PU'BERTY, noun [Latin pubertas, from pubes.] The age at which persons are capable of procreating and bearing children. This age is different in different climates, but is with us considered to be at fourteen years in males, and twelve in females.
PU'BES, noun [Latin] In botany, the hairiness of plants; a downy or villous substance which grows on plants; pubescence.
PUBES'CENCE, noun [Latin pubescens, pubesco, to shoot, to grow mossy or hairy.]
1. The state of a youth who has arrived at puberty; or the state of puberty.
2. In botany, hairiness; shagginess; the hairy or downy substance on plants.
PUBES'CENT, adjective Arriving at puberty.
1. In botany, covered with pubescence, such as hair, bristles, beard, down, etc.; as the leaves of plants.
PUB'LIC, adjective [Latin publicus, from the root of populus, people; that is, people-like.]
1. Pertaining to a nation, state or community; extending to a whole people; as a public law, which binds the people of a nation or state, as opposed to a private statute or resolve, which respects an individual or a corporation only. Thus we say, public welfare, public good, public calamity, public service, public property.
2. Common to many; current or circulated among people of all classes; general; as public report; public scandal.
3. Open; notorious; exposed to all persons without restriction.
Joseph her husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. Matthew 1:1.
4. Regarding the community; directed to the interest of a nation, state or community; as public spirit; public mindedness; opposed to private or selfish.
5. Open for general entertainment; as a public house.
6. Open to common use; as a public road.
7. In general, public expresses something common to mankind at large, to a nation, state, city or town, and is opposed to private, which denotes what belongs to an individual, to a family, to a company or corporation.
Public law, is often synonymous with the law of nations.
PUB'LIC, noun The general body of mankind or of a nation, state or community; the people, indefinitely.
The public is more disposed to censure than to praise.
In this passage, public is followed by a verb in the singular number; but being a noun of multitude, it is more generally followed by a plural verb; the public are.
In public in open view; before the people at large; not in private or secrecy.
In private grieve, but with a careless scorn,
In public seem to triumph, not to mourn.
PUB'LICAN, noun [Latin publicanus, from publicus.]
1. A collector of toll or tribute. Among the Romans, a publican was a farmer of the taxes and public revenues, and the inferior officers of this class were deemed oppressive.
As Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Matthew 9:10.
2. The keeper of a public house; an innkeeper.
PUBLICA'TION, noun [Latin publicatio, from publico, from publicus.]
1. The act of publishing or offering to public notice, notification to a people at large, either by words, writing or printing; proclamation; divulgation; promulgation; as the publication of the law at mount Sinai; the publication of the gospel; the publication of statutes or edicts.
2. The act of offering a book or writing to the public by sale or by gratuitous distribution. The author consented to the publication of his manuscripts.
3. A work printed and published; any pamphlet or book offered for sale or to public notice; as a new publication; a monthly publication
PUB'LICIST, noun A writer on the laws of nature and nations; one who treats of the rights of nations.
PUBLIC'ITY, noun The state of being public or open to the knowledge of a community; notoriety.
PUB'LICLY, adverb Openly; with exposure to popular view or notice; without concealment; as property publicly offered for sale; an opinion publicly avowed; a declaration publicly made.
1. In the name of the community. A reward is publicly offered for the discovery of the longitude, or for finding a northwestern passage to Asia.
PUB'LICNESS, noun The state of being public, or open to the view or notice of people at large; as the publicness of a sale.
1. State of belonging to the community; as the publicness of property.
PUB'LISH, verb transitive [Latin publico. See Public.]
1. To discover or make known to mankind or to people in general what before was private or unknown; to divulge, as a private transaction; to promulgate or proclaim, as a law or edict. We publish a secret, by telling it to people without reserve. Laws are published by printing or by proclamation. Christ and his apostles published the glad tidings of salvation.
Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display;
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.
2. To send a book into the world; or to sell or offer for sale a book, map or print.
3. To utter; to put off or into circulation; as, to publish a forged or counterfeit paper.
4. To make known by posting, or by reading in a church; as, to publish banns of matrimony. We say also, the persons intending marriage are published; that is, their intention of marriage is published.
PUB'LISHED, participle passive Made known to the community; divulged; promulgated; proclaimed.
PUB'LISHER, noun One who makes known what was before private or unknown; one that divulges, promulgates or proclaims.
1. One who sends a book or writing into the world for common use; one that offers a book, pamphlet, etc., for sale.
2. One who utters, passes or puts into circulation a counterfeit paper.
PUB'LISHING, participle present tense Making known; divulging; promulgating; proclaiming; selling or offering publicly for sale; uttering.
PUB'LISHMENT, noun In popular usage in New England, a notice of intended marriage.
PUCCOON', noun A plant, a species of Sanguinaria; the blood-root.
PUCE, adjective Of a dark brown color.
PU'CELAGE, noun A state of virginity. [Little used.]
PU'CERON, noun The name of a tribe of small insects which are found in great numbers on the bark and leaves of plants, and live by sucking the sap; the Aphid, vine fretter, or plant louse.
PUCK, noun A demon; a mischievous spirit.
PUCK'-BALL
PUCK'-FIST, noun [from puck ] A kind of mushroom full of dust.
PUCK'ER, verb transitive [Latin pectus; Gr. signifies closely, densely, to cover.] To gather into small folds or wrinkles; to contract into ridges and furrows; to corrugate.
His face pale and withered, and his skin puckered in wrinkles.
It is usually followed by up; as, to pucker up cloth; but up is superfluous. It is a popular word, but not elegant.
PUCK'ER, noun A fold or wrinkle, or a collection of folds.
PUCK'ERED, participle passive Gathered in folds; wrinkled.
PUCK'ERING, participle present tense Wrinkling.
PUD'DENING, noun In seamen's language, a thick wreath or circle of cordage, tapering from the middle towards the ends, and fastened about the mast below the trusses, to prevent the yards from falling down when the ropes sustaining them are shot away.
PUD'DER, noun [This is supposed to be the same as pother.]
A tumult; a confused noise; bustle. [Vulgar.]
PUD'DER, verb intransitive To make a tumult or bustle.
PUD'DER, verb transitive To perplex; to embarrass; to confuse; vulgarly to bother.
PUD'DING, noun
1. A species of food of a soft or moderately hard consistence, variously made, but usually a compound of flour, or meal of maiz, with milk and eggs, sometimes enriched with raisins and called plum-pudding.
2. An intestine.
3. An intestine stuffed with meat, ; etc. now called a sausage.
4. Proverbially, food or victuals.
Eat your pudding slave, and hold your tongue.
PUD'DING
PUD'DLE, noun A small stand of dirty water; a muddy splash.
PUD'DLE, verb transitive To make foul or muddy; to pollute with dirt; to mix dirt and water.
1. To make thick or close.
PUD'DLED, participle passive Made muddy or foul.
PUD'DLING, participle present tense Making muddy or dirty.
PUD'DLY, adjective Muddy; foul; dirty.
PUD'DOCK'
PU'DENCY, noun [Latin pudens, pudeo, to blush or be ashamed.]
Modesty; shamefacedness.
PU'DENCY, n. [L. pudens, pudeo, to blush or be ashamed.]
Modesty; shamefacedness.
PUDEN'DA, noun plural [Latin] The parts of generation.
PU'DIC
PU'DICAL, adjective [Latin pudicus, modest.] Pertaining to the parts which modesty requires to be concealed; as the pudic artery.
PU'DICAL, a. [L. pudicus, modest.] Pertaining to the parts which modesty requires to be concealed; as the pudic artery.
PUDIC'ITY, noun [Latin pudicitia.] Modesty; chastity.
PU'ERILE, adjective [Latin puerilis, from puer, a boy.]
Boyish; childish; trifling; as a puerile amusement.
PUERIL'ITY, noun [Latin puerilitas, from puer, a boy.]
1. Childishness; boyishness; the manners or actions of a boy; that which is trifling.
2. In discourse, a thought or expression which is flat, insipid or childish.
PUER'PERAL, adjective [Latin puerpera, a lying-in-woman; puer, a boy, and pario, to bear.] Pertaining to childbirth; as a puerperal fever.
PUER'PEROUS, adjective [Latin puerperus, supra.] Bearing children; lying in.
PUET. [See Pewet.]
PUFF, noun
1. A sudden and single emission of breath from the mouth; a quick forcible blast; a whiff.
2. A sudden and short blast of wind.
3. A fungous ball filled with dust.
4. Any thing light and porous, or something swelled and light; as puff-paste.
5. A substance of loose texture, used to sprinkle powder on the hair.
6. A tumid or exaggerated statement or commendation.
PUFF, verb intransitive
1. To drive air from the mouth in a single and quick blast.
2. To swell the cheeks with air.
3. To blow as an expression of scorn or contempt.
It is really to defy heaven, to puff at damnation.
4. To breathe with vehemence, as after violent exertion.
The ass comes back again, puffing and blowing from the chase.
5. To do or move with hurry, agitation and a tumid, bustling appearance.
Then came brave glory puffing by.
6. To swell with air; to dilate or inflate.
PUFF, verb transitive To drive with a blast of wind or air; as, the north wind puffs away the clouds.
1. To swell; to inflate; to dilate with air; as a bladder puffed with air.
The sea puffed up with winds.
