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Abounding in platitudes; of the nature of platitudes; uttering platitudes. -- Plat`i*tu"di*nous*ness, n.

er diseases. (b) The plant itself, which has deep orange-colored flowers; -- called also butterfly weed.

One of the featherlike scales of certain male butterflies.

To cook, as eggs, by breaking them into boiling water; also, to cook with butter after breaking in a vessel. Bacon.

y engravers, etchers, lace workers, and others; also, a pointed cutting tool, as a stone cutter's point; -- called also pointer.

ntempt. And for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray. Shak. Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing. Prior.

A word variously explained as "a little puppet," "a little doll," or "a young butterfly." Cf. Popet. [Obs.] So gay a popelote, so sweet a wench. Chaucer.

of a vessel; an embrasure through which cannon may be discharged; a porthole; also, the shutters which close such an opening. Her ports being within sixteen inches of the water. Sir W. Raleigh.

Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter; bother. [Written also potter, and pudder.] "What a pother and stir!" Oldham. "Coming on with a terrible pother." Wordsworth.

A division of butterflies including the satyrs.

To utter foolishly; to speak without reason or purpose; to chatter, or babble. What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate ! Dryden.

To talk much and idly; to prate; hence, to talk lightly and artlessly, like a child; to utter child's talk.

To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue. That Cristes gospel truly wolde preche. Chaucer. The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Isa. lxi. 1.

Contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; utterly and glaringly foolish; unreasonably absurd; perverted. "Most preposterous conclusions." Shak. Preposterous ass, that never read so far! Shak.

To form or utter a prediction; -- sometimes used with of. Dryden.

ngements; a previous illness. The dull sound . . . previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth. Thomson. Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure. -- Previous to, before; -- often used adverbially for previously. "Previous to publication." M. Arnold. "A policy . . .…

allows. Chaucer. The season pricketh every gentle heart. Chaucer. My duty pricks me on to utter that. Shak.

A stamp or die for molding or impressing an ornamental design upon an object; as, a butter print.

To shape the outline of an object by passing a cutter around it. Profiling machine, a jigging machine.

An American butterfly (Polygonia, or Vanessa, Progne). It is orange and black above, grayish beneath, with an L-shaped silver mark on the hind wings. Called also gray comma.