Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
PIETY — PIN-FETHER
PIETY, n. [L. pietas, from pius, or its root, probably a contracted word.]
1. Piety in principle, is a compound of veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being and love of his character, or veneration accompanied with love; and piety in practice, is the exercise of these affections in obedience to his will and devotion to his service.
Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man.
2. Reverence of parents or friends, accompanied with affection and devotion to their honor and happiness.
PIEZOMETER, n. [Gr. to press, and measure.] An instrument for ascertaining the compressibility of water, and the degree of such compressibility under any given weight.
PIG, n.
1. The young of swine, male or female.
2. An oblong mass of unforged iron, lead or other metal. A pig of lead is the eighth of a fother, or 250 pounds.
PIG, v.t. or i. To bring forth pigs.
PIGEON, n. A fowl of the genus Columba, of several species, as the stock dove, the ring dove, the turtle dove, and the migratory or wild pigeon of America. The domestic pigeon breeds in a box, often attached to a building, called a dovecot or pigeon-house. The wild pigeon builds a nest on a tree in the forest.
PIGEON-FOOT, n. A plant.
PIGEON-HEARTED, a. Timid; easily frightened.
PIGEON-HOLE, n. A little apartment or division in a case for papers.
PIGEON-HOLES, n. An old English game in which balls were rolled through little cavities or arches.
PIGEON-LIVERED, a. Mild in temper; soft; gentle.
PIGEON-PEA, ANGOLA-PEA, n. A plant of the genus Cytisus.
PIGGIN, n. A small wooden vessel with an erect handle, used as a dipper.
PIGHEADED, a. Having a large head; stupid.
PIGHT, pp. pite. Pitched; fixed; determined.
PIGHT, v.t. To pierce.
PIGHTEL, n. A little inclosure. [Local.]
PIGMEAN, a. [from pigmy.] Very small; like a pigmy; as an image of pigmean size.
PIGMENT, n. [L. pigmentum, from the root of pingo, to paint.]
Paint; a preparation used by painters, dyers, etc. to impart colors to bodies.
PIGMY, n. [L. pygmoeus; Gr. the fist.] A dwarf; a person of very small stature; a name applied to a fabled nation said to have been devoured by cranes.
PIGMY, a. Very small in size; mean; feeble; inconsiderable.
PIGNORATION, n. [L. pignero, to pledge.] The act of pledging or pawning.
PIGNORATIVE, a. Pledging; pawning. [Little used.]
PIGNUT, n. [pig and nut.] The ground nut, a plant of the genus Bunium; also, a tree and its fruit of the genus Juglans.
PIGSNEY, n. A word of endearment to a girl. [Little used.]
PIGTAIL, n. [pig and tail.] A cue; the hair of the head tied in the form of a pig’s tail.
1. A small roll of tobacco.
PIGWIDGEON, n. [pig and widgeon.] A fairy; a cant word for any thing very small.
PIKE, n. [This word belongs to a numerous family of words expressing something pointed, or a sharp point, or as verbs, to dart, to thrust, to prick.]
1. A military weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a flat steel head pointed; called the spear. This weapon was formerly used by infantry, but its use is now limited to officers, and it is called a sponton or spontoon. Its use among soldiers is superseded by the bayonet.
2. A fork used in husbandry; but we now use fork or pitchfork.
3. Among turners, the iron sprigs used to fasten any thing to be turned.
4. In ichthyology, a fish of the genus Esox, so named from its long shape or from the form of its snout. It is a fresh water fish, living in deep water and very voracious, but very palatable food.
The pike, the tyrant of the flood.
PIKED, a. Ending in a point; acuminated.
PIKEMAN, n. A soldier armed with a pike.
PIKESTAFF, n. The staff or shaft of a pike.
PIKROLITE, n. [Gr. bitter, and a stone.] A mineral found at Taberg, in Sweden, supposed to be a variety of serpentine.
PILASTER, n. A square column, sometimes insulated; but usually pilasters are set within a wall, projecting only one quarter of their diameter. Their bases, capitals and entablatures have the same parts as those of columns.
PILCH, n. [L. pellis, a skin.] A furred gown or case; something lined with fur. [Not used.]
PILCHARD, n. A fish resembling the herring, but thicker and rounder; the nose is shorter and turns up; the under jaw is shorter; the back more elevated, and the belly less sharp. These fishes appear on the Cornish coast in England, about the middle of July, in immense numbers, and furnish a considerable article of commerce.
PILE, n. [L. pila.]
