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Preceding the systole or contraction of the heart; as, the presystolic friction sound.

omething else; antecedent; prior; as, previous arrangements; 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. "P…

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

s. cxlii. 7. The tyrant Æolus, . . . With power imperial, curbs the struggling winds, And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds. Dryden.

ly; to speak out or distinctly; to utter, as words or syllables; to speak with the proper sound and accent as, adults rarely learn to pronounce a foreign language correctly.

The act of uttering with articulation; the act of giving the proper sound and accent; utterance; as, the pronunciation of syllables of words; distinct or indistinct pronunciation.

To cause to spread to extend; to impel or continue forward in space; as, to propagate sound or light.

ading abroad, or extension, of anything; diffusion; dissemination; as, the propagation of sound; the propagation of the gospel. Bacon.

sight and hearing remain unimpaired, the mind fails to appreciate the significance of the sounds heard or the images seen. -- Psychical contagion, the transference of disease, especially of a functional nervous disease, by mere force of example. -- Psychical medicine, that department of medicine which treats of menta…

To make a low whistling sound; to chirp, as birds. Halliwell.

; to fill in or spread with mortar, as a floor or partition, for the purpose of deadening sound. See Pugging, 2.

ke, laid between the joists under the boards of a floor, or within a partition, to deaden sound; -- in the United States usually called deafening.

A stroke or impulse by which some medium is affected, as in the propagation of sounds.

any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement. The measured pulse of racing oars. Tennyson. When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air, which makes the eardrum and t…

A play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation. Addison. A better put on this word was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and Rich gay. Walpole.…

To utter a low, murmuring, continued sound, as a cat does when pleased. [Written also purr.]

Of a single, simple sound or tone; -- said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants. Pure-impure, completely or totally impure. "The inhabitants were pure-impure pagans." Fuller. -- Pure blue. (Chem.) See Methylene blue, under Methylene. -- Pure chemistry. See under Chemistry. -- Pure mathematics, that portion…

all stream flowing among stones or other obstructions; to eddy; also, to make a murmuring sound, as water does in running over or through obstructions. Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, Louder and louder purl the falling rills. Pope.

The low murmuring sound made by a cat; pur. See Pur.

, the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound (that of k), and is always followed by u, the two letters together being sounded like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent. See Guide to Pronunciation, § 249. Q is not found in Anglo-Saxon, cw being used instead of qu; as in cwic, quick; c…