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the strength of life; the vital or essential part; concentrated force; vigor; strength; importance; as, the speech lacked pith. Enterprises of great pith and moment. Shak. Pith paper. Same as Rice paper, under Rice.

Hence, figuratively: A turning point or condition; that on which important results depend; as, the pivot of an enterprise.

Rank; degree; grade; order of priority, advancement, dignity, or importance; especially, social rank or position; condition; also, official station; occupation; calling. "The enervating magic of place." Hawthorne. Men in great place are thrice servants. Bacon. I know my place as I would they should do theirs. Shak.…

nited States and West Indies, a large estate appropriated to the production of the more important crops, and cultivated by laborers who live on the estate; as, a cotton plantation; a coffee plantation.

The important living portion of protoplasm, considered a chemical substance of the highest elaboration. Germ plasm and idioplasm are forms of plasmogen.

Hence, the most prominent or important feature, as of an argument, discourse, etc.; the essential matter; esp., the proposition to be established; as, the point of an anecdote. "Here lies the point." Shak. They will hardly prove his point. Arbuthnot.

Composition in mutually related, equally important parts which share the melody among them; contrapuntal composition; -- opposed to homophony, in which the melody is given to one part only, the others filling out the harmony. See Counterpoint.

Important; momentous; forcible. "Your more ponderous and settled project." Shak.

boat, a metallic cylinder, or a frame covered with canvas, India rubber, etc., forming a portable float, used in building bridges quickly for the passage of troops.

An important genus of reef-building corals having small twelve- rayed calicles, and a very porous coral. Some species are branched, others grow in large massive or globular forms.

A passageway; an opening or entrance to an inclosed place; a gate; a door; a portal. [Archaic] Him I accuse The city ports by this hath entered. Shak. Form their ivory port the cherubim Forth issuing. Milton.

See Portague. [Obs.]

A portable case for holding loose papers, prints, drawings, etc.

See Portass. [Obs.] Chaucer.

See Portague. Beau. & Fl.

See Portass. [Obs.]

See Portass. [Obs.]

tice of a movement in both painting and sculpture which lays stress upon volume as the important attribute of objects and attempts its expression by the use of geometrical figures or solids only; and futurism, a theory or practice which attempts to place the observer within the picture and to represent simultaneously…

pecified office. -- Postal Union, a union for postal purposes entered into by the most important powers, or governments, which have agreed to transport mail matter through their several territories at a stipulated rate.

lace after, behind, or below something, in respect to precedence, preference, value, or importance. All other considerations should give way and be postponed to this. Locke.