2. To swell; to inflate; to blow up; as puffed up with pride, vanity or conceit; to puff up with praise or flattery.
3. To drive with a blast in scorn or contempt.
I puff the prostitute away.
4. To praise with exaggeration; as to puff a pamphlet.
PUFF'ED, participle passive Driven out suddenly, as air or breath; blown up; swelled with air; inflated with vanity or pride; praised.
PUFF'ER, noun One that puffs; one that praises with noisy commendation.
PUFF'IN, noun A water fowl of the genus Alca or auk.
1. A kind of fish.
2. A kind of fungus with dust; a fuzzball.
PUFF'ING, participle present tense Driving out the breath with a single, sudden blast; blowing up; inflating; praising pompously.
PUFF'INGLY, adverb Tumidly; with swell.
1. With vehement breathing or shortness of breath.
PUFF'Y, adjective Swelled with air or any soft matter; tumid with a soft substance; as a puffy tumor.
1. Tumid; turgid; bombastic; as a puffy style.
PUG, noun The name given to a little animal treated with familiarity, as a monkey, a little dog, etc.
PUGGERED, for puckered, is not in use.
PUGH, exclamation A word used in contempt or disdain.
PU'GIL, noun [Latin pugillum, from the root of pugnus, the fist; probably coinciding with the Greek, to make thick, that is, to close or press.]
As much as is taken up between the thumb and two first fingers.
PU'GILISM, noun [Latin pugil, a champion or prize-fighter, from the Gr. id.; the fist; with the fist; to close or make fast; allied probably to pack, Latin pango.]
The practice of boxing or fighting with the fist.
PU'GILIST, noun A boxer; one who fights with his fists.
PUGILIS'TIC, adjective Pertaining to boxing or fighting with the fist.
PUGNA'CIOUS, adjective [Latin pugnax, from pugna, a fight; from pugnus, the fist. See Pugil.]
Disposed to fight; inclined to fighting; quarrelsome; fighting.
PUGNAC'ITY, noun Inclination to fight; quarrelsomeness. [Little used.]
PUISNE, adjective pu'ny.
1. In law, younger or inferior in rank; as a chief justice and three puisne justices of the court of common please; the puisne barons of the court of exchequer.
2. Later in date. [Not used.]
PU'ISSANCE, noun [Latin posse, possum, potes, potest.]
Power; strength; might; force.
PU'ISSANT, adjective Powerful; strong; mighty; forcible; as a puissant prince or empire.
PU'ISSANTLY, adverb Powerfully; with great strength.
PUKE, verb intransitive [Heb. to evacuate, to empty; Latin vacuo; to burst forth; Latin spuo, for spuco, with a prefix. The radical sense is to throw or drive.] To vomit; to eject from the stomach.
PUKE, noun A vomit; a medicine which excites vomiting.
PUKE, adjective Of a color between black and russet.
PU'KED, participle passive Vomited.
PU'KER, noun A medicine causing vomiting.
PU'KING, participle present tense Vomiting.
PUL'CHRITUDE, noun [Latin pulchritudo, from pulcher, beautiful.]
1. Beauty; handsomeness; grace; comeliness; that quality of form which pleases the eye.
2. Moral beauty; those qualities of the mind which good men love and approve.
PULE, verb intransitive [Latin pello.]
1. To cry like a chicken.
2. To whine; to cry as a complaining child; to whimper.
To speak puling like a beggar at halimass.
PU'LIC, noun A plant.
PU'LICOSE
PU'LICOUS, adjective [Latin pulicosus, from pulex, a flea.]
Abounding n with fleas. [Not used.]
PU'LICOUS, a. [L. pulicosus, from pulex, a flea.]
Abounding n with fleas. [Not used.]
PU'LING, participle present tense Crying like a chicken; whining.
PU'LING, noun A cry, as of a chicken; a whining.
PU'LINGLY, adverb With whining or complaint.
PU'LIOL, noun A plant.
PULK'HA, noun A Laplander's traveling sled or sleigh.
PULL, verb transitive [Latin vello.]
1. To draw; to draw towards one or to make an effort to draw. pull differs from draw; we use draw when motion follows the effort, and pull is used in the same sense; but we may also pull forever without drawing or moving the thing. This distinction may not be universal. pull is opposed to push.
Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in to him into the ark. Genesis 8:9.
2. To pluck; to gather by drawing or forcing off or out; as, to pull fruit; to pull flax.
3. To tear; to rend; but in this sense followed by some qualifying word or phrase; as, to pull in pieces; to pull asunder or apart. To pull in two, is to separate or tear by violence into two parts.
To pull down, to demolish or to take in pieces by separating the parts; as, to pull down a house.
1. To demolish; to subvert; to destroy.
In political affairs, as well as mechanical, it is easier to pull down than to build up.
2. To bring down; to degrade; to humble.
To raise the wretched and pull down the proud.
PULL off, to separate by pulling; to pluck; also, to take off without force; as, to pull off a coat or hat.
To pull out, to draw out; to extract.
To pull up, to pluck up; to tear up by the roots; hence, to extirpate; to eradicate; to destroy.
PULL, noun The act of pulling or drawing with force; an effort to move by drawing towards one.
1. A contest; a struggle.
2. Pluck; violence suffered.
PULL'BACK, noun That which keeps back, or restrains from proceeding.
PULL'ED, participle passive Drawn towards one; plucked.
PULL'EN, noun [Latin pullus. See Pullet and Foal.] Poultry.
[Not used.]
PULL'ER, noun One that pulls.
PULL'ET, noun [Latin pullus; Gr. coinciding with Eng.foal.]
A young hen or female of the gallinaceous kind of fowls.
PULL'EY, noun plural pulleys. [Latin polus; Gr. to turn.]
A small wheel turning on a pin in a block, with a furrow or groove in which runs the rope that turns it.
The pulley is one of the mechanical powers. The word is used also in the general sense of tackle, to denote all parts of the machine for raising weights, of which the pulley forms a part.
PUL'LICAT, noun A kind of silk handkerchief.
PULL'ING, participle present tense Drawing; making an effort to draw; plucking.
PUL'LULATE, verb intransitive [Latin pullulo, from pullus, a shoot.]
To germinate; to bud.
PULLULA'TION, noun A germinating or budding; the first shooting of a bud.
PUL'MONARY, adjective [Latin pulmonarius, from pulmo, the lungs, from pello, pulsus, pulso, to drive or beat.] Pertaining to the lungs; affecting the lungs; as a pulmonary disease or consumption; the pulmonary artery.
PUL'MONARY, noun [Latin pulmonaria.] A plant, lungwort.
PULMON'IC, adjective [Latin pulmo, the lungs.] Pertaining to the lungs; affecting the lungs; as a pulmonic disease; pulmonic consumption.
PULMON'IC, noun A medicine for diseases of the lungs.
1. One affected by a disease of the lungs.
PULP, noun [Latin pulpa. This is probably allied to Latin puls, pulmentum; Gr. from softness.]
1. A soft mass; in general.
2. The soft substance within a bone; marrow.
3. The soft, succulent part of fruit; as the pulp of an orange.
4. The aril or exterior covering of a coffee-berry.
PULP, verb transitive To deprive of the pulp or integument, as the coffee-berry.
The other mode is to pulp the coffee immediately as it comes from the tree. By a simple machine, a man will pulp a bushel in a minute.
PUL'PIT, noun [Latin pulpitum, a state, scaffold, or higher part of a stage.]
1. An elevated place or inclosed stage in a church, in which the preacher stands. It is called also a desk.
2. In the Roman theater, the pulpitum was the place where the players performed their parts, lower than the scene and higher than the orchestra.
3. A movable desk, from which disputants pronounced their dissertations, and authors recited their works.
PULP'OUS, adjective [from pulp.] Consisting of pulp or resembling it; soft like pap.
PULP'OUSNESS, noun Softness; the quality of being pulpous.
PULP'Y, adjective Like pulp; soft; fleshy; succulent; as the pulpy covering of a nut; the pulpy substance of a peach or cherry.
PULS'ATE, verb intransitive [Latin pulsatus, pulso, to beat, from the root of pello, to drive.] To beat or throb.
The heart of a viper or frog will continue to pulsate long after it is taken from the body.
PULS'ATILE, adjective [Latin pulsatilis, from pulso, to beat.]
That is or may be struck or beaten; played by beating; as a pulsatile instrument of music.
PULSA'TION, noun [Latin pulsatio, supra.] The beating or throbbing of the heart or of an artery, in the process of carrying on the circulation of the blood. The blood being propelled by the contraction of the heart, causes the arteries to dilate, so as to render each dilation perceptible to the touch in certain parts of the body, as in the radial artery, etc.
1. In law, any touching of another's body willfully or in anger. This constitutes battery.
By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited.
PULS'ATIVE, adjective Beating; throbbing.
PULSA'TOR, noun A beater; a striker.
PULS'ATORY, adjective Beating; throbbing; as the heart and arteries.
PULSE, noun puls. [Latin pulsus, from pello, to drive.]
