Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter P - Page 69
Piss (v. t. & i.) To discharge urine, to urinate.
Piss (n.) Urine.
Pissabed (n.) A name locally applied to various wild plants, as dandelion, bluet, oxeye daisy, etc.
Pissasphalt (n.) Earth pitch; a soft, black bitumen of the consistence of tar, and of a strong smell. It is inflammable, and intermediate between petroleum and asphalt.
Pist (n.) See Piste.
Pistachio (n.) The nut of the
Pistacia vera, a tree of the order Anacardiaceae, containing a kernel of a pale
greenish color, which has a pleasant taste, resembling that of the almond, and
yields an oil of agreeable taste and odor; -- called also pistachio nut. It is
wholesome and nutritive. The tree grows in
Pistacia (n.) The name of a genus of trees, including the tree which bears the pistachio, the Mediterranean mastic tree (Pistacia Lentiscus), and the species (P. Terebinthus) which yields Chian or Cyprus turpentine.
Pistacite (n.) Epidote.
Pistareen (n.) An old Spanish silver coin of the value of about twenty cents.
Pistazite (n.) Same as Pistacite.
Piste (n.) The track or tread a horseman makes upon the ground he goes over.
Pistel (n.) Alt. of Pistil.
Pistil (n.) An epistle.
Pistic (a.) Pure; genuine.
Pistil (n.) The seed-bearing organ of a flower. It consists of an ovary, containing the ovules or rudimentary seeds, and a stigma, which is commonly raised on an elongated portion called a style. When composed of one carpel a pistil is simple; when composed of several, it is compound. See Illust. of Flower, and Ovary.
Pistillaceous (a.) Growing on, or having nature of, the pistil; of or pertaining to a pistil.
Pistillate (a.) Having a pistil or pistils; -- usually said of flowers having pistils but no stamens.
Pistillation (n.) The act of pounding or breaking in a mortar; pestillation.
Pistillida (n. pl. ) of Pistillidium.
Pistillidium (n.) Same as Archegonium.
Pistilliferous (a.) Pistillate.
Pistillody (n.) The metamorphosis of other organs into pistils.
Pistol (n.) The smallest firearm used, intended to be fired from one hand, -- now of many patterns, and bearing a great variety of names. See Illust. of Revolver.
Pistoled (imp. & p. p.) of Pistol.
Pistoling (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pistol.
Pistol (v. t.) To shoot with a pistol.
Pistolade (n.) A pistol shot.
Pistole (n.) The name of certain gold coins of various values formerly coined in some countries of Europe. In Spain it was equivalent to a quarter doubloon, or about $3.90, and in Germany and Italy nearly the same. There was an old Italian pistole worth about $5.40.
Pistoleer (n.) One who uses a pistol.
Pistolet (n.) A small pistol.
Piston (n.) A sliding piece which either is moved by, or moves against, fluid pressure. It usually consists of a short cylinder fitting within a cylindrical vessel along which it moves, back and forth. It is used in steam engines to receive motion from the steam, and in pumps to transmit motion to a fluid; also for other purposes.
Pit (n.) A large cavity or hole in the ground, either natural or artificial; a cavity in the surface of a body; an indentation.
Pit (n.) The shaft of a coal mine; a coal pit.
Pit (n.) A large hole in the ground from which material is dug or quarried; as, a stone pit; a gravel pit; or in which material is made by burning; as, a lime pit; a charcoal pit.
Pit (n.) A vat sunk in the ground; as, a tan pit.
Pit (n.) Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades.
Pit (n.) A covered deep hole for entrapping wild beasts; a pitfall; hence, a trap; a snare. Also used figuratively.
Pit (n.) A depression or hollow in the surface of the human body.
Pit (n.) The hollow place under the shoulder or arm; the axilla, or armpit.
Pit (n.) See Pit of the stomach (below).
Pit (n.) The indentation or mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
Pit (n.) Formerly, that part of a theater, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theater.
Pit (n.) An inclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats.
Pit (n.) The endocarp of a drupe, and its contained seed or seeds; a stone; as, a peach pit; a cherry pit, etc.
Pit (n.) A depression or thin spot in the wall of a duct.
Pitted (imp. & p. p.) of Pit.
Pitting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pit.
Pit (v. t.) To place or put into a pit or hole.
Pit (v. t.) To mark with little hollows, as by various pustules; as, a face pitted by smallpox.
Pit (v. t.) To introduce as an antagonist; to set forward for or in a contest; as, to pit one dog against another.
Pita (n.) A fiber obtained from the Agave Americana and other related species, -- used for making cordage and paper. Called also pita fiber, and pita thread.
Pita (n.) The plant which yields the fiber.
Pitahaya (n.) A cactaceous shrub (Cereus Pitajaya) of tropical America, which yields a delicious fruit.
Pitapat (adv.) In a flutter; with palpitation or quick succession of beats.
Pitapat (n.) A light, repeated sound; a pattering, as of the rain.
Pitch (n.) A thick, black, lustrous, and sticky substance obtained by boiling down tar. It is used in calking the seams of ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc., to preserve them.
Pitch (n.) See Pitchstone.
Pitched (imp. & p. p.) of Pitch.
Pitching (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pitch.
Pitch (n.) To cover over or smear with pitch.
Pitch (n.) Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure.
Pitch (v. t.) To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to cast; to hurl; to toss; as, to pitch quoits; to pitch hay; to pitch a ball.
