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e refreshment and accommodation of travelers on some recognized route; as, a stage or railway post.

ect to precedence, preference, value, or importance. All other considerations should give way and be postponed to this. Locke.

To thrust; to push. [Obs.] "I 'll potch at him some way." Shak.

To punch; to perforate; to stamp holes in, or dots on, by way of ornament. [Obs.] Sir T. Elyot.

1. In a practical way; not theoretically; really; as, to look at things practically; practically worthless.

To apply theoretical science or knowledge, esp. by way of experiment; to exercise or pursue an employment or profession, esp. that of medicine or of law. [I am] little inclined to practice on others, and as little that others should practice on me. Sir W. Temple.

habit or manner. The next day . . . I began to be very pragmatical. Evelyn. We can not always be contemplative, diligent, or pragmatical, abroad; but have need of some delightful intermissions. Milton. Low, pragmatical, earthly views of the gospel. Hare.

form an opinion of, beforehand; to form a previous notion or idea of. In a dead plain the way seemeth the longer, because the eye hath preconceived it shorter than the truth. Bacon.

To conform by way anticipation. De Quincey.

In a prefatory manner; by way of preface.

In a prelusory way.

That which makes ready, prepares the way, or introduces; a preparatory act or measure. I will show what preparations there were in nature for this dissolution. T. Burnet.

That which is done in the way of preparation. "Necessary preparatives for our voyage." Dryden.

By way of preparation.

Preparing the way for anything by previous measures of adaptation; antecedent and adapted to what follows; introductory; preparative; as, a preparatory school; a preparatory condition.

To move on with urging and crowding; to make one's way with violence or effort; to bear onward forcibly; to crowd; to throng; to encroach. They pressed upon him for to touch him. Mark iii. 10.

The act of anticipating another's wishes, desires, etc., in the way of favor or courtesy; hence, civility; obligingness. [Obs.] Sterne.

ate nuisance or wrong. See Nuisance. -- Private soldier. See Private, n., 5. -- Private way, a right of private passage over another man's ground. Kent.

Preface; introduction; preliminary observations; prelude. Thus much may serve by way of proem. Swift.

Improving; as, art is in a progressive state. Progressive euchre or whist, a way of playing at card parties, by which after every game, the losers at the first table go to the last table, and the winners at all the tables, except the first, move up to the next table. -- Progressive muscular atrophy (Med.), a nervous d…