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Level land; usually, an open field or a broad stretch of land with an even surface, or a surface little varied by inequalities; as, the plain of Jordan; the American plains, or prairies. Descending fro the mountain into playn. Chaucer. Him the Ammonite Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. Milton.…

A plat; a plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern. Used also figuratively. [Obs.] Bacon.

An instrument which pricks or pierces, as a sort of needle used by engravers, etchers, lace workers, and others; also, a pointed cutting tool, as a stone cutter's point; -- called also pointer.

An arrant coward; a dastard; a craven; a mean-spirited wretch. Shak.

Extended horizontally; stretched out.

The act of stretching forth.

To stretch out before. [R.] "Doomed to feel the great Idomeneus' portended steel." Pope.

a wren. Cowper. Now pounce him lightly, And as he roars and rages, let's go deeper. J. Fletcher.

A level stretch in a canal between locks.

of character; dignified bearing; proud delight; -- in a good sense. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. Goldsmith. A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. Macaulay.

To stretch or contract according to some rule or standard.

an of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut of their legs to adapt them to its length; -- whence the metaphorical phrase, the bed of Procrustes.

or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. Dryden.

subjects embraced, in any public exercise, performance, or entertainment; a preliminary sketch. Programme music (Mus.), descriptive instrumental music which requires an argument or programme to explain the meaning of its several movements.

To prog. [Obs.] P. Fletcher.

Stretched out; extended; especially, elongated in the direction of a line joining the poles; as, a prolate spheroid; -- opposed to oblate. Prolate cycloid. See the Note under Cycloid. -- Prolate ellipsoid or spheroid (Geom.), a figure generated by the revolution of an ellipse about its major axis. See Ellipsoid of rev…

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

Lying at length, or with the body extended on the ground or other surface; stretched out; as, to sleep prostrate Elyot. Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire. Milton.

To hold out; to stretch forth. [Obs.] With his protended lance he makes defence. Dryden .

as well as mechanical, it is easier to pull down than build up." Howell. " To raise the wretched, and pull down the proud." Roscommon. To pull a finch. See under Finch. To pull off, take or draw off.