, for frugor or frucor, whence fructus, contracted into fruit; frequens.]

1. Frequent or customary actions; a succession of acts of a similar kind or in a like employment; as the practice of rising early or of dining late; the practice of reading a portion of Scripture morning and evening; the practice of making regular entries of accounts; the practice of virtue or vice. Habit is the effect of practice

2. Use; customary use.

Obsolete words may be revived when the are more sounding or significant than those in practice

3. Dexterity acquired by use. [Unusual.]

4. Actual performance; distinguished from theory.

There are two functions of the soul, contemplation and practice according to the general division of objects, some of which only entertain our speculations, others employ our actions.

5. Application of remedies; medical treatment of diseases. Tow physicians may differ widely in their practice

6. Exercise of any profession; as the practice of law or of medicine; the practice of arms.

7. Frequent use; exercise for instruction or discipline. The troops are daily called out for practice

8. Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; usually in a bad sense.

He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer.

[This use of the word is genuine; from Latin experior. It is not a mistake as Johnson supposes. See the Verb.]

9. A rule in arithmetic, by which the operations of the general rules are abridged in use.

PRAC'TICE, verb transitive [From the noun. The orthography of the verb ought to be the same as of the noun; as in notice and to notice.]

1. To do or perform frequently, customarily or habitually; to perform by a succession of acts; as, to practice gaming; to practice fraud or deception; to practice the virtues of charity and beneficence; to practice hypocrisy. Isaiah 32:1.

Many praise virtue who do not practice it.

2. To use or exercise any profession or art; as, to practice law or medicine; to practice gunnery or surveying.

3. To use or exercise for instruction, discipline or dexterity. [In this sense, the verb is usually intransitive.]

4. To commit; to perpetrate; as the horrors practiced at Wyoming.

5. To use; as a practiced road. [Unusual.]

PRAC'TICE, verb intransitive To perform certain acts frequently or customarily, either for instruction, profit, or amusement; as, to practice with the broad sword; to practice with the rifle.

1. To form a habit of acting in any manner.

They shall practice how to live secure.

2. To transact or negotiate secretly.

I have practic'd with him,

And found means to let the victor know

That Syphax and Sempronius are his friends.

3. To try artifices.

Others, by guilty artifice and arts

Of promis'd kindness, practic'd on our hearts.

4. To use evil arts or stratagems.

If you there

Did practice on my state--

5. To use medical methods or experiments.

I am little inclined to practice on others, and as little that others should practice on me.

6. To exercise any employment or profession. A physician has practiced many years with success.

PRAC'TICED, participle passive Done by a repetition of acts; customarily performed or used.

PRAC'TICER, noun One that practices; one that customarily performs certain acts.

1. One who exercises a profession. In this sense, practitioner is generally used.

PRAC'TICING, participle present tense Performing or using customarily; exercising, as an art or profession.

PRAC'TISANT, noun An agent. [Not used.]

PRACTI'TIONER, noun One who is engaged in the actual use or exercise of any art or profession, particularly in law or medicine.

1. One who does any thing customarily or habitually.

2. One that practices sly or dangerous arts.

PRAECOG'NITA, noun plural [Latin before known.] Things previously known in order to understand something else. Thus a knowledge of the structure of the human body is one of the praeacognita of medical science and skill.

PRAEMUNI'RE, noun [a corruption of the Latin praemonere, to pre-admonish.]

1. A writ, or the offense for which it is granted. The offense consists in introducing a foreign authority or power into England, that is, introducing and maintaining the papal power, creating imperium in imperio, and yielding that obedience to the mandates of the pope, which constitutionally belongs to the king. Both the offense and the writ are so denominated from the words used in the writ, praemunine facias, cause A B to be forewarned to appear before us to answer the contempt wherewith he stands charged.

2. The penalty incurred by infringing a statute.

PRAGMAT'IC, PRAGMAT'ICAL, adjective [Latin pragmaticus; Gr. business; to do. See Practice.]

Forward to intermeddle; meddling; impertinently busy or officious in the concerns of others, without leave or invitation. The fellow grew so pragmatical, that he took upon him the government of my whole family.

Pragmatic sanction, in the German empire, the settlement made by Charles VI. the emperor, who in 1722, having no sons, settled his hereditary dominions on his eldest daughter, the archduchess Maria Theresa, which settlement was confirmed by most of the powers of Europe.

In the civil law, pragmatic sanction may be defined, a rescript or answer of the sovereign, delivered by advice of his council to some college, order, or body of people, who consult him in relation to the affairs of their community. The like answer given to a particular person, is called simply a rescript. Hottoman Encyclopedia

PRAGMAT'ICAL, a. [L. pragmaticus; Gr. business; to do. See Practice.] Forward to intermeddle; meddling; impertinently busy or officious in the concerns of others, without leave or invitation.

Pragmatic sanction, in the German empire, the settlement made by Charles VI. the emperor, who in 1722, having no sons, settled his hereditary dominions on his eldest daughter, the archduchess Maria Theresa, which settlement was confirmed by most of the powers of Europe.the civil law, pragmatic sanction may be defined, a rescript or answer of the sovereign, delivered by advice of his council to some college, order, or body of people, who consult him in relation to the affairs of their community. The like answer given to a particular person, is called simply a rescript.

PRAGMAT'ICALLY, adverb In a meddling manner; impertinently.

PRAGMAT'ICALNESS, noun The quality of intermeddling without right or invitation.

PRAG'MATIST, noun One who is impertinently busy or meddling.

PRAIRY, noun An extensive tract of land, mostly level, destitute of trees, and covered with tall coarse grass. These prairies are numerous in the United States, west of the Alleghany mountains, especially between the Ohio, Mississippi and the great lakes.

PRA'ISABLE, adjective That may be praised. [Not used.]

PRAISE, noun s as z. [Latin pretium.]

1. Commendation bestowed on a person for his personal virtues or worthy actions, on meritorious actions themselves, or on any thing valuable; approbation expressed in words or song. praise may be expressed by an individual, and in this circumstance differs from fame, renown, and celebrity, which are the expression of the approbation of numbers, or public commendation. When praise is applied to the expression of public approbation, it may be synonymous with renown, or nearly so. A man may deserve the praise of an individual, or of a nation.

There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice.

2. The expression of gratitude for personal favors conferred; a glorifying or extolling.

He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise to our God. Psalms 40:3.

3. The object, ground or reason of praise

He is thy praise and he is thy God. Deuteronomy 10:21.

PRAISE, verb transitive [Latin tollo, extollo; pretium.]

1. To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of personal worth or actions.

We praise not Hector, though his name we know

Is great in arms; 'tis hard to praise a foe.

2. To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works.

PRAISE him, all his angels, praise ye him, all his hosts. Psalms 148:1.

3. To express gratitude for personal favors. Psa 138.

4. To do honor to; to display the excellence of.

All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord. Psa 145.

PRA'ISED, participle passive Commended; extolled.

PRA'ISEFUL, adjective Laudable; commendable. [Not used.]

PRA'ISELESS, adjective Without praise or commendation.

PRA'ISER, noun One who praises, commends or extols; an applauder; a commender.

PRAISEWORTHILY, adverb In a manner deserving of commendation.

PRAISEWORTHINESS, noun The quality of deserving commendation.

PRAISEWORTHY, adjective Deserving of praise or applause; commendable; as a praiseworthy action.

PRA'ISING, participle present tense Commending; extolling in words or song.

PRAME, n. A flat-bottomed boat or lighter; used in Holland for conveying goods to or from a ship in loading or unloading.

PR'ANCE, verb intransitive prans.

1. To spring or bound, as a horse in high mettle.

Now rule thy prancing steed.

2. To ride with bounding movements; to ride ostentatiously.

Th' insulting tyrant prancing o'er the field.

3. To walk or strut about in a showy manner or with warlike parade.

PR'ANCING, participle present tense Springing; bounding; riding with gallant show.

PR'ANCING, noun A springing or bounding, as of a high spirited horse. Judges 5:1.

PRANK, verb transitive To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or adjust to ostentation.

In sumptuous tire she joyed herself to prank

It is often followed by up.

--And me, poor lowly maid,

Most goddess-like prankt up.

PRANK, noun Properly, a sudden start or sally. [See Prance.] Hence, a wild flight; a capering; a gambol.

1. A capricious action; a ludicrous or merry trick, or a mischievous act, rather for sport than injury. Children often play their pranks on each other.

--In came the harpies and played their accustomed pranks.

PRANK, adjective Frolicksome; full of gambols or tricks.

PRANK'ED

PRANK'ER, noun One that dresses ostentatiously.

PRANK'ER, n. One that dresses ostentatiously.

PRANK'ING, ppr. Setting off or adorning for display.

PRANK'ING, n. Ostentatious display of dress.

PRANKT, participle passive Adorned in a showy manner.

PRASE, noun s as z. A silicious mineral; a subspecies of quartz of a leek green color.

PRASON, noun pra'sn. [Gr.] A leek; also, a sea weed green as a leek.

PRATE, verb intransitive To talk much and without weight, or to little purpose; to be loquacious; as the vulgar express it, to run on.

To prate and talk for life and honor,

And make a fool presume to prate of love.

PRATE, verb transitive To utter foolishly.

What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate

When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate?

PRATE, noun Continued talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity.

PRA'TER, noun One that talks much to little purpose, or on trifling subjects.

PRAT'IC

PRA'TING, participle present tense Talking much on a trifling subject; talking idly.

PRA'TING, ppr. Talking much on a trifling subject; talking idly.

PRA'TINGLY, adverb With much idle talk; with loquacity.

PRATIQUE, noun In commerce, primarily, converse; intercourse; the communication between a ship and the port in which she arrives. Hence, a license or permission to hold intercourse and trade with the inhabitants of a place, after having performed quarantine, or upon a certificate that the ship did not come from an infected place; a term used particularly in the south of Europe, where vessels coming from countries infected with contagious diseases, are subjected to quarantine.

PRAT'TLE, verb intransitive [dim. of prate.] To talk much and idly; to be loquacious on trifling subjects.

This word is particularly applied to the talk of children.

PRAT'TLE, noun Trifling talk; loquacity on trivial subjects.

Mere prattle without practice,

Is all his soldiership.

PRAT'TLEMENT, noun Prattle.

PRAT'TLER, noun An idle talker.

PRAT'TLING, participle present tense Talking much on trivial affairs.

PRAV'ITY, noun [Latin pravitas, from pravus, crooked, evil.]

Deviation from right; moral perversion; want of rectitude; corrupt state; as the pravity of human nature; the pravity of the will.

PRAWN. noun A small crustaceous fish of the genus Cancer, with a serrated snout bending upwards.

PRAX'IS, noun [Latin from the Gr. See Practice.] Use; practice.

1. An example or form to teach practice.

PRAY, verb intransitive [Latin precor; proco; this word belongs to the same family as preach and reproach; Heb. to bless, to reproach; rendered in Job 2:9, to curse; properly, to reproach, to rail at or upbraid. In Latin the word precor signifies to supplicate good or evil, and precis signifies a prayer and a curse. See Imprecate.]

1. To ask with earnestness or zeal, as for a favor, or for something desirable; to entreat; to supplicate.

PRAY for them who despitefully use you and persecute you. Matthew 5:44.

2. To petition; to ask, as for a favor; as in application to a legislative body.

3. In worship, to address the Supreme Being with solemnity and reverence, with adoration, confession of sins, supplication for mercy, and thanksgiving for blessings received.

When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:5.

4. I pray that is, I pray you tell me, or let me know, is a common mode of introducing a question.

PRAY, verb transitive To supplicate; to entreat; to urge.

We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.

1. In worship, to supplicate; to implore; to ask with reverence and humility.

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee.

Acts 8:22.

2. To petition. The plaintiff prays judgment of the court.

He that will have the benefit of this act, must pray a prohibition before a sentence in the ecclesiastical court.

3. To ask or intreat in ceremony or form.

PRAY my colleague Antonius I may speak with him.

[In most instances, this verb is transitive only by ellipsis. To pray God, is used for to pray to God; to pray a prohibition, is to pray for a prohibition, etc.]

To pray in aid, in law, is to call in for help one who has interest in the cause.

PRA'YER, noun In a general sense, the act of asking for a favor, and particularly with earnestness.

1. In worship, a solemn address to the Supreme Being, consisting of adoration, or an expression of our sense of God's glorious perfections, confession of our sins, supplication for mercy and forgiveness, intercession for blessings on others, and thanksgiving, or an expression of gratitude to God for his mercies and benefits. A prayer however may consist of a single petition, and it may be extemporaneous, written or printed.

2. A formula of church service, or of worship, public or private.

3. Practice of supplication.

As he is famed for mildness, peace and prayer

4. That part of a memorial or petition to a public body, which specifies the request or thing desired to be done or granted, as distinct from the recital of facts or reasons for the grant. We say, the prayer of the petition is that the petitioner may be discharged from arrest.

PRA'YERFUL, adjective Devotional; given to prayer; as a prayerful frame of mind.

1. Using much prayer.

PRA'YERFULLY, adverb With much prayer.

PRA'YERLESS, adjective Not using prayer; habitually neglecting the duty of prayer to God; as a prayerless family.

PRA'YERLESSNESS, noun Total or habitual neglect of prayer.

PRA'YING, participle present tense Asking; supplicating.

PRA'YINGLY, adverb With supplication to God.

PRE, an English prefix, is the Latin proe, before, probably a contracted word.

PREACH, verb intransitive [Latin proeco, a crier; precor.]

1. To pronounce a public discourse on a religious subject, or from a subject, or from a text of Scripture. The word is usually applied to such discourses as are formed from a text of Scripture. This is the modern sense of preach

2. To discourse on the gospel way of salvation and exhort to repentance; to discourse on evangelical truths and exhort to a belief of them and acceptance of the terms of salvation. This was the extemporaneous manner of preaching pursued by Christ and his apostles. Matthew 4:10. Acts 10:14.

PREACH, verb transitive To proclaim; to publish in religious discourses.

What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the house-tops. Matthew 10:7.

The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. Isaiah 61:1.

1. To inculcate in public discourses.

I have preached righteousness in the great congregations. Psalms 40:9.

He oft to them preach'd

Conversion and repentance.

To preach Christ or Christ crucified, to announce Christ as the only Savior, and his atonement as the only ground of acceptance with God. 1 Corinthians 1:17.

To preach up, to discourse in favor of.

Can they preach up equality of birth?

PREACH, noun A religious discourse. [Not used.]

PRE'ACHED, participle passive Proclaimed; announced in public discourse; inculcated.

PRE'ACHER, noun One who discourses publicly on religious subjects.

1. One that inculcates any thing with earnestness.

No preacher is listened to but time.

PRE'ACHERSHIP, noun The office of a preacher. [Not used.]

PRE'ACHING, participle present tense Proclaiming; publishing in discourse; inculcating.

PRE'ACHING, noun The act of preaching; a public religious discourse.

PRE'ACHMAN, noun A preacher; in contempt.

PRE'ACHMENT, noun A discourse or sermon; in contempt; a discourse affectedly solemn.

PREACQUA'INTANCE, noun Previous acquaintance or knowledge.

PREACQUA'INTED, adjective Previously acquainted.

PREAD'AMITE, noun [pre, before, and Adam.]

An inhabitant of the earth that lived before Adam.

PREADAMIT'IC, adjective Designating what existed before Adam; as fictitious preadamitic periods.

PREADMINISTRA'TION, noun Previous administration.

PREADMON'ISH, verb transitive To admonish previously.

PREADMONI'TION, noun Previous warning or admonition.

PRE'AMBLE, noun [Latin proe, before, and ambulo, to go.]

1. Something previous; introduction to a discourse or writing.

2. The introductory part of a statute, which states the reasons and intent of the law.

PRE'AMBLE, verb transitive To preface; to introduce with previous remarks.

PREAM'BULARY

PREAM'BULATE, verb intransitive [Latin proe, before, and ambulo, to walk.]

To walk or go before.

PREAM'BULATE, v.i. [L. proe, before, and ambulo, to walk.]

To walk or go before.

PREAMBULA'TION, noun A preamble. [Not in use.]

1. A walking or going before.

PREAM'BULATORY, adjective Going before; preceding.

PREAM'BULOUS, adjective Previous; introductory. [Not used.]

PREAPPREHEN'SION, noun [See Apprehend.]

An opinion formed before examination.

PREASE, noun Press; crowd. [Not used. See Press.]

PRE'ASING, participle present tense or adjective Crowding. [Not used.]

PREAU'DIENCE, noun [See Audience.] Precedence or rank at the bar among lawyers; right of previous audience.

PREB'END, noun [Latin proebeo, to afford, to allow.]

1. The stipend or maintenance granted out of the estate of a cathedral or collegiate church. Prebends are simple or dignitary; simple, when they are restricted to the revenue only, and dignitary, when they have jurisdiction annexed to them.

2. A prebendary. [Not in use.]

PREBEND'AL, adjective Pertaining to a prebend.

PREB'ENDARY, noun An ecclesiastic who enjoys a prebend; the stipendiary of a cathedral church.

A prebendary differs from a canon in this; the prebendary receives his prebend in consideration of his officiating in the church; the canon merely in consequence of his being received into the cathedral or college.

PREB'ENDARYSHIP, noun The office of a prebendary; a canonry.

PRECA'RIOUS, adjective [Latin precarius, from precor, to pray or entreat; primarily, depending on request, or on the will of another.

1. Depending on the will or pleasure of another; held by courtesy liable to be changed or lost at the pleasure of another. A privilege depending on another's will is precarious or held by a precarious tenure.

2. Uncertain; held by a doubtful tenure; depending on unknown or unforeseen causes or events. Temporal prosperity is precarious; personal advantages, health, strength and beauty are all precarious depending on a thousand accidents.

We say also, the weather is precarious; a phrase in which we depart not more from the primary sense of the word, than we do in a large part of all the words in the language.

PRECA'RIOUSLY, adverb At the will or pleasure of others; dependently; by an uncertain tenure; as, he subsists precariously

PRECA'RIOUSNESS, noun Uncertainty; dependence on the will or pleasure of others, or on unknown events; as the precariousness of life or health.