1. In animals, the beating or throbbing of the heart and arteries; more particularly, the sudden dilatation of an artery, caused by the projectile force of the blood, which is perceptible to the touch. Hence we say, to feel the pulse The pulse is frequent or rare, quick or slow, equal or unequal, regular or intermitting, hard or soft, strong or weak, etc. The pulses of an adult in health, are little more than one pulse to a second; in certain fevers, the number is increased to 90, 100, or even to 140 in a minute.
2. The stroke with which a medium is affected by the motion of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration.
Sir Isaac Newton demonstrates that the velocities of the pulses of an elastic fluid medium are in a ratio compounded of half the ratio of the elastic force directly, and half the ratio of the density inversely.
To feel one's pulse metaphorically, to sound one's opinion; to try or to know one's mind.
PULSE, verb intransitive To beat, as the arteries. [Little used.]
PULSE, verb transitive [Latin pulso.] To drive, as the pulse [Little used.]
PULSE, noun [Latin pulsus, beaten out, as seeds; Heb. a bean, to separate.] Leguminous plants or their seeds; the plants whose pericarp is a legume or pod, as beans, peas, etc.
PULSIF'IC, adjective [pulse and Latin facio, to make.]
Exciting the pulse; causing pulsation.
PUL'SION, noun [from Latin pulsus.] The act of driving forward; in opposition to suction or traction. [Little used.]
PULTA'CEOUS, adjective [Latin puls. See Pulp.]
Macerated; softened; nearly fluid.
PUL'VERABLE, adjective [from Latin pulvis, dust, probably from pello, pulso, or its root, that which is beaten fine, or that which is driven. See Powder.] That may be reduced to fine powder; capable of being pulverized.
PUL'VERATE, verb transitive To beat or reduce to powder or dust.
[But pulverize is generally used.]
PUL'VERIN
PUL'VERINE, noun Ashes of barilla.
PUL'VERINE, n. Ashes of barilla.
PULVERIZA'TION, noun [from pulverize.]
The act of reducing to dust or powder.
PUL'VERIZE, verb transitive To reduce to fine powder, as by beating, grinding, etc. Friable substances may be pulverized by grinding or beating; but to pulverize malleable bodies, other methods must be pursued.
PUL'VERIZED, participle passive Reduced to fine powder.
PUL'VERIZING, participle present tense Reducing to fine powder.
PUL'VEROUS, adjective Consisting of dust or powder; like powder.
PULVER'ULENCE, noun Dustiness; abundance of dust or powder.
PULVER'ULENT, adjective Dusty; consisting of fine powder; powdery.
1. Addicted to lying and rolling in the dust, as fowls.
PUL'VIL, noun A sweet scented powder. [Little used.]
PUL'VIL, verb transitive To sprinkle with a perfumed powder. [Not used.]
PU'MA, noun A rapacious quadruped of America, of the genus Felis.
PUM'ICE, noun [Latin pumex, supposed to be from the root of spuma, foam.]
A substance frequently ejected from volcanoes, of various colors, gray, white, reddish brown or black; hard, rough and porous; specifically lighter than water, and resembling the slag produced in an iron furnace. It consists of parallel fibers, and is supposed to be asbestos decomposed by the action of fire.
Pumice is of three kinds, glassy, common, and porphyritic.
PUMI'CEOUS, adjective Pertaining to pumice; consisting of pumice or resembling it.
PUMMEL. [See Pommel.]
PUMP, noun [The Latin bombus is of the same family, as is the Eng.bombast.]
1. A hydraulic engine for raising water, by exhausting the incumbent air of a tube or pipe, in consequence of which the water rises in the tube by means of the pressure of the air on the surrounding water. There is however a forcing pump in which the water is raised in the tube by a force applied to a lateral tube, near the bottom of the pump
2. A shoe with a thin sole.
PUMP, verb intransitive To work a pump; to raise water with a pump
PUMP, verb transitive To raise with a pump; as, to pump water.
1. To draw out by artful interrogatories; as, to pump put secrets.
2. To examine by artful questions for the purpose of drawing out secrets.
But pump not me for politics.
Chain-pump, is a chain equipped with a sufficient number of valves at proper distances, which working on two wheels, passes down through one tube and returns through another.
PUMP'-BOLTS, noun Two pieces of iron, one used to fasten the pump-spear to the brake, the other as a fulcrum for the brake to work upon.
PUMP'-BRAKE, noun The arm or handle of a pump
PUMP'-DALE, noun A long wooden tube, used to convey the water from a chain-pump across the ship and through the side.
PUMP'ER, noun The person or the instrument that pumps.
PUMP'-GEAR, noun The materials for fitting and repairing pumps.
PUMP'-HOOD, noun A semi-cylindrical frame of wood, covering the upper wheel of a chain-pump.
PUMP'ION, noun A plant and its fruit, of the genus Cucurbita.
PUMP'KIN, noun A pompion. [This is the common orthography of the word in the United States.]
PUN, noun An expression in which a word has at once different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation; a low species of wit. Thus a man who had a tall wife named Experience, observed that he had, by long experience, proved the blessings of a married life.
A pun can be no more engraven, than it can be translated.
PUN, verb intransitive To quibble; to use the same word at once in different senses.
PUN, verb transitive To persuade by a pun
PUNCH, noun [Latin punctum, pungo.] An instrument of iron or steel, used in several arts for perforating holes in plates of metal, and so contrived as to cut out a piece.
PUNCH, noun A drink composed of water sweetened with sugar, with a mixture of lemon juice and spirit.
PUNCH, noun The buffoon or harlequin of a puppet show. [See Punchinello.]
PUNCH, noun A well set horse with a short back, thin shoulders, broad neck, and well covered with flesh.
1. A short fat fellow.
PUNCH, verb transitive [Latin pungo.]
1. To perforate with an iron instrument, either pointed or not; as, to punch a hole in a plate of metal.
2. In popular usage, to thrust against with something obtuse; as, to punch one with the elbow.
PUNCH'BOWL, noun A bowl in which punch is made, or from which it is drank.
PUNCH'ED, participle passive Perforated with a punch.
PUNCH'EON, noun
1. A small piece of steel, on the end of which is engraved a figure or letter, in creux or relievo, with which impressions are stamped on metal or other substance; used in coinage, in forming the matrices of types, and in various arts.
2. In carpentry, a piece of timber placed upright between two posts, whose bearing is too great; also, a piece of timber set upright under the ridge of a building, wherein the legs of a couple, etc. are jointed.
3. A measure of liquids, or a cask containing usually 120 gallons. Rum or spirits is imported from the West Indies in puncheons, but there are often called also hogsheads.
PUNCH'ER, noun One that punches.
1. A punch or perforating instrument.
PUNCHINEL'LO, noun A punch; a buffoon.
PUNCH'ING, participle present tense Perforating with a punch; driving against.
PUNCH'Y, adjective Short and thick, or fat.
PUNC'TATE
PUNC'TATED, adjective [Latin punctus, pungo.] Pointed.
1. In botany, perforated; full of small holes; having hollow dots scattered over the surface.
PUNC'TATED, a. [L. punctus, pungo.] Pointed.
1. In botany, perforated; full of small holes; having hollow dots scattered over the surface.PUNC'TIFORM, adjective [Latin punctum, point, and form.] Having the form of a point.
PUN'CTIL'IO, noun A nice point of exactness in conduct, ceremony or proceeding; particularity or exactness in forms; as the punctilios of a public ceremony.
PUNCTIL'IOUS, adjective Very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, ceremony or mutual intercourse; very exact in the observance of rules prescribed by law or custom; sometimes, exact to excess.
PUNCTIL'IOUSLY, adverb With exactness or great nicety.
PUNCTIL'IOUSNESS, noun Exactness in the observance of forms or rules; attentive to nice points of behavior or ceremony.
PUNC'TO, noun [Latin punctum, from pungo, to prick.]
1. Nice point of form or ceremony.
2. The point in fencing.
PUNC'TUAL, adjective [Latin punctum, a point.]
1. Consisting in a point; as this punctual spot. [Little used.]
2. Exact; observant of nice points; punctilious, particularly in observing time, appointments or promises. It is honorable in a man to be punctual to appointments, or to appointed hours; it is just to be punctual in paying debts.
3. Exact; as a punctual correspondence between a prediction and an event.
4. Done at the exact time; as punctual payment.
PUNC'TUALIST, noun One that is very exact in observing forms and ceremonies.
PUNCTUAL'ITY, noun Nicety; scrupulous exactness. He served his prince with punctuality
1. It is now used chiefly in regard to time. He pays his debts with punctuality He is remarkable for the punctuality of his attendance.
PUNC'TUALLY, adverb Nicely; exactly; with scrupulous regard to time, appointments, promises or rules; as, to attend a meeting punctually; to pay debts or rent punctually; to observe punctually one's engagements.
PUNC'TUALNESS, noun Exactness; punctuality.
PUNC'TUATE, verb transitive [Latin punctum, a point.] To mark with points; to designate sentences, clauses or other divisions of a writing by points, which mark the proper pauses.
PUNC'TUATED, participle passive Pointed.
1. Having the divisions marked with points.
PUNC'TUATING, participle present tense Marking with points.
PUNCTUA'TION, noun In grammar, the act or art of pointing a writing or discourse, or the act or art of marking with points the divisions of a discourse into sentences and clauses or members of a sentence. punctuation is performed by four points, the period (.); the colon (: ); the semicolon ( ; ); and the comma (, ). The ancients were unacquainted with punctuation; they wrote without any distinction of members, period or words.
