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The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as, demoniacal possession. How long hath this possession held the man Shak. To give possession, to put in another's power or occupancy. -- To put in possession. (a) To invest with ownership or occupancy; to provide…

An extensive tract of level or rolling land, destitute of trees, covered with coarse grass, and usually characterized by a deep, fertile soil. They abound throughout the Mississippi valley, between the Alleghanies and the Rocky mountains. From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the northland. Longfel…

The office of a preacher. "The preachership of the Rolls." Macaulay.

To be superior in number, strength, influence, or authority; to have controlling power or influence; to prevail; to rule; to have the mastery; as, love predominated in her heart. [Certain] rays may predominate over the rest. Sir. I. Newton.

A Roman officer who controlled or superintended a particular command, charge, department, etc.; as, the prefect of the aqueducts; the prefect of a camp, of a fleet, of the city guard, of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person.

s, previous arrangements; a previous illness. The dull sound . . . previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth. Thomson. Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure. -- Previous to, before; -- often used adverbially for previously. "Previous to publication." M. Arnold.…

A small roll; as, a prick of spun yarn; a prick of tobacco.

Controlled or oppressed by priests; as, a priest-ridden people. Swift.

, as the white-, the red-, the yellow-flowered, etc. Formerly called also primerole, primerolles.

eader, chief, or head; one who takes the lead; one who acts independently, or who has controlling authority or influence; as, the principal of a faction, a school, a firm, etc.; -- distinguished from a subordinate, abettor, auxiliary, or assistant.

a charge. In proper, individually; privately. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor. -- Proper flower or corolla (Bot.), one of the single florets, or corollets, in an aggregate or compound flower. -- Proper fraction (Arith.) a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denominator. -- Proper nectary (Bot.), a nectary separate…

The lump of pasty wrought iron as taken from the puddling furnace to be hammered or rolled.

An iron bar made at a single heat from a puddle-ball hammering and rolling.

One controlled in his action by the will of another; a tool; -- so used in contempt. Sir W. Scott.

a murmuring sound, as water does in running over or through obstructions. Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, Louder and louder purl the falling rills. Pope.

ed; bloody. May such purple tears be alway shed. Shak. I view a field of blood, And Tiber rolling with a purple blood. Dryden. Purple bird (Zoöl.), the European purple gallinule. See under Gallinule. -- Purple copper ore. (Min.) See Bornite. -- Purple grackle (Zoöl.), the crow blackbird. See under Crow. -- Purple ma…

n awkward or uncouth person. Queer country puts extol Queen Bess's reign. Bramston. What droll puts the citizens seem in it all. F. Harrison.

adies (Bot.), a low American biennial plant (Houstonia cærulea), with pretty four-lobed corollas which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also called bluets, and little innocents.

Having the leaves of a pentamerous calyx or corolla so imbricated that two are exterior, two are interior, and the other has one edge exterior and one interior; as, quincuncial æstivation. Quincuncial phyllotaxy (Bot.), an arrangement of five leaves in a spiral, each leaf two fifths of a circle from the next.…

ly cut about halfway to the middle or base into five segments; as, a quinquefid leaf or corolla.