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Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser. The most piteous tale of Lear. Shak.

To allege or cite in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; to answer to an indictment; as, to plead usury; to plead statute of limitations; to plead not guilty. Kent.

To give pleasure to; to excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to make glad; to gratify; to content; to satisfy. I pray to God that it may plesen you. Chaucer. What next I bring shall please thee, be assured. Milton.

The gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish, or happiness produced by the expectation or the enjoyment of something good, delightful, or satisfying; -- opposed to Ant: pain, Ant: sorrow, etc. At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Ps. xvi. 11.…

Of or pertaining to plebiscite. The Century.

To thrust or push against or into with anything pointed; hence, to stir up; to excite; as, to poke a fire. He poked John, and said "Sleepest thou " Chaucer.

Infested by pokers; adapted to excite fear; as, a pokerish place. [Colloq. U. S.] There is something pokerish about a deserted dwelling. Lowell.

Same as Pollucite.

Previous motion or excitement to action.

pressure or to an increase of pressure; as, pressor nerve fibers, stimulation of which excites the vasomotor center, thus causing a stronger contraction of the arteries and consequently an increase of the arterial blood pressure; -- opposed to depressor. Landois & Stirling.

One of the veins of the neck when swollen with anger or other excitement. [Obs.]

To ride or guide with spurs; to spur; to goad; to incite; to urge on; -- sometimes with on, or off. Who pricketh his blind horse over the fallows. Chaucer. The season pricketh every gentle heart. Chaucer. My duty pricks me on to utter that. Shak.

That of which one is proud; that which excites boasting or self- gratulation; the occasion or ground of self-esteem, or of arrogant and presumptuous confidence, as beauty, ornament, noble character, children, etc. Lofty trees yclad with summer's pride. Spenser. I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. Zech. ix. 6.…

something sharp; as, to prod a soldier with a bayonet; to prod oxen; hence, to goad, to incite, to worry; as, to prod a student. H. Taylor.

The quality or state of being prodigious; the state of having qualities that excite wonder or astonishment; enormousness; vastness.

Anything so extraordinary as to excite wonder or astonishment; a marvel; as, a prodigy of learning.

ocess or thing that is in course); to forward; to further; to encourage; to advance; to excite; as, to promote learning; to promote disorder; to promote a business venture. "Born to promote all truth." Milton.

One who excites; as, a promoter of sedition.

To assist or induce the action of; to move to action; to instigate; to incite. God first . . . prompted on the infirmities of the infant world by temporal prosperity. Jer. Taylor.

One who, or that which, prompts; one who admonishes or incites to action.