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Having a similar sound, but different orthography and different meaning; -- said of certain words, as al and awl; hair and hare, etc.

To pierce into by the mind; to arrive at the inner contents or meaning of, as of a mysterious or difficult subject; to comprehend; to understand. Things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate. Ray.

plied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.

And pierced to the skin, but bit no more. Spenser. She would not pierce further into his meaning. Sir P. Sidney.

A Shakespearean word of disputed meaning; perh., "abounding in marsh marigolds." Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims. Shak.

To talk unmeaningly; to chatter or prattle. [R.] Latimer.

Bacon. -- A play upon words, the use of a word in such a way as to be capable of double meaning; punning. -- Play of colors, prismatic variation of colors. -- To bring into play, To come into play, to bring or come into use or exercise. -- To hold in play, to keep occupied or employed. I, with two more to help me,…

vernment to regulate its police affairs. The term police power is not definitely fixed in meaning. In the earlier cases in the United States it was used as including the whole power of internal government, or the powers of government inherent in every sovereignty to the extent of its dominions (11 Peters (U. S.) 102).…

Cunning; using artifice; politic; artful. "Ill-meaning politician lords." Milton.

Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaning loquacity. Sick of tops, and poetry, and prate. Pope.

Stout; strong and brave; intrepid; valiant. [Scot.] [He] observed they were pretty men, meaning not handsome. Sir W. Scott.

.), descriptive instrumental music which requires an argument or programme to explain the meaning of its several movements.

death in us live. Milton. Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust Gray. To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul. J. Burroughs.

A play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation. Addison. A better put on this word was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and Rich gay. Walpole.…

ntences, clauses, etc., by points or stops which mark the proper pauses in expressing the meaning.

sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.

Design or tendency; meaning; import; tenor. The whole scope and purport of that dialogue. Norris. With a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell. Shak.

Without purport or meaning.

A combining form meaning four, four times, fourfold; as, quadricapsular, having four capsules.

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