Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter P - Page 70

Pitchy (a.) Partaking of the qualities of pitch; resembling pitch.

Pitchy (a.) Smeared with pitch.

Pitchy (a.) Black; pitch-dark; dismal.

Piteous (a.) Pious; devout.

Piteous (a.) Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender.

Piteous (a.) Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case.

Piteous (a.) Paltry; mean; pitiful.

Pitfall (n.) A pit deceitfully covered to entrap wild beasts or men; a trap of any kind.

Pitfalling (a.) Entrapping; insnaring.

Pith (n.) The soft spongy substance in the center of the stems of many plants and trees, especially those of the dicotyledonous or exogenous classes. It consists of cellular tissue.

Pith (n.) The spongy interior substance of a feather.

Pith (n.) The spinal cord; the marrow.

Pith (n.) Hence: The which contains the strength of life; the vital or essential part; concentrated force; vigor; strength; importance; as, the speech lacked pith.

Pith (v. t.) To destroy the central nervous system of (an animal, as a frog), as by passing a stout wire or needle up and down the vertebral canal.

Pitheci (n. pl.) A division of mammals including the apes and monkeys. Sometimes used in the sense of Primates.

Pithecoid (a.) Of or pertaining to the genus Pithecia, or subfamily Pithecinae, which includes the saki, ouakari, and other allied South American monkeys.

Pithecoid (a.) Of or pertaining to the anthropoid apes in particular, or to the higher apes of the Old World, collectively.

Pithful (a.) Full of pith.

Pithily (adv.) In a pithy manner.

Pithiness (n.) The quality or state of being pithy.

Pithless (a.) Destitute of pith, or of strength; feeble.

Pit-hole (n.) A pit; a pockmark.

Pithsome (a.) Pithy; robust.

Pithy (superl.) Consisting wholly, or in part, of pith; abounding in pith; as, a pithy stem; a pithy fruit.

Pithy (superl.) Having nervous energy; forceful; cogent.

Pitiable (a.) Deserving pity; wworthy of, or exciting, compassion; miserable; lamentable; piteous; as, pitiable persons; a pitiable condition; pitiable wretchedness.

Pitier (n.) One who pities.

Pitiful (a.) Full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind; merciful; sympathetic.

Pitiful (a.) Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion.

Pitiful (a.) To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable.

Pitiless (a.) Destitute of pity; hard-hearted; merciless; as, a pitilessmaster; pitiless elements.

Pitiless (a.) Exciting no pity; as, a pitiless condition.

Pitmen (pl. ) of Pitman

Pitman (n.) One who works in a pit, as in mining, in sawing timber, etc.

Pitman (n.) The connecting rod in a sawmill; also, sometimes, a connecting rod in other machinery.

Pitot's tube () A bent tube used to determine the velocity of running water, by placing the curved end under water, and observing the height to which the fluid rises in the tube; a kind of current meter.

Pitpan (n.) A long, flat-bottomed canoe, used for the navigation of rivers and lagoons in Central America.

Pitpat (n. & adv.) See Pitapat.

Pitta (n.) Any one of a large group of bright-colored clamatorial birds belonging to Pitta, and allied genera of the family Pittidae. Most of the species are varied with three or more colors, such as blue, green, crimson, yellow, purple, and black. They are called also ground thrushes, and Old World ant thrushes; but they are not related to the true thrushes.

Pittacal (n.) A dark blue substance obtained from wood tar. It consists of hydrocarbons which when oxidized form the orange-yellow eupittonic compounds, the salts of which are dark blue.

Pittance (n.) An allowance of food bestowed in charity; a mess of victuals; hence, a small charity gift; a dole.

Pittance (n.) A meager portion, quantity, or allowance; an inconsiderable salary or compensation.

Pitted (a.) Marked with little pits, as in smallpox. See Pit, v. t., 2.

Pitted (v. t.) Having minute thin spots; as, pitted ducts in the vascular parts of vegetable tissue.

Pitter (n.) A contrivance for removing the pits from peaches, plums, and other stone fruit.