PUNC'TULATE, verb transitive [Latin punctulum.] To mark with small spots. [Not used.]
PUNC'TURE, noun [Latin punctura.] The act of perforating with a pointed instrument; or a small hole made by it; as the puncture of a nail, needle or pin.
A lion may perish by the puncture of an asp.
PUNC'TURE, verb intransitive To prick; to pierce with a small pointed instrument; as, to puncture the skin.
PUNC'TURED, participle passive Pricked; pierced with a sharp point.
PUNC'TURING, participle present tense Piercing with a sharp point.
PUN'DIT, noun In Hindoostan, a learned Bramin; one versed in the Sanscrit language, and in the science, laws and religion of that country.
PUN'DLE, noun A short and fat woman. [Not used.]
PUN'GAR, noun A fish.
PUN'GENCY, noun [Latin pungens, pungo, to prick.]
1. The power of pricking or piercing; as the pungency of a substance.
2. That quality of a substance which produces the sensation of pricking, or affecting the taste like minute sharp points; sharpness; acridness.
3. Power to pierce the mind or excite keen reflections or remorse; as the pungency of a discourse.
4. Acrimoniousness; keenness; as the pungency of wit or of expressions.
PUN'GENT, adjective [Latin pungens, pungo.] Pricking; stimulating; as pungent snuff.
The pungent grains of titillating dust.
1. Acrid; affecting the tongue like small sharp points; as the sharp and pungent taste of acids.
2. Piercing; sharp; as pungent pains; pungent grief.
3. Acrimonious; biting.
PU'NIC, adjective [Latin punicus, pertaining to Carthage or its inhabitants, from Poeni, the Carthaginians.] Pertaining to the Carthaginians; faithless; treacherous; deceitful; as punic faith.
PU'NIC, noun The ancient language of the Carthaginians, of which Plautus has left a specimen.
PU'NICE, noun A wall-louse; a bug. [Not in use.]
PUNI'CEOUS, adjective [Latin puniceus. See Punic.] Purple.
PU'NINESS, noun [from puny.] Littleness; pettiness; smallness with feebleness.
PUN'ISH, verb transitive [Latin punio, from the root of poena, pain. The primary sense is to press or strain.]
1. To pain; to afflict with pain, loss or calamity for a crime or fault; primarily, to afflict with bodily pain, as to punish a thief with pillory or stripes; but the word is applied also to affliction by loss of property, by transportation, banishment, seclusion from society, etc. The laws require murderers to be punished with death. Other offenders are to be punished with fines, imprisonment, hard labor, etc. God punishes men for their sins with calamities personal and national.
2. To chastise; as, a father punishes his child for disobedience.
3. To regard with pain or suffering inflicted on the offender; applied to the crime; as, to punish murder or theft.
PUN'ISHABLE, adjective Worthy of punishment.
1. Liable to punishment; capable of being punished by law or right; applied to persons or offenses; as, a man is punishable for robbery or for trespass; a crime is punishable by law.
PUN'ISHABLENESS, noun The quality of deserving or being liable to punishment.
PUN'ISHED, participle passive Afflicted with pain or evil as the retribution of a crime or offense; chastised.
PUN'ISHER, noun One that inflicts pain, loss or other evil for a crime or offense.
PUN'ISHING, participle present tense Afflicting with pain, penalty or suffering of any kind, as the retribution of a crime or offense.
PUN'ISHMENT, noun Any pain or suffering inflicted on a person for a crime or offense, by the authority to which the offender is subject, either by the constitution of God or of civil society. The punishment of the faults and offenses of children by the parent, is by virtue of the right of government with which the parent is invested by God himself. This species of punishment is chastisement or correction. The punishment of crimes against the laws is inflicted by the supreme power of the state in virtue of the right of government, vested in the prince or legislature. The right of punishment belongs only to persons clothed with authority. Pain, loss or evil willfully inflicted on another for his crimes or offenses by a private unauthorized person, is revenge rather than punishment
Some punishments consist in exile or transportation, others in loss of liberty by imprisonment; some extend to confiscation by forfeiture of lands and goods, others induce a disability of holding offices, of being heirs and the like.
Divine punishments are doubtless designed to secure obedience to divine laws, and uphold the moral order of created intelligent beings.
The rewards and punishments of another life, which the almighty has established as the enforcements of his law, are of weight enough to determine the choice against whatever pleasure or pain this life can show.
PUNI'TION, noun [Latin punitio, from punio.] Punishment. [Little used.]
PU'NITIVE, adjective Awarding or inflicting punishment; that punishes; as punitive law or justice.
PU'NITORY, adjective Punishing or tending to punishment.
PUNK, noun A prostitute; a strumpet.
PUN'NER, noun A punster, which see.
PUN'NING, participle present tense [from pun.] Using a word at once in different senses.
PUN'NING, noun The art or practice of using puns; a playing on words.
PUN'STER, noun One that puns or is skilled in punning; a quibbler; a low wit.
PUNT, verb intransitive To play at basset and omber.
PUNT, noun [Latin pons, a bridge.] A flat-bottomed boat used in caulking and repairing ships.
PUNT'ER, noun One that plays in basset against the banker or dealer.
PU'NY, adjective
1. Properly, young or younger; but in this sense not used.
2. Inferior; petty; of an under rate; small and feeble. This word generally includes the signification of both smallness and feebleness; as a puny animal; a puny subject; a puny power; a puny mind.
PU'NY, noun A young inexperienced person; a novice.
PUP, verb intransitive [This word appears to be radically the same as the Latin pupa, Eng. babe.] To bring forth whelps or young, as the female of the canine species.
PUP, noun A puppy.
PU'PA, noun [Latin supra.] In natural history, an insect in that state in which it resembles an infant in swaddling clothes. As some insects in this state have a bright exterior, as if gilded, it has been called chrysalis or aurelia, from the Gr. and Latin aurum, gold; but as this gilded appearance belongs to few insects, the term pupa is now more generally used.
PU'PIL, noun [Latin pupilla, dim. of pupa, pupus. See Pup.]
The apple of the eye; a little aperture in the middle of the iris and uvea of the eye, through which the rays of light pass to the crystalline humor, to be painted on the retina.
PU'PIL, noun [Latin pupillus, dim. of pupa, pupus. See Pup.]
1. A youth or scholar of either sex under the care of an instructor or tutor.
2. A ward; a youth or person under the care of a guardian.
3. In the civil law, a boy or girl under the age of puberty, that is, under 14 if a male, and under 12 if a female.
PU'PILAGE, noun The state of being a scholar, or under the care of an instructor for education and discipline.
1. Wardship; minority.
In this latter sense, the Scots use pupilarity.
PU'PILARY, adjective [Latin pupillaris.] Pertaining to a pupil or ward.
PUPIV'OROUS, adjective [pupa and Latin voro.] Feeding on the larvas and chrysalides of insects.
PUP'PET, noun [Latin pupus. See Pup.]
1. A small image in the human form, moved by a wire in a mock drama; a wooden tragedian.
2. A doll.
3. A word of contempt.
PUP'PETMAN
PUP'PETM'ASTER, noun The master of a puppet-show.
PUP'PETRY, noun Affectation.
PUP'PY, noun [See Pup.] A whelp; the young progeny of a bitch or female of the canine species.
1. Applied to persons, a name expressing extreme contempt.
PUP'PY, verb transitive To bring forth whelps.
PUP'PYISM, noun Extreme meanness.
1. Extreme affectation.
PUR, verb intransitive To utter a low murmuring continued sound, as a cat.
PUR, verb transitive to signify by purring.
PUR, noun The low murmuring continued sound of a cat.
PURANA, noun Among the Hindoos, a sacred poem or book.
PURAN'IC, adjective Pertaining to the sacred poems of the Hindoos.
PUR'BLIND, adjective [said to be from pore and blind.]
Near sighted or dim sighted or; seeing obscurely; as a purblind eye; a purblind mole.
PUR'BLINDNESS, noun Shortness of sight; near sightedness; dimness of vision.
PUR'CHASABLE, adjective [from purchase.] That may be brought, purchased or obtained for a consideration.
PUR'CHASE, verb transitive [This word seems to be considered by Blackstone as formed from the Latin perquisitio. This is an error. The word is from the root of chase; purchaser is to pursue to the end or object, and hence to obtain. In Law Latin, purchase the noun, was written purchacium. The legal use of the word in obtaining writs, shows best its true origin; to purchase a writ, is to sue out a writ, that is, to seek it out; for sue, seek, and Latin sequor, are all of one origin, and synonymous with chase.]
1. In its primary and legal sense, to gain, obtain or acquire by any means, except by descent or hereditary right.
2. In common usage, to buy; to obtain property by paying an equivalent in money. It differs from barter only in the circumstance, that in purchasing, the price or equivalent given or secured is money; in bartering, the equivalent is given in goods. We purchase lands or goods for ready money or on credit.
3. To obtain by an expense of labor, danger or other sacrifice; as, to purchase favor with flattery.
A world who would not purchase with a bruise?
