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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



622 words match “ENGLISH”

PRATIQUE n.
Practice; habits. [Obs.] "One of English education and pratique." R. North.
PRAWN n.
genera Pandalus, Palæmon, Palæmonetes, and Peneus, and are much used as food. The common English prawn in Palæmon serratus.
PRECISIAN n.
r ceremoniously exact in the observance of rules; a formalist; -- formerly applied to the English Puritans. The most dissolute cavaliers stood aghast at the dissoluteness of the emancipated precisian. Macaulay.
PREPOSITION n.
ival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escap…
PRESCRIPTION n.
n. That profound reverence for law and prescription which has long been characteristic of Englishmen. Macaulay.
PRICK n.
A mathematical point; -- regularly used in old English translations of Euclid.
PRIME a.
the most effective force in any undertaking or work; as, Clarkson was the prime mover in English antislavery agitation. -- Prime number (Arith.), a number which is exactly divisible by no number except itself or unity, as 5, 7, 11. -- Prime vertical (Astron.), the vertical circle which passes through the east and we…
PRIMER a.
First; original; primary. [Obs.] "The primer English kings." Drayton. Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine. Blackstone. -- Primer seizin (Feudal Law), the right of the king, when a tenant in capite died seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, if of f…
PRINCE n.
kness. See under Blood, Consort, and Darkness. -- Prince of Wales, the oldest son of the English sovereign. -- Prince's feather (Bot.), a name given to two annual herbs (Amarantus caudatus and Polygonum orientale), with apetalous reddish flowers arranged in long recurved panicled spikes. -- Prince's metal, Prince Ru…
PROCEDENDO n.
In English practice, a writ issuing out of chancery in cases where the judges of subordinate courts delay giving judgment, commanding them to proceed to judgment.
PRONOUN n.
d used instead of a noun or name, to avoid the repetition of it. The personal pronouns in English are I, thou or you, he, she, it, we, ye, and they.
PROPORTIONABLE a.
ree of wisdom. Burke. Proportionable, which is no longer much favored, was of our [i. e., English writers'] own coining. Fitzed. Hall.
PUDDING n.
bedded in a sweetish pulp. See Cassia. -- Pudding sleeve, a full sleeve like that of the English clerical gown. Swift. -- Pudding stone. (Min.) See Conglomerate, n., 2. -- Pudding time. (a) The time of dinner, pudding being formerly the dish first eaten. [Obs.] Johnson. (b) The nick of time; critical time. [Obs.] Ma…
PUPPETRY n.
that of a puppet, or puppet show; hence, mere form or show; affectation. Puppetry of the English laws of divorce. Chambers.
PURISM n.
choice of language; over-solicitude as to purity. "His political purism." De Quincey. The English language, however, . . . had even already become too thoroughly and essentially a mixed tongue for his doctrine of purism to be admitted to the letter. Craik.
PYKAR n.
An ancient English fishing boat.
PYX n.
h., a veil of silk or lace covering the pyx. Trial of the pyx, the annual testing, in the English mint, of the standard of gold and silver coins. Encyc. Brit.
Q n.
, the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound (that of k), and is always followed by u, the two letters together being sounded like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent. See Guide to Pronunciation, § 249. Q is not found in Anglo-Saxon, cw being used instead of qu; as in cwic, quick; c…
QUADRILLION n.
Continent and in the United States, a unit with fifteen ciphers annexed; according to the English notation, the number produced by involving a million to the fourth power, or the number represented by a unit with twenty-four ciphers annexed. See the Note under Numeration.
QUEEN n.
copper. -- Queen's pigeon. (Zoöl.) Same as Queen pigeon, above. -- Queen's ware, glazed English earthenware of a cream color. -- Queen's yellow (Old Chem.), a heavy yellow powder consisting of a basic mercuric sulphate; -- formerly called turpetum minerale, or Turbith's mineral.
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