PRE'CATIVE

PRE'CATORY, adjective [Latin precor, to pray.] Suppliant; beseeching.

PRE'CATORY, a. [L. precor, to pray.] Suppliant; beseeching.

PRECAU'TION, noun [Latin precautus, proecaveo; proe, before, and caveo, to take care.] Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent mischief or secure good in possession.

PRECAU'TION, verb transitive To warn or advise beforehand for preventing mischief or securing good.

PRECAU'TIONAL, adjective Preventive of mischief.

PRECAU'TIONARY, adjective Containing previous caution; as precautionary advice or admonition.

1. Proceeding from previous caution; adapted to prevent mischief or secure good; as precautionary measures.

PRECEDA'NEOUS, adjective [form precede, Latin proecedo.]

Preceding; antecedent; anterior. [Not used.]

PRECE'DE, verb transitive [Latin proecedo; proe, before, and cedo, to more.]

1. To go before in the order of time. The corruption of morals precedes the ruin of a state.

2. To go before in rank or importance.

3. To cause something to be before; to make to take place in prior time.

It is usual to precede hostilities by a public declaration. [Unusual.]

PRECE'DED, participle passive Being gone before.

PRECE'DENCE

PRECE'DENCY, noun The act or state of going before; priority in time; as the precedence of one event.

1. The state of going or being before in rank or dignity or the place of honor; the right to a more honorable place in public processions, in seats or in the civilities of life. precedence depends on the order of nature or rank established by God himself, as that due to age; or on courtesy, custom or political distinction, as that due to a governor or senator, who, though younger in years, takes rank of a subordinate officer, though older; or it is settled by authority, as in Great Britain. In the latter case, a violation of the right of precedence is actionable.

Precedence went in truck,

And he was competent whose purse was so.

2. The foremost in ceremony.

3. Superiority; superior importance or influence.

Which of the different desires has precedency in determining the will to the next action.

PRECE'DENCY, n. The act or state of going before; priority in time; as the precedence of one event.

PRECE'DENT, adjective Going before in time; anterior; antecedent; as precedent services; a precedent fault of the will.

The world, or any part thereof, could not be precedent to the creation of man.

A precedent condition, in law, is a condition which must happen or be performed before an estate or some right can vest, and on failure of which the estate or right is defeated.

PREC'EDENT, noun Something done or said, that may serve or be adduced as an example to authorize a subsequent act of the like kind.

Examples for cases can but direct as precedents only.

1. In law, a judicial decision, interlocutory or final, which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; or any proceeding or course of proceedings which may serve for a rule insubsequent cases of a like nature.

PREC'EDENTED, adjective Having a precedent; authorized by an example of a like kind.

PRECE'DENTLY, adverb Beforehand; antecedently.

PRECEL'LENCE, noun Excellence. [Not in use.]

PRECEN'TOR, noun [Low Latin proecentor; Latin proe, before, and canto, to sing.] The leader of the choir in a cathedral; called also the chanter or master of the choir.

PRE'CEPT, noun [Latin proeceptum, from proecipio, to command; proe, before, and capio, to take.]

1. In a general sense, any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; but applied particularly to commands respecting moral conduct. The ten commandments are so many precepts for the regulation of our moral conduct.

No arts are without their precepts.

2. In law, a command or mandate in writing.

PRECEP'TIAL, adjective Consisting of precepts. [Not in use.]

PRECEP'TION, noun A precept. [Not in use.]

PRECEP'TIVE, adjective [Latin proeceptivus.] Giving precepts or commands for the regulation of moral conduct; containing precepts; as the preceptive parts of the Scriptures.

1. Directing in moral conduct; giving rules or directions; didactic.

The lesson given us here is preceptive to us.

Preceptive poetry.

PRECEP'TOR, noun [Latin proeceptor. See Precept.]

1. In a general sense, a teacher; an instructor.

2. In a restricted sense, the teacher of a school; sometimes, the principal teacher of an academy or other seminary.

PRECEPTO'RIAL, adjective Pertaining to a preceptor.

PRECEP'TORY, adjective Giving precepts.

PRECEP'TORY, noun A subordinate religious house where instruction was given.

PRECES'SION, noun [Latin proecessus, proecedo, to go before.]

1. Literally, the act of going before, but in this sense rarely or never used.

2. In astronomy, the precession of the equinox, is an annual motion of the equinox, or point when the ecliptic intersects the equator, to the westward, amounting to 50 l/2'. This precession was discovered by Hipparchus, a century and a half before the christian era, though it is alleged that the astronomers of India had discovered it long before. At that time, the point of the autumnal equinox was about six degrees to the eastward of the star called spica virginis. In 1750, that is, about nineteen hundred years after, this point was observed to be about 20 deg. 21' westward of that star. Hence it appears that the equinoctial points will make an entire revolution in about 25, 745 years.

PRE'CINCT, noun [Latin proecinctus, proecingo, to cencompass; proe and cingo, to surround or gird.]

1. The limit, bound or exterior line encompassing a place; as the precincts of light.

2. Bounds of jurisdiction, or the whole territory comprehended within the limits of authority.

Take the body of A B, if to be found within your precincts.

3. A territorial district or division.

It is to be observed that this word is generally used in the plural, except in the third sense.

In case of non-acceptance [of the collector] the parish or precinct shall proceed to a new choice.

PRECIOSITY, for preciousness or value, not used.

PRE'CIOUS, adjective [Latin pretiosus, from pretium, price. See Praise.]

1. Of great price; costly; as a precious stone.

2. Of great value or worth; very valuable.

She is more precious than rubies. Proverbs 3:15.

3. Highly valued; much esteemed.

The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 1 Samuel 3:1.

4. Worthless; in irony and contempt.

Precious metals, gold and silver, so called on account of their value.

PRE'CIOUSLY, adverb Valuably; to a great price.

1. Contemptibly; in irony.

PRE'CIOUSNESS, noun Valuableness; great value; high price.

PRECIPE, noun pres'ipy. [Latin proecipio. See Precept.]

In law, a writ commanding the defendant to do a certain thing, or to show cause to the contrary; giving him his choice to redress the injury or to stand the suit.

PREC'IPICE, noun [Latin proecipitium, from proeceps, headlong; proe, forward, and ceps, for caput, head. See Chief.]

1. Strictly, a falling headlong; hence, a steep descent of land; a fall or descent of land, perpendicular or nearly so.

Where wealth, like fruit, on precipices grew.

2. A steep descent, in general.

In the breaking of the waves there is ever a precipice

Swift down the precipice of time it goes.

PRECIP'IENT, adjective [Latin proecipiens. See Precept.]

Commanding; directing.

PRECIPITABIL'ITY, noun [from precipitable.]

The quality or state of being precipitable.

PRECIP'ITABLE, adjective [from Latin proecipito, from proeceps, headlong.]

That may be precipitated or cast to the bottom, as a substance in solution.

PRECIP'ITANCE

PRECIP'ITANT, adjective [Latin proecipitans, proecipito, from proeceps, headlong.]

1. Falling or rushing headlong; rushing down with velocity.

They leave their little lives

Above the clouds, precipitant to earth.

2. Hasty; urged with violent haste.

Should he return, that troop so blithe and bold,

Precipitant in fear, would wing their flight.

3. Rashly hurried or hasty; as precipitant rebellion.

4. Unexpectedly brought on or hastened.

PRECIP'ITANT, noun In chimistry, a liquor, which when poured on a solution, separates what is dissolved and makes it precipitate, or fall to the bottom in a concrete state.

PRECIP'ITANT, a. [L. proecipitans, proecipito, from proeceps, headlong.]

PRECIP'ITANT, n. In chimistry, a liquor, which when poured on a solution, separates what is dissolved and makes it precipitate, or fall to the bottom in a concrete state.

PRECIP'ITANTLY, adverb With great haste; with rash unadvised haste; with tumultuous hurry.

PRECIP'ITATE, verb transitive [Latin proecipito, from proeceps, headlong. See Precipice.]

1. To throw headlong; as, he precipitated himself from a rock.

2. To urge or press with eagerness or violence; as, to precipitate a flight.

3. To hasten.

Short intermittent and swift recurrent pains do precipitate patients into consumptions.

4. To hurry blindly or rashly.

If they be daring, it may precipitate their designs and prove dangerous.

5. To throw to the bottom of a vessel; as a substance in solution.

All metals may be precipitated by alkaline salts.

PRECIP'ITATE, verb intransitive To fall headlong.

1. To fall to the bottom of a vessel, as sediment, or any substance in solution.

2. To hasten without preparation.

PRECIP'ITATE, adjective Falling, flowing or rushing with steep descent.

Precipitate the furious torrent flows.

1. Headlong; over hasty; rashly hasty; as, the king was too precipitate in declaring war.

2. Adopted with haste or without due deliberation; hasty; as a precipitate measure.

3. Hasty; violent; terminating speedily in death; as a precipitate case of disease.

PRECIP'ITATE, noun A substance which, having been dissolved, is again separated from its solvent and thrown to the bottom of the vessel by pouring another liquor upon it.

Precipitate per se,

Red precipitate the red oxyd or peroxyd of mercury.

PRECIP'ITATED, participle passive Hurried; hastened rashly; thrown headlong.

PRECIP'ITATELY, adverb Headlong; with steep descent.

1. Hastily; with rash haste; without due caution. Neither praise nor censure precipitately

PRECIP'ITATING, participle present tense Throwing headlong; hurrying; hastening rashly.

PRECIPITA'TION, noun [Latin proecipitatio.]

1. The act of throwing headlong.

2. A falling, flowing or rushing down with violence and rapidity.

The hurry, precipitation and rapid motion of the water.

3. Great hurry; rash, tumultuous haste; rapid movement.

The precipitation of inexperience is often restrained by shame.

4. The act or operation of throwing to the bottom of a vessel any substance held in solution by its menstruum. precipitation is often effected by a double elective attraction.

PRECIP'ITATOR, noun One that urges on with vehemence or rashness.

PRECIP'ITOUS, adjective [Latin proeceps.] Very steep; as a precipitous cliff or mountain.

1. Headlong; directly or rapidly descending; as a precipitous fall.

2. Hasty; rash; heady.

Advice unsafe, precipitous and bold.

PRECIP'ITOUSLY, adverb With steep descent; in violent haste.

PRECIP'ITOUSNESS, noun Steepness of descent.

1. Rash haste.

PRECIP'TANCY, noun [from precipitant.] Headlong hurry; rash haste; haste in resolving, forming an opinion or executing a purpose without due deliberation.

Hurried on by the precipitance of youth.

Rashness and precipitance of judgment.

1. Hurry; great haste in going.

PRECI'SE, adjective [Latin proecisus, from proecido, to cut off; proe and coedo; literally, cut or pared away, that is, pared to smoothness or exactness.]

1. Exact; nice; definite; having determinate limitations; not loose, vague, uncertain or equivocal; as precise rules of morality; precise directions for life and conduct.

The law in this point is precise

For the hour precise

Exacts our parting.

2. Formal; superstitiously exact; excessively nice; punctilious in conduct or ceremony.

PRECI'SELY, adverb Exactly; nicely; accurately; in exact conformity to truth or to a model. The ideas are precisely expressed. The time of an eclipse may be precisely determined by calculation.

When more of these orders than one are to be set in several stories, there must be an exquisite care to place the columns precisely one over another.

1. With excess of formality; with scrupulous exactness or punctiliousness in behavior or ceremony.

PRECI'SENESS, noun Exactness; rigid nicety; as the preciseness of words or expressions.

I will distinguish the cases; though give me leave, in handling them, not to sever them with too much preciseness

1. Excessive regard to forms or rules; rigid formality.

PRECI'SIAN, noun s as z. One that limits or restrains.

1. One who is rigidly or ceremoniously exact in the observance of rules.

PRECI'SIANISM, noun Excessive exactness; superstitious rigor.

[These two words are, I believe, little used, or not at all.]

PRECI'SION, noun s as z. [Latin proecisio.] Exact limitation; exactness; accuracy. precision in the use of words is a prime excellence in discourse; it is indispensable in controversy, in legal instruments and in mathematical calculations. Neither perspicuity nor precision should be sacrificed to ornament.

PRECI'SIVE, adjective Exactly limiting by separating what is not relative to the purpose; as precisive abstraction.

PRECLU'DE, verb transitive [Latin proecludo; proe, before, and cludo, claudo, to shut.]

1. To prevent from entering by previously shutting the passage, or by any previous measures; hence, to hinder from access, possession or enjoyment. Sin, by its very nature, precludes the sinner from heaven; it precludes the enjoyment of God's favor; or it precludes the favor of God.

The valves preclude the blood from entering the veins.

2. To prevent from happening or taking place.

PRECLU'DED, participle passive Hindered from entering or enjoyment; debarred from something by previous obstacles.

PRECLU'DING, participle present tense Shutting out; preventing from access or possession or from having place.

PRECLU'SION, noun s as z. The act of shutting out or preventing from access or possession; the state of being prevented from entering, possession or enjoyment.

PRECLU'SIVE, adjective Shutting out, or tending to preclude; hindering by previous obstacles.

PRECLU'SIVELY, adverb With hinderance by anticipation.

PRECO'CIOUS, adjective [Latin proecox; proe, before, and coquo, to cook or prepare.]

1. Ripe before the proper or natural time; as precocious trees.

2. Premature.

PRECO'CIOUSNESS

PRECOC'ITY, noun Rapid growth and ripeness before the usual time; prematureness.

I cannot learn that he gave, in his youth, any evidence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius.

PRECOC'ITY, n. Rapid growth and ripeness before the usual time; prematureness.

PRECOG'ITATE, verb transitive [Latin proecogito; proe and cogito.]

To consider or contrive beforehand. [Little used.]

PRECOGITA'TION, noun Previous thought or consideration.

PRECOGNITA. [See Proecognita.]

PRECOGNI'TION, noun [Latin proe, before, and cognitio, knowledge.]

1. Previous knowledge; antecedent examination.

2. In Scots law, an examination of witnesses to a criminal act, before a judge, justice of the peace or sheriff, before the prosecution of the offender, in order to know whether there is ground of trial, and to enable the prosecutor to set forth the facts in the libel.

PRECOMPO'SE, verb transitive [See compose.] To compose beforehand.

PRECOMPO'SED, participle passive Composed beforehand.

PRECOMPO'SING, participle present tense Composing beforehand.

PRECONCE'IT, noun [See Preconceive.] An opinion or notion previously formed.

PRECONCE'IVE, verb transitive [Latin proe, before, and concipio, to conceive.]

To form a conception or opinion beforehand; to form a previous notion or idea.

In a dead plain, the way seems the longer, because the eye has preconceived it shorter than the truth.

PRECONCE'IVED, participle passive Conceived beforehand; previously formed; as preconceived opinions; preconceived ends or purposes.

PRECONCE'IVING, participle present tense Conceiving or forming beforehand.

PRECONCEP'TION, noun Conception or opinion previously formed.

PRECONCERT', verb transitive [pre and concert.]

To concert beforehand; to settle by previous agreement.

PRECONCERT'ED, participle passive Previously concerted or settled.

PRECONCERT'ING, participle present tense Contriving and settling beforehand.

PRECONIZA'TION, noun [Latin proeconium, from proeco, a crier.

A publishing by proclamation, or a proclamation. [Not used.]

PRECONSIGN, verb transitive [pre and consign.]

To consign beforehand; to make a previous consignment of.

PRECON'STITUTE, verb transitive [pre and constitute.]

To constitute or establish beforehand.

PRECON'STITUTED, participle passive Previously established.

PRECON'STITUTING, participle present tense Constituting beforehand.

PRECON'TRACT, noun [pre and contract.]

A contract previous to another.

PRECONTRACT', verb transitive To contract or stipulate previously.

PRECONTRACT', verb intransitive To make a previous contract or agreement.

PRECONTRACT'ED, participle passive Previously contracted or stipulated; previously engaged by contract; as a woman precontracted to another man.

PRECONTRACT'ING, participle present tense Stipulating or covenanting beforehand.

PRECURSE, noun precurs'. [Latin proecursus, proecurro; proe and curro, to run.] A forerunning. [Not used.]

PRECURS'OR, noun [Latin proecursor, supra.] A forerunner; a harbinger; he or that which precedes an event and indicates its approach; as Jove's lightnings, the precursors of thunder.

A cloud in the southwest, in winter, is often the precursor of a snow storm. A hazy atmosphere in the west, at sunset, is often the precursor of a cloudy or of a rainy day.

Evil thoughts are the invisible, airy precursors of all the storms and tempests of the soul.

PRECURS'ORY, adjective Preceding as the harbinger; indicating something to follow; as precursory symptoms of a fever.

PRECURS'ORY, noun An introduction. [Not used.]

PREDA'CEOUS, adjective [Latin proedaceus, from proeda, prey, spoil.]

Living by prey.

PRE'DAL, adjective [Latin proeda, prey.] Pertaining to prey.

1. Practicing plunder.

PRED'ATORY, adjective [Latin proedatorius, from proeda, prey.]

1. Plundering; pillaging; characterized by plundering; practicing rapine; as a predatory war; a predatory excursion; a predatory party.

2. Hungry; ravenous; as predatory spirits or appetite. [Hardly allowable.]

PREDECE'ASE, verb intransitive [pre and decease.] To die before.

PREDECE'ASED, adjective Dead before.

PREDECES'SOR, noun [Latin proe and decedo, to depart.] A person who has preceded another in the same office. The king, the president, the judge, or the magistrate, follows the steps of his predecessor or he does not imitate the example of his predecessors. It is distinguished from ancestor, who is of the same blood; but it may perhaps be sometimes used for it.

PREDESIGN, verb transitive To design or purpose beforehand; to predetermine.

PREDESIGNED, participle passive Purposed or determined previously.

PREDESIGNING, participle present tense Designing previously.

PREDESTINA'RIAN, noun [See Predestinate.]

One that believes in the doctrine of predestination.

PREDES'TINATE, adjective Predestinated; foreordained.

PREDES'TINATE, verb transitive [Latin proedestino; proe and destino, to appoint.

