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A right belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more, -- one before and one behind the mast. By charter of Edward I. butlerage was substituted for this. Blackstone.

Belonging to the earliest period or state; original; primitive; primeval; as, the pristine state of innocence; the pristine manners of a people; pristine vigor.

Belonging to, or concerning, an individual person, company, or interest; peculiar to one's self; unconnected with others; personal; one's own; not public; not general; separate; as, a man's private opinion; private property; a private purse; private expenses or interests; a private secretary.

Of or belonging to a probate, or court of probate; as, a probate record. Probate Court, or Court of Probate, a court for the probate of wills. -- Probate duty, a government tax on property passing by will. [Eng.]

The act of lengthening out or prolonging.

Of or pertaining to the proletaries; belonging to the commonalty; hence, mean; vile; vulgar. "Every citizen, if he were not a proletarian animal kept at the public cost." De Quincey. -- n.

Any one of several species of very brilliant birds belonging to Promerops, Epimarchus, and allied genera, closely related to the paradise birds, and mostly native of New Guinea. They have a long curved beak and a long graduated tail.

Belonging to, or partaking of the nature of, a pronoun.

Belonging to one; one's own; individual. "His proper good" [i. e., his own possessions]. Chaucer. "My proper son." Shak. Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, Betwixt true valor and an empty boast. Dryden.

Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as property; owned; as, proprietary medicine. Proprietary articles, manufactured articles which some person or persons have exclusive right to make and sell. U. S. Statutes.

Drawing out or lengthening in time; prolonging; continuing; delaying. He suffered their protractive arts. Dryden.

A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.

Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; -- opposed to private; as, the public treasury. To the public good Private respects must yield. Milton. He [Alexander Hamilton] touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet. D.…

The quality or state of belonging to the community; as, the publicness of property. Boyle.

A hog. Puerco beds (Geol.), a name given to certain strata belonging to the earliest Eocene. They are developed in Northwestern New Mexico, along the Rio Puerco, and are characterized by their mammalian remains.

se, especially one in a public journal. Puff adder. (Zoöl.) (a) Any South African viper belonging to Clotho and allied genera. They are exceedingly venomous, and have the power of greatly distending their bodies when irritated. The common puff adder (Vipera, or Clotho, arietans) is the largest species, becoming over fo…

Of or belonging to points of division; relating to punctuation. The punctuative intonation of feeble cadence. Rush.

The strata of the Purbeck stone, or Purbeck limestone, belonging to the Oölitic group. See the Chart of Geology.

without one. -- Puss moth (Zoöl.), any one of several species of stout bombycid moths belonging to Cerura, Harpyia, and allied genera, esp. Harpyia vinuli, of Europe. The larvæ are humpbacked, and have two caudal appendages.

Any fossil fish belonging to the Pycnodontini. They have numerous round, flat teeth, adapted for crushing.