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One who engaged in the contests of the pancratium.

An athletic contest involving both boxing and wrestling.

Nourishment or support from official patronage; as, treasury pap. [Colloq. & Contemptuous]

The head of a person; the top, or crown, of the head. [Now generally used in contempt or ridicule.] His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 16. Fat paunches have lean pate. Shak.

The act or power of calmly or contentedly waiting for something due or hoped for; forbearance. Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Matt. xviii. 29.

Expectant with calmness, or without discontent; not hasty; not overeager; composed. Not patient to expect the turns of fate. Prior.

The belly and its contents; the abdomen; also, the first stomach, or rumen, of ruminants. See Rumen.

To satisfy, or content; specifically, to satisfy (another person) for service rendered, property delivered, etc.; to discharge one's obligation to; to make due return to; to compensate; to remunerate; to recompense; to requite; as, to pay workmen or servants. May no penny ale them pay [i. e., satisfy]. P. Plowman. [She…

Public quiet, order, and contentment in obedience to law.

A small person; a pet; -- sometimes used contemptuously. [Obs.] Shak.

Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.

To pierce into by the mind; to arrive at the inner contents or meaning of, as of a mysterious or difficult subject; to comprehend; to understand. Things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate. Ray.

oduced by the successive contraction of the muscular fibers of their walls, forcing their contents onwards; as, peristaltic movement. -- Per`i*stal"tic*al*ly, adv.

The act of personating, or conterfeiting the person or character of another.

To act as a pettifogger; to use contemptible tricks. De Quincey.

The toes or feet of a pig, -- often used as food; sometimes, in contempt, the human feet. Shak.

on as being of a certain nature or quality; often, but not always, used slightingly or in contempt. "If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him." Sir P. Sidney. Thy mother was a piece of virtue. Shak. His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world. Coleridge. a piece of cake, a ta…

Of or pertaining to the Pietists; hence, in contempt, affectedly or demonstratively religious. Addison.

An exclamation of contempt.

To introduce as an antagonist; to set forward for or in a contest; as, to pit one dog against another.