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power of producing; yielding or furnishing results; as, productive soil; productive enterprises; productive labor, that which increases the number or amount of products.

dvance or gain in anything good or desirable; successful progress in any business or enterprise; attainment of the object desired; good fortune; success; as, commercial prosperity; national prosperity. Now prosperity begins to mellow. Shak. Prosperities can only be enjoyed by them who fear not at all to lose the Jer. T…

ho takes the leading part in a drama; hence, one who takes lead in some great scene, enterprise, conflict, or the like. Shakespeare, the protagonist on the great of modern poetry. De Quincey.

Mentioned or comprised in a proverb; used as a proverb; hence, commonly known; as, a proverbial expression; his meanness was proverbial. In case of excesses, I take the German proverbial cure, by a hair of the same beast, to be the worst. Sir W. Temple.

, law, grant, or the like; as, the contract was impaired by its proviso. He doth deny his prisoners, But with proviso and exception. Shak.

The keeper of a prison. [Obs.] Shak.

emble forms of a system other than that to which they belong, as the apparently hexagonal prisms of aragonite.

The order of birds which comprises the parrots.

Comprised in, or like, a point; exact. [Obs. & R.] Sir T. Browne.

Pressing forward in business; enterprising; driving; energetic; also, forward; officious, intrusive. -- Push"ing*ly, adv.

o accomplish; as, he put through a measure of legislation; he put through a railroad enterprise. [U.S.] -- To put to. (a) To add; to unite; as, to put one sum to another. (b) To refer to; to expose; as, to put the safety of the state to hazard. "That dares not put it to the touch." Montrose.

A common mineral occurring in monoclinic crystals, with a prismatic angle of nearly 90º, and also in massive forms which are often laminated. It varies in color from white to dark green and black, and includes many varieties differing in color and composition, as diopside, malacolite, salite, coccolite, augite, etc. Th…

A quadrangle; hence, a prison. [Cant or Slang]

Comprising four years; as, a quadrennial period.

rea defended by four fortresses supporting each other; as, the Venetian quadrilateral, comprising Mantua, Peschiera, Verona, and Legnano. Complete quadrilateral (Geom.), the figure made up of the six straight lines that can be drawn through four points, A., B, C, I, the lines being supposed to be produced indefinitely.…

A division of the Primates comprising the apes and monkeys; -- so called because the hind foot is usually prehensile, and the great toe opposable somewhat like a thumb. Formerly the Quadrumana were considered an order distinct from the Bimana, which last included man alone.

fourth of the crew) on a man-of- war. -- To give, or show, quarter (Mil.), to accept as prisoner, on submission in battle; to forbear to kill, as a vanquished enemy. -- To keep quarter. See Quarter, n., 3.

was in question for the robbery. Shak. The Scottish privy council had power to put state prisoners to the question. Macaulay.

A quadrangle or court, as of a prison; hence, a prison. [Slang] "Flogged or whipped in quod." T. Hughes.

e, or of captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration; redemption; as, prisoners hopeless of ransom. Dryden.