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A scholar at Merton College, Oxford, who has a certain academical allowance or portion; -- corrupted into postmaster. Shipley.

the studies pursued after graduation, esp., after receiving the bachelor's degree at a college; graduate. -- n.

The return to his own country, and his former privileges, of a person who had gone to sojourn in a foreign country, or had been banished, or taken by an enemy. Burrill.

A brief poetical sentiment; hence, any brief sentiment, motto, or legend; especially, one inscribed on a ring. "The posy of a ring." Shak.

by courtesy; liable to be changed or lost at the pleasure of another; as, precarious privileges. Addison.

The privilege or prerogative formerly enjoyed by the king of buying provisions for his household in preference to others. [Eng.]

inaries to a negotiation or duel; to take one's preliminaries the year before entering college.

cholarship, for discoveries, etc. To think it not the necessity, but the premium and privilege of life, to eat and sleep without any regard to glory. Burke. The law that obliges parishes to support the poor offers a premium for the encouragement of idleness. Franklin.

The act of prenominating; privilege of being named first. Sir T. Browne.

An exclusive or peculiar privilege; prior and indefeasible right; fundamental and essential possession; -- used generally of an official and hereditary right which may be asserted without question, and for the exercise of which there is no responsibility or accountability as to the fact and the manner of its exercise.…

Endowed with a prerogative, or exclusive privilege. [R.] Shak.

Legerdemain; sleight of hand; juggling.

One skilled in legerdemain or sleight of hand; a juggler.

Legerdemain; prestidigitation. [Obs.]

To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim. Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend. Dryden.

wer. Locke. I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.

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.…

The state or privileges of the firstborn. Burke.

pal Church of Scotland, who presides at the meetings of the bishops, and has certain privileges but no metropolitan authority. Internat. Cyc.

A celebrated legendary highwayman 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.