To predetermine or foreordain; to appoint or ordain beforehand by an unchangeable purpose.

Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Romans 8:29.

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Ephesians 1:5.

PREDES'TINATED, participle passive Predetermined; foreordained; decreed.

PREDES'TINATING, participle present tense Foreordaining; decreeing; appointing beforehand by an unchangeable purpose.

1. Holding predestination.

And pricks up his predestinating ears.

PREDESTINA'TION, noun The act of decreeing or foreordaining events; the decree of God by which he hath, from eternity, unchangeably appointed or determined whatever comes to pass. It is used particularly in theology to denote the preordination of men to everlasting happiness or misery.

Predestination is a part of the unchangeable plan of the divine government; or in other words, the unchangeable purpose of an unchangeable God.

PREDES'TINATOR, noun Properly, one that foreordains.

1. One that holds to predestination.

PREDES'TINE, verb transitive To decree beforehand; to foreordain.

And bid predestined empires rise and fall.

PREDETERM'INATE, adjective Determined beforehand; as the predeterminate counsel of God.

PREDETERMINA'TION, noun [See Predetermine.]

1. Previous determination; purpose formed beforehand; as the predetermination of God's will.

2. Premotion; that concurrence of God which determines men in their actions.

PREDETERM'INE, verb transitive [pre and determine.]

1. To determine beforehand; to settle in purpose or counsel.

If God foresees events, he must have predetermined them.

2. To doom by previous decree.

PRE'DIAL, adjective [Latin proedium, a farm or estate.]

1. Consisting of land or farms; real estate.

2. Attached to land or farms; as predial slaves.

3. Growing or issuing from land; as predial tithes.

PREDICABIL'ITY, noun [from predicable.] The quality of being predicable, or capable of being affirmed of something, or attributed to something.

PRED'ICABLE, adjective [Latin proedicabilis, from proedico, to affirm; proe and dico, to say.] That may be affirmed of something; that may be attributed to. Animal is predicable of man. Intelligence is not predicable of plants. More or less is not predicable of a circle or of a square. Whiteness is not predicable of time.

PRED'ICABLE, noun One of the five things which can be affirmed of any thing. Genus, species, difference, property, and accident are the five predicables.

PREDIC'AMENT, noun [Latin proedicamentum, from proedico, to affirm.]

1. In logic, a category; a series or order of all the predicates or attributes contained under any genus. The school philosophers distribute all the objects of our thoughts and ideas into genera or classes, which the Greeks call categories, and the Latins predicaments. Aristotle made ten categories, viz. substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, place, situation and habit.

2. Class or kind described by any definite marks; hence, condition; particular situation or state.

We say, the country is in a singular predicament

PREDICAMENT'AL, adjective Pertaining to a predicament.

PRED'ICANT, noun [Latin proedicans, proedico.]

One that affirms any thing.

PRED'ICATE, verb transitive [Latin proedico; proe and dico, to say.]

To affirm one thing of another; as, to predicate whiteness of snow. Reason may be predicated of man.

PRED'ICATE, verb intransitive To affirm; to comprise an affirmation.

PRED'ICATE, noun In logic, that which, in a proposition, is affirmed or denied of the subject. In these propositions, 'paper is white.' 'ink is not white, ' whiteness is the predicate affirmed of paper, and denied of ink.

PREDICA'TION, noun [Latin proedicatio.] Affirmation of something, or the act of affirming one thing of another.

PRED'ICATORY, adjective Affirmative; positive.

PREDICT', verb transitive [Latin proedictus, proedico; proe, before, and dico, to tell.] To foretell; to tell beforehand something that is to happen. Moses predicted the dispersion of the Israelites. Christ predicted the destruction of Jerusalem.

PREDICT'ED, participle passive Foretold; told before the event.

PREDICT'ING, participle present tense Foretelling.

PREDIC'TION, noun [Latin proedictio.] A foretelling; a previous declaration of a future event; prophecy. The fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets is considered to be a strong argument in favor of the divine origin of the Scriptures.

PREDICT'IVE, adjective Foretelling; prophetic.

PREDICT'OR, noun A foreteller; one who prophesies.

PREDIGES'TION, noun [pre and digestion.] Too hasty digestion.

Predigestion fills the body with crudities.

PREDILEC'TION, noun [Latin proe, before, and dilectus, dilito, to love.]

A previous liking; a prepossession of mind in favor of something.

PREDISPO'NENT, noun That which predisposes.

PREDISPO'SE, verb transitive s as z. [pre and dispose.]

1. To incline beforehand; to give a previous disposition to; as, to predispose the mind or temper to friendship.

2. To fit or adapt previously; as, debility predisposes the body to disease.

PREDISPO'SED, participle passive Previously inclined or adapted.

PREDISPO'SING, participle present tense Inclining or adapting beforehand.

1. adjective Tending or able to give predisposition or liableness; as the predisposing causes of disease.

PREDISPOSI'TION, noun Previous inclination or propensity to any thing; applied to the mind.

1. Previous fitness or adaptation to any change, impression or purpose; applied to matter; as the predisposition of the body to disease; the predisposition of the seasons to generate diseases.

PREDOM'INANCE

PREDOM'INANCY, noun [See Predominant.]

1. Prevalence over others; superiority in strength, power, influence or authority; ascendancy; as the predominance of a red color in a body of various colors; the predominance of love or anger among the passions; the predominance of self-interest over all other considerations; the predominance of imperial authority in the confederacy.

2. In astrology, the superior influence of a planet.

PREDOM'INANCY, n. [See Predominant.]

PREDOM'INANT, adjective [Latin proe and dominans, dominor, to rule.]

Prevalent over others; superior in strength, influence or authority; ascendant; ruling; controlling; as a predominant color; predominant beauty or excellence; a predominant passion.

Those helps--were predominant in the king's mind.

Foul subornation is predominant

PREDOM'INANTLY, adverb With superior strength or influence.

PREDOM'INATE, verb intransitive [Latin proe, before, and dominor, to rule, from dominus, lord.] To prevail; to surpass in strength, influence or authority; to be superior; to have controlling influence. In some persons, the love of money predominates over all other passions; in others, ambition or the love of fame predominates; in most men, self-interest predominates over patriotism and philanthropy.

So much did love t'her executed lord

Predominate in this fair lady's heart.

The rays reflected least obliquely may predominate over the rest.

PREDOM'INATE, verb transitive To rule over.

PREDOM'INATING, participle present tense Having superior strength or influence; ruling; controlling.

PREDOMINA'TION, noun Superior strength or influence.

PREEN, noun A forked instrument used by clothiers in dressing cloth.

PREEN, verb transitive To clean, compose and dress the feathers, as fowls, to enable them to glide more easily through the air or water. For this purpose they are furnished with two glands on their rump, which secrete an oily substance into a bag, from which they draw it with the bill and spread it over their feathers.

PREE'NING, participle present tense Cleaning and composing the feathers, as fowls.

PREF'ACE, noun [Latin proefatio; proe, before, and for, fari, fatus, to speak.] Something spoken as introductory to a discourse, or written as introductory to a book or essay, intended to inform the hearer or reader of the main design, or in general, of whatever is necessary to the understanding of the discourse, book or essay; a poem; an introduction or series of preliminary remarks.

PREF'ACE, verb transitive To introduce by preliminary remarks; as, to preface a book or discourse. The advocate prefaced his argument with a history of the case.

1. To face; to cover; a ludicrous sense.

Not prefacing old rags with plush.

PREF'ACE, verb intransitive To say something introductory.

PREF'ACED, participle passive Introduced with preliminary observations.

PREF'ACER, noun The writer of a preface.

PREF'ACING, participle present tense Introducing with preliminary remarks.

PREF'ATORY, adjective Pertaining to a preface; introductory to a book, essay or discourse.

PRE'FECT, noun [Latin proefectus; proe, before, and factus, made; but directly from proeficior, proefectus.]

1. In ancient Rome, a chief magistrate who governed a city or province in the absence of the king, consuls or emperor.

2. A governor, commander, chief magistrate or superintendent.

PRE'FECTSHIP

PRE'FECTURE, noun The office of a chief magistrate, commander or viceroy.

1. Jurisdiction of a perfect.

PRE'FECTURE, n. The office of a chief magistrate, commander or viceroy.

PREFER', verb transitive [Latin proefero; proe, before, and fero, to bear or carry.]

1. Literally, to bear or carry in advance, in the mind, affections or choice; hence, to regard more than another; to honor or esteem above another.

It is sometimes followed by above, before, or to.

If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Psalms 137:6.

He that cometh after me, is preferred before me. John 1:1.

2. To advance, as to an office or dignity; to raise; to exalt; as, to prefer one to a bishopric; to prefer an officer to the rank of general.

3. To offer; to present; to exhibit; usually with solemnity, or to a public body. It is our privilege to enjoy the right of preferring petitions to rulers for redress of wrongs.

My vows and prayers to thee preferred.

PREFER a bill against all kings and parliaments since the conquest.

4. To offer or present ceremoniously, or in ordinary familiar language.

He spake, and to her hand preferr'd the bowl.

[This is allowable, at least in poetry, though not usual.]

PREF'ERABLE, adjective Worthy to be preferred or chosen before something else; more eligible; more desirable. Virtue is far preferable to vice, even for its pleasures in this life.

1. More excellent; of better quality; as, Madeira wine is preferable to claret.

PREF'ERABLENESS, noun The quality or state of being preferable.

PREF'ERABLY, adverb In preference; in such a manner as to prefer one thing to another.

How comes he to choose Plautus preferably to Terance?

PREF'ERENCE, noun The act of preferring one thing before another; estimation of one thing above another; choice of one thing rather than another.

Leave the critics on either side to contend about the preference due to this or that sort of poetry.

It has to, above, before, or over, before the thing postponed. All men give the preference to Homer as an epic poet. The human body has the preference above or before those of brutes.

The knowledge of things alone gives a value to our reasonings, and preference of one man's knowledge over another's.

PREFER'MENT, noun Advancement to a higher office, dignity or station. Change of manners and even of character often follows preferment A profligate life should be considered a disqualification for preferment no less than want of ability.

1. Superior place or office. All preferments should be given to competent men.

2. Preference. [Not used.

PREFER'RED, participle passive Regarded above others; elevated in station.

PREFER'RER, noun One who prefers.

PREFER'RING, participle present tense Regarding above others; advancing to a higher station; offering; presenting.

PREFIG'URATE, verb transitive [See Prefigure.] To show by antecedent representation. [Little used.]

PREFIGURA'TION, noun Antecedent representation by similitude.

A variety of prophecies and prefigurations had their punctual accomplishment in the author of this institution.

PREFIG'URATIVE, adjective Showing by previous figures, types of similitude. The sacrifice of the paschal lamb was prefigurative of the death of Christ.

PREFIG'URE, verb transitive [Latin proe, before, and figuro, to fashion.]

To exhibit by antecedent representation, or by types and similitude.

In the Old Testament, things are prefigured, which are performed in the New.

PREFIG'URED, participle passive Exhibited by antecedent signs, types or similitude.

PREFIG'URING, participle present tense Showing antecedently by similitude.

PREFI'NE, verb transitive [Latin proefinio; proe, before, and finio, to limit; finis, limit.] To limit beforehand. [Little used.]

PREFINI'TION, noun Previous limitation. [Little used.]

PREFIX', verb transitive [Latin proefigo; proe, before, and figo, to fix.]

1. To put or fix before, or at the beginning of another thing; as, to prefix a syllable to a word; to prefix an advertisement to a book.

2. To set or appoint beforehand; as, to prefix the hour of meeting.

A time prefix and think of me at last.

3. To settle; to establish.

I would prefix some certain boundary between the old statutes and the new.

PRE'FIX, noun A letter, syllable or word put to the beginning of a word, usually to vary its signification. A prefix is united with the word, forming a part of it; hence it is distinguished from a preposition; as pre, in prefix; con, in coniure; with, in withstand. Prefixes are sometimes called particles, or inseparable prepositions.

PREFIX'ED, participle passive Set before; appointed beforehand; settled.

PREFIX'ING, participle present tense Putting before; previously appointing; establishing.

PREFIX'ION, noun The act of prefixing.

PREFORM', verb transitive [pre and form.] To form beforehand.

PREFORM'ATIVE, noun [Latin proe, before, and formative.]

A formative letter at the beginning of a word.

PREFUL'GENCY, noun [Latin proefulgens; proe, before, and fulgeo, to shine.] Superior brightness or effulgency.

PREG'NABLE, adjective That may be taken or won by force; expugnable. [Little used.]

PREG'NANCY, noun [See Pregnant.] The state of a female who has conceived, or is with child.

1. Fertility; fruitfulness; inventive power; as the pregnancy of wit or invention.

Pregnance, in a like sense, is not used.

PREG'NANT, adjective [Latin proegnans; supposed to be compounded of proe, before, and geno; Gr. to beget.]

1. Being with young, as a female; breeding; teeming.

2. Fruitful; fertile; impregnating; as pregnant streams.

3. Full of consequence; as a pregnant instance of infatuation.

An egregious and pregnant instance how far virtue surpasses ingenuity.

4. East to admit or receive.

5. Free; kind; ready; witty; apt. [Not proper.]

6. Plain; clear; evident; full. [Not in use.]

PREG'NANTLY, adverb Fruitfully.

1. Fully; plainly; clearly. [Not used.]

PRE'GRAVATE, verb transitive [Latin proegravo.]

To bear down; to depress. [Not in use.]

PREGRAV'ITATE, verb intransitive To descend by gravity.

PREGUSTA'TION, noun [Latin proe and gusto, to taste.]

The act of tasting before another.

PREHEN'SILE, adjective [Latin prehendo, to take or seize; prehensus.]

Seizing; grasping; adapted to seize or grasp. The tails of some monkeys are prehensile

PREHEN'SION, noun A taking hold; a seizing; as with the hand or other limb.

PREHN'ITE, noun A mineral of the silicious kind, of an apple green or greenish gray color. It has been called shorl, emerald, chrysoprase, felspath, chrysolite, and zeolite. It has some resemblance to zeolite, but differs from it in several particulars, and is therefore considered to be a particular species.

Prehnite is near to stilbite, and is classed by the French with the family of zeolites.

It is massive or crystallized, but the form of its crystals cannot be determined in consequence of their aggregation.

PREINSTRUCT', verb transitive [pre and instruct.] To instruct previously.

PREINSTRUCT'ED, participle passive Previously instructed or directed.

PREINSTRUCT'ING, participle present tense Previously instructing.

PREINTIMA'TION, noun [pre and intimation.]

Previous intimation; a suggestion beforehand.

PREJUDGE, verb transitive prejudg'. [Latin proe and judico, to judge.]

1. To judge in a cause before it is heard, or before the arguments and facts in the case are fully known.

The committee of council hath prejudged the whole case, by calling the united sense of both houses of parliament an universal clamor.

2. To judge and determine before the cause is heard; hence sometimes, to condemn beforehand or unheard.

PREJUDG'ED, participle passive Judged beforehand; determined unheard.

PREJUDG'ING, participle present tense Judging or determining without a hearing or before the case is fully understood.

PREJUDG'MENT, noun Judgment in a case without a hearing or full examination.

PREJU'DICACY, noun Prejudice; prepossession. [Not used.]

PREJU'DICATE, verb transitive [Latin proe, before, and judico, to judge.]

To prejudge; to determine beforehand to disadvantage.

Our dearest friend

Prejudicates the business.

PREJU'DICATE, verb intransitive To form a judgment without due examination of the facts and arguments in this case.

PREJU'DICATE, adjective Formed before due examination.

1. Prejudiced; biased by opinions formed prematurely; as a prejudicate reader. [Little used.]

PREJU'DICATED, participle passive Prejudged.

PREJU'DICATING, participle present tense Prejudging.

PREJUDICA'TION, noun The act of judging without due examination of facts and evidence.

1. In Roman oratory, prejudications were of three kinds; first, precedents or adjudged cases, involving the same points of law; second, previous decisions on the same question between other parties; third, decisions of the same cause and between the same parties, before tribunals of inferior jurisdiction.

PREJU'DICATIVE, adjective Forming an opinion or judgment without examination.

PREJ'UDICE, noun [Latin prejudicium; proe and judico.]

1. Prejudgment; an opinion or decision of mind, formed without due examination of the facts or arguments which are necessary to a just and impartial determination. It is used in a good or bad sense. Innumerable are the prejudices of education; we are accustomed to believe what we are taught, and to receive opinions from others without examining the grounds by which they can be supported. A man has strong prejudices in favor of his country or his party, or the church in which he has been educated; and often our prejudices are unreasonable. A judge should disabuse himself of prejudice in favor of either party in a suit.

My comfort is that their manifest prejudice to my cause will render their judgment of less authority.

2. A previous bent or bias of mind for or against any person or thing; prepossession.

There is an unaccountable prejudice to projectors of all kinds.

3. Mischief; hurt; damage; injury. Violent factions are a prejudice to the authority of the sovereign.

How plain this abuse is, and what prejudice it does to the understanding of the sacred Scriptures.

[This is a sense of the word too well established to be condemned.]

PREJ'UDICE, verb transitive To prepossess with unexamined opinions, or opinions formed without due knowledge of the facts and circumstances attending the question; to bias the mind by hasty and incorrect notions, and give it an unreasonable bent to one side or other of a cause.

Suffer not any beloved study to prejudice your mind so far as to despise all other learning.

1. To obstruct or injure by prejudices, or an undue previous bias of the mind; or to hurt; to damage; to diminish; to impair; in a very general sense. The advocate who attempts to prove too much, may prejudice his cause.

I am not to prejudice the cause of my fellow poets, though I abandon my own defense.

PREJ'UDICED, participle passive or adjective Prepossessed by unexamined opinions; biased.

PREJUDI'CIAL, adjective Biased or blinded by prejudices; as a prejudicial eye. [Not in use.]

1. Hurtful; mischievous; injurious; disadvantageous; detrimental; tending to obstruct or impair. A high rate of interest is prejudicial to trade and manufactures. Intemperance is prejudicial to health.

