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Foresight; foreknowledge; prescience. H. Spencer.

olors (Paint.), primary colors. See under Color. -- Primitive Fathers (Eccl.), the acknowledged Christian writers who flourished before the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. Shipley. -- Primitive groove (Anat.), a depression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, w…

Having secret or private knowledge; privy. [Obs.] Private act or statute, a statute exclusively for the settlement of private and personal interests, of which courts do not take judicial notice; -- opposed to a general law, which operates on the whole community. -- Private nuisance or wrong. See Nuisance. -- Private…

Private knowledge; joint knowledge with another of a private concern; cognizance implying consent or concurrence. All the doors were laid open for his departure, not without the privity of the Prince of Orange. Swift.

Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing. His wife also being privy to it. Acts v. 2. Myself am one made privy to the plot. Shak. Privy chamber, a private apartment in a royal residence. [Eng.] -- Privy council (Eng. Law), the principal council of the sovereign, composed of t…

To make open declaration of, as of one's knowledge, belief, action, etc.; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own or admit freely. "Hear me profess sincerely." Shak. The best and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew. Milton.

Openly declared, avowed, acknowledged, or claimed; as, a professed foe; a professed tyrant; a professed Christian. The professed (R. C. Ch.) , a certain class among the Jesuits bound by a special vow. See the note under Jesuit.

That of which one professed knowledge; the occupation, if not mechanical, agricultural, or the like, to which one devotes one's self; the business which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physic…

g to the rules or standards of a profession; following a profession; as, professional knowledge; professional conduct. "Pride, not personal, but professional." Macaulay. "A professional sneerer." De Quincey.

lity of state of being proficient; advance in the acquisition of any art, science, or knowledge; progression in knowledge; improvement; adeptness; as, to acquire proficiency in music.

Well advanced in any branch of knowledge or skill; possessed of considerable acquirements; well-skilled; versed; adept,

The quality or state of being profound; depth of place, knowledge, feeling, etc. "The vast profundity obscure." Milton.

In knowledge; in proficiency; as, the progress of a child at school.

(one of the Titans) and Clymene, fabled by the poets to have surpassed all mankind in knowledge, and to have formed men of clay to whom he gave life by means of fire stolen from heaven. Jupiter, being angry at this, sent Mercury to bind Prometheus to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture preyed upon his liver.…

To make declaration of or give assurance of, as some benefit to be conferred; to pledge or engage to bestow; as, the proprietors promised large tracts of land; the city promised a reward. Promised land. See Land of promise, under Land. -- To promise one's self. (a) To resolve; to determine; to vow. (b) To be assured;…

To spread from person to person; to extend the knowledge of; to originate and spread; to carry from place to place; to disseminate; as, to propagate a story or report; to propagate the Christian religion. The infection was propagated insensibly. De Foe.

Foreknowledge of a disease; prognosis.

To pledge; to offer as a toast or a health in the manner of drinking, that is, by drinking first and passing the cup. [Obs.] The lovely sorceress mixed, and to the prince Health, peace, and joy propined. C. Smart.

The quality or state of being proper; suitableness to an acknowledged or correct standard or rule; consonance with established principles, rules, or customs; fitness; appropriateness; as, propriety of behavior, language, manners, etc. "The rule of propriety," Locke.

The science of the human soul; specifically, the systematic or scientific knowledge of the powers and functions of the human soul, so far as they are known by consciousness; a treatise on the human soul. Psychology, the science conversant about the phenomena of the mind, or conscious subject, or self. Sir W. Hamilton.…