Search the Dictionary

f foil and wire for many purposes. Specific gravity 21.5. Atomic weight 194.3. Symbol Pt. Formerly called platina. Platinum black (Chem.), a soft, dull black powder, consisting of finely divided metallic platinum obtained by reduction and precipitation from its solutions. It absorbs oxygen to a high degree, and is empl…

Formerly, a body of men who fired together; also, a small square body of soldiers to strengthen the angles of a hollow square.

uitable for storing. [U. S.] -- Mackerel plow. See under Mackerel. -- Plow alms, a penny formerly paid by every plowland to the church. Cowell. -- Plow beam, that part of the frame of a plow to which the draught is applied. See Beam, n., 9. -- Plow Monday, the Monday after Twelth Day, or the end of Christmas holiday…

An adjustable staff formerly attached to the plow beam to determine the depth of the furrow. Piers Plowman.

A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant language, the sum of £100,000 sterling; also, the person possessing it. Plum bird, Plum budder (Zoöl.), the European bullfinch. -- Plum gouger (Zoöl.), a weevil, or curculio (Coccotorus scutellaris), which destroys plums. It makes round holes in the pulp, for the recep…

A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing. Plummet line, a line with a plummet; a sounding line.

A bag pudding; a name of reproach or ridicule formerly applied by the Scotch to the English.

A prickly tropical shrub (Cæsalpinia, formerly Poinciana, pulcherrima), with bipinnate leaves, and racemes of showy orange-red flowers with long crimson filaments.

A small stick or rod of steel, formerly used in adjusting the plaits of ruffs. Shak.

The coloring matter of saffron; -- formerly so called because of the change of color on treatment with certain acids; -- called also crocin, and safranin.

m; specifically, a substance produced from another substance by chemical polymerization. [Formerly also written polymere.]

The closely related Teucrium montanum, formerly called Polium montanum, a plant of Southern Europe.

A machine consisting of many pulleys; specifically, an apparatus formerly used for reducing luxations.

A box to contain such perfume, formerly carried by ladies, as at the end of a chain; -- more properly pomander box. [Obs.] Bacon.

The ball formerly used to ink the type.

A Portuguese gold coin formerly current, and variously estimated to be worth from three and one half to four and one half pounds sterling. [Obs.] [Written also portegue and portigue.] Ten thousand portagues, besides great pearls. Marlowe.

Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.

f a voltaic battery attached to the plate that is not attacked by the exciting liquid; -- formerly called vitreous electricity; -- opposed to Ant: negative electricity. -- Positive eyepiece. See under Eyepiece. -- Positive law. See Municipal law, under Law. -- Positive motion (Mach.), motion which is derived from a…

composed of hot milk curdled by some strong infusion, as by wine, etc., -- much in favor formerly. "I have drugged their posset." Shak.

a ceremonial distribution by a man of gifts to his own and neighboring tribesmen, often, formerly, to his own impoverishment. Feasting, dancing, and public ceremonies accompany it.