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lot balloon, a small balloon sent up in advance of a large one, to show the direction and force of the wind. -- Pilot bird. (Zoöl.) (a) A bird found near the Caribbee Islands; - - so called because its presence indicates to mariners their approach to these islands. Crabb. (b) The black-bellied plover. [Local, U.S.] --…

To act with pressing force; to compress; to squeeze; as, the shoe pinches."

ce or value. [Obs.] Shak. Pitched battle, a general battle; a battle in which the hostile forces have fixed positions; -- in distinction from a skirmish. -- To pitch into, to attack; to assault; to abuse. [Slang]

Hence: The which contains the strength of life; the vital or essential part; concentrated force; vigor; strength; importance; as, the speech lacked pith. Enterprises of great pith and moment. Shak. Pith paper. Same as Rice paper, under Rice.

Having nervous energy; forceful; cogent. This pithy speech prevailed, and all agreed. Dryden. In all these Goodman Fact was very short, but pithy. Addison. Pithy gall (Zoöl.), a large, rough, furrowed, oblong gall, formed on blackberry canes by a small gallfly (Diastrophus nebulosus).

ng is effected. -- Plastic foods. (Physiol.) See the second Note under Food. -- Plastic force. (Physiol.) See under Force. -- Plastic operation, an operation in plastic surgery. -- Plastic surgery, that branch of surgery which is concerned with the repair or restoration of lost, injured, or deformed parts of the bo…

Plastic force. Dunglison.

An elevated rational and ethical conception of the laws and forces of the universe; sometimes, imaginative or fantastic philosophical notions.

Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart. The will was then ductile and pliant to right reason. South.…

Especially, to pull with sudden force or effort, or to pull off or out from something, with a twitch; to twitch; also, to gather, to pick; as, to pluck feathers from a fowl; to pluck hair or wool from a skin; to pluck grapes. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Milton. E'en children followed, with endearing w…

To take the goods of by force, or without right; to pillage; to spoil; to sack; to strip; to rob; as, to plunder travelers. Nebuchadnezzar plunders the temple of God. South.

rush in; as, he plunged into the river. Also used figuratively; as, to plunge into debt. Forced to plunge naked in the raging sea. Dryden. To plunge into guilt of a murther. Tillotson.

A long solid cylinder, used, instead of a piston or bucket, as a forcer in pumps.

ic theory. Plutonic action (Geol.), the influence of volcanic heat and other subterranean forces under pressure. -- Plutonic rocks (Geol.), granite, porphyry, and some other igneous rocks, supposed to have consolidated from a melted state at a great depth from the surface. Cf. Intrusive rocks, under Intrusive. -- Plu…

alf these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily). Milton. He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter. Addison. The heavy hammers and mallets plied. Longfellow.

An instrument for measuring the amount of force exerted by the lungs in respiration.

To force, drive, or plunge into anything. [Obs.] His horse poching one of his legs into some hollow ground. Sir W. Temple.

e relation between the polar coördinates of every point of the line or surface. -- Polar forces (Physics), forces that are developed and act in pairs, with opposite tendencies or properties in the two elements, as magnetism, electricity, etc. -- Polar hare (Zoöl.), a large hare of Arctic America (Lepus arcticus), whi…

esults in an increase of the resistance, and the setting up of an opposing electro-motive force, both of which tend materially to weaken the current of the battery, or that passing through the cell.

One of the opposite or contrasted parts or directions in which a polar force is manifested; a point of maximum intensity of a force which has two such points, or which has polarity; as, the poles of a magnet; the north pole of a needle.