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A polishing or grinding implement or instrument.

A polyacoustic instrument.

A musical instrument of ten strings.

An instrument for multiplying copies of a writing; a manifold writer; a copying machine.

Pertaining to, or employed in, polygraphy; as, a polygraphic instrument.

An instrument for measuring or comparing electrial potentials or electro-motive forces.

To strike repeatedly with some heavy instrument; to beat. With cruel blows she pounds her blubbered cheeks. Dryden.

An instrument used for pounding; a pestle.

The degree to which a lens, mirror, or any optical instrument, magnifies; in the telescope, and usually in the microscope, the number of times it multiplies, or augments, the apparent diameter of an object; sometimes, in microscopes, the number of times it multiplies the apparent surface.

An instrument, similar to the phenakistoscope, for presenting to view, or projecting upon a screen, images the natural motions of real objects.

To cause to be preceded; to preface; to introduce; -- used with by or with before the instrumental object. [R.] It is usual to precede hostilities by a public declaration. Kent.

de; to give a prefatory performance; to serve as prelude. The musicians preluded on their instruments. Sir. W. Scott. We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point. Jeffrey.

Present letters or instrument, as a deed of conveyance, a lease, letter of attorney, or other writing; as in the phrase, " Know all men by these presents," that is, by the writing itself, " per has literas praesentes; " -- in this sense, rarely used in the singular.

To squeeze in or with suitable instruments or apparatus, in order to compact, make dense, or smooth; as, to press cotton bales, paper, etc.; to smooth by ironing; as, to press clothes.

That which pricks, penetrates, or punctures; a sharp and slender thing; a pointed instrument; a goad; a spur, etc.; a point; a skewer. Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary. Shak. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts ix. 5.

One who, or that which, pricks; a pointed instrument; a sharp point; a prickle.

ch the shadow is projected on the plane of the prime vertical. -- Prime-vertical transit instrument, a transit instrument the telescope of which revolves in the plane of the prime vertical, -- used for observing the transit of stars over this circle.

One who, or that which, primes; specifically, an instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other capable for igniting a charge of gunpowder.

l prism. Etym: [So called from Wm. Nicol, of Edinburgh, who first proposed it.] (Opt.) An instrument for experiments in polarization, consisting of a rhomb of Iceland spar, which has been bisected obliquely at a certain angle, and the two parts again joined with transparent cement, so that the ordinary image produced b…

A sharp-pointed instrument; also, an eelspear. [Prov. Eng.]