His going away the next morning with all his troops, was most prejudicial to the king's affairs.

One of the young ladies reads while the others are at work; so that the learning of the family is not at all prejudicial to its manufactures.

PREJUDI'CIALNESS, noun The state of being prejudicial; injuriousness.

PRE'LACY, noun [from prelate.] The office or dignity of a prelate.

Prelacies may be termed the greater benefices.

1. Episcopacy; the order of bishops.

How many are there that call themselves protestants, who put prelacy and popery together as terms convertible?

2. Bishops, collectively.

Divers of the reverend prelacy

PRE'LATE, noun [Latin proelatus, proefero.] An ecclesiastic of the higher order, as an archbishop, bishop or patriarch; a dignitary of the church.

PRE'LATESHIP, noun The office of a prelate.

PRELAT'IC

PRELAT'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to prelates or prelacy; as prelatical authority.

PRELAT'ICAL, a. Pertaining to prelates or prelacy; as prelatical authority.

PRELAT'ICALLY, adverb With reference to prelates.

PRELA'TION, noun [Latin proelatio, proefero.] Preference; the setting of one above another. [Little used.]

PRE'LATISM, noun Prelacy; episcopacy.

PRE'LATIST, noun [form prelate.] An advocate for prelacy or the government of the church by bishops; a high churchman.

I am an episcopalian, but not a prelatist

PRE'LATURE

PRE'LATURESHIP, noun The state or dignity of a prelate.

PRE'LATURESHIP, n. The state or dignity of a prelate.

PRE'LATY, noun Episcopacy; prelacy. [Not in use.]

PRELECT', verb transitive [Latin proelectus, proelego; proe, before, and lego, to read.] To read a lecture or public discourse.

PRELEC'TION, noun [Latin proelectio.] A lecture or discourse read in public or to a select company.

PRELEC'TOR, noun A reader of discourses; a lecturer.

PRELIBA'TION, noun [from Latin proelibo; proe, before, and libo, to taste.]

1. Foretaste; a tasting beforehand or by anticipation.

The joy that proceeds from a belief of pardon is a prelibation of heavenly bliss.

2. An effusion previous to tasting.

PRELIM'INARY, adjective [Latin proe, before, and limen, threshhold or limit.]

Introductory; previous; proemial; that precedes the main discourse or business; as preliminary observations to a discourse or book; preliminary articles to a treaty; preliminary measures.

PRELIM'INARY, noun That which precedes the main discourse, work, design or business; something previous or preparatory; as the preliminaries to a negotiation or treaty; the preliminaries to a combat. The parties met to settle the preliminaries.

PRE'LUDE, noun [Low Latin proeludium, from proeludo; proe, before, and ludo, to play.]

1. A short flight of music, or irregular air played by a musician before he begins the piece to be played, or before a full concert.

2. Something introductory or that shows what is to follow; something preceding which bears some relation or resemblance to that which is to follow.

The last Georgic was a good prelude to the Aeneis.

3. A forerunner; something which indicates a future event.

PRELU'DE, verb transitive To introduce with a previous performance; to play before; as, to prelude a concert with a lively air.

1. To precede, as an introductory piece; as, a lively air preludes the concert.

PRELU'DE, verb intransitive To serve as an introduction to.

PRELU'DED, participle passive Preceded by an introductory performance; preceded.

PRE'LUDER, noun One that plays a prelude, or introduces by a previous irregular piece of music.

PRELU'DING, participle present tense Playing an introductory air; preceding.

PRELU'DI0US, adjective Previous; introductory.

PRELU'DIUM, noun [Low Latin ] A prelude.

PRELU'SIVE, adjective Previous; introductory; indicating that something of a like kind is to follow; as prelusive drops.

PRELU'SORY, adjective Previous; introductory; prelusive.

PREMATU'RE, adjective [Latin proematurus; proe, before, and maturus, ripe.]

1. Ripe before the natural or proper time; as the premature fruits of a hot bed.

2. Happening, arriving, performed or adopted before the proper time; as a premature fall of snow in autumn; a premature birth; a premature opinion; a premature measure.

3. Arriving or received without due authentication or evidence; as premature report, news or intelligence.

PREMATU'RELY, adverb Too soon; too early; before the proper time; as fruits prematurely ripened; opinions prematurely formed; measures prematurely taken.

1. Without due evidence or authentication; as intelligence prematurely received.

PREMATU'RENESS

PREMATU'RITY, noun Ripeness before the natural or proper time.

1. Too great haste; unseasonable earliness.

PREMATU'RITY, n. Ripeness before the natural or proper time.

PREMED'ITATE, verb transitive [Latin proemeditor; proe, before, and meditor, to mediate.] To think on and revolve in the mind beforehand; to contrive and design previously; as, to premeditate theft or robbery.

With words premeditated thus he said.

PREMED'ITATE, verb intransitive To think, consider or revolve in the mind beforehand; to deliberate; to have formed in the mind by previous thought or meditation.

PREMED'ITATE, adjective Contrived by previous meditation.

PREMED'ITATED, participle passive Previously considered or meditated.

1. Previously contrived, designed or intended; deliberate; willful; as premeditated murder.

PREMED'ITATELY, adverb With previous meditation.

PREMED'ITATING, participle present tense Previously meditating; contriving or intending beforehand.

PREMEDITA'TION, noun [Latin proemeditatio.]

1. The act of meditating beforehand; previous deliberation.

A sudden thought may be higher than nature can raise without premeditation

2. Previous contrivance or design formed; as the premeditation of a crime.

PREMER'IT, verb transitive [pre and merit.]

To merit or deserve beforehand. [Little used.]

PREM'ICES, noun [Latin primitioe, primus.] First fruits. [Not used.]

PRE'MIER, adjective [Latin primus, first.] First; chief; principal; as the premier place; premier minister.

PRE'MIER, noun The first minister of state; the prime minister.

PRE'MIERSHIP, noun The office or dignity of the first minister of state.

PREMI'SE, verb transitive s as z. [Latin proemissus, proemitto, to send before.]

1. To speak or write before, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows.

I premise these particulars that the reader may know that I enter upon it as a very ungrateful task.

2. To send before the time. [Not in use.]

3. To lay down premises or first propositions, on which rest the subsequent reasonings.

4. To use or apply previously.

If venesection and a cathartic be premised.

PREMI'SE, verb intransitive To state antecedent propositions.

PREM'ISE, noun prem'is. A first or antecedent proposition.

PREM'ISES, noun [Latin proemissa.]

1. In logic, the two first propositions of a syllogism, from which the inference or conclusion is drawn; as,

All sinners deserve punishment;

A B is a sinner.

These propositions, which are the premises being true or admitted, the conclusion follows, that A B deserves punishment.

2. Propositions antecedently supposed or proved.

While the premises stand firm, it is impossible to shake the conclusion.

3. In law, land or other things mentioned in the preceding part of a deed.

PREM'ISS, noun Antecedent proposition. [Rarely used.]

PRE'MIUM, noun [Latin] Properly, a reward or recompense; a prize to be won by competition; the reward or prize to be adjudged to the best performance or production.

1. The recompense or prize offered for a specific discovery or for success in an enterprise; as for the discovery of the longitude, or of a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean.

2. A bounty; something offered or given for the loan of money, usually a sum beyond the interest.

3. The recompense to underwriters for insurance, or for undertaking to indemnify for losses of any kind.

4. It is sometimes synonymous with interest, but generally in obtaining loans, it is a sum per cent. distinct from the interest.

The bank lends money to government at a premium of 2 per cent.

5. A bounty.

The law that obliges parishes to support the poor, offers a premium for the encouragement of idleness.

PREMON'ISH, verb transitive [Latin proemoneo; proe and moneo, to warn.]

To forewarn; to admonish beforehand.

PREMON'ISHED, participle passive Forewarned.

PREMON'ISHING, participle present tense Admonishing beforehand.

PREMON'ISHMENT, noun Previous warning or admonition; previous information.

PREMONI'TION, noun Previous warning, notice or information. Christ gave to his disciples premonitions of their sufferings.

PREMON'ITORY, adjective Giving previous warning or notice.

PREMON'STRANTS, noun [Latin proemonstrans.] A religious order of regular canons or monks of Premontre, in the isle of France; instituted by Norbert, in 1120. They are called also white canons. These monks were poor at first, but within 30 years they had more than 100 abbeys in France and Germany, and in time they were established in all parts of christendom.

PREMON'STRATE, verb transitive [Latin proemonstro; proe, before, and monstro, to show.] To show beforehand. [Little used.]

PREMONSTRA'TION, noun A showing beforehand. [Little used.]

PREMORSE, adjective premors'. [Latin proemordeo, proemorsus; proe and mordeo, to gnaw.] Bitten off.

PREMORSE roots, in botany, are such as are not tapering, but blunt at the end, as if bitten off short.

leaves, are such as end very obtusely with unequal notches.

PREMO'TION, noun [pre and motion.] Previous motion or excitement to action.

PREMUNI'RE, noun [See Proemunire. ]

1. In law, the offense of introducing foreign authority into England, and the writ which is grounded on the offense.

2. The penalty incurred by the offense above described.

Woolsey incurred a premunire and forfeited his honor, estate and life.

PREMUNI'TION, noun [Latin proemunitio, from proemunio.]

An anticipation of objections.

PRENO'MEN, noun [Latin proenomen.] Among the Romans, a name prefixed to the family name, answering to our christian name; as Caius, Lucius, Marcus, etc.

PRENOM'INATE, verb transitive [Latin proe and nomino, to name.] To forename.

PRENOM'INATE, adjective Forenamed.

PRENOMINA'TION, noun The privilege of being named first.

PRENO'TION, noun [Latin proenotio; proe and nosco, to know.]

A notice or notion which precedes something else in time; previous notion or thought; foreknowledge.

PRENSA'TION, noun [Latin prensatio, from prenso, to seize.]

The act of seizing with violence. [Little used.]

PRENTICE, a colloquial contraction of apprentice, which see.

PRENTICESHIP, a contraction of apprenticeship, which see.

PRENUNCIA'TION, noun [Latin proenuncio; proe and nuncio, to tell.]

The act of telling before. [Not used.]

PREOBTA'IN, verb transitive To obtain beforehand.

PREOBTA'INED, participle passive Previously obtained.

PREOC'CUPANCY, noun [Latin proeoccupans.]

1. The act of taking possession before another. The property of unoccupied land is vested by preoccupancy

2. The right of taking possession before others. The first discoverer of unoccupied land has the preoccupancy of it, by the law of nature and nations.

PREOC'CUPATE, verb transitive [Latin proeoccupo; proe and occupo, to seize.]

1. To anticipate; to take before.

2. To prepossess; to fill with prejudices.

[Instead of this, preoccupy is used.]

PREOCCUPA'TION, noun A taking possession before another; prior occupation.

1. Anticipation.

2. Prepossession.

3. Anticipation of objections.

PREOC'CUPY, verb transitive [Latin proeoccupo; proe, before, and occupo, to seize.]

1. To take possession before another; as, to preoccupy a country or land not before occupied.

2. To prepossess; to occupy by anticipation or prejudices.

I think it more respectful to the reader to leave something to reflections, than to preoccupy his judgment.

PREOM'INATE, verb transitive [Latin proe and ominor, to prognosticate.]

To prognosticate; to gather from omens any future event.

PREOPIN'ION, noun [pre and opinion.] Opinion previously formed; prepossession.

PREOP'TION, noun [pre and option.] The right of first choice.

PREORDA'IN, verb transitive [pre and ordain.] To ordain or appoint beforehand; to predetermine. All things are supposed to be preordained by God.

PREORDA'INED, participle passive Antecedently ordained or determined.

PREORDA'INING, participle present tense Ordaining beforehand.

PREOR'DINANCE, noun [pre and ordinance.]

Antecedent decree or determination.

PREOR'DINATE, adjective Foreordained. [Little used.]

PREORDINA'TION, noun The act of foreordaining; previous determination.

PREPA'RABLE, adjective [See Prepare.] That may be prepared.

PREPARA'TION, noun [Latin proeparatio. See Prepare.]

1. The act or operation of preparing or fitting for a particular purpose, use, service or condition; as the preparation of land for a crop of wheat; the preparation of troops for a campaign; the preparation of a nation for war; the preparation of men for future happiness. preparation is intended to prevent evil or secure good.

2. Previous measures of adaptation.

I will show what preparations there were in nature for this dissolution.

3. Ceremonious introduction. [Unusual.]

4. That which is prepared, made or compounded for a particular purpose.

I wish the chimists had been more sparing, who magnify their preparations.

5. The state of being prepared or in readiness; as a nation in good preparation for attack or defense.

6. Accomplishment; qualification. [Not in use.]

7. In pharmacy, any medicinal substance fitted for the use of the patient.

8. In anatomy, the parts of animal bodies prepared and preserved for anatomical uses.

Preparation of dissonances, in music, is their disposition in harmony in such a manner that by something congenial in what precedes, they may be rendered less harsh to the ear than they would be without such preparation

Preparation of medicines, the process of fitting any substance for use in the art of healing.

PREPAR'ATIVE, adjective Tending to prepare or make ready; having the power of preparing, qualifying or fitting for any thing; preparatory.

He spent much time in quest of knowledge preparative to this work.

PREPAR'ATIVE, noun That which has the power of preparing or previously fitting for a purpose; that which prepares.

Resolvedness in sin can with no reason be imagined a preparative to remission.

1. That which is done to prevent an evil or secure some good.

The miseries we suffer may be preparative of future blessings.

2. Preparation; as, to make the necessary preparatives for a voyage.

PREPAR'ATIVELY, adverb By way of preparation.

PREPAR'ATORY, adjective

1. Previously necessary; useful or qualifying; preparing the way for any thing by previous measures of adaptation. The practice of virtue and piety is preparatory to the happiness of heaven.

2. Introductory; previous; antecedent and adapted to what follows.

PREPA'RE, verb transitive [Latin paro.]

1. In a general sense, to fit, adapt or qualify for a particular purpose, end, use, service or state, by any means whatever. We prepare ground for seed by tillage; we prepare cloth for use by dressing; we prepare medicines by pulverization, mixture, etc.; we prepare young men for college by previous instruction; men are prepared for professions by suitable study; holiness of heart is necessary to prepare men for the enjoyment of happiness with holy beings.

2. To make ready; as, to prepare the table for entertaining company.

3. To provide; to procure as suitable; as, to prepare arms, ammunition and provisions for troops; to prepare ships for defense.

Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. 2 Samuel 15:1.

4. To set; to establish.

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens. Psalms 103:19.

5. To appoint.

It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. Matthew 20:23.

6. To guide, direct or establish. 1 Chronicles 29:18.

PREPA'RE, verb intransitive To make all things ready; to put things in suitable order; as, prepare for dinner.

1. To take the necessary previous measures.

Dido preparing to kill herself.

2. To make one's self ready.

Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amos 4:12.

PREPA'RE, noun Preparation. [Not in use.]

PREPA'RED, participle passive Fitted; adapted; made suitable; made ready; provided.

PREPA'REDLY, adverb With suitable previous measures.

PREPA'REDNESS, noun The state of being prepared or in readiness.

PREPA'RER, noun One that prepares, fits or makes ready.

1. One that provides.

2. That which fits or makes suitable; as, certain manures are preparers of land for particular crops.

PREPA'RING, participle present tense Fitting; adapting; making ready; providing.

PREPENSE, adjective prepens'. [Latin proepensus, proependeo; proe and pendeo, to incline to hand down.]

Preconceived; premeditated; aforethought.

Malice prepense is necessary to constitute murder.

PREPENSE, verb transitive prepens'. [supra.]

To weigh or consider beforehand. [Not used.]

PREPENSE, verb intransitive prepens'. To deliberate beforehand. [Not used.]

PREPENS'ED, participle passive or adjective Previously conceived; premeditated. [Little used.] [See Prepense.]

PREPOL'LENCE

PREPOL'LENCY, noun [Latin proepollens, proepolleo; proe and polleo.]

Prevalence; superiority of power.

PREPOL'LENCY, n. [L. proepollens, proepolleo; proe and polleo.]

Prevalence; superiority of power.

PREPOL'LENT, adjective Having superior gravity or power; prevailing.

PREPOND'ER, verb transitive [See Preponderate.] To outweigh. [Not used.]

PREPOND'ERANCE

PREPOND'ERANCY, noun [See Preponderate.]

1. An outweighing; superiority of weight. The least preponderance of weight on one side of a ship or boat will make it incline or heel.

2. Superiority of power, force or weight; in a figurative sense; as a preponderance of evidence.

PREPOND'ERANCY, n. [See Preponderate.]

PREPOND'ERANT, adjective Outweighing.

PREPOND'ERATE, verb transitive [Latin proepondero; proe, before, and pondero, to weigh.]

1. To outweigh; to overpower by weight.

An inconsiderable weight, by distance from the center of the balance, will preponderate greater magnitudes.

2. To overpower by stronger influence or moral power.

PREPOND'ERATE, verb intransitive To exceed in weight; hence, to incline or descend, as the scale of a balance.

That is no just balance in which the heaviest side will not preponderate

1. To exceed in influence or power; hence, to incline to one side.

By putting every argument on one side and the other, into the balance, we must form a judgment which side preponderates.

PREPOND'ERATING, participle present tense Outweighing; inclining to one side.

PREPONDERA'TION, noun The act or state of outweighing any thing, or of inclining to one side.

PREPO'SE, verb transitive s as z. To put before. [Not much used.]

PREPOSI'TION, noun s as z. [Latin proepositio, proepono, proepositus; proe and pono, to put.] In grammar, a word usually put before another to express some relation or quality, action or motion to or from the thing specified; as medicines salutary to health; music agreeable to the ear; virtue is valued for its excellence; a man is riding to Oxford from London. Prepositions govern cases of nouns, and in English are sometimes placed after the word governed; as, which person do you speak to? for, to which person do you speak? This separation of the preposition from the governed word is sometimes allowable in colloquial use, but is generally inelegant.

PREPOSI'TIONAL, adjective Pertaining to a preposition, or to preceding position.

