Search the Dictionary

One of the seeds or large beans of a tropical vine (Entada scandens) used for making purses, scent bottles, etc.

Haughty; purse-proud. See Cob, n., 2. [Obs.] Withals (1608).

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit. Thou didst contract and purse thy brow. Shak.

and grooves, as by drawing, contraction, pressure, bending, or otherwise; to wrinkle; to purse up; as, to corrugate plates of iron; to corrugate the forehead. Corrugated iron, sheet iron bent into a series of alternate ridges and grooves in parallel lines, giving it greater stiffness. -- Corrugated paper, a thick, co…

general. I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. Shak.

A purse. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

To push rudely along; to elbow one's way. "Purseproud, elbowing Insolence." Grainger.

t filled; -- said of an inclosure, as a box, room, house, etc.; as, an empty chest, room, purse, or pitcher; an empty stomach; empty shackles.

Ostentatiously fine; showy; gay, but tawdry or meretricious. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy. Shak.

ment of a small sum. [Colloq.] -- Grab game, a theft committed by grabbing or snatching a purse or other piece of property. [Colloq.]

sely fitting garment or dress worn by ladies; as, a riding habit. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. Shak. There are, among the states, several of Venus, in different habits. Addison.

the objective and the possessive case of the personal pronoun she; as, I saw her with her purse out.

e power, independence, or exaltation of; to lower; to abase; to humilate. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes. Shak. The genius which humbled six marshals of France. Macaulay.

Within. [Obs.] This purse hath she inwith her bosom hid. Chaucer.

A string that draws together a purse or bag. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.

ager and lank with fasting grown. Swift. Who would not choose . . . to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain Barrow.

ant; barren; bare; mean; -- used literally and figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean discourse; lean wages. "No lean wardrobe." Shak. Their lean and fiashy songs. Milton. What the land is, whether it be fat or lean. Num. xiii. 20. Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you something. Shak.…

Made of leather; consisting of. leather; as, a leathern purse. "A leathern girdle about his loins." Matt. iii. 4.

To put something in the inside of; to fill; to supply, as a purse with money. The charge amounteth very high for any one man's purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto. Carew. Till coffee has her stomach lined. Swift.

tune, negligence, penalty, forfeit, etc.; to be deprived of; as, to lose money from one's purse or pocket, or in business or gaming; to lose an arm or a leg by amputation; to lose men in battle. Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favorite dove. Prior.