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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



709 words match “PLOY”

POWDER n.
mine, a mine exploded by gunpowder. See Mine. -- Powder monkey (Naut.), a boy formerly employed on war vessels to carry powder; a powder boy. -- Powder post. See Dry rot, under Dry. -- Powder puff. See Puff, n.
POWER n.
The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government. Power is no blessing in itself but when it is employed to protect the innocent. Swift.
PRACTICE v. 2 definitions
To make use of; to employ. [Obs.] In malice to this good knight's wife, I practiced Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her. Massinger.
PRECATIVE; PRECATORY a.
recatory words (Law), words of recommendation, request, entreaty, wish, or expectation, employed in wills, as distinguished from express directions; -- in some cases creating a trust. Jarman.
PRECAUTION n.
Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent mischief or secure good; as, his life was saved by precaution. They [ancient philosophers] treasured up their supposed discoveries with miserable precaution. J. H. Newman.
PRECLUDE v.
event or hinder by necessary consequence or implication; to deter action of, access to, employment of, etc.; to render ineffectual; to obviate by anticipation. This much will obviate and preclude the objections. Bentley.
PREMISE v.
To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously. [Obs.] The premised flames of the last day. Shak. If venesection and a cathartic be premised. E. Darwin.
PREPOSITION n.
A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival 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 bridg…
PRESS n.
ce, printed publications, taken collectively, more especially newspapers or the persons employed in writing for them; as, a free press is a blessing, a licentious press is a curse.
PRINCIPAL n.
One who employs another to act for him, -- as distinguished from an agent. Wharton. Bouvier. Burrill.
PRINTING n.
ngled with linseed or nut oil, made thick by boiling and burning. Other ingredients are employed for the finer qualities. Ure. -- Printing office, a place where books, pamphlets, or newspapers, etc., are printed. -- Printing paper, paper used in the printing of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and the like, as distingui…
PRITCHEL n.
A tool employed by blacksmiths for punching or enlarging the nail holes in a horseshoe.
PRIVATE a.
Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or employment; as, a private citizen; private life. Shak. A private person may arrest a felon. Blackstone.
PROCTOR n.
One who is employed to manage to affairs of another. Specifically:
PROFANE v.
To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile. So idly to profane the precious time. Shak.
PROFESSION n.
ss which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physician; the profession of lecturer on chemistry. Hi tried five or six professions in turn. Macaulay.
PROFESSIONALLY adv.
manner or capacity; by profession or calling; in the exercise of one's profession; one employed professionally.
PROIN v.
To employed in pruning. [Obs.]
PROMPTER n.
ds another, as an actor or an orator, of the words to be spoken next; specifically, one employed for this purpose in a theater.
PROPITIATORY a.
Having the power to make propitious; pertaining to, or employed in, propitiation; expiatory; as, a propitiatory sacrifice. Sharp.
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