PREPOS'ITIVE, adjective Put before; as a prepositive particle.

PREPOS'ITIVE, noun [supra.] A word or particle put before another word.

PREPOS'ITOR, noun [Latin proepositor.] A scholar appointed by the instructor to inspect other scholars.

PREPOS'ITURE, noun The office or place of a provost; a provostship.

PREPOSSESS', verb transitive [pre and possess.] To preoccupy, as ground or land; to take previous possession of.

1. To preoccupy the mind or heart so as to preclude other things; hence, to bias or prejudice. A mind prepossessed with opinions favorable to a person or cause, will not readily admit unfavorable opinions to take possession, nor yield to reasons that disturb the possessors. When a lady has prepossessed the heart or affections of a man, he does not readily listen to suggestions that tend to remove the prepossession. prepossess is more frequently used in a good sense than prejudice.

PREPOSSESS'ED, participle passive Preoccupied; inclined previously to favor or disfavor.

PREPOSSESS'ING, participle present tense Taking previous possession.

1. adjective Tending to invite favor; having power to secure the possession of favor, esteem or love. The countenance, address and manners of a person are sometimes prepossessing on a first acquaintance.

PREPOSSES'SION, noun Preoccupation; prior possession.

1. Preconceived opinion; the effect of previous impressions on the mind or heart, in favor or against any person or thing. It is often used in a good sense; sometimes it is equivalent to prejudice, and sometimes a softer name for it. In general, it conveys an idea less odious than prejudice; as the prepossessions of education.

PREPOS'TEROUS, adjective [Latin proeposterus; proe, before, and posterus, latter.]

1. Literally, having that first which ought to be last; inverted in order.

The method I take may be censured as preposterous because I treat last of the antediluvian earth, which was first in the order of nature.

2. Perverted; wrong; absurd; contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; as, a republican government in the hands of females, is preposterous To draw general conclusions from particular facts, is preposterous reasoning.

3. Foolish; absurd; applied to persons.

PREPOS'TEROUSLY, adverb In a wrong or inverted order; absurdly; foolishly.

PREPOS'TEROUSNESS, noun Wrong order or method; absurdity; inconsistency with nature or reason.

PREPO'TENCY, noun [Latin proepotentia; proe and potentia, power.]

Superior power; predominance. [Little used.]

PREPO'TENT, adjective [Latin proepotens.] Very powerful. [Little used.]

PRE'PUCE, noun [Latin proeputium.] The foreskin; a prolongation of the cutis of the penis, covering the glans.

PREREMO'TE, adjective [pre and remote.] More remote in previous time or prior order.

In some cases, two more links of causation may be introduced; one of them may be termed the preremote cause, the other the postremote effect.

PREREQUI'RE, verb transitive [pre and require.] To require previously.

PREREQ'UISITE, adjective s as z. [pre and requisite.] Previously required or necessary to something subsequent; as, certain attainments are prerequisite to an admission or orders.

PREREQ'UISITE, noun Something that is previously required or necessary to the end proposed. An acquaintance with Latin and Greek is a prerequisite to the admission of a young man into a college.

PRERESOLVE, verb transitive s as z. [pre and resolve.]

To resolve previously.

PRERESOLV'ED, participle passive Resolved beforehand; previously determined.

PRERESOLV'ING, participle present tense Resolving beforehand.

PREROG'ATIVE, [Latin proerogativa, precedence in voting; proe, before, and rogo, to ask or demand.] An exclusive or peculiar privilege. A royal prerogative is that special pre-eminence which a king has over all other persons, and out of the course of the common law, in right of his regal dignity. It consists in the possession of certain rights which the king may exercise to the exclusion of all participation of his subjects; for when a right or privilege is held in common with the subject, it ceases to be a prerogative Thus the right of appointing embassadors, and of making peace and war, are, in Great Britain, royal prerogatives. The right of governing created beings is the prerogative of the Creator.

It is the prerogative of the house of peers in Great Britain to decide legal questions in the last resort. It is the prerogative of the house of commons to determine the validity of all elections of their own members. It is the prerogative of a father to govern his children. It is the prerogative of the understanding to judge and compare.

In the United States, it is the prerogative of the president, with the advice of the senate, to ratify treaties.

PREROG'ATIVED, adjective Having prerogative. [Little used.]

PRE'SAGE, noun [Latin proesagium; proe, before, and sagio, to perceive or foretell.] Something which foreshows a future event; a prognostic; a present fact indicating something to come.

Joy and shout, presage of victory.

PRESA'GE, verb transitive To forebode; to foreshow; to indicate by some present fact what is to follow or come to pass. A fog rising from a river in an autumnal morning presages a pleasant day. A physical phenomenon cannot be considered as presaging an event, unless it has some connection with it in cause. Hence the error of vulgar superstition, which presages good or evil from facts which can have no relation to the future event.

1. To foretell; to predict; to prophesy.

Wish'd freedom I presage you soon will find.

PRESA'GE, verb intransitive To form or utter a prediction; with of. We may presage of heats and rains. We may presage of heats and rains. [Not common nor elegant.]

PRESA'GED, participle passive Foreboded; foreshown; foretold.

PRESA'GEFUL, adjective Full of presages; containing presages.

PRESA'GEMENT, noun A foreboding; foretoken.

1. A foretelling; prediction.

PRESA'GER, noun A foreteller; a foreshower.

PRESA'GING, participle present tense Foreshowing; foretelling.

PRES'BYTER, noun [Gr. old, elder.]

1. In the primitive christian church, an elder; a person somewhat advanced in age, who had authority in the church, and whose duty was to feed the flock over which the Holy Spirit had made him overseer.

2. A priest; a person who has the pastoral charge of a particular church and congregation; called in the Saxon laws, mass-priest.

3. A presbyterian.

PRESBYTE'RIAL

PRESBYTE'RIAN, adjective Pertaining to a presbyter, or to ecclesiastical government by presbyters.

1. Consisting of presbyters; as presbyterian government. The government of the church of Scotland is presbyterian.

PRESBYTE'RIAN, noun One that maintains the validity of ordination and government by presbyters.

1. One that belongs to a church governed by presbyters.

PRESBYTE'RIAN, a. Pertaining to a presbyter, or to ecclesiastical government by presbyters.

PRESBYTE'RIAN, n. One that maintains the validity of ordination and government by presbyters.

PRESBYTE'RIANISM, noun The doctrines, principles and discipline or government of presbyterians.

PRES'BYTERY, noun A body of elders in the christian church.

Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery 1 Timothy 4:14.

1. In ecclesiastical government, a judicatory consisting of all the pastors of churches within a certain district, and one ruling elder, a layman, from each parish, commissioned to represent the parish in conjunction with the minister. This body receives appeals from the kirk-session, and appeals from the presbytery may be carried to the provincial synod.

The presbytery of the churches in the United States is composed in a manner nearly similar.

2. The presbyterian religion.

PRESCIENCE, noun presi'ence or pre'shens. [Low Latin proescientia; proe, before, and scientia, knowledge.] Foreknowledge; knowledge of events before they take place. Absolute prescience belongs to God only.

Of things of the most accidental and mutable nature, God's prescience is certain.

PRESCIENT, adjective presi'ent or pre'shent. Foreknowing; having knowledge of events before they take place.

Who taught the nations of the field and wood,

PRESCIENT, the tides or tempests to withstand?

PRESCIND', verb transitive [Latin proescindo; proe and scindo, to cut.]

To cut off; to abstract. [Little used.]

PRESCIND'ENT, adjective Cutting off; abstracting.

PRE'SCIOUS, adjective [Latin proescius; proe and scio, to know.]

Foreknowing; having foreknowledge; as prescious of ills.

PRESCRI'BE, verb transitive [Latin proescribo, to write before.]

1. In medicine, to direct, as a remedy to be used or applied to a diseased patient. Be not offended with the physician who prescribes harsh remedies.

2. To set or lay down authoritatively for direction; to give as a rule of conduct; as, to prescribe laws or rules.

There's joy, when to wild will you laws prescribe

3. To direct.

Let streams prescribe their fountains where to run.

PRESCRI'BE, verb intransitive To write or give medical directions; to direct what remedies are to be used; as, to prescribe for a patient in a fever.

1. To give law; to influence arbitrarily.

A forwardness to prescribe to the opinions of others.

2. In law, to claim by prescription; to claim a title to a thing by immemorial use and enjoyment; with for. A man may be allowed to prescribe for a right of way, a common or the like; a man cannot prescribe for a castle; he can prescribe only for incorporeal hereditaments.

3. To influence by long use.

PRESCRI'BED, participle passive Directed; ordered.

PRESCRI'BER, noun One that prescribes.

PRESCRI'BING, participle present tense Directing; giving as a rule of conduct or treatment.

PRE'SCRIPT, adjective [Latin proescriptus.] Directed; prescribed.

PRE'SCRIPT, noun [Latin proescriptum.] A direction; a medical order for the use of medicines. [But prescription is chiefly used.]

1. Direction; precept; model prescribed.

PRESCRIP'TIBLE adjective That may be prescribed for.

PRESCRIP'TION, noun [Latin proescriptio. See Prescribe.]

1. The act of prescribing or directing by rules; or that which is prescribed; particularly, a medical direction of remedies for a disease and the manner of using them; a recipe.

2. In law, prescribing for title; the claim of title to a thing by virtue of immemorial use and enjoyment; or the right to a thing derived from such use. prescription differs from custom, which is a local usage. prescription is a personal usage, usage annexed to the person. Nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be claimed by prescription

The use and enjoyment of navigation and fishery in the sea, for any length of time, does not create a title by prescription The common right of nations to the use and enjoyment of the sea is imprescriptible; it cannot be lost by a particular nation for want of use.

3. In Scots law, the title to lands acquired by uninterrupted possession for the time which the law declares to be sufficient, or 40 years. This is positive prescription Negative prescription is the loss or omission or a right by neglecting to use it during the time limited by law. This term is also used for limitation, in the recovery of money due by bond, etc. Obligations are lost by prescription or neglect of prosecution for the time designated by law.

PRESCRIP'TIVE, adjective Consisting in or acquired by immemorial use and enjoyment; as a prescriptive right or title.

The right to be drowsy in protracted toil, has become prescriptive

1. Pleading the continuance and authority of custom.

PRES'EANCE, noun Priority of place in sitting. [Not in use.]

PRES'ENCE, noun s as z. [Latin proesentia; proe, before, and esse, to be.] The existence of a person or thing in a certain place; opposed to absence. This event happened during the king's presence at the theater. In examining the patient, the presence of fever was not observed. The presence of God is not limited to any place.

1. A being in company near or before the face of another. We were gratified with the presence of a person so much respected.

2. Approach face to face or nearness of a great personage.

Men that very presence fear,

Which once they knew authority did bear.

3. State of being in view; sight. An accident happened in the presence of the court.

4. By way of distinction, state of being in view of a superior.

I know not by what pow'r I am made bold,

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts.

5. A number assembled before a great person.

Odmar, of all this presence does contain,

Give her your wreath whom you esteem most fair.

6. Port; mien; air; personal appearance; demeanor.

Virtue is best in a body that is comely, and that has rather dignity of presence than beauty of aspect.

A graceful presence bespeaks acceptance.

7. The apartment in which a prince shows himself to his court.

An't please your grace, the two great cardinals.

Wait in the presence

8. The person of a superior.

Presence of mind, a calm, collected state of the mind with its faculties at command; undisturbed state of the thoughts, which enables a person to speak or act without disorder or embarrassment in unexpected difficulties.

Errors, not to be recalled, do find

Their best redress from presence of the mind.

PRESENSA'TION, noun [pre and sensation.] Previous notion or idea.

PRESEN'SION, noun [Latin proesensio proesentio; proe and sentio, to perceive.] Previous perception. [Little used.]

PRES'ENT, adjective s as z. [Latin proesens; proe and sum, esse, to be.]

1. Being in a certain place; opposed to absent.

2. Being before the face or near; being in company. Inquire of some of the gentlemen present

These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. John 14:25.

3. Being now in view or under consideration. In the present instance, facts will not warrant the conclusion. The present question must be decided on different principles.

4. Now existing, or being at this time; not past or future; as the present session of congress. The court is in session at the present time. We say, a present good, the present year or age.

5. Ready at hand; quick in emergency; as present wit.

'Tis a high point of philosophy and virtue for a man to be present to himself.

6. Favorably attentive; not heedless; propitious.

Nor could I hope in any place but there

To find a god so present to my prayer.

7. Not absent of mind; not abstracted; attentive.

The present an elliptical expression for the present time.

At present elliptically for, at the present time.

Present tense, in grammar, the tense or form of a verb which expresses action or being in the present time, as I am writing; or something that exists at all times, as virtue is always to be preferred to vice; or it expresses habits or general truths, as plants spring from the earth; fishes swim; reptiles creep; birds fly; some animals subsist on herbage, others are carnivorous.

PRES'ENT, noun That which is presented or given; a gift; a donative; something given or offered to another gratuitously; a word of general application. Genesis 32:13.

Presents' in the plural, is used in law for a deed of conveyance, a lease, letter of attorney or other writing; as in the phrase, 'Know all men by these presents, ' that is, by the writing itself, per presentes. In this sense, it is rarely used in the singular.

PRESENT', verb transitive [Low Latin proesento; Latin proesens; proe, before, and sum, esse, to be.]

1. To set, place or introduce into the presence or before the face of a superior, as to present an envoy to the king; and with the reciprocal pronoun, to come into the presence of a superior.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. Job 1:6.

2. To exhibit to view or notice. The top of Mount Holyoke, in Hampshire county, in Massachusetts, presents one of the finest prospects in America.

3. To offer; to exhibit.

O hear what to my mind first thoughts present

He is ever ready to present to us the thoughts or observations of others.

4. To give; to offer gratuitously for reception. The first President of the American Bible Society, presented to that institution ten thousand dollars.

5. To put into the hands of another in ceremony.

So ladies in romance assist their knight,

Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.

6. To favor with a gift; as, we present a man with a suit of clothes. Formerly the phrase was, to present a person.

Octavia presented the poet, for his admirable elegy on her son Marcellus.

[This use is obsolete.]

7. To nominate to an ecclesiastical benefice; to offer to the bishop or ordinary as a candidate for institution.

The patron of a church may present his clerk to a parsonage or vicarage; that is, may offer him to the bishop of the diocese to be instituted.

8. To offer.

He--presented battle to the French navy, which was refused.

9. To lay before a public body for consideration, as before a legislature, a court of judicature, a corporation, etc.; as, to present a memorial, petition, remonstrance or indictment.

10. To lay before a court of judicature as an object of inquiry; to give notice officially of a crime or offense. It is the duty of grand juries to present all breaches of law within their knowledge. In America, grand juries present whatever they think to be public injuries, by notifying them to the public with their censure.

11. To point a weapon, particularly some species of fire-arms; as, to present a musket to the breast of another; in manual exercise, to present arms.

12. To indict; a customary use of the word in the United Stats.

PRESENT'ABLE, adjective That may be presented; that may be exhibited or represented.

1. That may be offered to a church living; as a presentable clerk.

2. That admits of the presentation of a clerk; as a church presentable [Unusual.]

PRESENTA'NEOUS, adjective [Latin proesentaneus.] Ready; quick; immediate; as presentaneous poison.

PRESENTA'TION, noun The act of presenting.

Prayers are sometimes a presentation of mere desires.

1. Exhibition; representation; display; as the presentation of fighting on the stage.

2. In ecclesiastical law, the act of offering a clerk to the bishop or ordinary for institution in a benefice. An advowson is he right of presentation

If the bishop admits the patron's presentation the clerk so admitted is next to be instituted by him.

3. The right of presenting a clerk. The patron has the presentation of the benefice.

PRESENT'ATIVE, adjective In ecclesiastical affairs, that has the right of presentation, or offering a clerk to the bishop for institution. Advowsons are presentative collative or donative.

An advowson presentative is where the patron hath a right of presentation to the bishop or ordinary.

1. That admits the presentation of a clerk; as a presentative parsonage.

PRESENT'ED, participle passive Offered; given; exhibited to view; accused.

PRES'ENTEE, noun One presented to a benefice.

PRESENT'ER, noun One that presents.

PRESEN'TIAL, adjective Supposing actual presence. [Little used.]

PRESENTIAL'ITY, noun The state of being present. [Little used.]

PRESEN'TIATE, verb transitive To make present. [Little used.]

PRESENTIF'IC

PRESENTIF'ICAL, adjective Making present. [Not in use.]

PRESENTIF'ICAL, a. Making present. [Not in use.]

PRESENTIF'ICLY, adverb In such a manner as to make present. [Not in use.]

PRESENT'IMENT, noun [pre and sentiment.] Previous conception, sentiment or opinion; previous apprehension of something future.

PRES'ENTLY, adverb s as z. At present; at this time.

The towns and forts you presently have.

1. In a short time after; soon after.

Him therefore I hope to send presently so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. Philippians 2:23.

And presently the fig-tree withered away. Matthew 21:19.

PRESENT'MENT, noun s as z. The act of presenting.

1. Appearance to the view; representation.

2. In law, a presentment properly speaking, is the notice taken by a grand jury of any offense from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them at the suit of the king; as the presentment of a nuisance, a libel or the like, on which the officer of the court must afterwards frame an indictment, before the party presented can be put to answer it.

3. In a more general sense, presentment comprehends inquisitions of office and indictments.

In the United States, a presentment is an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand jury in an indictment; or it is the act of offering an indictment. It is also used for the indictment itself. The grand jury are charged to inquire and due presentment make of all crimes, etc. The use of the word is limited to accusations by grand jurors.

4. The official notice in court which the jury or homage gives of the surrender of a copyhold estate.

PRES'ENTNESS, noun s as z. Presence; as presentness of mind. [Not used.]

PRESERV'ABLE, adjective [See Preserve.] That may be preserved.

PRESERVA'TION, noun The act of preserving or keeping safe; the act of keeping from injury, destruction or decay; as the preservation of life or health; the preservation of buildings from fire or decay; the preservation of grain from insects; the preservation of fruit or plants. When a thing is kept entirely from decay, or nearly in its original state, we say it is in a high state of preservation

PRESERV'ATIVE, adjective Having the power or quality of keeping safe from injury, destruction or decay; tending to preserve.

