Search the Dictionary

To be broken or divided into parts or pieces; to break; to become separated; to go asunder; as, rope parts; his hair parts in the middle.

To strike gently with the fingers or hand; to stroke lightly; to tap; as, to pat a dog. Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite. Pope.

. With silver paved, and all divine with gold. Dryden. To pave thy realm, and smooth the broken ways. Gay.

To pass the paw over; to stroke or handle with the paws; hence, to handle fondly or rudely.

ed. "Sweet wife, my honor is at pawn." Shak. -- Pawn ticket, a receipt given by the pawnbroker for an article pledged.

The business of a pawnbroker.

To make strokes with the beak, or with a pointed instrument. Carew.

milar form used as a decoration over porticoes, doors, windows, etc.; also, a rounded or broken frontal having a similar position and use. See Temple.

A blow or stroke from something thrown.

one's mind to, to speak plainly, bluntly, or severely to (another). Tackeray. -- Piece broker, one who buys shreds and remnants of cloth to sell again. -- Piece goods, goods usually sold by pieces or fixed portions, as shirtings, calicoes, sheetings, and the like.

A child employed in spinning mill to tie together broken threads.

to receive in pawn, as a pawnbroker does. [Obs.]

ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink. And plies him with redoubled strokes Dryden. He plies the duke at morning and at night. Shak.

A piece or fragment of a broken pot. Job ii. 8.

admission, as of steam, to the engine cylinder before the back stroke is completed, thus increasing the cushioning.

Broken down in respect of rectitude, principle, virtue, or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. Dryden.

The action of a go-between or broker in negotiating immoral bargains between the sexes; procuring.

A kind of stroke by which a leg ball is sent to the off side, or an off ball to the side. The pull is not a legitimate stroke, but bad cricket. R. A. Proctor.

A stroke or impulse by which some medium is affected, as in the propagation of sounds.

rdrum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and species of the stroke. Burke. Pulse glass, an instrument consisting to a glass tube with terminal bulbs, and containing ether or alcohol, which the heat of the hand causes to boil; -- so called from the pulsating motion of the liquid when thus war…