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To search; to feel one's way, as in the dark; to grope; as, to poke about. A man must have poked into Latin and Greek. Prior.

A game at cards derived from brag, and first played about 1835 in the Southwestern United States. Johnson's Cyc.

adapted to excite fear; as, a pokerish place. [Colloq. U. S.] There is something pokerish about a deserted dwelling. Lowell.

s, each at a distance from a pole of the earth equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, or about 23º 28', the northern called the arctic circle, and the southern the antarctic circle. -- Polar clock, a tube, containing a polarizing apparatus, turning on an axis parallel to that of the earth, and indicating the hour of…

pposite points in the celestial sphere which coincide with the earth's axis produced, and about which the heavens appear to revolve.

ery. When we say that two men are talking politics, we often mean that they are wrangling about some mere party question. F. W. Robertson.

A Russian weight, equal to forty Russian pounds or about thirty-six English pounds avoirdupois.

A species of shark (Lamna cornubica), about eight feet long, having a pointed nose and a crescent-shaped tail; -- called also mackerel shark. [Written also probeagle.]

To push; to dash; to throw. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] A cat . . . possed them [the rats] about. Piers Plowman.

belonging to a period subsequent to the Babylonian captivity or exile (b. c. 597 or about 586-about 537).

trifles; to labor with little purpose, energy, of effect; to trifle; to pother. Pottering about the Mile End cottages. Mrs. Humphry Ward.

ation of money of account, equivalent to twenty shillings sterling, and equal in value to about $4.86. There is no coin known by this name, but the gold sovereign is of the same value.

second, causes it to acquire by the of that time a velocity of one foot per second. It is about equal to the weight of half an ounce, and is 13,825 dynes.

Zoöl.), a tuft or patch of powder-down feathers. -- Powder hose, a tube of strong linen, about an inch in diameter, filled with powder and used in firing mines. Farrow. -- Powder hoy (Naut.), a vessel specially fitted to carry powder for the supply of war ships. They are usually painted red and carry a red flag. --…

A division of birds including those whose young are able to run about when first hatched.

ple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.

To walk or strut about in a pompous, showy manner, or with warlike parade. Swift.

annually, caused by the action of the sun, moon, and planets, upon the protuberant matter about the earth's equator, in connection with its diurnal rotation; -- so called because either equinox, owing to its westerly motion, comes to the meridian sooner each day than the point it would have occupied without the motion…

of choosing; as, to give him his preference. Leave the critics on either side to contend about the preference due to this or that sort of poetry. Dryden. Knowledge of things alone gives a value to our reasonings, and preference of one man's knowledge over another's. Locke.

A preliminary inquiry and determination about something which belongs to a matter in dispute.