PRESERV'ATIVE, noun That which preserves or has the power of preserving; something that tends to secure a person or thing in a sound state, or prevent if from injury, destruction, decay or corruption; a preventive of injury or decay. Persons formerly wore tablets of arsenic, as preservatives against the plague. Clothing is a preservative against cold. Temperance and exercise are the best preservatives of health. Habitual reverence of the Supreme Being is an excellent preservative against sin and the influence of evil examples.

PRESERV'ATORY, adjective That tends to preserve.

PRESERV'ATORY, noun That which has the power of preserving; a preservative.

PRESERVE, verb transitive prezerv'. [Low Latin proeservo; proe and servo, to keep.]

1. To keep or save from injury or destruction; to defend from evil.

God did send me before you to preserve life. Genesis 45:5.

O Lord, preserve me from the violent man. Psalms 140:1.

2. To uphold; to sustain.

O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Psalms 36:6.

3. To save from decay; to keep in a sound state; as, to preserve fruit in winter. Salt is used to preserve meat.

4. To season with sugar or other substances for preservation; as, to preserve plums, quinces or other fruit.

5. To keep or defend from corruption; as, to preserve youth from vice.

PRESERVE, noun preserv'. Fruit or a vegetable seasoned and kept in sugar or sirup.

PRESERV'ED, participle passive Saved from injury, destruction or decay; kept or defended from evil; seasoned with sugar for preservation.

PRESERV'ER, noun The person or thing that preserves; one that saves or defends from destruction or evil.

What shall I do to thee, O thou preserver of men? Job 7:20.

1. One that makes preserves of fruits.

PRESERV'ING, participle present tense Keeping safe from injury, destruction or decay; defending from evil.

PRESI'DE, verb intransitive s as z. [Latin proesideo; proe, before, and sedeo, to sit.]

1. To be set over for the exercise of authority; to direct, control and govern, as the chief officer. A man may preside over a nation or province; or he may preside over a senate, or a meeting of citizens. The word is used chiefly in the latter sense. We say, a man presides over the senate with dignity. Hence it usually denotes temporary superintendence and government.

2. To exercise superintendence; to watch over as inspector.

Some o'er the public magazines preside

PRES'IDENCY, noun Superintendence; inspection and care.

1. The office of president. Washington was elected to the presidency of the United States by a unanimous vote of the electors.

2. The term during which a president holds his office. President J. Adams died during the presidency of his son.

3. The jurisdiction of a president; as in the British dominions in the East Indies.

4. The family or suit of a president.

A worthy clergyman belonging to the presidency of Fort St. George.

PRES'IDENT, noun [Latin proesidens.]

1. An officer elected or appointed to preside over a corporation, company or assembly of men, to keep order, manage their concerns or govern their proceedings; as the president of a banking company; the president of a senate, etc.

2. An officer appointed or elected to govern a province or territory, or to administer the government of a nation. The president of the United States is the chief executive magistrate.

3. The chief officer of a college or university.

4. A tutelar power.

Just Apollo, president of verse.

Vice-president, one who is second in authority to the president The vice-president of the United States is president of the senate ex officio, and performs the duties of president when the latter is removed or disabled.

PRESIDEN'TIAL, adjective Pertaining to a president; as the presidential chair.

1. Presiding over.

PRES'IDENTSHIP, noun The office and place of president.

1. The term for which a president holds his office.

PRESID'IAL

PRESID'IARY, adjective [Latin proesidium, a garrison; proe and sedeo.]

Pertaining to a garrison; having a garrison.

PRESID'IARY, a. [L. proesidium, a garrison; proe and sedeo.]

Pertaining to a garrison; having a garrison.

PRESIGNIFICA'TION, noun [from presignify.]

The act of signifying or showing beforehand.

PRESIG'NIFY, verb transitive [pre and signify.] To intimate or signify beforehand; to show previously.

PRESS, verb transitive [Latin pressus.]

1. To urge with force or weight; a word of extensive use, denoting the application of any power, physical or moral, to something that is to be moved or affected. We press the ground with the feet when we walk; we press the couch on which we repose; we press substances with the hands, fingers or arms; the smith presses iron with his vise; we are pressed with the weight of arguments or of cares, troubles and business.

2. To squeeze; to crush; as, to press grapes. Genesis 40:11.

3. To drive with violence; to hurry; as, to press a horse in motion, or in a race.

4. To urge; to enforce; to inculcate with earnestness; as, to press divine truth on an audience.

5. To embrace closely; to hug.

Leucothoe shook

And press'd Palemon closer in her arms.

6. To force into service, particularly into naval service; to impress.

7. To straiten; to distress; as, to be pressed with want or with difficulties.

8. To constrain; to compel; to urge by authority or necessity.

The posts that rode on mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. Esther 8:14.

9. To urge; to impose by importunity.

He pressed a letter upon me, within this hour, to deliver to you.

10. To urge or solicit with earnestness or importunity. He pressed me to accept of his offer.

11. To urge; to constrain.

Paul was pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Acts 18:5.

Wickedness pressed with conscience, forecasteth grievous things.

12. To squeeze for making smooth; as cloth or paper.

PRESS differs from drive and strike, in usually denoting a slow or continued application of force; whereas drive and strike denote a sudden impulse of force.

PRESS, verb intransitive To urge or strain in motion; to urge forward with force.

I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.

Th' insulting victor presses on the more.

1. To bear on with force; to encroach.

On superior powers

Were we to press inferior might on ours.

2. To bear on with force; to crowd; to throng.

Thronging crowds press on you as you pass.

3. To approach unseasonably or importunately.

Nor press too near the throne.

4. To urge with vehemence and importunity.

He pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in to him. Genesis 19:3.

5. To urge by influence or moral force.

When arguments press equally in matters indifferent, the safest method is to give up ourselves to neither.

6. To push with force; as, to press against the door.

PRESS, noun

1. An instrument or machine by which any body is squeezed, crushed or forced into a more compact form; as a wine-press, cider-press or cheese-press.

2. A machine for printing; a printing-press. Great improvements have been lately made in the construction of presses.

3. The art or business of printing and publishing. A free press is a great blessing to a free people; a licentious press is a curse to society.

4. A crowd; a throng; a multitude of individuals crowded together.

And when they could not come nigh to him for the press--Mark 2:4.

5. The act of urging or pushing forward.

Which in their throng and press to the last hold,

Confound themselves.

6. A wine-vat or cistern. Haggai 2:16.

7. A case of closet for the safe keeping of garments.

8. Urgency; urgent demands of affairs; as a press of business.

9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy; for impress.

PRESS of sail, in navigation, is as much sail as the state of the wind will permit.

Liberty of the press in civil policy, is the free right of publishing books, pamphlets or papers without previous restraint; or the unrestrained right which every citizen enjoys of publishing his thoughts and opinions, subject only to punishment for publishing what is pernicious to morals or to the peace of the state.

PRESS'-BED, noun A bed that may be raised and inclosed in a case.

PRESS'ED, participle passive Urged by force or weight; constrained; distressed; crowded; embraced; made smooth and glossy by pressure, as cloth.

PRESS'ER, noun One that presses.

PRESS'ING, participle present tense Urging with force or weight; squeezing; constraining; crowding; embracing; distressing; forcing into service; rolling in a press.

1. adjective Urgent; distressing.

PRESS'ING, noun The act or operation of applying force to bodies. The pressing of cloth is performed by means of the screw, or by a calendar.

PRESS'INGLY, adverb With force or urgency; closely.

PRES'SION, noun The act of pressing. But pressure is more generally used.

1. In the Cartesian philosophy, an endeavor to move.

PRESS'ITANT, adjective Gravitating; heavy. [Not in use.]

PRESS'MAN, noun In printing, the man who manages the press and impresses the sheets.

1. One of a press-gang, who aids in forcing men into the naval service.

PRESS'-MONEY, noun Money paid to a man impressed into public service. [See Prest-money.]

PRESS'URE, noun [Latin pressura.] The act of pressing or urging with force.

1. The act of squeezing or crushing. Wine is obtained by the pressure of grapes.

2. The state of being squeezed or crushed.

3. The force of one body acting on another by weight or the continued application of power. pressure is occasioned by weight or gravity, by the motion of bodies, by the expansion of fluids, by elasticity, etc. Mutual pressure may be caused by the meeting of moving bodies, or by the motion of one body against another at rest, and the resistance or elastic force of the latter. The degree of pressure is in proportion to the weight of the pressing body, or to the power applied, or to the elastic force of resisting bodies. The screw is a most powerful instrument of pressure The pressure of wind on the sails of a ship is in proportion to its velocity.

4. A constraining force or impulse; that which urges or compels the intellectual or moral faculties; as the pressure of motives on the mind, or of fear on the conscience.

5. That which afflicts the body or depresses the spirits; any severe affliction, distress, calamity or grievance; straits, difficulties, embarrassments, or the distress they occasion. We speak of the pressure of poverty or want, the pressure of debts, the pressure of taxes, the pressure of afflictions or sorrow.

My own and my people's pressures are grievous.

To this consideration he retreats with comfort in all his pressures.

We observe that pressure is used both for trouble or calamity, and for the distress it produces.

6. Urgency; as the pressure of business.

7. Impression; stamp; character impressed.

All laws of books, all forms, all pressures past.

PREST, sometimes used for pressed. [See Press.]

PREST, adjective [Latin proesto, to stand before or forward; proe and sto.]

1. Ready; prompt.

2. Neat; tight.

PREST, noun A loan.

1. Formerly, a duty in money, to be paid by the sheriff on his account in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands.

PRESTA'TION, noun [Latin proestatio.] Formerly, a payment of money; sometimes used for purveyance.

PRES'TER, noun [Gr. to kindle or inflame.]

1. A meteor thrown from the clouds with such violence, that by collision it is set on fire.

2. The external part of the neck, which swells when a person is angry.

PRES'TIGES, noun [Latin proestigioe.] Juggling tricks; impostures.

PRESTIGIA'TION, noun [Latin proestigioe, tricks.] The playing of legerdemain tricks; a juggling.

PRESTIGIA'TOR, noun A juggler; a cheat.

PRESTIG'IATORY, adjective Juggling; consisting of impostures.

PRESTIG'IOUS, adjective Practicing tricks; juggling.

PRES'TIMONY, noun [Latin proesto, to supply; proe and sto.] In canon law, a fund for the support of a priest, appropriated by the founder, but not erected into any title of benefice, and not subject to the pope or the ordinary, but of which the patron is the collator.

But in a Spanish Dictionary thus defined, 'a prebend for the maintenance of poor clergymen, on condition of their saying prayers at certain stated times.

PRES'TO, adverb [Latin proesto.]

1. In music, a direction for a quick lively movement or performance.

2. Quickly; immediately; in haste.

PRESTRIC'TION, noun [Latin proestringo, proestrictus.] Dimness.

PRESU'MABLE, adjective s as z. [from presume.] That may be presumed; that may be supposed to be true or entitled to belief, without examination or direct evidence, or on probable evidence.

PRESU'MABLY, adverb By presuming or supposing something to be true, without direct proof.

PRESU'ME, verb transitive s as z. [Latin proesumo; proe, before, and sumo, to take.] To take or suppose to be true or entitled to belief, without examination or positive proof, or on the strength of probability. We presume that a man is honest, who has not been known to cheat or deceive; but in this we are sometimes mistaken. In many cases, the law presumes full payment where positive evidence of it cannot be produced.

We not only presume it may be so, but we actually find it so.

In cases of implied contracts, the law presumes that a man has covenanted or contracted to do what reason and justice dictate.

PRESU'ME, verb intransitive To venture without positive permission; as, we may presume too far.

1. To form confident or arrogant opinions; with on or upon, before the cause of confidence.

This man presumes upon his parts.

I will not presume so far upon myself.

2. To make confident or arrogant attempts.

In that we presume to see what is meet and convenient, better than God himself.

3. It has on or upon sometimes before the thing supposed.

Luther presumes upon the gift of continency.

It is sometimes followed by of, but improperly.

PRESU'MED, participle passive Supposed or taken to be true, or entitled to belief, without positive proof.

PRESU'MER, noun One that presumes; also, an arrogant person.

PRESU'MING, participle present tense Taking as true, or supposing to be entitled to belief, on probable evidence.

1. adjective Venturing without positive permission; too confident; arrogant; unreasonably bold.

PRESUMP'TION, noun [Latin proesumption.]

1. Supposition of the truth or real existence of something without direct or positive proof of the fact, but grounded on circumstantial or probable evidence which entitles it to belief. presumption in law is of three sorts, violent or strong, probable, and light.

Next to positive proof, circumstantial evidence or the doctrine of presumptions must take place; for when the fact cannot be demonstratively evinced, that which comes nearest to the proof of the fact is the proof of such circumstances as either necessarily or usually attend such facts. These are called presumptions. Violent presumption is many times equal to full proof.

2. Strong probability; as in the common phrase, the presumption is that an event has taken place, or will take place.

3. Blind or headstrong confidence; unreasonable adventurousness; a venturing to undertake something without reasonable prospect of success, or against the usual probabilities of safety; presumptuousness.

Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath.

I had the presumption to dedicate to you a very unfinished price.

4. Arrogance. He had the presumption to attempt to dictate to the council.

5. Unreasonable confidence in divine favor.

The awe of his majesty will keep us from presumption

PRESUMP'TIVE, adjective Taken by previous supposition; grounded on probable evidence.

1. Unreasonably confident; adventuring without reasonable ground to expect success; presumptuous; arrogant.

Presumptive evidence, in law, is that which is derived from circumstances which necessarily or usually attend a fact, as distinct from direct evidence or positive proof.

Presumptive evidence of felony should be cautiously admitted.

Presumptive heir, one who would inherit an estate if the ancestor should die with things in their present state, but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the birth of a nearer heir before the death of the ancestor. Thus the presumptive succession of a brother or nephew may be destroyed by the birth of a child. presumptive heir is distinguished from heir apparent, whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided he outlives the ancestor.

PRESUMP'TIVELY, adverb By presumption, or supposition grounded on probability.

PRESUMP'TUOUS, adjective

1. Bold and confident to excess; adventuring without reasonable ground of success; hazarding safety on too slight grounds; rash; applied to persons; as a presumptuous commander.

There is a class of presumptuous men whom age has not made cautious, nor adversity wise.

2. Founded on presumption; proceeding from excess of confidence; applied to things; as presumptuous hope.

3. Arrogant; insolent; as a presumptuous priest.

Presumptuous pride.

4. Unduly confident; irreverent with respect to sacred things.

5. Willful; done with bold design, rash confidence or in violation of known duty; as a presumptuous sin.

PRESUMP'TUOUSLY, adverb With rash confidence.

1. Arrogantly; insolently.

2. Willfully; in bold defiance of conscience or violation of known duty; as, to sin presumptuously Numbers 15:30.

3. With groundless and vain confidence in the divine favor.

PRESUMP'TUOUSNESS, noun The quality of being presumptuous or rashly confident; groundless confidence; arrogance; irreverent boldness or forwardness.

PRESUPPOSAL, noun presuppo'zal. [pre and supposal.]

Supposal previously formed; presupposition.

PRESUPPO'SE, verb transitive presuppo'ze. [Eng. pre and suppose.] To suppose as previous; to imply as antecedent. The existence of created things presupposes the existence of a Creator.

Each kind of knowledge presupposes many necessary things learned in other sciences and known beforehand.

PRESUPPO'SED, participle passive Supposed to be antecedent.

PRESUPPO'SING, participle present tense Supposing to be previous.

PRESUPPOSI'TION, noun Supposition previously formed.

1. Supposition of something antecedent.

PRESURMISE, noun presurmi'ze. [pre and surmise.]

A surmise previously formed.

PRETEND', verb transitive [Latin proetendo; proe, before, and tendo, to tend, to reach or stretch.]

1. Literally, to reach or stretch forward; used by Dryden, but this use is not well authorized.

2. To hold out, as a false appearance; to offer something feigned instead of that which is real; to simulate, in words or actions.

This let him know,

Lest willfully transgressing, he pretend

Surprisal.

3. To show hypocritically; as, to pretend great zeal when the heart is not engaged; to pretend patriotism for the sake of gaining popular applause or obtaining an office.

4. To exhibit as a cover for something hidden.

Lest that too heavenly form, pretended

To hellish falsehood, snare them. [Not in use.]

5. To claim.

Chiefs shall be grudg'd the part which they pretend

[In this we generally use pretend to.]

6. To intend; to design. [Not used.]

PRETEND', verb transitive To put in a claim, truly or falsely; to hold out the appearance of being, possessing or performing. A man may pretend to be a physician, and pretend to perform great cures. Bad men often pretend to be patriots.

PRETEND'ED, participle passive Held out, as a false appearance; feigned; simulated.

1. adjective Ostensible; hypocritical; as a pretended reason or motive; pretended zeal.

PRETEND'EDLY, adverb By false appearance or representation.

PRETEND'ER, noun One who makes a show of something not real; one who lays claim to any thing.

1. In English history, the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who lays claim to the crown of Great Britain, but is excluded by law.

PRETEND'ERSHIP, noun The right or claim of the Pretender.

PRETEND'ING, participle present tense Holding out a false appearance; laying claim to, or attempting to make others believe one is what in truth he is not, or that he has or does something which he has or does not; making hypocritical professions.

PRETEND'INGLY, adverb Arrogantly; presumptuously.

PRETENSE, noun pretens'. [Latin proetensus, proetendo.]

1. A holding out or offering to others something false or feigned; a presenting to others, either in words or actions, a false or hypocritical appearance, usually with a view to conceal what is real, and thus to deceive. Under pretense of giving liberty to nations, the prince conquered and enslaved them. Under pretense of patriotism, ambitious men serve their own selfish purposes.

Let not Trojans, with a feigned pretense

Of proffer'd peace, delude the Latian prince.

It is sometimes preceded by on; as on pretense of revenging Caesar's death.

