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-- Positive electricity (Elec), the kind of electricity which is developed when glass is rubbed with silk, or which appears at that pole of a voltaic battery attached to the plate that is not attacked by the exciting liquid; -- formerly called vitreous electricity; -- opposed to Ant: negative electricity. -- Positive…

sway; a prince, sovereign, or monarch. The blessed and only potentate. 1 Tim. vi. 15. Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones. Milton.

To sprinkle or rub with pounce; as, to pounce paper, or a pattern.

To reduce to fine particles; to pound, grind, or rub into a powder; to comminute; to pulverize; to triturate.

Value; estimation; excellence; worth. Her price is far above rubies. Prov. xxxi. 10. New treasures still, of countless price. Keble.

Full of sharp points or prickles; armed or covered with prickles; as, a prickly shrub. Prickly ash (Bot.), a prickly shrub (Xanthoxylum Americanum) with yellowish flowers appearing with the leaves. All parts of the plant are pungent and aromatic. The southern species is X. Carolinianum. Gray. -- Prickly heat (Med.), a…

A shrub (Euonymus Europæus); -- so named from the use of its wood for goads, skewers, and shoe pegs. Called also spindle tree.

An ornamental European shrub (Ligustrum vulgare), much used in hedges; -- called also prim. Egyptian privet. See Lawsonia. -- Evergreen privet, a plant of the genus Rhamnus. See Alatern. -- Mock privet, any one of several evergreen shrubs of the genus Phillyrea. They are from the Mediterranean region, and have been m…

Of or pertaining to the Proteaceæ, an order of apetalous evergreen shrubs, mostly natives of the Cape of Good Hope or of Australia.

of a beautiful cochineal-red color, occurring in rhombohedral crystals, and also massive; ruby silver.

A dish made by boiling any article of food to a pulp and rubbing it through a sieve; as, a purée of fish, or of potatoes; especially, a soup the thickening of which is so treated.

purslane, the Portulaca grandiflora. See Portulaca. -- Purslane tree, a South African shrub (Portulacaria Afra) with many small opposite fleshy obovate leaves. -- Sea purslane, a seashore plant (Arenaria peploides) with crowded opposite fleshy leaves. -- Water purslane, an aquatic plant (Ludwiqia palustris) but sli…

The evergreen thorn (Cratægus Pyracantha), a shrub native of Europe.

Ruby silver; dark red silver ore. It is a sulphide of antimony and silver, occurring in rhombohedral crystals or massive, and is of a dark red or black color with a metallic adamantine luster.

A genus of rosaceous trees and shrubs having pomes for fruit. It includes the apple, crab apple, pear, chokeberry, sorb, and mountain ash.

The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ, as Quassia amara, Picræna excelsa, and Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer.

A method of training trees or shrubs in the shape of a cone or distaff by tying down the branches and pruning.

To plant with living shrubs or trees for a hedge; as, to quickset a ditch. Mortimer.

The fruit of a shrub (Cydonia vulgaris) belonging to the same tribe as the apple. It somewhat resembles an apple, but differs in having many seeds in each carpel. It has hard flesh of high flavor, but very acid, and is largely used for marmalade, jelly, and preserves.

A rubber of hard wood used in smoothing marble to be polished. Knight.