PREPONDERANCE; PREPONDERANCY n.
ess of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing. The mind should . . . reject or receive proportionably to the preponderancy of the greater grounds of probability. Locke. In a few weeks he had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of…
PRESENCE n.
eptance. Collier. Presence chamber, or Presence room, the room in which a great personage receives company. Addison." Chambers of presence." Bacon. -- Presence of mind, that state of the mind in which all its faculties are alert, prompt, and acting harmoniously in obedience to the will, enabling one to reach, as it we…
PRIME a.
oduce alternation of magnetic force. (b) An engine, or machine, the object of which is to receive and modify force and motion as supplied by some natural source, and apply them to drive other machines; as a water wheel, a water- pressure engine, a steam engine, a hot-air engine, etc. (c) Fig.: The original or the most…
PRIMER a.
al 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 full age, one year's profits of the land if in possession, and half a year's profits if the land was in reversion expectant on an estate for life; -- now abolished. Blackstone.
PROBATIONER n.
A student in divinity, who, having received certificates of good morals and qualifications from his university, is admitted to several trials by a presbytery, and, on acquitting himself well, is licensed to preach. [Scot.]