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The distal segment of the hind limb of vertebrates, including the tarsus and foot.

An instrument for determining and registering the variations in the size or volume of a limb, as the arm or leg, and hence the variations in the amount of blood in the limb. -- Pleth`ys*mo*graph"ic, a.

The study, by means of the plethysmograph, of the variations in size of a limb, and hence of its blood supply.

Capable of being plied, turned, or bent; easy to be bent; flexible; pliant; supple; limber; yielding; as, willow is a pliable plant.

ending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart. The will was then ductile and pliant to right reason. South.

umbelliferous plant (Conium maculatum). See Hemlock. -- Poison ivy (Bot.), a poisonous climbing plant (Rhus Toxicodendron) of North America. It is common on stone walls and on the trunks of trees, and has trifoliate, rhombic-ovate, variously notched leaves. Many people are poisoned by it, if they touch the leaves. Se…

A pole on which climbing beans, hops, or other vines, are trained.

The first, or preaxial, digit of the fore limb, corresponding to the hallux in the hind limb; the thumb. In birds, the pollex is the joint which bears the bastard wing.

on the caudal or posterior (that is, ulnar or fibular) side of, the axis of a vertebrate limb.

principal members by which action is expressed; attitude. Atalanta, the posture of whose limbs was so lively expressed . . . one would have sworn the very picture had run. Sir P. Sidney. In most strange postures We have seen him set himself. Shak. The posture of a poetic figure is a description of his heroes in the pe…

y with rounded and emarginate or bilobed leaves. [West Indies] -- Sweet potato (Bot.), a climbing plant (Ipomoea Balatas) allied to the morning-glory. Its farinaceous tubers have a sweetish taste, and are used, when cooked, for food. It is probably a native of Brazil, but is cultivated extensively in the warmer parts o…

front, or on the anterior, or cephalic (that is, radial or tibial) side of the axis of a limb.

he (Bot.), a West Indian cactaceous plant (Cereus triangularis) having prickly, slender, climbing, triangular stems. -- Prickly rat (Zoöl.), any one of several species of South American burrowing rodents belonging to Ctenomys and allied genera. The hair is usually intermingled with sharp spines.

rope with a hook and a toggle, sometimes used to drag a gun carriage or to lash it to the limber, and for various other purposes.

The position of the limb resulting from the act of pronation. Opposed to supination.

Of or pertaining to the propodialia, or the parts of the limbs to which they belong.

or knob; an elevation. Solar protuberances (Astron.), certain rose-colored masses on the limb of the sun which are seen to extend beyond the edge of the moon at the time of a solar eclipse. They may be discovered with the spectroscope on any clear day. Called also solar prominences. See Illust. in Append.…

Situated near the point of attachment or origin; as, the proximal part of a limb.

A pluck; loss or violence suffered. [Poetic] Two pulls at once; His lady banished, and a limb lopped off. Shak.

ased in the dried-up skin of the larva, as in many Diptera. -- Masked pupa, a pupa whose limbs are bound down and partly concealed by a chitinous covering, as in Lepidoptera.