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art with pity. Shak. The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style. M. Arnold.

and absolute mandamus. -- Peremptory plea, a plea by a defendant tending to impeach the plaintiff's right of action; a plea in bar.

A theory which explains inheritance by the transmission of the type of growth force possessed by one generation to another.

e enforced, as distinguished from a possessory suit; also (Scots Law), a suit wherein the plaintiff claims something as due him by the defendant. Burrill.

of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws.

The doctrine or science of light, explaining its nature and phenomena; optics.

A believer in the theory that the fundamental phenomena of life are to be explained upon purely chemical and physical principles; -- opposed to vitalist.

Vinegar, plain or spiced, used for preserving vegetables, fish, eggs, oysters, etc.

iaster, formerly divided into eight reals. -- To give a piece of 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, a…

A kind of plain, coarse fustian. Lace pillow, a cushion used in making hand-wrought lace. -- Pillow bier Etym: [OE. pilwebere; cf. LG. büre a pillowcase], a pillowcase; pillow slip. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Pillow block (Mach.), a block, or standard, for supporting a journal, as of a shaft. It is usually bolted to the fram…

The sharp-tailed grouse of the great plains and Rocky Mountains (Pediocætes phasianellus); -- called also pintailed grouse, pintailed chicken, springtail, and sharptail.

or piece of cloth, usually made of the checkered material called tartan, but sometimes of plain gray, or gray with black stripes. It is worn by both sexes in Scotland.

Figuratively, to make plain or smooth. [R.] What student came but that you planed her path. Tennyson.

Plain; flat; level. [Obs.] Gower.

To explain by, or accomodate to, the Platonic philosophy. Enfield.

A beach; a strand; in the plains and deserts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, a broad, level spot, on which subsequently becomes dry by evaporation. Bartlett.

rer; in a still more limited sense, and in modern practice, the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant's plea. In chancery practice, a plea is a special answer showing or relying upon one or…

To present an answer, by allegation of fact, to the declaration of a plaintiff; to deny the plaintiff's declaration and demand, or to allege facts which show that ought not to recover in the suit; in a less strict sense, to make an allegation of fact in a cause; to carry on the allegations of the respective parties in…

The mutual pleas and replies of the plaintiff and defendant, or written statements of the parties in support of their claims, proceeding from the declaration of the plaintiff, until issue is joined, and the question made to rest on some single point. Blackstone.

To complain. See Plain. [Obs.]