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A small person; a pet; -- sometimes used contemptuously. [Obs.] Shak.

Fitted for trail or test; experimental; tentative; treating of attempts.

bject or verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in adversity. People were tempted to lend by great premiums. Swift . People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water. Arbuthnot .

od that performeth all things for me. Ps. lvii. 2. Great force to perform what they did attempt. Sir P. Sidney.

To act as a pettifogger; to use contemptible tricks. De Quincey.

The toes or feet of a pig, -- often used as food; sometimes, in contempt, the human feet. Shak.

A system of education on so-called natural principles, attempted in Germany in the last century by Basedow, of Dessau.

bullfight receives the first attack of the bull, and excites him by picking him without attempting to kill him.

as being of a certain nature or quality; often, but not always, used slightingly or in contempt. "If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him." Sir P. Sidney. Thy mother was a piece of virtue. Shak. His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world. Coleridge. a piece of cake, a task…

Of or pertaining to the Pietists; hence, in contempt, affectedly or demonstratively religious. Addison.

An exclamation of contempt.

Pious; devout. [Obs.] The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation. Wyclif.

To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak.

or in defense against the claim of another; to urge reasons for or against a thing; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; to speak by way of persuasion; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead with a judge or with a father. O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for hi…

A rendering plebeian; the act of vulgarizing. [R.] You begin with the attempt to popularize learning . . . but you will end in the plebification of knowledge. Coleridge.

ascertain the depth, quality, dimension, etc.; to sound; to fathom; to test. He did not attempt to plumb his intellect. Ld. Lytton.

An exclamation expressing contempt or disgust; bah !

te to the surface; to head; -- said of an abscess. To point at, to treat with scorn or contempt by pointing or directing attention to. -- To point well (Naut.), to sail close to the wind; -- said of a vessel.

Base; vile; contemptible; cowardly.

Pshaw! pish! nonsense! -- an expression of scorn, dislike, or contempt.