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Unusual; singular; rare; strange; as, the sky had a peculiarappearance.

generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. "Mucky pelf." Spenser. "Paltry pelf." Burke. Can their pelf prosper, not got by valor or industry Fuller.

A variety of iolite, of a smoky blue color; pelioma.

A cloth of sky-blue color. [Obs.] "A long surcoat of pers." Chaucer.

Like stone; hard; stony; rocky; as, the petrous part of the temporal bone. Hooper.

To do a petty business as a lawyer; also, to do law business in a petty or tricky way. "He takes no money, but pettifogs gratis." S. Butler.

A lawyer who deals in petty cases; an attorney whose methods are mean and tricky; an inferior lawyer. A pettifogger was lord chancellor. Macaulay.

Wanton; frisky; lustful. [Obs.] J. V. Cane.

A hydrous arsenate of lime, usually occurring in silky fibers of a white or grayish color.

A vessel with a very narrow stern; -- called also pinky. Sir W. Scott. Pink stern (Naut.), a narrow stern.

ivalve mollusks found in all warm seas. The byssus consists of a large number of long, silky fibers, which have been used in manufacturing woven fabrics, as a curiosity.

The sharp-tailed grouse of the great plains and Rocky Mountains (Pediocætes phasianellus); -- called also pintailed grouse, pintailed chicken, springtail, and sharptail.

of the family Pipridæ. The male is usually glossy black, varied with scarlet, yellow, or sky blue. They chiefly inhabit South America.

A thick, black, lustrous, and sticky substance obtained by boiling down tar. It is used in calking the seams of ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc., to preserve them. He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith. Ecclus. xiii. 1.

A writer of plays; a dramatist; a playwright. Lecky.

Atlas and the nymph Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.

In a plucky manner.

The quality or state of being plucky.

Bot) (a) A kind of grass (Erianthus saccharoides) with the spikelets arranged in great silky plumes, growing in swamps in the Southern United States. (b) The still finer E. Ravennæ from the Mediterranean region. The name is sometimes extended to the whole genus. -- Plume moth (Zoöl.), any one of numerous small, slende…

To play truant, or "hooky". [Scot.]