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A trial before the principal performance; a prelude; hence, an introductory essay or exercise. "Domestic prolusions." Thackeray. Her presence was in some measure a restraint on the worthy divine, whose prolusion lasted. Sir W. Scott.

To make trial; to essay.

An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage. Chaucer. Bacon.

less material; to shape or smooth by trimming; to trim: as, to prune trees; to prune an essay. Thackeray. Taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed. Bacon. Our delightful task To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers. Milton.

The whole body of the clergy; preachers as a class; also, preaching. I say the pulpit (in the sober use Of its legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. Cowper.

amount to the purchasing price; as, he bought the estate at a twenty years' purchase. To say one's life is not worth a day's purchase in the same as saying one will not live a day, or is in imminent peril.

ite. P. Plowman. A goodly lady clad in scarlet red, Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay. Spenser.

d; supposed; reputed; as, the putative father of a child. "His other putative (I dare not say feigned) friends." E. Hall. Thus things indifferent, being esteemed useful or pious, became customary, and then came for reverence into a putative and usurped authority. Jer. Taylor.

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

in a high degree; ready; as, a quick ear. "To have an open ear, a quick eye." Shak. They say that women are so quick. Tennyson.

Not sounded; silent; as, y is quiescent in "day" and "say."

on, or agitation; still; as, a quiet sea; quiet air. They . . . were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. Judg. xvi. 2.

An alkaloid extracted from the bark of several species of cinchona (esp. Cinchona Calisaya) as a bitter white crystalline substance, C20H24N2O2. Hence, by extension (Med.), any of the salts of this alkaloid, as the acetate, chloride, sulphate, etc., employed as a febrifuge or antiperiodic. Called also quinia, quinina,…

To utter in madness or frenzy; to say wildly; as, to rave nonsense. Young.

dy in the opposite direction. Reaction is always equal and opposite to action, that is to say, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and in opposite directions. Sir I. Newton (3d Law of Motion).

Saying; sentence; maxim; hence, word; advice; counsel. See Rede. [Obs.]

To revoke a declaration or proposition; to unsay what has been said; to retract; as, convince me that I am wrong, and I will recant. Dryden.

To repeat, as the principal points in a discourse, argument, or essay; to give a summary of the principal facts, points, or arguments of; to relate in brief; to summarize.

, of the principal points, facts, or statements, in a preceding discourse, argument, or essay.

trike the balance of debt and credit; to adjust relations of desert or penalty. "Parfay," sayst thou, "sometime he reckon shall." Chaucer. To reckon for, to answer for; to pay the account for. "If they fail in their bounden duty, they shall reckon for it one day." Bp. Sanderson. -- To reckon on or upon, to count or de…