Search the Dictionary

The wood of two small tropical American trees (Hamelia ventricosa, and Cordia gerascanthoides). It is brownish, veined with lighter color.

Imitative of a prince. [R. & Colloq.] Thackeray.

character, importance, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case. Wisdom is the principal thing. Prov. iv. 7.

r; hence, superiority; predominance; high, or the highest, station. Sir P. Sidney. Your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. Jer. xiii. 18. The prerogative and principality above everything else. Jer. Taylor.

In a principal manner; primarily; above all; chiefly; mainly.

The quality of being principal.

Principality; supreme rule. [Obs.] Barrow.

First principles; fundamental beginnings; elements; as. Newton's Principia.

Elementary. [Obs.] Bacon.

Relating to principles or beginnings. [R.] Jer. Taylor.

To begin; to initiate. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.

Analysis into primary or elemental parts. [Archaic] Bacon.

Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. Spenser.

A coxcomb; a pert boy. [Obs.]

A state of complete readiness for action. [Obs.] "War in procinct." Milton.

ity; a portion of an empire or state, esp. one remote from the capital. "Kingdoms and provinces." Shak.

Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.

A word, or a manner of speaking, peculiar to a province or a district remote from the mother country or from the metropolis; a provincial characteristic; hence, narrowness; illiberality. M. Arnold.

One who lives in a province; a provincial.

The quality or state of being provincial; peculiarity of language characteristic of a province. T. Warton.