1. A heap; a mass or collection of things in a roundish or elevated form; as a pile of stones; a pile of bricks; a pile of wood or timber; a pile of ruins.
2. A collection of combustibles for burning a dead body; as a funeral pile.
3. A large building or mass of buildings; an edifice.
The pile o’erlook’d the town and drew the sight.
4. A heap of balls or shot laid in horizontal courses, rising into a pyramidical form.
PILE, n. [L. palus.]
1. A large stake or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building or other superstructure. The stadthouse in Amsterdam is supported by piles.
2. One side of a coin; originally, a punch or puncheon used in stamping figures on coins, and containing the figures to be impressed. Hence the arms-side of a coin is called the pile, and the head the cross, which was formerly in the place of the head. Hence cross and pile.
3. In heraldry, an ordinary in form of a point inverted or a stake sharpened.
PILE, n. [L. pilum.] The head of an arrow.
PILE, n. [L. pilus.] Properly, a hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton and the like; hence, the nap, the fine hairy substance of the surface of cloth.
PILE, v.t. To lay or throw into a heap; to collect many things into a mass; as, to pile wood or stones.
1. To bring into an aggregate; to accumulate; as, to pile quotations or comments.
2. To fill with something heaped.
3. To fill above the brim or top.
4. To break off the awns of threshed barley. [Local.]
PILEATE, PILEATED, a. [L. pileus, a cap.] Having the form of a cap or cover for the head.
PILEMENT, n. An accumulation. [Not used.]
PILER, n. [from pile, a heap.] One who piles or forms a heap.
PILES, n. plu. The hemorrhoids, a disease.
PILEWORM, n. A worm found in piles in Holland.
PILEWORT, n. A plant of the genus Ranunculus.
PILFER, v.i. To steal in small quantities; to practice petty theft; as a boy accustomed to pilfer.
A pilfering hand.
PILFER, v.t. To steal or gain by petty theft; to filch.
He would not pilfer the victory, and the defeat was easy.
PILFERED, pp. Stolen in small parcels.
PILFERER, n. One that pilfers or practices petty theft.
PILFERING, pp. Stealing; practicing petty thefts.
PILFERING, n. Petty theft.
Pilfering was so universal in all the South sea islands, that it was hardly recognized in the moral code of the natives as an offense, much less a crime.
PILFERINGLY, adv. With petty theft; filchingly.
PIL-GARLICK, PILLED-GARLICK, n. [pilled, peeled, and garlick.] One who has lost his hair by disease; a poor forsaken wretch.
PILGRIM, n. [L. peregrinus. Gu. L. peragro, to wander, palor.]
1. A wanderer; a traveler; particularly, one that travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to the remains of dead saints. [See Pilgrimage.]
2. In Scripture, one that has only a temporary residence on earth. Hebrews 11:13.
PILGRIM, v.i. To wander or ramble. [Not used.]
PILGRIMAGE, n. A long journey, particularly a journey to some place deemed sacred and venerable, in order to pay devotion to the relics of some deceased saint. Thus in the middle ages, kings, princes, bishops and others made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, in pious devotion to the Savior. Pilgrims now resort to Loretto, in Italy, to visit the chamber of the blessed virgin, and the Mohammedans make pilgrimages to Mecca, where their prophet was buried.
1. In Scripture, the journey of human life. Genesis 47:9.
2. Time irksomely spent.
PILGRIMIZE, v.i. To wander about as a pilgrim. [Not used.]
PILL, n. [L. pila, a ball; pilula, a little ball.]
1. In pharmacy, a medicine in the form of a little ball or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.
2. Any thing nauseous.
PILL, v.t. To rob; to plunder; to pillage, that is, to peel, to strip. [See Peel, the same word in the proper English orthography.]
PILL, v.i. To be peeled; to come off in flakes.
1. To rob. [See Peel.]
PILLAGE, n.
1. Plunder; spoil; that which is taken from another by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war.
2. The act of plundering.
3. In architecture, a square pillar behind a column to bear up the arches.
PILLAGE, v.t. To strip of money or goods by open violence; as, troops pillage the camp or towns of an enemy; to plunder; to spoil. It differs from stealing, as it implies open violence, and from robbery, which may be committed by one individual on another; whereas pillaging is usually the act of bands or numbers. To pillage and to rob are however sometimes used synonymously.
PILLAGED, pp. Plundered by open force.
PILLAGER, n. One that plunders by open violence; a plunderer.
PILLAGING, ppr. Plundering; stripping.
