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A corruption of pair royal. See under Pair, n.

A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I. Shak. What was that scream for, I prithee L'Estrange. Prithee, tell me, Dimple-chin. E. C. Stedman.

ho procures, or obtains; one who, or that which, brings on, or causes to be done, esp. by corrupt means.

ing; strongly impressed; as, a profound sleep. "Profound sciatica." Shak. Of the profound corruption of this class there can be no doubt. Milman.

Capable of being bought, purchased, or obtained for a consideration; hence, venal; corrupt. Money being the counterbalance to all things purchasable by it, as much as you take off from the value of money, so much you add to the price of things exchanged. Locke.

To corrupt; to make foul. Private suits do putrefy the public good. Bacon. They would but stink, and putrefy the air. Shak.

A word occurring in a corrupt passage of Bacon's Essays, and probably meaning, to stir, to move.

That which is reciprocal to another thing. Corruption is a reciprocal to generation. Bacon.

the more diffusive are they. Norris. From the civil war to this time, I doubt whether the corruptions in our language have not equaled its refinements. Swift.

nge from worse to better; to amend; to correct; as, to reform a profligate man; to reform corrupt manners or morals. The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it. Swift.

from worse to better; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything vicious or corrupt; as, the reformation of manners; reformation of the age; reformation of abuses. Satire lashes vice into reformation. Dryden.

business of a divine to state cases of conscience, and to remonstrate against any growing corruptions in practice, and especially in principles. Waterland.

; as to. Macaulay. -- To respect the person or persons, to favor a person, or persons on corrupt grounds; to show partiality. "Ye shall not respect persons in judgment." Deut. i. 17.

vent chafing, or to secure a better fit. As sound as a roach Etym: [roach perhaps being a corruption of a F. roche a rock], perfectly sound.

The language of the Grisons in Switzerland, a corruption of the Latin. [Written also Romansch, and Rumonsch.]

Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt. Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons. Macaulay. Rot, poor bachelor, in your club. Thackeray.

Fig.: That which preserves from corruption or error; that which purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction; as, his statements must be taken with a grain of salt. Ye are the salt of the earth. Matt. v. 13.

To make free from sin; to cleanse from moral corruption and pollution; to purify. Sanctify them through thy truth. John xvii. 17.

A corrupt spelling and pronunciation of solder. Soft sawder, seductive praise; flattery; blarney. [Slang]

any crab which feeds on dead animals, as the spider crab. -- Scavenger's daughter Etym: [corrupt. of Skevington's daughter], an instrument of torture invented by Sir W. Skevington, which so compressed the body as to force the blood to flow from nostrils. and sometimes from the hands and feet. Am. Cyc.…