4. To expiate or recompense by a fine or forfeit; as, to purchase out abuses with tears and prayer.
5. To sue out or procure, as a writ.
PUR'CHASE, verb intransitive In seaman's language, to draw in ; as, the capstern purchases apace, that is, it draws in the cable apace, it gains it.
PUR'CHASE, noun
1. In law, the act of obtaining or acquiring the title to lands and tenements by money, deed, gift or any means, except by descent; the acquisition of lands and tenements by a man's own act or agreement.
2. In law, the suing out and obtaining a writ.
3. In common usage, the acquisition of the title or property of any thing by rendering an equivalent in money.
It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance.
4. That which is purchased; any thing of which the property is obtained by giving an equivalent price in money.
The scrip was complete evidence of his right in the purchase
5. That which is obtained by labor, danger, art, etc.
A beauty waning and distressed widow
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye--
6. Formerly, robbery, and the thing stolen.
7. Any mechanical power or force applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies.
PUR'CHASED, participle passive Obtained or acquired by one's own act or agreement.
1. Obtained by paying an equivalent in money.
2. Obtained by labor, danger, art, etc.
PUR'CHASER, noun In law, one who acquires or obtains by conquest or by deed or gift, or in any manner other than by descent or inheritance. In this sense, the word is by some authors written purchasor.
1. One who obtains or acquires the property of any thing by paying an equivalent in money.
PUR'CHASING, participle present tense Buying; obtaining by one's own act or for a price.
PURE, adjective [Latin purus.]
1. Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; clear; free from mixture; as pure water; pure clay; pure sand; pure air; pure silver of gold. pure wine is very scare.
2. Free from moral defilement; without spot; not sullied or tarnished; incorrupt; undebased by moral turpitude; holy.
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. Habakkuk 1:13. Proverbs 20:9.
3. Genuine; real; true; incorrupt; unadulterated; as pure religion. James 1:27.
4. Unmixed; separate from any other subject or from every thing foreign; as pure mathematics.
5. Free from guilt; guiltless; innocent.
No hand of strife is pure but that which wins.
6. Not vitiated with improper or corrupt words or phrases; as a pure style of discourse or composition.
7. Disinterested; as pure benevolence.
8. Chaste; as a pure virgin.
9. Free from vice or moral turpitude. Titus 1:15.
10. Ceremonially clean; unpolluted. Ezra 6:20.
11. Free from any thing improper; as, his motives are pure
12. Mere; absolute; that and that only; unconnected with any thing else; as a pure villain. He did that from pure compassion, or pure good nature.
PURE, verb transitive To purify; to cleanse. [Not in use.]
PU'RELY, adverb In a pure manner; with an entire separation of heterogeneous or foul matter. Isaiah 1:25.
1. Without any mixture of improper or vicious words or phrases.
2. Innocently; without guilt.
3. Merely; absolutely; without connection with any thing else; completely; totally. The meeting was purely accidental.
PU'RENESS, noun Clearness; an unmixed state; separation or freedom from any heterogeneous or foreign matter; as the pureness of water or other liquor; the pureness of a metal; the pureness of marl or clay; the pureness of air.
1. Freedom from moral turpitude or guilt.
May we evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living.
2. Simplicity; freedom from mixture or composition.
An essence eternal and spiritual, of absolute pureness and simplicity.
3. Freedom from vicious or improper words, phrases or modes of speech; as pureness of style.
Pure villenage, in the feudal law, is a tenure of lands by uncertain services at the will of the lord; opposed to privileged villenage.
PUR'FILE, noun A sort of ancient trimming for women's gowns, made of tinsel and thread, called also bobbin work.
[The thing and the name are obsolete.]
PUR'FLE, verb transitive To decorate with a wrought or flowered border; to embroider; as, to purfle with blue and white, or with gold and pearl.
PUR'FLE
PUR'FLEW, noun A border of embroidered work.
1. In heraldry, ermins, peans or furs which compose a bordure.
PURG'AMENT, noun [Latin purgamen.] A cathartic.
PURGA'TION, noun [Latin purgatio. See Purge.]
1. The act or operation of cleansing or purifying by separating and carrying off impurities or whatever is superfluous; applied to the body; as, the bowels are cleansed by purgation So also in pharmacy and in chimistry, medicines, metals and minerals are purified by purgation
2. In law, the act of cleansing from a crime, accusation or suspicion of guilt. This was canonical or vulgar. Canonical purgation prescribed by the canon law, was performed before the bishop or his deputy, and by a jury of twelve clerks. The party accused first made oath to his own innocence, and then the twelve clerks or compurgators swore that they believed he spoke the truth; after which, other witnesses were examined upon oath, on behalf of the prisoner only. Vulgar purgation was performed by the ordeal of fire or water, or by combat. [See Ordeal.]
PURG'ATIVE, adjective Having the power of cleansing; usually, having the power of evacuating the bowels; cathartic.
PURG'ATIVE, noun A medicine that evacuates the bowels; a cathartic.
PURGATO'RIAL
PURGATO'RIAN, adjective Pertaining to purgatory.
PURGATO'RIAN, a. Pertaining to purgatory.
PURG'ATORY, adjective [Latin purgatorius, from purgo, to purge.]
Tending to cleanse; cleansing; expiatory.
PURG'ATORY, noun Among catholics, a supposed place or state after death, in which the souls of persons are purified, or in which they expiate such offenses committed in this life, as do not merit eternal damnation. After this purgation from the impurities of sin, the souls are supposed to be received into heaven.
PURGE, verb transitive purj. [Latin purgo.]
1. To cleanse or purify by separating and carrying off whatever is impure, heterogeneous, foreign or superfluous; as, to purge the body by evacuation; to purge the Augean stable. It is followed by away, of, or off. We say, to purge away or to purge off filth, and to purge a liquor of its scum.
2. To clear from guilt or moral defilement; as, to purge one of guilt or crime; to purge away sin.
PURGE away our sins, for thy name's sake. Psalms 79:9.
PURGE me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Psalms 51:7.
3. To clear from accusation or the charge of a crime, as in ordeal.
4. To remove what is offensive; to sweep away impurities. Ezekiel 20:38.
5. To clarify; to defecate; as liquors.
PURGE, verb intransitive To become pure by clarification.
1. To have frequent or preternatural evacuations by stool.
PURGE, noun A medicine that evacuates the body by stool; a cathartic.
PURG'ED, participle passive Purified; cleansed; evacuated.
PURG'ER, noun A person or thing that purges or cleanses.
1. A cathartic.
PURG'ING, participle present tense Cleansing; purifying; carrying off impurities or superfluous matter.
PURG'ING, noun A diarrhea or dysentery; preternatural evacuation by stool; looseness of bowels.
PURIFICA'TION, noun [Latin purificatio. See Purify.]
1. The act of purifying; the act or operation of separating and removing from any thing that which is heterogeneous or foreign to it; as the purification of liquors or of metals.
2. In religion, the act or operation of cleansing ceremonially, by removing any pollution or defilement. purification by washing or by other means, was common to the Hebrews and to pagans. The Mohammedans use purification as a preparation for devotion. 2 Chronicles 30:19. Esther 2:3. Luke 2:22.
3. A cleansing from guilt or the pollution of sin; the extinction of sinful desires, appetites and inclinations.
PURIF'ICATIVE
PURIF'ICATORY, adjective Having power to purify; tending to cleanse.
PURIF'ICATORY, a. Having power to purify; tending to cleanse.
PU'RIFIER, noun [from purify.] That which purifies or cleanses; a cleanser; a refiner. Fire was held by the ancients to be an excellent purifier
PU'RIFORM, adjective [Latin pus, puris and form.]
Like pus; in the form of pus.
PU'RIFY, verb transitive [Latin purifico; purus, pure, and facio, to make.]
1. To make pure or clear; to free from extraneous admixture; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
2. To free from pollution ceremonially; to remove whatever renders unclean and unfit for sacred services.
Purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day purify all your raiment. Numbers 31:19.
3. To free from guilt or the defilement of sin; as, to purify the heart.
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14.
4. To clear form improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language.
PU'RIFY, verb intransitive To grow or become pure or clear. Liquors will gradually purify
PU'RIFYING, participle passive Removing foreign or heterogeneous matter; cleansing from pollution; fining; making clear.
PU'RIFYING, noun The act or operation of making pure or of cleansing from extraneous matter or from pollution.
PU'RIM, noun Among the Jews, the feast of lots, instituted to commemorate their deliverance from the machinations of Haman. Esther 9:26.
PU'RIST, noun One excessively nice in the use of words.
PU'RITAN, noun [from pure.] A dissenter from the church of England. The puritans were so called in derision, on account of their professing to follow the pure word of God, in opposition to all traditions and human constitutions.
Hume gives this name to three parties; the political puritans, who maintained the highest principles of civil liberty; the puritans in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and government of the episcopal church; and the doctrinal puritans, who rigidly defended the speculative system of the first reformers.
PU'RITAN, adjective Pertaining to the puritans, or dissenters from the church of England.
PURITAN'IC
PURITAN'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to the puritans or their doctrines and practice; exact; rigid; as puritanical notions or opinions; puritanical manners.
PURITAN'ICAL, a. Pertaining to the puritans or their doctrines and practice; exact; rigid; as puritanical notions or opinions; puritanical manners.
PU'RITANISM, noun The notions or practice of puritans.
