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Most generally received or current; most widely adopted or practiced; also, generally or extensively existing; widespread; prevailing; as, a prevalent observance; prevalent disease. This was the most received and prevalent opinion. Woodward.

er- pressure engine, a steam engine, a hot-air engine, etc. (c) Fig.: The original or the most effective force in any undertaking or work; as, Clarkson was the prime mover in English antislavery agitation. -- Prime number (Arith.), a number which is exactly divisible by no number except itself or unity, as 5, 7, 11.…

rince; grand; august; munificent; magnificent; as, princely virtues; a princely fortune. "Most princely gifts." Shak.

Highest in rank, authority, character, importance, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case. Wisdom is the principal thing. Prov. iv. 7.

One who holds, in opposition to the probabilists, that a man is bound to do that which is most probably right.

deas, by the intervention of proofs whose connection is not constant, but appears for the most part to be so. Locke.

tion forbidding some action; interdict. The law of God, in the ten commandments, consists mostly of prohibitions. Tillotson.

g to Promerops, Epimarchus, and allied genera, closely related to the paradise birds, and mostly native of New Guinea. They have a long curved beak and a long graduated tail.

Antilocapra Americana), native of the plain near the Rocky Mountains. The upper parts are mostly yellowish brown; the under parts, the sides of the head and throat, and the buttocks, are white. The horny sheath of the horns is shed annually. Called also cabrée, cabut, prongbuck, and pronghorned antelope.…

r to any opinion, system, or party. They were possessed of a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree. Burke.

Standing before; -- applied to a gland which is found in the males of most mammals, and is situated at the neck of the bladder where this joins the urethra. -- n.

Of or pertaining to the Proteaceæ, an order of apetalous evergreen shrubs, mostly natives of the Cape of Good Hope or of Australia.

Having the most primitive character; in the earliest form; as, a protomorphic layer of tissue. H. Spencer.

he genus Lagopus, of which numerous species are known. The feet are completely feathered. Most of the species are brown in summer, but turn white, or nearly white, in winter.

A genus of Devonian fossil fishes with winglike appendages. The head and most of the body were covered with large bony plates. See Placodermi.

ight;" -- called also Robin Goodfellow, Friar Rush, Pug, etc. Shak. He meeteth Puck, whom most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall. Drayton.

ts legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. Cowper.

d; to mean; to signify; to import; - - often with an object clause or infinitive. They in most grave and solemn wise unfolded Matter which little purported. Rowe.

The plate of bone which forms the posterior end of the vertebral column in most birds; the plowshare bone; the vomer. It is formed by the union of a number of the last caudal vertebræ, and supports the uropigium.

Any moth of the family Pyralidæ. The species are numerous and mostly small, but some of them are very injurious, as the bee moth, meal moth, hop moth, and clover moth.