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Not bountiful or liberal; scanty. Here creeps along a poor, penurious stream. C. Pitt.

Anything insignificant; a particle.

now common in certain English rivers. -- Peter Funk, the auctioneer in a mock auction. [Cant, U.S.] -- Peter pence, or Peter's pence. (a) An annual tax or tribute, formerly paid by the English people to the pope, being a penny for every house, payable on Lammas or St.Peter's day; -- called also Rome scot, and hearth…

Small; little; insignificant; mean; -- Same as Petty. [Obs., except in legal language.] By what small, petit hints does the mind catch hold of and recover a vanishing notion. South. Petit constable, an inferior civil officer, subordinate to the high constable. -- Petit jury, a jury of twelve men, impaneled to try caus…

One who seeks or asks; a seeker; an applicant. [R.] Fuller.

A Philistine; -- a cant name given to townsmen by students in German universities.

A bailiff. [Cant, Eng.] [Obs.] Swift.

mbling kerosene. It is obtained by distilling coal, paraffin, etc., and is used as a lubricant, illuminant, etc. [Written also photogene.]

, and prevent them from working for employers with whom the organization is at variance. [Cant]

ne substance found in the cocculus indicus. It is a peculiar poisonous neurotic and intoxicant, and consists of a mixture of several neutral substances.

A cant word for anything petty or small. It is used by Drayton as the name of a fairy.

strange lands, to visit some holy place or shrine as a devotee; as, a pilgrim to Loretto; Canterbury pilgrims. See Palmer. P. Plowman.

Stripped of hair; scant of hair; bald. [Obs.] "Pilled beard." Chaucer.

Like a pill; small; insignificant. [R.] G. Eliot.

A petticoat, esp. an under petticoat; hence, a cant term for a woman. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

hed also from designing and fitting garments. -- Plain song. (a) The Gregorian chant, or canto fermo; the prescribed melody of the Roman Catholic service, sung in unison, in tones of equal length, and rarely extending beyond the compass of an octave. (b) A simple melody. -- Plain speaking, plainness or bluntness of s…

declaration of the principles of a party or cause; as, a plank in the national platform. [Cant] Plank road, or Plank way, a road surface formed of planks. [U.S.] -- To walk the plank, to walk along a plank laid across the bulwark of a ship, until one overbalances it and falls into the sea; -- a method of disposing of c…

A member of the lowest class in the military academy at West Point. [Cant, U.S.]

A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant language, the sum of £100,000 sterling; also, the person possessing it. Plum bird, Plum budder (Zoöl.), the European bullfinch. -- Plum gouger (Zoöl.), a weevil, or curculio (Coccotorus scutellaris), which destroys plums. It makes round holes in the pulp, for the recep…

e, or other contest; in an extended sense, to risk large sums in hazardous speculations. [Cant] Plunging fire (Gun.), firing directed upon an enemy from an elevated position.