PU'RITANIZE, verb intransitive To deliver the notions of puritans.
PU'RITY, noun [Latin puritas, form purus.]
1. Freedom from foreign admixture or heterogeneous matter; as the purity of water, of wine, of spirit; the purity of drugs; the purity of metals.
2. Cleanness; freedom from foulness or dirt; as the purity of a garment.
The purity of a linen vesture.
3. Freedom from guilt or the defilement of sin; innocence; as purity of heart or life.
4. Chastity; freedom from contamination by illicit sexual connection.
5. Freedom from any sinister or improper views; as the purity of motives or designs.
6. Freedom from foreign idioms, from barbarous or improper words or phrases; as purity of style or language.
PURL, noun [supposed to be contracted from purfle.]
1. An embroidered and puckered border.
2. A kind of edging for bone-lace.
PURL, noun A species of malt liquor; ale or beer medicated with wormwood or aromatic herbs.
PURL, noun Two rounds in knitting.
PURL, verb intransitive
1. To murmur, as a small stream flowing among stones or other obstructions, which occasion a continued series of broken sounds. It is applied only to small streams. Large streams running in like manner, are said to roar. In descriptions of rural scenery, the poets seldom omit a purling brook or stream.
My flowery theme,
A painted mistress or a purling stream.
2. To flow or run with a murmuring sound.
Around th' adjoining brook that purls along
The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock.
PURL, verb transitive To decorate with fringe or embroidery.
PURL, noun A gentle continued murmur of a small stream of rippling water.
PURLIEU, noun pur'lu. A border; a limit; a certain limited extent or district; originally, the ground near a royal forest, which being severed from it, was made purlieu that is, pure or free from the forest laws.
PUR'LIN, noun In architecture, a piece of timber extending from end to end of a building or roof, across and under the rafters, to support them in the middle.
PURL'ING, participle present tense [from purl.] Murmuring or gurgling, as a brook.
PURL'ING, noun The continued gentle murmur of a small stream.
PURLOIN', verb transitive
1. Literally, to take or carry away for one's self; hence, to steal; to take by theft.
Your butler purloins your liquor.
2. To take by plagiarism; to steal from books or manuscripts.
PURLOIN'ED, participle passive Stolen; taken by plagiarism.
PURLOIN'ER, noun A thief; a plagiary.
PURLOIN'ING, participle present tense Stealing; committing literary theft.
PURLOIN'ING, noun Theft; plagiarism.
PUR'PARTY, noun In law, a share, part or portion of an estate, which is allotted to a co-parcener by partition.
PUR'PLE, adjective [Latin purpureus; purpura, a shell from which the color was obtained.]
1. Designating a color composed of red and blue blended, much admired, and formerly the roman emperors wore robes of this color.
2. In poetry, red or livid; dyed with blood.
I view a field of blood,
And Tyber rolling with a purple flood.
PUR'PLE, noun A purple color or dress; hence, imperial government in the Roman empire, as a purple robe was the distinguishing dress of the emperors.
1. A cardinalate.
PUR'PLE, verb transitive [Latin purpuro.] To make purple or to dye of a red color; as hands purpled with blood.
When morn
Purples the east.
Reclining soft in blissful bowers,
Purpled sweet with springing flowers.
PUR'PLES, noun plural Spots of a livid red on the body; livid eruptions which appear in certain malignant diseases; a purple fever.
PUR'PLISH, adjective Somewhat purple.
PUR'PORT, noun
1. Design or tendency; as the purport of Plato's dialogue.
2. Meaning; import; as the purport of a word or phrase.
PUR'PORT, verb transitive To intend; to intend to show.
1. To mean; to signify.
PUR'PORTED, participle passive Designed; intended; meant.
PUR'PORTING, participle present tense Designing; intending; importing.
PUR'POSE, noun [Latin propositum, propono; pro, before, and pono, to set or place.]
1. That which a person sets before himself as an object to be reached or accomplished; the end or aim to which the view is directed in any plan, measure or exertion. We believe the Supreme Being created intelligent beings for some benevolent and glorious purpose and if so, how glorious and benevolent must be his purpose in the plan of redemption! The ambition of men is generally directed to one of two purposes, or to both; the acquisition of wealth or of power. We build houses for the purpose of shelter; we labor for the purpose of subsistence.
2. Intention; design. This sense, however, is hardly to be distinguished from the former; as purpose always includes the end in view.
Every purpose is established by counsel. Proverbs 20:18.
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1:11.
3. End; effect; consequence, good or bad. What good purpose will this answer? We sometimes labor to no purpose Men often employ their time, talents and money for very evil purposes.
To what purpose is this waste? Matthew 26:8.
4. Instance; example. [Not in use.]
5. Conversation. [Not in use.]
Of purpose on purpose with previous design; with the mind directed to that object. On purpose is more generally used, but the true phrase is of purpose
PUR'POSE, verb intransitive To intend; to design; to resolve; to determine on some end or object to be accomplished.
I have purposed it, I will also do it. Isaiah 46:11. Ephesians 3:11.
Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem. Acts 19:21.
PUR'POSED, participle passive Intended; designed; applied to things.
1. Resolved; having formed a design or resolution; applied to persons.
I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Psalms 17:3.
PUR'POSELESS, adjective Having no effect. [Little used.]
PUR'POSELY, adverb By design; intentionally; with predetermination.
In composing this discourse, I purposely declined all offensive and displeasing truths.
So much they scorn the crown, I purposely declined all offensive and displeasing truths.
So much they scorn the crown, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong.
PUR'PRESTURE, noun In law, a nuisance, consisting in an inclosure of or encroachment on something that belongs to the public; as a house erected or inclosure made on the king's demesnes, or of a highway, etc.
PUR'PRISE, noun A close or inclosure; also, the whole compass of a manor.
PUR'PURATE, noun A compound of purpuric acid and a salifiable base.
PUR'PURE, noun In heraldry, purple, represented in engraving by diagonal lines.
PUR'PURIC, adjective purpuric acid is produced by the action of nitric acid upon the lithic or uric acid.
PURR, verb intransitive To murmur as a cat. [See Pur.]
PURR, noun A sea lark.
PURRE, noun Cyderkin or perkin; the liquor made by steeping the gross matter of pressed apples.
PUR'RING, participle present tense Murmuring as a cat.
PUR'ROCK, noun [for paddock or parrock, park.] A small enclosure.
PURSE, noun purs. [Latin byrsa, an ox hide; Gr. id.]
1. A small bag in which money is contained or carried in the pocket. It was formerly made of leather, and is still made of this material by common people. It is usually of silk net-work.
2. A sum of money offered as the prize of winning in a horse race.
3. In turkey, a sum of money, about f50 sterling, or $222.
4. The public coffers; the treasury; as, to exhaust a nation's purse or the public purse
Long purse or heavy purse wealth; riches.
Light purse or empty purse poverty, or want of resources.
Sword and purse the military power and wealth of a nation.
PURSE, verb transitive To put in a purse
1. To contract into folds or wrinkles.
Thou didst contract and purse thy blow.
PURS'ED, participle passive Put in a purse.
1. Contracted into folds or wrinkles.
PURSENET, noun purs'net. A net, the mouth of which may be closed or drawn together like a purse.
PURS'ER, noun In the navy, an officer who has charge of the provisions of a ship of war, and attends to their preservation and distribution among the officers and crew.
PURSINESS, a mistake for pussiness. [See Pussy.]
PURS'LAIN, noun [The Latin is portulaca. See Leek.]
A plant of the genus Portulaca. The sea purslain is of the genus Atriplex. The tree sea purslain is the Atriplex halimus. (See purslain tree.) The water purslain is of the genus Peplis.
PURSU'ABLE, adjective [from pursue.]
That may be pursued, followed of prosecuted.
PURSU'ANCE, adjective [from pursue.] A following; prosecution, process or continued exertion to reach or accomplish something; as in pursuance of the main design.
1. Consequence; as in pursuance of an order from the commander in chief.
PURSU'ANT, adjective [from pursue] Done in consequence or prosecution of any thing; hence, agreeable; conformable. pursuant to a former resolution the house proceeded to appoint the standing committees. This measure was adopted pursuant to a former order.
PURSUE, verb transitive [Latin sequor; prosequor, or persequor. See Seek.]
1. To follow; to go or proceed after or in a like direction. The captain pursued the same course as former navigators have taken. A subsequent legislature pursued the course of their predecessors.
2. To take and proceed in, without following another. Captain Cook pursued a new and unexplored course. New circumstances often compel us to pursue new expedients and untried course. What course shall we pursue?
3. To follow with a view to overtake; to follow with haste; to chase; as, to pursue a hare; to pursue an enemy.
4. To seek; to use measures to obtain; as, to pursue a remedy at law.
5. To prosecute; to continue. A stream proceeds from a lake and pursues a southerly course to the ocean.
He that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death. Proverbs 11:1.
6. To follow as an example; to imitate.
The fame of ancient matrons you pursue
7. To endeavor to attain to; to strive to reach or gain.
We happiness pursue; we fly from pain.
8. To follow with enmity; to persecute.
This verb is frequently followed by after. Genesis 35:5.
PURSUE, verb intransitive To go on; to proceed; to continue; a Gallicism.
