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An order, or suborder, of birds, including more that half of all the known species. It embraces all singing birds (Oscines), together with many other small perching birds.

pay or allowance to civil or military officers of a certain rank, without deductions. -- Half pay. See under Half. -- Pay day, the day of settlement of accounts. -- Pay dirt (Mining), earth which yields a profit to the miner. [Western U.S.] -- Pay office, a place where payment is made. -- Pay roll, a roll or list o…

largest of forest trees; also, its fruit, a smooth, oblong nut, an inch or an inch and a half long, with a thin shell and well- flavored meat. [Written also pacane.]

To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep. [Colloq.]

n of Coleoptera, including those that normally have five-jointed tarsi. It embraces about half of all the known species of the Coleoptera.

A measure of length containing five and a half yards; a rod, or pole.

phalangist (P. vulpina) is the largest species, the full grown male being about two and a half feet long. It has a large bushy tail.

th from 80 to 100 cents. The Turkish and Egyptian piasters are now worth about four and a half cents.

by dovetailed tongues and grooves. -- Sheet piling, a series of piles made of planks or half logs driven edge to edge, -- used to form the walls of cofferdams, etc.

Half-shut; winking. [Obs.] Shak.

A measure of capacity, equal to half a quart, or four gills, -- used in liquid and dry measures. See Quart.

The peeping whistle, call, or note of a bird. The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds. Tennyson.

h glass, but not artificially heated, -- used in winter for the storing and protection of half-hardly plants, and sometimes in the spring as a forcing bed. -- Pit coal, coal dug from the earth; mineral coal. -- Pit frame, the framework over the shaft of a coal mine. -- Pit head, the surface of the ground at the mout…

e inclination or slope of the sides expressed by the height in parts of the span; as, one half pitch; whole pitch; or by the height in parts of the half span, especially among engineers; or by degrees, as a pitch of 30°, of 45°, etc.; or by the rise and run, that is, the ratio of the height to the half span; as, a pitc…

a mess of victuals; hence, a small charity gift; a dole. "A good pitaunce." Chaucer. One half only of this pittance was ever given him in money. Macaulay.

Now, in the United States service, half of a company.

One of the ventral processes of a vertebra, or the dorsal element in each half of a hemal arch, forming, or corresponding to, a vertebral rib. -- Pleu*rap`o*phys"i*al, a. Owen.

by repeated actions; to go back and forth; as, a steamer plies between certain ports. Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily). Milton. He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter. Addison. The heavy hammers and mallets plied. Longfellow.

uguese gold coin formerly current, and variously estimated to be worth from three and one half to four and one half pounds sterling. [Obs.] [Written also portegue and portigue.] Ten thousand portagues, besides great pearls. Marlowe.

by the of that time a velocity of one foot per second. It is about equal to the weight of half an ounce, and is 13,825 dynes.