PARTRIDGE n. 3 definitions
pens) of the order Rubiaceæ, having roundish evergreen leaves, and white fragrant flowers sometimes tinged with purple, growing in pairs with the ovaries united, and producing the berries which remain over winter; also, the plant itself. (b) The fruit of the creeping wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); also, the plant…
PEARL n. 16 definitions
hell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Pearls which are round, or nearly round, and of…
PECTORAL a. 7 definitions
side. -- Pectorial cross (Eccl.), a cross worn on the breast by bishops and abbots, and sometimes also by canons. -- Pectorial fins, or Pectorials (Zoöl.), fins situated on the sides, behind the gills. See Illust. under Fin. -- Pectorial rail. (Zoöl.) See Land rail (b) under Land. -- Pectorial sandpiper (Zoöl.), t…
PEMMICAN n. 2 definitions
ut the fat, cut in thin slices, dried in the sun, pounded, then mixed with melted fat and sometimes dried fruit, and compressed into cakes or in bags. It contains much nutriment in small compass, and is of great use in long voyages of exploration.
PEOPLE n. 7 definitions
number of men and women; folks; population, or part of population; as, country people; -- sometimes used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in German; as, people in adversity. People were tempted to lend by great premiums. Swift . People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water. Arbu…
PER prep.
rding to individuals; per curiam, by the court; per se, by itself, of itself. Per is also sometimes used with English words. Per annum, by the year; in each successive year; annually. -- Per cent, Per centum, by the hundred; in the hundred; -- used esp. of proportions of ingredients, rate or amount of interest, and th…
PERIGEE; PERIGEUM n.
in the orbit of the moon which is nearest to the earth; -- opposed to Ant: apogee. It is sometimes, but rarely, used of the nearest points of other orbits, as of a comet, a planet, etc. Called also epigee, epigeum.