Search the Dictionary

To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak.

Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. "That placid aspect and meek regard." Milton. "Sleeping . . . the placid sleep of infancy." Macaulay.

A prize giving to the winner in a contest.

Contentedly, readily. [Obs.] The Romans plausibly did give consent. Shak.

To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball; hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.

To contend; to struggle. [Obs.] Chaucer.

pleasure to; to excite agreeable sensations or emotions in; to make glad; to gratify; to content; to satisfy. I pray to God that it may plesen you. Chaucer. What next I bring shall please thee, be assured. Milton.

To bet heavily and with seeming recklessness on a race, or other contest; in an extended sense, to risk large sums in hazardous speculations. [Cant] Plunging fire (Gun.), firing directed upon an enemy from an elevated position.

The late learners can not so well take the ply. Bacon. Boswell, and others of Goldsmith's contemporaries, . . . did not understand the secret plies of his character. W. Irving. The czar's mind had taken a strange ply, which it retained to the last. Macaulay.

An exclamation expressing contempt or disgust; bah !

imate to the surface; to head; -- said of an abscess. To point at, to treat with scorn or contempt by pointing or directing attention to. -- To point well (Naut.), to sail close to the wind; -- said of a vessel.

Warfare; war; hence, contention; opposition. [Obs.]

The management of a political party; the conduct and contests of parties with reference to political measures or the administration of public affairs; the advancement of candidates to office; in a bad sense, artful or dishonest management to secure the success of political candidates or parties; political trickery. Whe…

One who does not try for honors, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman. [Cambridge Univ., Eng.]

Base; vile; contemptible; cowardly.

Pshaw! pish! nonsense! -- an expression of scorn, dislike, or contempt.

To make light of; to treat with derision or contempt, as if by saying pooh! pooh! [Colloq.] Thackeray.

In rifle shooting, a contest in which each competitor pays a certain sum for every shot he makes, the net proceeds being divided among the winners.

times as a term of endearment, or as an expression of modesty, and sometimes as a word of contempt. And for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray. Shak. Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing. Prior.

; application of knowledge; -- opposed to theory. There are two functions of the soul, -- contemplation and practice. South. There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice; each, to a certain extent, supposes the other; theory is dependent on practice; practice must have preceded theory. Sir W.…