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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



1,000+ words match “FORMER”

PAGODA n. 3 definitions
A gold or silver coin, of various kinds and values, formerly current in India. The Madras gold pagoda was worth about three and a half rupees.
PAINS n.
r trouble taken; -- plural in form, but used with a singular or plural verb, commonly the former. And all my pains is sorted to no proof. Shak. The pains they had taken was very great. Clarendon. The labored earth your pains have sowed and tilled. Dryden.
PALEOCRYSTIC a.
Of, pertaining to, or derived from, a former glacial formation.
PALINODE n. 2 definitions
An ode recanting, or retracting, a former one; also, a repetition of an ode.
PALLBEARER n.
One of those who attend the coffin at a funeral; -- so called from the pall being formerly carried by them.
PALL-MALL n.
A game formerly common in England, in which a wooden ball was driven with a mallet through an elevated hoop or ring of iron. The name was also given to the mallet used, to the place where the game was played, and to the street, in London, still called Pall Mall. [Written also pail-mail and pell-mell.] Sir K. Digby. Eve…
PALMIC a.
aining to, or derived from, the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi); -- formerly used to designate an acid now called ricinoleic acid. [Obsoles.]
PANEL n. 11 definitions
Formerly, a piece of cloth serving as a saddle; hence, a soft pad beneath a saddletree to prevent chafing.
PANNIER n. 4 definitions
A shield of basket work formerly used by archers as a shelter from the enemy's missiles.
PAPYRUS n. 3 definitions
A tall rushlike plant (Cyperus Papyrus) of the Sedge family, formerly growing in Egypt, and now found in Abyssinia, Syria, Sicily, etc. The stem is triangular and about an inch thick.
PARAFFIN; PARAFFINE n.
t. It is very inert, not being acted upon by most of the strong chemical reagents. It was formerly regarded as a definite compound, but is now known to be a complex mixture of several higher hydrocarbons of the methane or marsh-gas series; hence, by extension, any substance, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, of the sa…
PARAMOUR n. 2 definitions
A lover, of either sex; a wooer or a mistress (formerly in a good sense, now only in a bad one); one who takes the place, without possessing the rights, of a husband or wife; -- used of a man or a woman. The seducer appeared with dauntless front, accompanied by his paramour Macaulay.
PARASITA n. 2 definitions
An artificial group formerly made for parasitic insects, as lice, ticks, mites, etc.
PARGETING n.
Plasterwork; esp.: (a) A kind of decorative plasterwork in raised ornamental figures, formerly used for the internal and external decoration of houses. (b) In modern architecture, the plastering of the inside of flues, intended to give a smooth surface and help the draught.
PARSLEY n.
rsley (Cryptogramme crispa). -- Parsley piert (Bot.), a small herb (Alchemilla arvensis) formerly used as a remedy for calculus.
PARVIS; PARVISE n.
f entrance to, or an inclosed space before, a church; hence, a church porch; -- sometimes formerly used as place of meeting, as for lawyers. Chaucer.
PASSING n. 4 definitions
ll, a tolling of a bell to announce that a soul is passing, or has passed, from its body (formerly done to invoke prayers for the dying); also, a tolling during the passing of a funeral procession to the grave, or during funeral ceremonies. Sir W. Scott. Longfellow.
PAST a. 6 definitions
Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past troubles; past offences. "Past ages." Milton. Past master. See under Master.
PATACHE n.
A tender to a fleet, formerly used for conveying men, orders, or treasure. [Spain & Portugal]
PATRIMONY n. 2 definitions
Formerly, a church estate or endowment. Shipley.
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