Search the Dictionary

A basic amido derivative of phloroglucin, having an astringent taste.

found in the Calabar bean (the seed of Physostigma venenosum), and extracted as a white, tasteless, substance, amorphous or crystalline; -- formerly called eserine, with which it was regarded as identical.

The seed of a Brazilian lauraceous tree (Nectandra Puchury) of a taste and smell between those of nutmeg and of sassafras, -- sometimes used medicinally. Called also sassafras nut.

A colorless viscous substance having a bitter-sweet taste.

pirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world. Coleridge. a piece of cake, a task easily accomplished. a piece of work, a disparaging term for a person considered to have an excess of some undesirable quality; esp. difficult or eccentric person. Piece of ass vulgar term for a woman, considered as a partner…

Of or pertaining to Pierides or Muses. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. Pope.

Stimulating to the taste; giving zest; tart; sharp; pungent; as, a piquant anecdote. "As piquant to the tongue as salt." Addison. "Piquant railleries." Gov. of Tongue.

he order Anacardiaceæ, containing a kernel of a pale greenish color, which has a pleasant taste, resembling that of the almond, and yields an oil of agreeable taste and odor; -- called also pistachio nut. It is wholesome and nutritive. The tree grows in Arabia, Persia, Syria, and Sicily. [Written also pistachia.]…

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

artifice. -- To play upon. (a) To make sport of; to deceive. Art thou alive Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight. Shak.

fording pleasure or showing favor; to vouchsafe; to consent. Heavenly stranger, please to taste These bounties. Milton. That he would please 8give me my liberty. Swift.

To practice or perform with diligence; to work at. Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply. Waller.

A poetaster. Swinburne.

Glassmaker's ashes; a kind of potash or pearlash, brought from the Levant and Syria, -- used in the manufacture of fine glass.

es for many uses, or that cures many diseases. [Obs.] Polychrest salt (Old Med. Chem.), potassium sulphate, specifically obtained by fusing niter with sulphur.

See Portass. [Obs.]

A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.] Portal bracing (Bridge Building), a combination of struts and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.

A malt liquor, of a dark color and moderately bitter taste, possessing tonic and intoxicating qualities.

See Portass. [Obs.] Chaucer.

See Portass. [Obs.]