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One who pays; specifically, the person by whom a bill or note has been, or should be, paid.

line reaction. It is obtained by lixiviating wood ashes, and evaporating the lye, and has been an important source of potassium compounds. It is used in making soap, glass, etc.

ent; embezzlement. Every British subject . . . active in the discovery of peculations has been ruined. Burke.

or addition, as to a book. Some hang upon the pendants of her ear. Pope. Many . . . have been pleased with this work and its pendant, the Tales and Popular Fictions. Keightley.

comet (Astron.), a comet that moves about the sun in an elliptic orbit; a comet that has been seen at two of its approaches to the sun. -- Periodic function (Math.), a function whose values recur at fixed intervals as the variable uniformly increases. The trigonomertic functions, as sin x, tan x, etc., are periodic f…

her; mutual transference; interchange. The violent convulsions and permutations that have been made in property. Burke.

A silk-producing moth (Attacus Pernyi) which feeds upon the oak. It has been introduced into Europe and America from China.

rd. The fruit is like a plum in appearance, but is very harsh and astringent until it has been exposed to frost, when it becomes palatable and nutritious. Japanese persimmon, Diospyros Kaki and its red or yellow edible fruit, which outwardly resembles a tomato, but contains a few large seeds.

The state of being persuaded or convinced; settled opinion or conviction, which has been induced. If the general persuasion of all men does so account it. Hooker. My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes, That Heaven will weigh man's virtues and his crimes With nice attention. Cowper.

One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error, especially in religion; -- opposed to convert. See the Synonym of Convert. That notorious pervert, Henry of Navarre. Thackeray.

plank, to be exploded against and break down gates, barricades, drawbridges, etc. It has been superseded.

cause the black spots, one on each side, behind the gills, are traditionally said to have been caused by the fingers of St. Peter, when he caught the fish to pay the tribute. The name is applied, also, to other fishes having similar spots.

of the sun, in doing which his want of skill would have set the world on fire, had he not been struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter, and hurled headlong into the river Po.

A rare and doubtful metallic element said to have been discovered in the mineral samarskite.

ancient Greek modes, very bold and vehement in style; -- so called because fabled to have been invented by the Phrygian Marsyas. Moore (Encyc. of Music). -- Phrygian stone, a light, spongy stone, resembling a pumice, -- used by the ancients in dyeing, and said to be drying and astringent.

A close-fitting cap represented in Greek art as worn by Orientals, assumed to have been conical in shape. It has been adopted in modern art as the so-called liberty cap, or cap of liberty.

A gelatin in which the algæ spores have been supposed to vegetate.

Any article of food which has been preserved in brine or in vinegar.

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 task easily accomplished.…

A plant (Ranunculus Ficaria of Linnæus) whose tuberous roots have been used in poultices as a specific for the piles. Forsyth.