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A breviary; a prayer book. [Written variously portace, portasse, portesse, portise, porthose, portos, portus, portuse, etc.] [Obs.] Spenser. Camden. By God and by this porthors I you swear. Chaucer.

A breviary. [Eng.]

Trifling or childish tattle; empty talk; loquacity on trivial subjects; prate; babble. Mere prattle, without practice. Shak.

lication; 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.

e method I take may be censured as preposterous, because I thus treat last of the antediluvian earth, which was first in the order of nature. Woodward.

endow; to bestow a gift upon; to favor, as with a donation; also, to court by gifts. Octavia presented the poet for him admirable elegy on her son Marcellus. Dryden.

revaricating, shuffling, or quibbling, to evade the truth or the disclosure of truth; a deviation from the truth and fair dealing. The august tribunal of the skies, where no prevarication shall avail. Cowper.

Tending to defeat or hinder; obviating; preventing the access of; as, a medicine preventive of disease. Physic is either curative or preventive. Sir T. Browne. Preventive service, the duty performed by the armed police in guarding the coast against smuggling. [Eng]

ms as printed in the Book of Common Prayer; among the Roman Catholics, the part of the Breviary which contains the Psalms arranged for each day of the week.

inted time; precise; prompt; as, a punctual man; a punctual payment. "The race of the undeviating and punctual sun." Cowper. These sharp strokes [of a pendulum], with their inexorably steady intersections, so agree with our successive thoughts that they seem like the punctual stops counting off our very souls into the…

Abbreviation of pyrogallic acid. [Colloq.]

South American Indians, including the majority of the civilized tribes of the ancient Peruvian Empire with some wild tribes never subjugated by the Incas. Most of these Indians are short, but heavy and strong. They are brachycephalic and of remarkably low cranial capacity. Nevertheless, they represent one of the highes…

Peruvian bark.

A contrivance employed by the ancient Peruvians, Mexicans, etc., as a substitute for writing and figures, consisting of a main cord, from which hung at certain distances smaller cords of various colors, each having a special meaning, as silver, gold, corn, soldiers. etc. Single, double, and triple knots were tied in th…

An abbreviation for Red Republican. See under Red, a. [Cant]

not provided for by, the Geneva convention of 1864; any of the national societies for alleviating the sufferings of the sick and wounded war, also giving aid and relief during great calamities; also, a member or worker of such a society; -- so called from the badge of neutrality; the Geneva cross.

, when passing from one transparent medium to another of different density; to cause to deviate from a direct course by an action distinct from reflection; as, a dense medium refrcts the rays of light as they pass into it from a rare medium.

vil, or of anything oppressive or burdensome, by which some ease is obtained; succor; alleviation; comfort; ease; redress. He seec the dire contagion spread so fast, That, where it seizes, all relief is vain. Dryden.

wrong. Civil remedy. See under Civil. -- Remedy of the mint (Coinage), a small allowed deviation from the legal standard of weight and fineness; -- called also tolerance.

Repleviable. Sir M. Hale.