I have, pursues Carneades, wondered chimists should not consider--
PURSU'ED, participle passive Followed; chased; prosecuted; continued.
PURSU'ER, noun One that follows; one that chases; one that follows in haste with a view to overtake.
PURSU'ING, participle present tense Following; chasing; hastening after to overtake; prosecuting; proceeding in; continuing.
PURSUIT, noun The act of following with a view to overtake; a following with haste, either for sport or in hostility; as the pursuit of game; the pursuit of an enemy.
1. A following with a view to reach, accomplish or obtain; endeavor to attain to or gain; as the pursuit of knowledge; the pursuit of happiness or pleasure; the pursuit of power, of honor, of distinction, of a phantom.
2. Proceeding; course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to some end; as mercantile pursuits; literary pursuits.
3. Prosecution; continuance of endeavor.
PUR'SUIVANT, noun A state messenger; an attendant on the heralds.
PURS'Y, a corrupt orthography. [See Pussy.]
PUR'TENANCE, noun [from the Latin pertinens, pertineo. See Appurtenance. (that which belongs to something else; an adjunct; an appendage)]
Appurtenance; but applied to the pluck of an animal, Exodus 12:9.
PU'RULENCE
PU'RULENCY, noun [Latin purulentus, from pus, puris, matter.]
The generation of pus or matter; pus.
PU'RULENCY, n. [L.purulentus, from pus, puris, matter.]
The generation of pus or matter; pus.
PU'RULENT, adjective Consisting of pus or matter; partaking of the nature of pus.
PURVEY, verb transitive [Latin provideo.]
1. To provide; to provide with conveniences.
2. To procure.
PURVEY, verb intransitive To purchase provisions; to provide.
PURVEYANCE, noun Procurement of provisions or victuals.
1. Provision; victuals provided.
2. In English laws, the royal prerogative or right of pre-emption, by which the king was authorized to buy provision and necessaries for the use of his household at an apprized value, in preference to all his subjects, and even without the consent of the owner; also, the right of impressing horses and carriages, etc.; a right abolished by Stat.12. Charles II.24.
PURVEYOR, noun One who provides victuals, or whose business is to make provision for the table; a victualer.
1. An officer who formerly provided or exacted provision for the king's household.
2. One who provides the means of gratifying lust; a procurer; a pimp; a bawd.
PUR'VIEW, noun
1. Primarily, a condition or proviso; but in this sense not used.
2. The body of a statute, or that part which begins with 'Be it enacted, ' as distinguished form the preamble.
3. In modern usage, the limit or scope of a statute; the whole extend of its intention or provisions.
4. Superintendence.
The federal power--is confined to objects of a general nature, more within the purview of the United States, than of any particular one. [Unusual.]
5. Limit or sphere intended; scope; extent.
In determining the extent of information required in the exercise of a particular authority, recourse must be had to the objects within the purview of that authority.
PUS, noun [Latin] The white or yellowish matter generated in ulcers and wounds in the process of healing.
PUSH, verb transitive
1. To press against with force; to drive or impel by pressure; or to endeavor to drive by steady pressure, without striking; opposed to draw. We push a thing forward by force applied behind it; we draw by applying force before it. We may push without moving the object.
2. To butt; to strike with the end of the horns; to thrust the points of horns against.
If the ox shall push a man-servant or maid-servant--he shall be stones. Exodus 21:29.
3. To press or urge forward; as, to push an objection too far.
He forewarns his care
With rules to push his fortune or to bear.
4. To urge; to drive.
Ambition pushes the soul to such actions as are apt to procure honor to the actor.
5. To enforce; to press; to drive to a conclusion.
We are pushed for an answer.
6. To importune; to press with solicitation; to tease.
To push down, to overthrow by pushing or impulse.
PUSH, verb intransitive To make a thrust; as, to push with the horns or with a sword.
1. To make an effort.
At length
Both sides resolv'd to push we tried our strength.
2. To make an attack.
The king of the south shall push at him. Daniel 11:40.
3. To burst out.
To push on, to drive or urge forward; to hasten. push on, brave men.
PUSH, noun A thrust with a pointed instrument, or with the end of a thing.
1. Any pressure, impulse or force applied; as, to give the ball the first push
2. An assault or attack.
3. A forcible onset; a vigorous effort.
4. Exigence; trial; extremity.
When it comes to the push it is no more than talk.
5. A sudden emergence.
6. A little swelling or pustule; a wheal; a pimple; an eruption.
PUSHED, participle passive Pressed; urged; driven.
PUSHER, noun One that drives forward.
PUSHING, participle present tense Pressing; driving; urging forward.
1. adjective Pressing forward in business; enterprising; driving; vigorous.
PUSHPIN, noun A child's play in which pins are pushed alternately.
PUSILLANIM'ITY, noun [Latin pusillanimitas; pusillus, small, weak, and animus, courage.] Want of that firmness and strength of mind which constitutes courage or fortitude; weakness of spirit; cowardliness; that feebleness of mind which shrinks from trifling or imaginary dangers.
It is obvious to distinguish between an act of pusillanimity and an act of great modesty or humility.
PUSILLAN'IMOUS, adjective
1. Destitute of that strength and firmness of mind which constitute courage, bravery and fortitude; being of weak courage; mean spirited; cowardly; applied to persons; as a pusillanimous prince.
2. Proceeding from weakness of mind or want of courage; feeble; as pusillanimous counsels.
PUSILLAN'IMOUSLY, adverb With want of courage.
PUSILLAN'IMOUSNESS, noun Pusillanimity; want of courage.
PUSS, noun
1. The fondling name of a cat.
2. The sportsman's name for a hare.
PUS'SINESS, noun [from pussy.] A state of being swelled or bloated; inflation; hence, shortness of breath.
PUS'SY, adjective Properly, inflated, swelled; hence, fat, short and thick; and as persons of this make labor in respiration, the word is used for short breathed.
PUS'TULATE, verb transitive [Latin pustulatus. See Pustule.]
To form into pustules or blisters.
PUSTULE, noun pus'l or pus'tul; the former is the usual pronunciation in America. [Latin pustula; from the root of push.]
A pimple or wheal; a small push or eruption on the skin.
PUS'TULOUS, adjective [Latin pustulosus.] Full of pustules or pimples.
PUT, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive put [Gr.a germ, shoot or twig. We find the same word in the Latin puto, to prune, that is, to thrust off, also to think or consider, that is, to set in the mind, as we use suppose, Latin supono. But we see the English sense more distinctly in the compounds, imputo, to impute, that is, to put to or on; computo, to compute, to put together. The Latin posui, from pono, is probably a dialectical orthography of the same root.
1. To set, lay or place; in a general sense. Thus we say, to put the hand to the face; to put a book on the shelf; to put a horse in the stable; to put fire to the fuel; to put clothes on the body. God planted a garden and there he put Adam.
2. put is applicable to state or condition, as well as to place. put him in a condition to help himself. put the fortress in a state of defense. The apostles were put in trust with the gospel. We are often put in jeopardy by our own ignorance or rashness. We do not always put the best men in office.
3. To repose.
How wilt thou--put thy trust on Egypt for chariots?
2 Kings 18:11.
4. To push into action.
Thank him who puts me, loth, to this revenge.
5. To apply; to set to employment.
No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62.
6. To throw or introduce suddenly. He had no time to put in a word.
7. To consign to letters.
He made a proclamation--and put it also in writing.
2 Chronicles 36:3.
8. To oblige; to require.
We are put to prove things which can hardly be made plainer.
9. To incite; to instigate; to urge by influence. The appearance of a formidable enemy put the king on making vigorous preparations for defense.
This put me upon observing the thickness of the glass.
These wretches put us upon all mischief, to feed their lusts and extravagances.
10. To propose; as, to put a question to the witness; to put a case in point.
11. To reach to another. Habakkuk 2:1.
12. To bring into a state of mind or temper.
Solyman, to put the Rhodians out of all suspicion of invasion--
13. To offer; to advance.
I am ashamed to put a loose indigested play upon the public--
14. To cause.
The natural constitutions of men put a wide difference between them.
To put about, to turn, to change the course; to gibe ship.
To put by, to turn away; to divert.
The design of the evil one is to put thee by from thy spiritual employment.
A fright hath put by an ague fit.
1. To thrust aside.
Jonathan had died for being so,
Had not just God put by th' unnatural blow.
To put down, to baffle; to repress; to crush; as, to put down a party.
1. To degrade; to deprive of authority, power or place.
2. To bring into disuse.
Sugar hath put down the use of honey.
3. To confute; to silence.
Mark now how a plain tale shall put you down.
To put forth, to propose; to offer to notice.
Sampson said, I will now put forth a riddle to you. Judges 14:12.
1. To extend; to reach; as, to put forth the hand.
2. To shoot out; to send out, as a sprout; as, to put forth leaves.
3. To exert; to bring into action; as, to put forth strength.
4. To publish, as a book.
To put in, to introduce among others; as, to put in a word while others are discoursing.
1. To insert; as, to put in a passage or clause; to put in a cion.
2. To conduct into a harbor.
To put in fear, to affright; to make fearful.
To put in mind, to remind; to call to remembrance.
To put in practice, to use; to exercise; as, to put in practice the maxims of the wise man.
