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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



888 words match “WEST”

POETS' CORNER n.
An angle in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, London; -- so called because it contains the tombs of Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Gray, Tennyson, Browning, and other English poets, and memorials to many buried elsewhere.
POISON n.
n of sin. Poison ash. (Bot.) (a) A tree of the genus Amyris (A. balsamifera) found in the West Indies, from the trunk of which a black liquor distills, supposed to have poisonous qualities. (b) The poison sumac (Rhus venenata). [U. S.] -- Poison dogwood (Bot.), poison sumac. -- Poison fang (Zoöl.), one of the superior…
POKER n.
A game at cards derived from brag, and first played about 1835 in the Southwestern United States. Johnson's Cyc.
PONENT a.
Western; occidental. [R.] Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds. Milton.
POOR-WILL n.
A bird of the Western United States (Phalænoptilus Nutalli) allied to the whip-poor-will.
PORCUPINE n.
-pointed and barbellate grain into the wool and flesh of sheep. It is found from Illinois westward. See Illustration in Appendix. -- Porcupine wood (Bot.), the hard outer wood of the cocoa palm; -- so called because, when cut horizontally, the markings of the wood resemble the quills of a porcupine.…
PORKWOOD n.
coarse-grained brownish yellow wood of a small tree (Pisonia obtusata) of Florida and the West Indies. Also called pigeon wood, beefwood, and corkwood.
POTATO n.
pomoea Pes-Capræ, a kind of morning-glory with rounded and emarginate or bilobed leaves. [West Indies] -- Sweet potato (Bot.), a climbing plant (Ipomoea Balatas) allied to the morning-glory. Its farinaceous tubers have a sweetish taste, and are used, when cooked, for food. It is probably a native of Brazil, but is cult…
POTLATCH n. 2 definitions
Among the Kwakiutl, Chimmesyan, and other Indians of the northwestern coast of North America, a ceremonial distribution by a man of gifts to his own and neighboring tribesmen, often, formerly, to his own impoverishment. Feasting, dancing, and public ceremonies accompany it.
POTTING n.
The process of putting sugar in casks for cleansing and draining. [West Indies] B. Edwards.
POTTO n.
A nocturnal mammal (Perodictius potto) of the Lemur family, found in West Africa. It has rudimentary forefingers. Called also aposoro, and bush dog.
PRAIRIE n.
plant (Silphium terebinthaceum) with large rough leaves and yellow flowers, found in the Western prairies. -- Prairie dog (Zoöl.), a small American rodent (Cynomys Ludovicianus) allied to the marmots. It inhabits the plains west of the Mississippi. The prairie dogs burrow in the ground in large warrens, and have a sh…
PRECESSION n.
n connection with its diurnal rotation; -- so called because either equinox, owing to its westerly motion, comes to the meridian sooner each day than the point it would have occupied without the motion of precession, and thus precedes that point continually with reference to the time of transit and motion.…
PRICKLY a.
The common species of the Northern Atlantic States is Opuntia vulgaris. In the South and West are many others, and in tropical America more than a hundred more. O. vulgaris, O. Ficus-Indica, and O. Tuna are abundantly introduced in the Mediterranean region, and O. Dillenii has become common in India. -- Prickly pole…
PRIME a. 2 definitions
, 11. -- Prime vertical (Astron.), the vertical circle which passes through the east and west points of the horizon. -- Prime-vertical dial, a dial in which the shadow is projected on the plane of the prime vertical. -- Prime-vertical transit instrument, a transit instrument the telescope of which revolves in the pl…
PRIMITIVE a.
stem, to which they are afterward referred. -- Primitive chord (Mus.), that chord, the lowest note of which is of the same literal denomination as the fundamental base of the harmony; -- opposed to derivative. Moore (Encyc. of Music). -- Primitive circle (Spherical Projection), the circle cut from the sphere to be pr…
PRIMORDIAL a.
Of or pertaining to the lowest beds of the Silurian age, corresponding to the Acadian and Potsdam periods in American geology. It is called also Cambrian, and by many geologists is separated from the Silurian.
PRIMUM MOBILE n.
ry with it all the inclosed spheres with their planets in a daily revolution from east to west. See Crystalline heavens, under Crystalline. The motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be, as the motions of the planets, under primum mobile. Bacon.
PROCESSION n.
Son, the Eastern Church affirming that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only, and the Western Church that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Shipley. -- Procession week, a name for Rogation week, when processions were made; Cross-week. Shipley.
PROLETARY n.
A citizen of the lowest class, who served the state, not with property, but only by having children; hence, a common person.
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