2. Assumption; claim to notice.

Never was any thing of this pretense more ingeniously imparted.

3. Claim, true or false.

Primogeniture cannot have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power.

4. Something held out to terrify or for other purpose; as a pretense of danger.

PRETENS'ED, adjective Pretended; feigned; as a pretensed right to land. [Little used.]

PRETEN'SION, noun

1. Claim, true or false; a holding out the appearance of right or possession of a thing, with a view to make others believe what is not real, or what, if true, is not yet known or admitted. A man may make pretensions to rights which he cannot maintain; he may make pretensions to skill which he does not possess; and he may make pretensions to skill or acquirements which he really possesses, but which he is not known to possess. Hence we speak of ill founded pretensions, and well founded pretensions.

2. Claim to something to be obtained, or a desire to obtain something, manifested by words or actions. Any citizen may have pretensions to the honor of representing the state in the senate or house of representatives.

The commons demand that the consulship should lie in common to the pretensions of any Roman.

Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions.

3. Fictitious appearance; a Latin phrase, not now used.

This was but an invention and pretension given out by the Spaniards.

PRETENT'ATIVE, adjective [Latin proe and tento, to try.]

That may be previously tried or attempted. [Little used.]

PRETER, a Latin preposition, [proeter, ] is used in some English words as a prefix. Its proper signification is beyond, hence beside, more.

PRETERIMPER'FECT, adjective [beyond or beside unfinished.] In grammar, designating the tense which expresses action or being not perfectly past; an awkward epithet, very ill applied.

PRE'TERIT, adjective [Latin proeteritus, proetereo; proeter, beyond, and eo, to go.] Past; applied to the tense in grammar which expresses an action or being perfectly past or finished, often that which is just past or completed, but without a specification of time. It is called also the perfect tense; as, scripsi, I have written. We say, 'I have written a letter to my correspondent; ' in which sentence, the time is supposed to be not distant and not specified. But when the time is mentioned, we use the imperfect tense so called; as, 'I wrote to my correspondent yesterday.' In this use of the preterit or perfect tense, the English differs from the French, in which j'ai ecrit heir, is correct; but I have written yesterday, would be very bad English.

PRETERI'TION, noun [Latin proeterio, to pass by.]

1. The act of going past; the state of being past.

2. In rhetoric, a figure by which, in pretending to pass over any thing, we make a summary mention of it; as, 'I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just, ' etc. The most artful praises are those bestowed by way of preterition

PRE'TERITNESS, noun [from preterit.] The state of being past. [Little used.]

PRETERLAPS'ED, adjective [Latin proeterlapsus, proeterlabor; proeter and labor, to glide.] Past; gone by; as preterlapsed ages.

PRETERLE'GAL, adjective [Latin proeter and legal.] Exceeding the limits of law; not legal. [Little used.]

PRETERMIS'SION. noun [Latin proetermissio, from proetermitto.]

A passing by; omission.

1. In rhetoric, the same as preterition.

PRETERMIT', verb transitive [Latin proetermitto; proeter, beyond, and mitto, to send.] To pass by; to omit.

PRETERNAT'URAL, adjective [Latin proeter and natural.] Beyond what is natural, or different from what is natural; irregular. We call those events in the physical world preternatural which are extraordinary, which are deemed to be beyond or without the ordinary course of things, and yet are not deemed miraculous; in distinction from events which are supernatural, which cannot be produced by physical laws or powers, and must therefore be produced by a direct exertion of omnipotence. We also apply the epithet to things uncommon or irregular; as a preternatural swelling; a preternatural pulse; a preternatural excitement or temper.

PRETERNATURAL'ITY, noun Preternaturalness. [Little used.]

PRETERNAT'URALLY, adverb In a manner beyond or aside from the common order of nature; as vessels of the body preternaturally distended.

PRETERNAT'URALNESS, noun A state or manner different from the common order of nature.

PRETERPER'FECT, adjective [Latin proeter and perfectus.] Literally, more than complete or finished; an epithet equivalent to preterit, applied to the tense of verbs which expresses action or being absolutely past. [Grammar.]

PRETERPLUPER'FECT, adjective [Latin proeter, beyond, plus, more, and perfectus, perfect.] Literally, beyond more than perfect; an epithet designating the tense of verbs which expresses action or being past prior to another past event or time; better denominated the prior past tense, that is, past prior to another event.

PRETEX', verb transitive [Latin proetexo; proe and texo, or tego, texui.]

To cloak; to conceal. [Not used.]

PRETEXT', noun [Latin proetextus.] Pretense; false appearance; ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive. He gave plausible reasons for this conduct, but these were only a pretext to conceal his real motives.

He made pretext that I should only go

And help convey his freight; but thought not so.

They suck the blood of those they depend on, under a pretext of service and kindness.

PRE'TOR, noun [Latin proetor, from the root of proe, before.]

Among the ancient Romans, a judge; an officer answering to the modern chief justice or chancellor, or to both. In later times, subordinate judges appointed to distribute justice in the provinces, were created and called pretors or provincial pretors. These assisted the consuls in the government of the provinces.

In modern times, the word is sometimes used for a mayor or magistrate.

PRETO'RIAL, adjective Pertaining to a pretor or judge; judicial.

PRETO'RIAN, adjective Belonging to a pretor or judge; judicial; exercised by the pretor; as pretorian power or authority.

Pretorian bands or guards, in Roman history, were the emperor's guards. Their number was ultimately increased to ten thousand men.

PRE'TORSHIP, noun The office of pretor.

PRETTILY, adverb prit'tily. [from pretty.] In a pretty manner; with neatness and taste; pleasingly; without magnificence or splendor; as a woman prettily dressed; a parterre prettily ornamented with flowers.

1. With decency, good manners and decorum without dignity.

Children kept out of ill company, take a price to behave themselves prettily

PRETTINESS, noun prit'tiness. [from pretty.]

1. Diminutive beauty; a pleasing form without stateliness or dignity; as the prettiness of the face; the prettiness of a bird or other small animal; the prettiness of dress.

2. Neatness and taste displayed on small objects; as the prettiness of a flower bed.

3. Decency of manners; pleasing propriety without dignity or elevation; as the prettiness of a child'd behavior.

PRETTY, adjective prit'ty.

1. Having diminutive beauty; of a pleasing form with the strong lines of beauty, or without gratefulness and dignity; as a pretty face; a pretty person; a pretty flower.

The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant creature in the world.

That which is little can be but pretty and by claiming dignity becomes ridiculous.

2. Neat and appropriate without magnificence or splendor; as a pretty dress.

3. Handsome; neatly arranged or ornamented; as a pretty flower bed.

4. Neat; elegant without elevation or grandeur; as a pretty tale or story; a pretty song or composition.

5. Sly; crafty; as, he has played his friend a pretty trick. This seems to be the sense of the word in this phrase, according with the Saxon proetig. And hence perhaps the phrase, a pretty fellow.

6. Small; diminutive; in contempt. He will make a pretty figure in a triumph.

7. Not very small; moderately large; as a pretty way off.

Cut off the stalks of cucumbers immediately after their bearing, close by the earth, and then cast a pretty quantity of earth upon the plant, and they will bear next year before the ordinary time. [Not in use.]

PRETTY, adverb prit'ty. In some degree; tolerably; moderately; as a farm pretty well stocked; the colors became pretty vivid; I am pretty sure of the fact; the wind is pretty fair. The English farthing is pretty near the value of the American cent. In these and similar phrases, pretty expresses less than very.

The writer pretty plainly professes himself a sincere christian.

PRETYP'IFIED, participle passive [from pretypify.] Antecedently represented by type; prefigured.

PRETYP'IFY, verb transitive [pre and typify.] To prefigure; to exhibit previously in a type.

PRETYP'IFYING, participle present tense Prefiguring.

PREVA'IL, verb intransitive [Latin proevaleo; proe, before, and valeo, to be strong or well. Valeo seems to be from the same root as the Eng. well. The primary sense is to stretch or strain forward, to advance.]

1. To overcome; to gain the victory or superiority; to gain the advantage.

When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Exodus 17:11.

With over or against.

David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone. 1 Samuel 17:9.

This kingdom could never prevail against the united power of England.

2. To be in force; to have effect; power or influence.

This custom makes the short-sighted bigots and the warier skeptics, as far as ir prevails.

3. To be predominant; to extend over with force or effect. The fever prevailed in a great part of the city.

4. To gain or have predominant influence; to operate with effect. These reasons, arguments or motives ought to prevail with all candid men. In this sense, it is followed by with.

5. To persuade or induce; with on or upon. They prevailed on the president to ratify the treaty. It is also followed by with. They could not prevail with the king to pardon the offender. But on is more common in modern practice.

6. To succeed. The general attempted to take the fort by assault, but did not prevail The most powerful arguments were employed, but they did not prevail

PREVA'ILING, participle present tense Gaining advantage, superiority or victory; having effect; persuading; succeeding.

1. adjective Predominant; having more influence; prevalent; superior in power. The love of money and the love of power are the prevailing passions of men.

2. Efficacious.

Saints shall assist thee with prevailing prayers.

3. Predominant; most general; as the prevailing disease of a climate; a prevailing opinion. Intemperance is the prevailing vice of many countries.

PREVA'ILMENT, adjective Prevalence. [Little used.]

PREV'ALENCE

PREV'ALENCY, noun Superior strength, influence or efficacy; most efficacious force in producing an effect.

The duke better knew what kind of arguments were of prevalence with him.

1. Predominance; most general reception or practice; as the prevalence of vice, or of corrupt maxims; the prevalence of opinion or fashion.

2. Most general existence or extension; as, the prevalence of a disease.

3. Success; as the prevalence of prayer.

PREV'ALENCY, n. Superior strength, influence or efficacy; most efficacious force in producing an effect.

PREV'ALENT, adjective Gaining advantage or superiority; victorious.

Brennus told the Roman embassadors, that prevalent arms were as good as any title.

1. Powerful; efficacious; successful; as prevalent supplications.

2. Predominant; most generally received or current; as a prevalent opinion.

3. Predominant; most general; extensively existing; as a prevalent disease.

PREV'ALENTLY, adverb With predominance or superiority; powerfully.

The evening star so falls into the main

To rise at morn more prevalently bright.

PREVAR'ICATE, verb intransitive [Latin proevaricor; proe and varico, varicor, to straddle.]

1. To shuffle; to quibble; to shift or turn from one side to the other, from the direct course or from truth; to play foul play.

I would think better of himself, than that he would wilfully prevaricate

2. In the civil law, to collude; as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.

3. In English law, to undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

PREVAR'ICATE, verb transitive To pervert; to corrupt; to evade by a quibble. [But in a transitive sense, this word is seldom or never used.]

PREVARICA'TION, noun A shuffling or quibbling to evade the truth or the disclosure of truth; the practice of some trick for evading what is just or honorable; a deviation from the plain path of truth and fair dealing.

1. In the civil law, the collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.

2. In common law, a seeming to undertake a thing falsely or deceitfully, for the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

3. A secret abuse in the exercise of a public office or commission.

PREVAR'ICATOR, noun One that prevaricates; a shuffler; a quibbler.

1. A sham dealer; one who colludes with a defendant in a sham prosecution.

2. One who abuses his trust.

PREVE'NE, verb transitive [Latin proevenio; proe, before, and venio, to come.]

Literally, to come before; hence, to hinder. [Not used.]

PREVE'NIENT, adjective [Latin proeveniens.] Going before; preceding; hence, preventive; as prevenient grace.

PREVENT', verb transitive [Latin proevenio, supra.]

1. To go before; to precede.

I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried. Psalms 119:148.

2. To precede, as something unexpected or unsought.

The days of my affliction prevented me. Job 30:27.

2 Samuel 22:6.

3. To go before; to precede; to favor by anticipation or by hindering distress or evil.

The God of my mercy shall prevent me. Psalms 59:10.

PREVENT us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor.

4. To anticipate.

Their ready guilt preventing thy commands.

5. To preoccupy; to pre-engage; to attempt first.

Thou hast prevented us with overtures of love.

[In all the preceding senses, the word is obsolete.]

6. To hinder; to obstruct; to intercept the approach or access of. This is now the only sense. No foresight or care will prevent every misfortune. Religion supplies consolation under afflictions which cannot be prevented. It is easier to prevent an evil than to remedy it.

Too great confidence in success, is the likeliest to prevent it.

PREVENT', verb intransitive To come before the usual time. [Not in use.]

PREVENT'ABLE, adjective That may be prevented or hindered.

PREVENT'ED, participle passive Hindered from happening or taking effect.

PREVENT'ER, noun One that goes before. [Not in use.]

1. One that hinders; a hinderer; that which hinders; as a preventer of evils or of disease.

PREVENT'ING, participle present tense Going before.

1. Hindering; obviating.

PREVENT'INGLY, adverb In such a manner or way as to hinder.

PREVEN'TION, noun The act of going before.

1. Preoccupation; anticipation. [Little used.]

2. The act of hindering; hinderance; obstruction of access or approach.

Prevention of sin is one of the greatest mercies God can vouchsafe.

3. Prejudice; prepossession; a French sense, but not in use in English.

PREVEN'TIONAL, adjective Tending to prevent.

PREVENT'IVE, adjective Tending to hinder; hindering the access of; as a medicine preventive of disease.

PREVENT'IVE, noun That which prevents; that which intercepts the access or approach of. Temperance and exercise are excellent preventives of debility and languor.

1. An antidote previously taken. A medicine may be taken as a preventive of disease.

PREVENT'IVELY, adverb By way of prevention; in a manner that tends to hinder.

PRE'VIOUS, adjective [Latin proevius; proe, before, and via, way, that is, a going.] Going before in time; being or happening before something else; antecedent; prior; as a previous intimation of a design; a previous notion; a previous event.

Sound from the mountain, previous to the storm,

Rolls o'er the muttering earth.

PRE'VIOUSLY, adverb In time preceding; beforehand; antecedently; as a plan previously formed.

PRE'VIOUSNESS, noun Antecedence; priority in time.

PREVI'SION, noun s as z. [Latin proevisus, proevideo; proe, before, and video, to see.] Foresight; foreknowledge; prescience.

PREWARN', verb transitive [See Warn.]

To warn beforehand; to give previous notice of.

PREY, noun [Latin proeda.]

1. Spoil; booty; plunder; goods taken by force from an enemy in war.

And they brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses and Eleazar the priest. Numbers 31:11.

In this passage, the captives are distinguished from prey But sometimes persons are included.

They [Judah] shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies. 2 Kings 21:14.

2. That which is seized or may be seized by violence to be devoured; ravine. The eagle and the hawk dart upon their prey

She sees herself the monster's prey

The old lion perisheth for lack of prey Job 4:11.

3. Ravage; depredation.

Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, lion in prey

Animal or beast of prey is a carnivorous animal; one that feeds on the flesh of other animals. The word is applied to the larger animals, as lions, tigers, hawks, vultures, etc. rather than to insects; yet an insect feeding on other insects may be called an animal of prey

PREY, verb intransitive To prey on or upon, is to rob; to plunder; to pillage.

1. To feed by violence, or to seize and devour. The wolf preys on sheep; the hawk preys on chickens.

2. To corrode; to waste gradually; to cause to pine away. Grief preys on the body and spirits; envy and jealousy prey on the health.

Language is too faint to show

His rage of love; it preys upon his life;

He pines, he sickens, he despairs, he dies.

PREYER, noun He or that which preys; a plunderer; a waster; a devourer.

PREYING, participle present tense Plundering; corroding; wasting gradually.

PRICE, noun [Latin pretium. See Praise.]

1. The sum or amount of money at which a thing is valued, or the value which a seller sets on his goods in market. A man often sets a price on goods which he cannot obtain, and often takes less than the price set.

2. The sum or equivalent given for an article sold; as the price paid for a house, an ox or a watch.

3. The current value or rate paid for any species of goods; as the market price of wheat.

4. Value; estimation; excellence; worth.

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. Proverbs 31:10.

5. Reward; recompense.

That vice may merit; 'tis the price of toil;

The knave deserves it when he tills the soil.

The price of redemption, is the atonement of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:20.

A price in the hands of a fool, the valuable offers of salvation, which he neglects. Proverbs 17:16.

PRICE, verb transitive To pay for. [Not in use.]

1. To set a price on. [See Prize.]

PRI'CELESS, adjective Invaluable; too valuable to admit of a price.

1. Without value; worthless or unsalable.

PRICK, verb transitive

1. To pierce with a sharp pointed instrument or substance; as, to prick one with a pin, a needle, a thorn or the like.

2. To erect a pointed thing, or with an acuminated point; applied chiefly to the ears, and primarily to the pointed ears of an animal. The horse pricks his ears, or pricks up his ears.

3. To fix by the point; as, to prick a knife into a board.

4. To hang on a point.

The cooks prick a slice on a prong of iron.

5. To designate by a puncture or mark.

Some who are pricked for sheriffs, and are fit, set out of the bill.

6. To spur; to goad; to incite; sometimes with on or off.

My duty pricks me on to utter that

Which no worldly good should draw from me.

But how if honor prick me off.

7. To affect with sharp pain; to sting with remorse.

When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts. Acts 2:37. Psalms 73:21.

8. To make acid or pungent to the taste; as, wine is pricked.

9. To write a musical composition with the proper notes on a scale.

10. In seamen's language, to run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail.

To prick a chart, is to trace a ship's course on a chart.

PRICK, verb intransitive To become acid; as, cider pricks in the rays of the sun.

1. To dress one's self for show.

2. To come upon the spur; to shoot along.

Before each van

PRICK forth the airy knights.

3. To aim at a point, mark or place.

PRICK, noun

1. A slender pointed instrument or substance, which is hard enough to pierce the skin; a goad; a spur.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts 9:5.

2. Sharp stinging pain; remorse.

3. A spot or mark at which archers aim.

4. A point; a fixed place.

5. A puncture or place entered by a point.

6. The print of a hare on the ground.

7. In seamen's language, a small roll; as a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.

PRICK'ED, participle passive Pierced with a sharp point; spurred; goaded; stung with pain; rendered acid or pungent; marked; designated.

