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Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically; as, a pretty trick; a pretty fellow.

A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow. The queer prig of a doctor. Macaulay.

primitive; primary; as, the primeval innocence of man. "This is the forest primeval." Longfellow. From chaos, and primeval darkness, came Light. Keats.

To move forward; to advance; to promote. [Obs.] Bp. Fell.

Adjusted to something else according to a proportion; proportional. Longfellow. What is proportionate to his transgression. Locke.

the head of a political enemy; as, under the triumvirate, many of the best Roman citizens fell by proscription. Every victory by either party had been followed by a sanguinary proscription. Macaulay.

To lay fiat; to throw down; to level; to fell; as, to prostrate the body; to prostrate trees or plants. Evelyn.

A celebrated fairy, "the merry wanderer of the night;" -- called also Robin Goodfellow, Friar Rush, Pug, etc. Shak. He meeteth Puck, whom most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall. Drayton.

A short, fat fellow; anything short and thick. I . . . did hear them call their fat child punch, which pleased me mightily, that word being become a word of common use for all that is thick and short. Pepys.

e; we fly from pain. Prior. The happiness of men lies in purswing, Not in possessing. Longfellow.

ed figuratively. The herald Hope, forerunning Fear, And Fear, the pursuivant of Hope. Longfellow.

fears. I. Taylor. Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. Longfellow.

crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life. Encyc. Brit.

ll the disaffected minority. Macaulay. Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt. Longfellow.

ating a person who begins sinking into it. Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares! Longfellow.

Nimble; active. [Obs.] " A little quiver fellow." Shak.

An odd or absurd fellow. Smart. Thackeray.

A low fellow; a churl. Raff merchant, a dealer in lumber and odd refuse. [Prov. Eng.]

A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin. The other zealous rag is the compositor. B. Jonson. Upon the proclamation, they all came in, both tag and rag. Spenser.

A paltry or disreputable fellow; a mean which. Dryden.