To put into another's hands, to trust; to commit to the care of.
To put off, to divest; to lay aside; as, to put off a robe; to put off mortality or the mortal body; to put off haughty airs.
1. To turn aside from a purpose or demand; to defeat or delay by artifice.
I hoped for a demonstration, but Themistices hopes to put me off with a harangue.
This is n unreasonable demand, and we might put him off with this answer.
2. To delay; to defer; to postpone. How generally do men put off the care of their salvation to future opportunities!
3. To pass fallaciously; to cause to be circulated or received; as, to put off upon the world some plausible reports or ingenious theory.
4. To discard.
The clothiers all put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers--
5. To recommend; to vend; to obtrude.
6. To vend; to sell.
7. To pass into other hands; as, to put off a counterfeit coin or note.
8. To push from land; as, to put off the boat.
To put on or upon, to impute; to charge; as, to put one's own crime or blame on another.
1. To invest with, as clothes or covering; as, to put on a cloke.
2. To assume; as, to put on a grave countenance; to put on a counterfeit appearance.
Mercury--put on the shape of a man.
3. To forward; to promote.
This came handsomely to put on the peace.
4. To impose; to inflict.
That which thou puttest on me, I will bear. 2 Kings 18:11.
To be put upon, to be imposed on; to be deceived; used chiefly in the passive form.put over, to refer; to send.
For the certain knowledge of that truth,
I put you o'er to heaven and to my mother.
1. To defer; to postpone. The court put over the cause to the next term.
To put out, to place at interest; to lend at use. Money put out at compound interest, nearly doubles in eleven years.
1. To extinguish; as, to put out a candle, lamp or fire; to put out the remains of affection.
2. To send; to emit; to shoot; as a bud or sprout; as, to put out leaves.
3. To extend; to reach out; to protrude; as, to put out the hand.
4. To drive out; to expel; to dismiss.
When I am put out of the stewardship. Luke 16:4.
5. To publish; to make public; as, to put out a pamphlet. [Not vulgar.]
6. To confuse; to disconcert; to interrupt; as, to put one out in reading or speaking.
To put out the eyes, to destroy the power of sight; to render blind.
To put to, to add; to unite; as, to put one sum to another.
1. To refer to; to expose; as, to put the fate of the army or nation to a battle; to put the safety of the state to hazard.
2. To punish by; to distress by; as, to put a man to the rack or torture.
To put to it, to distress; to press hard; to perplex; to give difficulty to.
O gentle lady, do not put me to 't.
To be put to it, in the passive form, to have difficulty.
I shall be hard put to it to bring myself off.
To put the hand to, to apply; to take hold; to begin; to undertake; as, to put the hand to the plow. See Deuteronomy 12:7.
1. To take by theft or wrong; to embezzle.
Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hand to his neighbor's goods. Exodus 22:5.
To put to the sword, to kill; to slay.
To put to death, to kill.
To put to a stand, to stop; to arrest by obstacles or difficulties.
To put to trial, or on trial, to bring before a court and jury for examination and decision.
1. To bring to a test; to try.
To put together, to unite in a sum, mass or compound; to add; as, to put two sums together; put together the ingredients.
1. To unite; to connect. put the two chains together.
2. To place in company or in one society.
To put trust in, to confide in; to repose confidence in.
To put up, to pass unavenged; to overlook; not to punish or resent; as, to put up injuries; to put up indignities.
Such national injuries are not to be put up, but when the offender is below resentment.
[I have never heard this phrase used in America. We always say, to put up with; we cannot put up with such injuries.]
1. To send forth or shoot up, as plants; as, to put up mushrooms.
2. To expose; to offer publicly; as, to put up goods to sale or auction.
3. To start from a cover.
4. To hoard.
Himself never put up any of the rent.
5. To reposit for preservation; as, to put up apples for winter.
6. To pack; to reposit in casks with salt for preservation; as, to put up pork, beef or fish.
7. To hide or lay aside. put up that letter.
8. To put in a trunk or box; to pack; as, to put up clothing for a journey.
PUT, verb intransitive To go or move; as, when the air first puts up.
1. To steer.
His fury thus appeas'd, he puts to land.
2. To shoot; to germinate.
The sap puts downward.
To put forth, to shoot; to bud; to germinate.
Take earth from under walls where nettles put forth.
1. To leave a port or haven.
To put in, to enter a harbor; to sail into port.
1. To offer a claim. A puts in for a share of profits.
To put in for, to offer one's self; to stand as a candidate for.
To put off, to leave land.
To put on, to urge motion; to drive vehemently.
To put over, to sail over or across.
To put to sea, to set sail; to begin a voyage; to advance into the ocean.
To put up, to take lodgings; to lodge. We put up at the Golden Ball.
1. To offer one's self as a candidate.
To put up to, to advance to. [Little used.]
To put up with, to overlook or suffer without recompense, punishment or resentment; as, to put up with an injury or affront.
1. To take without opposition or dissatisfaction; as, to put up with bad fare.
This verb, in all its uses, retains its primary sense, to set, throw, thrust, send, etc.; but its signification is modified in a great variety of ways, by other words standing in connection with it.
PUT, noun An action of distress; as a forced put
1. A game at cards.
PUT, noun A rustic; a clown.
PUT, noun A strumpet; a prostitute.
PUT case, for put the case, suppose the case to be so; a vulgar or at least inelegant phrase.
PU'TAGE, noun [See Put, a prostitute.] In law, prostitution or fornication on the part of a female.
PU'TANISM, noun Customary lewdness or prostitution of a female.
PU'TATIVE, adjective [Latin puto, to suppose.] Supposed; reputed; commonly thought or deemed; as the putative father of a child.
PU'TID, adjective [Latin putidus, from puteo, to have an ill smell.]
Mean; base; worthless.
PU'TIDNESS, noun Meanness; vileness.
PUT'LOG, noun A short piece of timber used in scaffolds.
PUTRED'INOUS, adjective [from Latin putredo, from putreo, putris.]
Proceeding from putrefaction, or partaking of the putrefactive process; having an offensive smell.
PUTREFAC'TION, noun [Latin putrefactio; putris; putrid, and facio, to make.] A natural process by which animal and vegetable bodies are disorganized and dissolved, or reduced to their original separate elements. putrefaction is greatly accelerated by heat and moisture.
PUTREFAC'TIVE, adjective Pertaining to putrefaction; as the putrefactive smell or process.
1. Tending to promote putrefaction; causing putrefaction.
PU'TREFIED, participle passive Dissolved; rotten.
PU'TREFY, verb transitive [Latin putrefacio; putris, putrid, and facio, to make.]
1. To cause to dissolve; to disorganize and reduce to the simple constituent elements, as animal or vegetable bodies; to cause to rot. Heat and moisture soon putrefy dead flesh or vegetables.
2. To corrupt; to make foul; as, to putrefy the air. [Little used.]
3. To make morbid, carious or gangrenous; as, to putrefy an ulcer or wound.
PU'TREFY, verb intransitive To dissolve and return to the original distinct elements, as animal and vegetable substances deprived of the living principle; to rot.
PUTRES'CENCE, noun [from Latin putrescens, putresco.]
The state of dissolving, as an animal or vegetable substance; a putrid state.
PUTRES'CENT, adjective Becoming putrid; passing from an organized state into the constituent elements.
1. Pertaining to the process of putrefaction; as a putrescent smell.
PUTRES'CIBLE, adjective That may be putrefied; liable to become putrid; as putrescible substances.
PU'TRID, adjective [Latin putridus, from putris, putreo.]
1. In a state of dissolution or disorganization, as animal and vegetable bodies; corrupt; rotten; as putrid flesh. Indicating a state of dissolution; tending to disorganize the substances composing the body; malignant; as a putrid fever.
2. Proceeding from putrefaction or pertaining to it; as a putrid scent.
PUTRID'ITY, noun The state of being putrid; corruption.
PU'TRIDNESS
PU'TRY, adjective Rotten. [Not used.]
PU'TRY, a. Rotten. [Not used.]
PUT'TER, noun [from put.] One who puts or places.
PUT'TING, participle present tense [from put.] Setting; placing; laying.
PUT'TOC, noun A kite.shrouds, probably a mistake for futtoc-shrouds.
PUT'TY, noun A kind of paste or cement compounded of whiting and linseed oil, beaten or kneaded to the consistence of dough; used in fastening glass in sashes and in stopping crevices.
1. A powder of calcined tin, used in polishing glass and steel.
PUZ'ZLE, verb transitive [from the root of pose, which see.]
1. To perplex; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to gravel.
A shrewd disputant in those points, is dexterous in puzzling others.
He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders.
2. To make intricate; to entangle.
The ways of heaven are dark and intricate,
Puzzl'd in mazes and perplex'd with error.
PUZ'ZLE, verb intransitive To be bewildered; to be awkward.
PUZ'ZLE, noun Perplexity; embarrassment.
PUZ'ZLED, participle passive Perplexed; intricate; put to a stand.
PUZ'ZLER, noun One that perplexes.
PUZ'ZLING, participle present tense Perplexing; embarrassing; bewildering.
PUZ'ZOLAN
PUZZOLA'NA, noun A loose porous volcanic substance or stone.
PUZZOLA'NA, n. A loose porous volcanic substance or stone.