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To pick up food with the beak; hence, to eat. [The hen] went pecking by his side. Dryden. To peck at, to attack with petty and repeated blows; to carp at; to nag; to tease.

A troy weight containing twenty-four grains, or the twentieth part of an ounce; as, a pennyweight of gold or of arsenic. It was anciently the weight of a silver penny, whence the name.

e in adversity. People were tempted to lend by great premiums. Swift . People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water. Arbuthnot .

ep. There were several different arrangements, the phalanx varying in depth from four to twenty-five or more ranks of men. "In cubic phalanx firm advanced." Milton. The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower. Pope.

To take spoil; to plunder; to ravage. They were suffered to pillage wherever they went. Macaulay.

An old Spanish silver coin of the value of about twenty cents.

In a flutter; with palpitation or quick succession of beats. Lowell. "The fox's heart went pitapat." L'Estrange.

With, or with the sound of, alternating light beats; as, his heart went pitter-patter.

m the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before. Pope.

n class of monoclinous or hermaphrodite plants, having many stamens, or any number above twenty, inserted in the receptacle.

Belonging to the class Polyandria; having many stamens, or any number above twenty, inserted in the receptacle.

Twenty-five pounds sterling. [Slang, Eng.]

gate; wealth; dominion; as, foreign possessions. When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matt. xix. 22. Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. Acts v. 1. The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. Ob. 17.

A British denomination of money of account, equivalent to twenty shillings sterling, and equal in value to about $4.86. There is no coin known by this name, but the gold sovereign is of the same value.

, as by an engine or other machine, or an animal, working continuously; as, an engine of twenty horse power.

lence; to hurry; to urge on; to ply hard; as, to press a horse in a race. The posts . . . went cut, being hastened and pressed on, by the king's commandment. Esther viii. 14.

ure can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke. I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.

belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more, -- one before and one behind the mast. By charter of Edward I. butlerage was substituted for this. Blackstone.

To delay; to be dilatory. I procrastinate more than I did twenty years ago. Swift.

ly, a picturesque or widely extended view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape. I went to Putney . . . to take prospects in crayon. Evelyn.