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Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise; light raillery. Hannah More.

haracter or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character. [Archaic] His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler. Bacon. No man can long put on a person and act a par…

women, and covering the body below the waist. Petticoat government, government by women, whether in politics or domestic affairs. [Colloq.] -- Petticoat pipe (Locomotives), a short, flaring pipe surrounding the blast nozzle in the smoke box, to equalize the draft.

That theory which limits positive or scientific knowledge to phenomena only, whether material or spiritual.

Any detached mass of masonry, whether insulated or supporting one side of an arch or lintel, as of a bridge; the piece of wall between two openings.

Any small acuminated elevation of the cuticle, whether going on to suppuration or not. "All eyes can see a pimple on her nose." Pope.

A small plaque, esp., in modern medal engraving, a small and delicate bas-relief, whether cast or struck from a die, or of form other than circular.

A metrical composition; a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic diction; -- contradistinguished from prose; as, the poems of Homer or of Milton.

Imaginative language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically or in prose. Specifically: Metrical composition; verse; rhyme; poems collectively; as, heroic poetry; dramatic poetry; lyric or Pindaric poetry. "The planetlike music of poetry." Sir P. Sidney. She taketh most delight In music, instruments, and poetry.…

mia and Auvergne, and used for polishing glass, marble, and metals. (b) A kind of hone or whetstone; hone slate. -- Polishing snake, a tool used in cleaning lithographic stones. -- Polishing wheel, a wheel or disk coated with, or composed of, abrading material, for polishing a surface.

, or promoting, a policy, especially a national policy; well-devised; adapted to its end, whether right or wrong; -- said of things; as, a politic treaty. "Enrich'd with politic grave counsel." Shak.

ll, esp. for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one. Polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms. Milton.

A covered and inclosed entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof. Sometimes the porch is large enough to serve as a covered walk. See also Carriage porch, under Carriage, and Loggia. The graceless Helen i…

th, some little pause, my lord, Before I positively speak herein. Shak. I would ask . . . whether . . . the divine law does not positively require humility and meekness. Sprat. Positively charged or electrified (Elec.), having a charge of positive electricity; -- opposed to Ant: negatively electrified.…

r detention of property in one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or wrongful.

State or condition, whether of external circumstances, or of internal feeling and will; disposition; mood; as, a posture of defense; the posture of affairs. The several postures of his devout soul. Atterbury.

forming something; capacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power. "One next himself in power, and next in crime." Milton.

A member of a presbytery whether lay or clerical.

A claim made, whether true or false; a right alleged or assumed; a holding out the appearance of possessing a certain character; as, pretensions to scholarship. This was but an invention and pretension given out by the Spaniards. Bacon. Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions. L'Estrange.…

ions of a compound leaf or frond which branch off directly from the main rhachis or stem, whether simple or compounded. -- Primary planets. (Astron.) See the Note under Planet. -- Primary qualities of bodies, such are essential to and inseparable from them. -- Primary quills (Zoöl.), the largest feathers of the wing…