PILLAR, n. [L. pila, a pile, a pillar, a mortar and pestle. The L. pila denotes a heap, or things thrown, put or driven together.]
Literally, a pile or heap; hence,
1. A kind or irregular column round an insulate, but deviating from the proportions of a just column. Pillars are either too massive or too slender for regular architecture; they are not restricted to any rules, and their parts and proportions are arbitrary. A square pillar is a massive work, called also a pier or piedroit, serving to support arches. etc.
2. A supporter; that which sustains or upholds; that on which some superstructure rests. Galatians 2:9.
3. A monument raised to commemorate any person or remarkable transaction.
And Jacob set a pillar on her grave. Genesis 35:20; 2 Samuel 18:18.
4. Something resembling a pillar; as a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26.
So a pillar of a cloud, a pillar of fire. Exodus 13:21-22.
5. Foundation; support. Job 9:6.
6. In ships, a square or round timber fixed perpendicularly under the middle of the beams for supporting the decks.
7. In the manege, the center of the volta, ring or manege ground, around which a horse turns. There are also pillars on the circumference or side, placed at certain distances by two and two.
PILLARED, a. Supported by pillars.
1. Having the form of a pillar.
PILLER, n. One that pills or plunders. [Not used.]
PILLERY, n. Plunder; pillage; rapine. [Not in use.]
PILLION, n. pil’yun, [L. pilus, hair, or from stuffing. See Pillow.]
1. A cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on horseback.
2. A pad; a pannel; a low saddle.
3. The pad of a saddle that rests on the horse’s back.
PILLORIED, a. Put in a pillory.
PILLORY, n. [L. palus, a stake, a pile.] A frame of wood erected on posts, with movable boards and holes, through which are put the head and hands of a criminal for punishment.
PILLORY, v.t. To punish with the pillory.
PILLOW, n. [L. pulvinar; from L. pilus, hair, or from stuffing.]
1. A long cushion to support the head of a person when reposing on a bed; a sack or case filled with feathers, down or other soft material.
2. In a ship, the block on which the inner end of a bowsprit is supported.
The pillow of a plow, is a cross piece of wood which serves to raise or lower the beam.
PILLOW, v.t. To rest or lay on for support.
PILLOW-BIER, PILLOW-CASE, n. The case or sack of a pillow which contains the feathers. Pillow-bier is the pillow-bearer.
PILLOWED, pp. or a. Supported by a pillow.
PILLOWING, ppr. Resting or laying on a pillow.
PILOSE, PILOUS, a. [L. pilosus, from pilus, hair.] Hairy. A pilose leaf, in botany, is one covered with long distinct hairs. A pilose receptacle has hairs between the florets.
PILOSITY, n. [supra.] Hairiness.
PILOT, n.
1. One who steers a ship in a dangerous navigation, or rather one whose office or occupation is to steer ships, particularly along a coast, or into and out of a harbor, bay or river, where navigation is dangerous.
2. A guide; a director of the course of another person. [In colloquial use.]
PILOT, v.t. To direct the course of a ship in any place where navigation is dangerous.
PILOTAGE, n. The compensation made or allowed to one who directs the course of a ship.
1. The pilot’s skill or knowledge of coasts, rocks, bars and channels. [Not now used.]
PILOT-FISH, n. A fish, a species of Gasterosteus, called also rudder-fish, of an oblong shape; so named because it often accompanies ships.
PILOTING, ppr. Steering; as a ship in dangerous navigation.
PILOTING, n. The act of steering a ship.
PILOTISM, PILOTRY, n. Pilotage; skill in piloting. [Not used.]
PILOUS, a. [L. pilosus. See Pilose.] Hairy; abounding with hair.
1. Consisting of hair.
PILSER, n. The moth or fly that runs into a flame.
PIMELITE, n. [Gr. fat, and stone.] A terrene substance of an apple green color, fat and unctuous to the touch, tender and not fusible by the blowpipe. It is supposed to be colored by nickel. It is a variety of steatite.
PIMENT, n. Wine with a mixture of spice or honey.
PIMENTO, n. Jamaica pepper, popularly called allspice. The tree producing this spice is of the genus Myrtus, and grows spontaneously in Jamaica in great abundance.
PIMP, n. A man who provides gratifications for the lust of others; a procurer; a pander.
PIMP, v.i. To pander; to procure lewd women for the gratification of others.
PIMPERNEL, PIMPINEL, n. [L. pimpinella.] The name of several plants of different genera. The scarlet pimpernel is of the genus Anagallis, the water pimpernel of the genus Veronica, and the yellow pimpernel of the genus Lysimachia.