Pitter (v. i.) To make a pattering sound; to murmur; as, pittering streams.

Pittle-pattle (v. i.) To talk unmeaningly; to chatter or prattle.

Pituitary (a.) Secreting mucus or phlegm; as, the pituitary membrane, or the mucous membrane which lines the nasal cavities.

Pituitary (a.) Of or pertaining to the pituitary body; as, the pituitary fossa.

Pituite (n.) Mucus, phlegm.

Pituitous (a.) Consisting of, or resembling, pituite or mucus; full of mucus; discharging mucus.

Pities (pl. ) of Pity

Pity (n.) Piety.

Pity (n.) A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.

Pity (n.) A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.

Pitied (imp. & p. p.) of Pity

Pitying (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pity

Pity (v. t.) To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.

Pity (v. t.) To move to pity; -- used impersonally.

Pity (v. i.) To be compassionate; to show pity.

Pitying (a.) Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.

Pityriasis (n.) A superficial affection of the skin, characterized by irregular patches of thin scales which are shed in branlike particles.

Pityroid (a.) Having the form of, or resembling, bran.

Piu (adv.) A little more; as, piu allegro, a little more briskly.

Pivot (n.) A fixed pin or short axis, on the end of which a wheel or other body turns.

Pivot (n.) The end of a shaft or arbor which rests and turns in a support; as, the pivot of an arbor in a watch.

Pivot (n.) Hence, figuratively: A turning point or condition; that on which important results depend; as, the pivot of an enterprise.

Pivot (n.) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place whike the company or line moves around him in wheeling; -- called also pivot man.

Pivoted (imp. & p. p.) of Pivot

Pivoting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pivot

Pivot (v. t.) To place on a pivot.

Pivotal (a.) Of or pertaining to a pivot or turning point; belonging to, or constituting, a pivot; of the nature of a pivot; as, the pivotalopportunity of a career; the pivotal position in a battle.

Pix (n. & v.) See Pyx.

Pixies (pl. ) of Pixie

Pixy (n.) Alt. of Pixie

Pixie (n.) An old English name for a fairy; an elf.

Pixie (n.) A low creeping evergreen plant (Pyxidanthera barbulata), with mosslike leaves and little white blossoms, found in New Jersey and southward, where it flowers in earliest spring.

Pixy-led (a.) Led by pixies; bewildered.

Pizzicato () A direction to violinists to pluck the string with the finger, instead of using the bow. (Abrev. pizz.)

Pizzle (n.) The penis; -- so called in some animals, as the bull.

Placability (n.) The quality or state of being placable or appeasable; placable disposition.

Placable (a.) Capable of being appeased or pacified; ready or willing to be pacified; willing to forgive or condone.

Placableness (n.) The quality of being placable.

Placard (n.) A public proclamation; a manifesto or edict issued by authority.

Placard (n.) Permission given by authority; a license; as, to give a placard to do something.

Placard (n.) A written or printed paper, as an advertisement or a declaration, posted, or to be posted, in a public place; a poster.

Placard (n.) An extra plate on the lower part of the breastplate or backplate.

Placard (n.) A kind of stomacher, often adorned with jewels, worn in the fifteenth century and later.

Placarded (imp. & p. p.) of Placard

Placarding (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Placard

Placard (v. t.) To post placards upon or within; as, to placard a wall, to placard the city.

Placard (v. t.) To announce by placards; as, to placard a sale.

Placate (n.) Same as Placard, 4 & 5.

Placated (imp. & p. p.) of Placate

Placating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Placate

Placate (v. t.) To appease; to pacify; to concilate.

Placation (n.) The act of placating.

Place (n.) Any portion of space regarded as measured off or distinct from all other space, or appropriated to some definite object or use; position; ground; site; spot; rarely, unbounded space.

Place (n.) A broad way in a city; an open space; an area; a court or short part of a street open only at one end.

Place (n.) A position which is occupied and held; a dwelling; a mansion; a village, town, or city; a fortified town or post; a stronghold; a region or country.

[previous page] [Index] [next page]