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the character of the germ, or at the first commencement of an individual; -- said of peculiarities of structure, character, etc.

In large private houses, a sitting room for the family and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses than the drawing- room. Esp., in modern times, the dining room of a house having few apartments, as a London house, where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor.

The quality or state of being parochial in form or nature; a system of management peculiar to parishes.

on, class, or thing; belonging to one only; not general; not common; hence, personal; peculiar; singular. "Thine own particular wrongs." Shak. Wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth. Bacon.

Peculiar quality; individual characteristic; peculiarity. "An old heathen altar with this particularity." Addison.

The use of local or provincial words, as in the peculiar style or diction of Livy, the Roman historian; -- so called from Patavium, now Padua, the place of Livy's nativity.

A large flat-bottomed trading boat peculiar to the river Ganges; -- called also puteli.

A dialect peculiar to the illiterate classes; a provincial form of speech. The jargon and patois of several provinces. Sir T. Browne.

One familiar with the works of the Christian Fathers; one versed in patristic lore. [R.] Colridge.

id or protection; tutelary. Dryden. Patron saint (R. C. Ch.), a saint regarded as the peculiar protector of a country, community, church, profession, etc., or of an individual.

One of a peculiar kind of spines covering the surface of certain starfishes. They are pillarlike, with a flattened summit which is covered with minute spinules or granules. See Illustration in Appendix.

in boggy or peaty places. -- Peat reek, the reek or smoke of peat; hence, also, the peculiar flavor given to whisky by being distilled with peat as fuel. [Scot.]

A peculiar forcepslike organ which occurs in large numbers upon starfishes and echini. Those of starfishes have two movable jaws, or blades, and are usually nearly, or quite, sessile; those of echini usually have three jaws and a pedicel. See Illustration in Appendix.

Hence, figuratively, an artist's ability or peculiar manner; also, in general, the act or occupation of the artist, descriptive writer, etc.

A peculiar insectivore (Ptilocercus Lowii) of Borneo; -- so called from its very long, quill-shaped tail, which is scaly at the base and plumose at the tip.

A fivefold athletic performance peculiar to the great national games of the Greeks, including leaping, foot racing, wrestling, throwing the discus, and throwing the spear.

The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from conception. Sir W. Hamilton. Matter hath no life nor perce…

jugation (Gram.), a conjugation formed by the use of the simple verb with one or more auxiliaries.

Applied to the peculiar wormlike wave motion of the intestines and other similar structures, produced by the successive contraction of the muscular fibers of their walls, forcing their contents onwards; as, peristaltic movement. -- Per`i*stal"tic*al*ly, adv.

A notable or distinguished person; a conspicious or peculiar character; as, an illustrious personage; a comely personage of stature tall. Spenser.