PIMPILLO, n. A plant of the genus Cactus.
PIMPINELLA, n. A genus of plants, including the burnet saxifrage and the anise.
PIMPING, ppr. Pandering; procuring lewd women for others.
PIMPING, a. Little; petty.
PIMPLE, n. A small pustule on the face or other part of the body, usually a red pustule.
PIMPLED, a. Having red pustules on the skin; full of pimples.
PIMPLIKE, a. Like a pimp; vile; infamous; mean.
PIN, n. [L. penna, pinna.]
1. A small pointed instrument made of brass wire and headed; used chiefly by females for fastening their clothes.
2. A piece of wood or metal sharpened or pointed, used to fasten together boards, plank or other timber. The larger pins of metal are usually called bolts, and the wooden pins used in ship building are called treenails [trunnels.] A small wooden pin is called a peg.
3. A thing of little value. It is not a pin’s matter. I care not a pin.
4. A linchpin.
5. The central part.
6. A peg used in musical instruments in straining and relaxing the strings.
7. A note or strain.
8. A horny induration of the membranes of the eye.
9. A cylindrical roller made of wood.
10. A noxious humor in a hawk’s foot.
11. The pin of a block is the axis of the sheave.
PIN, v.t. To fasten with a pin or with pins of any kind; as, to pin the clothes; to pin boards or timbers.
1. To fasten; to make fast; or to join and fasten together.
Our gates--we have but pinned with rushes.
She lifted the princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart.
2. To inclose; to confine. [See the verbs Pen and Pound.]
PINASTER, n. [L. See Pine.] The wild pine.
PINCASE, n. A case for holding pins.
PINCERS, an erroneous orthography of pinchers, which see.
PINCH, v.t.
1. To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers, the teeth, claws, or with an instrument, etc.
2. To squeeze or compress between any two hard bodies.
3. To squeeze the flesh till it is pained or livid.
4. To gripe; to straiten; to oppress with want; as, to pinch a nation; to pinch the belly; to be pinched for want of food.
5. To pain by constriction; to distress; as pinching cold. The winter pinches.
6. To press; to straiten by difficulties; as, the argument pinches the objector.
The respondent is pinched with a strong objection.
7. To press hard; to try thoroughly.
PINCH, v.i. To act with pressing force; to bear hard; to be puzzling. You see where the reasons pinch.
1. To spare; to be straitened; to be covetous.
The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare,
Starve, steal and pilfer to enrich an heir.
PINCH, n. A close compression with the ends of the fingers.
1. A gripe; a pang.
2. Distress inflected or suffered; pressure; oppression; as necessity’s sharp pinch.
3. Straits; difficulty; time of distress from want.
PINCHBECK, n. [said to be from the name of the inventor.]
An alloy of copper; a mixture of copper and zink, consisting of three or four parts of copper with one of zink.
PINCHER, n. He or that which pinches.
PINCHERS, n. plu. [from pinch, not from the French pincette.]
An instrument for drawing nails from boards and the like, or for griping things to be held fast.
PINCHFIST, PINCHPENNY, n. A miser; a niggard.
PINCUSHION, n. A small case stuffed with some soft material, in which females stick pins for safety and preservation.
PINDARIC, a. After the style and manner of Pindar.
PINDARIC, n. An ode in imitation of the odes of Pindar the Grecian, and prince of the lyric poets; an irregular ode.
PINDUST, n. Small particles of metal made by pointing pins.
PINE, n. [L. pinus.] A tree of the genus Pinus, of many species, some of which furnish timber of the most valuable kind. The species which usually bear this name in the United States, are the white pine, Pinus strobus, the prince of our forests; the yellow pine, Pinus resinosa; and the pitch pine, Pinus rigida. The other species of this genus are called by other names, a fir, hemlock, larch, spruce, etc.
PINE, v.i.
1. To languish; to lose flesh or wear away under any distress of anxiety of mind; to grow lean; followed sometimes by away.
Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities. Ezekiel 24:23.
2. To languish with desire; to waste away with longing for something; usually followed by for.
Unknowing that she pin’d for your return.
PINE, v.t. To wear out; to make to languish.
Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime.
Beroe pined with pain.
1. To grieve for; to bemoan in silence.
Abashed the devil stood--
Virtue in her own shape how lovely, saw,
And pined his loss.
[In the transitive sense, this verb is now seldom used, and this use is improper, except by ellipsis.]
PINE, n. Woe; want; penury; misery.
[This is obsolete. See Pain.]