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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



240 words match “POPULAR”

OSTRACISM n.
Banishment by popular vote, -- a means adopted at Athens to rid the city of a person whose talent and influence gave umbrage.
OSTRACIZE v.
To exile by ostracism; to banish by a popular vote, as at Athens. Grote.
OVAL a. 2 definitions
ear, with one end broader than the other, or with both ends of about the same breadth; in popular usage, elliptical.
OVATION n.
Hence: An expression of popular homage; the tribute of the multitude to a public favorite. To rain an April of ovation round Their statues. Tennyson.
OYSTER n.
A name popularly given to the delicate morsel contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl. Fresh-water oyster (Zoöl.), any species of the genus Etheria, and allied genera, found in rivers of Africa and South America. They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to r…
PARALLELOGRAM n.
re, whose opposite sides are parallel, and consequently equal; -- sometimes restricted in popular usage to a rectangle, or quadrilateral figure which is longer than it is broad, and with right angles. Parallelogram of velocities, forces, accelerations, momenta, etc. (Mech.), a parallelogram the diagonal of which repres…
PARODY n.
A popular maxim, adage, or proverb. [Obs.]
PASPY n.
A kind of minuet, in triple time, of French origin, popular in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and for some time after; -- called also passing measure, and passymeasure. Percy Smith.
PEA n.
, much cultivated for food. It has a papilionaceous flower, and the pericarp is a legume, popularly called a pod.
PENDANT n.
her ear. Pope. Many . . . have been pleased with this work and its pendant, the Tales and Popular Fictions. Keightley.
PETRIFACTION n.
That which is petrified; popularly, a body incrusted with stony matter; an incrustation.
PHRENOLOGY n.
In popular usage, the physiological hypothesis of Gall, that the mental faculties, and traits of character, are shown on the surface of the head or skull; craniology.
PIAZZA n.
hence (Arch.), an arcaded and roofed gallery; a portico. In the United States the word is popularly applied to a veranda. We walk by the obelisk, and meditate in piazzas. Jer. Taylor.
PILGRIM a.
m, or pilgrims; making pilgrimages. "With pilgrim steps." Milton. Pilgrim fathers, a name popularly given to the one hundred and two English colonists who landed from the Mayflower and made the first settlement in New England at Plymouth in
PILLAR n.
The general and popular term for a firm, upright, insulated support for a superstructure; a pier, column, or post; also, a column or shaft not supporting a superstructure, as one erected for a monument or an ornament. Jacob set a pillar upon her grave. Gen. xxxv. 20. The place . . . vast and proud, Supported by a hundr…
PINK a.
e color called pink (see 6th Pink, 2); as, a pink dress; pink ribbons. Pink eye (Med.), a popular name for an epidemic variety of ophthalmia, associated with early and marked redness of the eyeball. -- Pink salt (Chem. & Dyeing), the double chlorides of (stannic) tin and ammonium, formerly much used as a mordant for m…
PLAUSIBLE a.
pecious; as, a plausible pretext; plausible manners; a plausible delusion. "Plausible and popular arguments." Clarendon.
PLEBIFICATION n.
A rendering plebeian; the act of vulgarizing. [R.] You begin with the attempt to popularize learning . . . but you will end in the plebification of knowledge. Coleridge.
PLEBISCITE n. 2 definitions
A vote by universal male suffrage; especially, in France, a popular vote, as first sanctioned by the National Constitution of
POLICE POWER n.
rights when such exercise becomes a danger to the community. The tendency of judicial and popular usage is towards this narrower definition.
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