PRICK'ER, noun A sharp pointed instrument.

1. In colloquial use, a prickle.

2. A light horseman. [Not in use.]

PRICK'ET, noun A buck in his second year.

PRICK'ING, participle present tense Piercing with a sharp point; goading; affecting with pungent pain; making or becoming acid.

PRICK'ING, noun A sensation of sharp pain, or of being pricked.

PRICK'LE, noun In botany, a small pointed shoot or sharp process, growing from the bark only, and thus distinguished from the thorn, which grows from the wood of a plant. Thus the rose, the bramble, the gooseberry and the barberry are armed with prickles.

1. A sharp pointed process of an animal.

PRICK'LINESS, noun [from prickly.] The state of having many prickles.

PRICK'LOUSE, noun A low word in contempt for a taylor.

PRICK'LY, adjective Full of sharp points or prickles; armed with prickles; as a prickly shrub.

PRICK'MADAM, noun A species of house-leek.

PRICK'PUNCH, noun A piece of tempered steel with a round point, to prick a round mark on cold iron.

PRICK'SONG, noun A song set to music, or a variegated song; in distinction from a plain song.

PRICK'WOOD, noun A tree of the genus Euonymus.

PRIDE, noun

1. Inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.

Martial pride looks down on industry.

PRIDE goeth before destruction. Proverbs 16:18.

PRIDE that dines on vanity, sups on contempt.

All pride is abject and mean.

Those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Daniel 4:37.

2. Insolence; rude treatment of others; insolent exultation.

That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.

3. Generous elation of heart; a noble self-esteem springing from a consciousness of worth.

The honest pride of conscious virtue.

4. Elevation; loftiness.

A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place.

5. Decoration; ornament; beauty displayed.

Whose lofty trees, clad with summer's pride

Be his this sword

Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride

Adds graceful terror to the wearer's side.

6. Splendid show; ostentation.

Is this array, the war of either side

Through Athens pass'd with military pride

7. That of which men are proud; that which excites boasting.

I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. Zechariah 9:6. Zephaniah 3:11.

8. Excitement of the sexual appetite in a female beast.

9. Proud persons. Psalms 36:11.

PRIDE, verb transitive With the reciprocal pronoun, to pride one's self, to indulge pride; to take pride; to value one's self; to gratify self-esteem. They pride themselves in their wealth, dress or equipage. He prides himself in his achievements.

PRI'DEFUL, adjective Full of pride; insolent; scornful.

PRI'DELESS, adjective Destitute of pride; without pride.

PRI'DING, participle present tense Indulging pride or self-esteem; taking pride; valuing one's self.

PRI'DINGLY, adverb With pride; in pride of heart.

PRIE, supposed to be so written for privet.

PRIE, for pry.

PRIEF, for proof, obsolete.

PRI'ER, noun [from pry.] One who inquires narrowly; one who searches and scrutinizes.

PRIEST, noun [Latin proestes, a chief, one that presides; proe, before, and sto, to stand, or sisto.]

1. A man who officiates in sacred offices. Among pagans, priests were persons whose appropriate business was to offer sacrifices and perform other sacred rites of religion. In primitive ages, the fathers of families, princes and kings were priests. Thus Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Job, Isaac and Jacob offered their own sacrifices. In the days of Moses, the office of priest was restricted to the tribe of Levi, and the priesthood consisted of three orders, the high priest the priests, and the Levites, and the office was made hereditary in the family of Aaron.

Every priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Hebrews 5:1.

2. In the modern church, a person who is set apart or consecrated to the ministry of the gospel; a man in orders or licensed to preach the gospel; a presbyter. In its most general sense, the word includes archbishops, bishops, patriarchs, and all subordinate orders of the clergy, duly approved and licensed according to the forms and rules of each respective denomination of christians; as all these orders 'are ordained for men in things pertaining to God.' But in Great Britain, the word is understood to denote the subordinate orders of the clergy, above a deacon and below a bishop. In the United States, the word denotes any licensed minister of the gospel.

PRIE'STCRAFT, noun [priest and craft.] The stratagems and frauds of priests; fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management of selfish and ambitious priests to gain wealth and power, or to impose on the credulity of others.

PRIE'STESS, noun A female among pagans, who officiated in sacred things.

PRIE'STHOOD, noun The office or character of a priest.

1. The order of men set apart for sacred offices; the order composed of priests.

PRIE'STLIKE, adjective Resembling a priest, or that which belongs to priests.

PRIE'STLINESS, noun The appearance and manner of a priest.

PRIE'STLY, adjective Pertaining to a priest or to priests; sacerdotal; as the priestly office.

1. Becoming a priest; as priestly sobriety and purity of life.

PRIE'STRIDDEN, adjective [priest and ridden. See Ride.] Managed or governed by priests.

PRIEVE, for prove.

PRIG, noun

1. A pert, conceited, saucy, pragmatical fellow.

2. A thief.

PRIG, verb intransitive To haggle about the price of a commodity.

PRIG, verb transitive To filch or steal.

PRILL, noun A birt or turbot.

PRIM, adjective Properly, straight; erect; hence, formal; precise; affectedly nice.

PRIM, verb transitive To deck with great nicety; to form with affected preciseness.

PRI'MACY, noun [Latin primatus, from primus, first. See Prime.]

1. The chief ecclesiastical station or dignity; the office or dignity of an archbishop.

2. Excellency; supremacy.

PRI'MAGE, noun In commerce, a small duty payable to the master and mariners of a ship.

PRI'MAL, adjective [See Prime.] First. [Not in use.]

PRI'MARILY, adverb [from primary.] In the first place; originally; in the first intention. The word emperor primarily signifies a general or military commander in chief. In diseases, the physician is to attend to the part primarily affected.

PRI'MARINESS, noun The state of being first in time, in act or intention.

PRI'MARY, adjective [Latin primarius. See Prime.]

1. First in order of time; original; as the church of Christ in its primary institution.

These I call original or primary qualities of body.

2. First in dignity or importance; chief; principal. Our ancestors considered the education of youth or primary importance.

3. Elemental; intended to teach youth the first rudiments; as primary schools.

4. Radical; original; as the primary sense of a word.

Primary planets, are those which revolve about the sun, in distinction form the secondary planets, which revolve about the primary

Primary qualities of bodies, are such as are original and inseparable from them.

PRI'MATE, noun [Low Latin primas. See Prime.]

The chief ecclesiastic in the church; an archbishop.

PRI'MATESHIP, noun The office or dignity of an archbishop.

PRIMA'TIAL, adjective Pertaining to a primate.

PRIMAT'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to a primate.

PRIME, adjective [Latin primus.]

1. First in order of time; original; as prime fathers; prime creation.

In this sense, the use of the word is nearly superseded by primitive, except in the phrase, prime cost.

2. First in rank, degree or dignity; as prime minister.

3. First in excellence; as prime wheat; cloth of a prime quality. Humility and resignation are prime virtues.

4. Early; blooming.

His starry helm unbuckl'd, showed him prime

In manhood, where youth ended.

5. First in value or importance.

PRIME number, in arithmetic, a number which is divisible only by unity, as 5.7.ll.

PRIME figure, in geometry, a figure which cannot be divided into any other figure more simple than itself, as a triangle, a pyramid, etc.

PRIME, noun The first opening of day; the dawn; the morning.

Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime

The sweet hour of prime

1. The beginning; the early days.

In the very prime of the world.

2. The spring of the year.

Hope waits upon the flower prime

3. The spring of life; youth; hence, full health, strength or beauty.

That crop the golden prime of this sweet prince.

The prime of youth.

4. The best part.

Give him always of the prime

5. The utmost perfection.

The plants--would have been all in prime

6. In the Romish church, the first canonical hour, succeeding to lauds.

7. In fencing, the first of the chief guards.

8. In chimistry, primes are numbers employed, in conformity with the doctrine of definite proportions, to express the ratios in which bodies enter into combination. Primes duly arranged in a table, constitute a scale of chimical equivalents. They also express the ratios of the weights of atoms, according to the atomic theory.

PRIME of the moon, the new moon, when it first appears after the change.

vertical, the vertical circle which passes through the poles of the meridian, or the east and west points of the horizon. Dials projected on the plane of this circle, are called prime vertical or north and south dials.

PRIME, verb transitive To put powder in the pan of a musket or other fire-arm; or to lay a train of powder for communicating fire to a charge.

1. To lay on the first color in painting.

PRIME, verb intransitive To serve for the charge of a gun.

PRI'MED, participle passive Having powder in the pan; having the first color in painting.

PRI'MELY, adverb At first; originally; primarily.

1. Most excellently.

PRI'MENESS, noun The state of being first.

1. Supreme excellence. [Little used in either sense.]

PRI'MER, adjective First; original. [Not in use.]

PRIM'ER, noun A small prayer book for church service, or an office of the virgin Mary.

1. A small elementary book for teaching children to read.

PRIME'RO, noun A game at cards.

PRIME'VAL, adjective [Latin primus, first, and oevum, age, primoevus.]

Original; primitive; as the primeval innocence of man; primeval day.

PRIME'VOUS, adjective Primeval.

PRIMIGE'NIAL, adjective [Latin primigenius; primus, first, and genus, kind, or gignor, to beget.] First born; original; primary.

PRIMIG'ENOUS, adjective [supra.] First formed or generated; original; as semi-primigenous strata.

PRI'MING, participle present tense Putting powder in the pan of a fire-arm.

1. Laying on the first color.

PRI'MING, noun The powder in the pan of a gun, or laid along the channel of a cannon for conveying fire to the charge.

1. Among painters, the first color laid on canvas or on a building, etc.

PRIMIP'ILAR, adjective [Latin primipilus, the centurion of the first cohort of a Roman legion.] Pertaining to the captain of the vanguard.

PRIMI'TIAL, adjective Being of the first production.

PRIM'ITIVE, adjective [Latin primitivus; from primus, first.]

1. Pertaining to the beginning or origin; original; first; as the primitive state of Adam; primitive innocence; primitive ages; the primitive church; the primitive christian church or institutions; the primitive fathers.

2. Formal; affectedly solemn; imitating the supposed gravity of old times.

3. Original; primary; radical; not derived; as a primitive verb in grammar.

Primitive rocks, in geology, rocks supposed to be first formed, being irregularly crystallized, and aggregated without a cement,

and containing no organic remains; as granite, gneiss, etc.

PRIM'ITIVE, noun An original word; a word not derived from another.

PRIM'ITIVELY, adverb Originally; at first.

1. Primarily; not derivatively.

2. According to the original rule or ancient practice.

PRIM'ITIVENESS, noun State of being original; antiquity; conformity to antiquity.

PRIM'ITY, noun The state of being original. [Not used.]

PRIM'NESS, noun [from prim.] Affected formality or niceness; stiffness; preciseness.

PRIMOGE'NIAL, adjective [Latin primigenius. See Primigenial.]

First born, made or generated; original; primary; constituent; elemental; as primogenial light; primogenial bodies.

PRIMOGEN'ITOR, noun [Latin primus, first, and genitor, father.]

The first father or forefather.

PRIMOGEN'ITURE, noun [Latin primus, first, and genitus, begotten.

1. The state of being born first of the same parents; seniority by birth among children.

2. In law, the right which belongs to the eldest son or daughter. Thus in Great Britain, the right of inheriting the estate of the father belongs to the eldest son, and in the royal family, the eldest son of the king is entitled to the throne by primogeniture Among the females, the crown descends by right of primogeniture to the eldest daughter only and her issue.

Before the revolution, primogeniture in some of the American colonies, entitled the eldest son to a double portion of his father's estate, but this right has been abolished.

PRIMOGEN'ITURESHIP, noun The right of eldership.

PRIMOR'DIAL, adjective [Latin primordialis, primordium; primus, first, and ordo, order.] First in order; original; existing from the beginning.

PRIMOR'DIAL, noun Origin; first principle or element.

PRIMOR'DIAN, noun A kind of plum.

PRIMOR'DIATE, adjective [See Primordial.] Original; existing from the first.

PRIMP, verb intransitive To be formal or affected. [Not English, or local.]

PRIM'ROSE, noun s as z. [Latin primula veris; primus, first, and rose; literally, the first or an early rose in spring.]

A plant of the genus Primula, of several varieties, as the white, the red, the yellow flowered, the cowslip, etc. Shakespeare uses the word for gay or flowery; as the primrose way.

PRI'MY, adjective Blooming. [Not used.]

PRINCE, noun prins. [Latin princeps.]

1. In a general sense, a sovereign; the chief and independent ruler of a nation or state. Thus when we speak of the princes of Europe, we include emperors and kings. Hence, a chief in general; as a prince of the celestial host.

2. A sovereign in a certain territory; one who has the government of a particular state or territory, but holds of a superior to whom he owes certain services; as the princes of the German states.

3. The son of a king or emperor, or the issue of a royal family; as princes of the blood. In England, the eldest son of the king is created prince of Wales.

4. The chief of any body of men.

5. A chief or ruler of either sex. Queen Elizabeth is called by Camden prince but this application is unusual and harsh.

PRINCE of the senate, in ancient Rome, was the person first called in the roll of senators. He was always of consular and censorian

dignity.

In Scripture, this name prince is given to God, Daniel 8:11; to Christ, who is called the prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6, and the prince of life, Acts 3:15; to the chief of the priests, the prince of the sanctuary, Isaiah 43:28; to the Roman emperor, Daniel 9:25; to men of superior worth and excellence, Ecclesiastes 10:7; to nobles, counselors and officers of a kingdom, Isa 10; to the chief men of families or tribes, Numbers 17:6; to Satan, who is called the prince of this world, John 12:31., and prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:2.

PRINCE, verb intransitive To play the prince; to take state.

PRINCEDOM, noun prins'dom. The jurisdiction, sovereignty, rank or estate of a prince.

Under thee, as head supreme,

Thrones, princedoms, powers, dominions, I reduce.

PRINCELIKE, adjective prins'like. Becoming a prince.

PRINCELINESS, noun prins'liness. [from princely.]

The state, manner or dignity of a prince.

PRINCELY, adjective prins'ly. Resembling a prince; having the appearance of one high born; stately; dignified; as a princely gentleman; a princely youth.

1. Having the rank of princes; as a man of princely birth; a princely dame.

2. Becoming a prince; royal; grand; august; as a princely gift; princely virtues.

3. Very large; as a princely fortune.

4. Magnificent; rich; as a princely entertainment.

PRINCELY, adverb prins'ly. In a princelike manner.

PRINCES'-FETHER, noun A plant of the genus Amaranthus.

Prince's metal, a mixture of copper and zink, in imitation of gold.

PRIN'CESS, noun A female sovereign, as an empress or queen.

1. A sovereign lady of rank next to that of a queen.

2. The daughter of a king.

3. The consort of a prince; as the princess of Wales.

PRIN'CIPAL, adjective [Latin principalis, from princeps.]

1. Chief; highest in rank, character or respectability; as the principal officers of a government; the principal men of a city, town, or state. Acts 25:23. 1 Chronicles 24:6.

2. Chief; most important or considerable; as the principal topics of debate; the principal arguments in a case; the principal points of law; the principal beams of a building; the principal productions of a country.

Wisdom is the principal thing. Proverbs 4:7.

3. In law, a principal challenge, is where the cause assigned carries with it prima facie evidence of partiality, favor or malice.

4. In music, fundamental.

PRIN'CIPAL, noun A chief or head; one who takes the lead; as the principal of a faction, an insurrection or mutiny.

1. The president, governor, or chief in authority. We apply the word to the chief instructor of an academy or seminary of learning.

2. In law, the actor or absolute perpetrator of a crime, or an abettor. A principal in the first degree, is the absolute perpetrator of the crime; a principal in the second degree, is one who is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done; distinguished from an accessory. In treason, all persons concerned are principals.

3. In commerce, a capital sum lent on interest, due as a debt or used as a fund; so called in distinction from interest or profits.

Taxes must be continued, because we have no other means for paying off the principal

4. One primarily engaged; a chief party; in distinction from an auxiliary.

We were not principals, but auxiliaries in the war.

PRINCIPAL'ITY, noun

1. Sovereignty; supreme power.

2. A prince; one invested with sovereignty. Titus 3:1.

3. The territory of a prince; or the country which gives title to a prince; as the principality of Wales.

4. Superiority; predominance. [Little used.]

5. In Scripture, royal state or attire. Jeremiah 13:1.

PRIN'CIPALLY, adverb Chiefly; above all.

They mistake the nature of criticism, who think its business is principally to find fault.

PRIN'CIPALNESS, noun The state of being principal or chief.

PRIN'CIPATE, noun Principality; supreme rule.

PRINCIP'IA, noun plural [Latin principium.] First principles.

PRINCIPIA'TION, noun [from Latin principium.] Analysis into constituent or elemental parts. [Not used.]

PRIN'CIPLE, noun [Latin principium, beginning.]

1. In a general sense, the cause, source or origin of any thing; that from which a thing proceeds; as the principle of motion; the principles of action.

2. Element; constituent part; primordial substance.

Modern philosophers suppose matter to be one simple principle or solid extension diversified by its various shapes.

3. Being that produces any thing; operative cause.

The soul of man is an active principle

4. In science, a truth admitted either without proof, or considered as having been before proved. In the former sense, it is synonymous with axiom; in the latter, with the phrase, established principle

5. Ground; foundation; that which supports an assertion, an action, or a series of actions or of reasoning. On what principle can this be affirmed or denied? He justifies his proceedings on the principle of expedience or necessity. He reasons on sound principles.

6. A general truth; a law comprehending many subordinate truths; as the principles of morality, of law, of government, etc.

7. Tenet; that which is believed, whether truth or not, but which serves as a rule of action or the basis of a system; as the principles of the Stoics, or of the Epicureans.

8. A principle of human nature, is a law of action in human beings; a constitutional propensity common to the human species. Thus it is a principle of human nature to resent injuries and repel insults.

PRIN'CIPLE, verb transitive To establish or fix in tenets; to impress with any tenet, good or ill; chiefly used in the participle.

Men have been principled with an opinion, that they must not consult reason in things of religion.

1. To establish firmly in the mind.