Pitch (v. t.) To thrust or plant in the ground, as stakes or poles; hence, to fix firmly, as by means of poles; to establish; to arrange; as, to pitch a tent; to pitch a camp.
Pitch (v. t.) To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway.
Pitch (v. t.) To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune.
Pitch (v. t.) To set or fix, as a price or value.
Pitch (v. i.) To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. "Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead." -- Gen. xxxi. 25.
Pitch (v. i.) To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
The tree whereon they [the bees] pitch. -- Mortimer.
Pitch (v. i.) To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon.
Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy. -- Tillotson.
Pitch (v. i.) To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or slope; as, to pitch from a precipice; the vessel pitches in a heavy sea; the field pitches toward the east.
Pitch and pay, An old aphorism which inculcates ready-money payment, or payment on delivery of goods. -- Shak.
Pitch (n.) A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand; as, a good pitch in quoits.
Pitch and toss, A game played by tossing up a coin, and calling "Heads or tails;" hence:
To play pitch and toss with (anything), To be careless or trust to luck about it. "To play pitch and toss with the property of the country." -- G. Eliot.
Pitch farthing. See Chuck farthing, under 5th Chuck.
Pitch (n.) (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
Pitch (n.) A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound.
Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down Into this deep. -- Milton.
Enterprises of great pitch and moment. -- Shak.
To lowest pitch of abject fortune. -- Milton.
He lived when learning was at its highest pitch. -- Addison.
The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends. -- Sharp.
Pitch (n.) Height; stature. [Obs.] -- Hudibras.
Pitch (n.) A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
Pitch (n.) The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant; as, a steep pitch in the road; the pitch of a roof.
Pitch (n.) (Mus.) The relative acuteness or gravity of a tone, determined by the number of vibrations which produce it; the place of any tone upon a scale of high and low.
Note: Musical tones with reference to absolute pitch, are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet; with reference to relative pitch, in a series of tones called the scale, they are called one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight is also one of a new scale an octave higher, as one is eight of a scale an octave lower.
Pitch (n.) (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
Pitch (n.) (Mech.) The distance from center to center of any two adjacent teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; -- called also circular pitch.
Pitch (n.) (Mech.) The length, measured along the axis, of a complete turn of the thread of a screw, or of the helical lines of the blades of a screw propeller.
Pitch (n.) (Mech.) The distance between the centers of holes, as of rivet holes in boiler plates.
Pitch (n.) (Elec.) The distance between symmetrically arranged or corresponding parts of an armature, measured along a line, called the pitch line, drawn around its length.
Sometimes half of this distance is called the pitch.
Concert pitch (Mus.), The standard of pitch used by orchestras, as in concerts, etc.
Diametral pitch (Gearing), The distance which bears the same relation to the pitch proper, or circular pitch, that the diameter of a circle bears to its circumference; it is sometimes described by the number expressing the quotient obtained by dividing the number of teeth in a wheel by the diameter of its pitch circle in inches; as, 4 pitch, 8 pitch, etc.
Pitch chain, A chain, as one made of metallic plates, adapted for working with a sprocket wheel.
Pitch line, or Pitch circle (Gearing), An ideal line, in a toothed gear or rack, bearing such a relation to a corresponding line in another gear, with which the former works, that the two lines will have a common velocity as in rolling contact; it usually cuts the teeth at about the middle of their height, and, in a circular gear, is a circle concentric with the axis of the gear; the line, or circle, on which the pitch of teeth is measured.
Pitch of a roof (Arch.), The inclination or slope of the sides expressed by the height in parts of the span; as, one half pitch; whole pitch; or by the height in parts of the half span, especially among engineers; or by degrees, as a pitch of 30[deg], of 45[deg], etc.; or by the rise and run, that is, the ratio of the height to the half span; as, a pitch of six rise to ten run. Equilateral pitch is where the two sloping sides with the span form an equilateral triangle.
Pitch of a plane (Carp.), The slant of the cutting iron.
Pitch of poles (Elec.), The distance between a pair of poles of opposite sign.
Pitch pipe, A wind instrument used by choristers in regulating the pitch of a tune.
Pitch point (Gearing), The point of contact of the pitch lines of two gears, or of a rack and pinion, which work together.
Pitch (n.) The property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration.
Pitch (n.) (Baseball) The act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a batter [syn: pitch, delivery].
Pitch (n.) A vendor's position (especially on the sidewalk); "he was employed to see that his paper's news pitches were not trespassed upon by rival vendors."
Pitch (n.) Promotion by means of an argument and demonstration [syn: sales talk, sales pitch, pitch].
Pitch (n.) Degree of deviation from a horizontal plane; "the roof had a steep pitch" [syn: pitch, rake, slant].
Pitch (n.) Any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue [syn: pitch, tar].
Pitch (n.) A high approach shot in golf [syn: pitch, pitch shot]
Pitch (n.) An all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump [syn: pitch, auction pitch].
Pitch (n.) Abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance); "the pitching and tossing was quite exciting" [syn: lurch, pitch, pitching].
Pitch (n.) The action or manner of throwing something; "his pitch fell short and his hat landed on the floor."
Pitch (v.) Throw or toss with a light motion; "flip me the beachball"; "toss me newspaper" [syn: flip, toss, sky, pitch].
Pitch (v.) Move abruptly; "The ship suddenly lurched to the left" [syn: lurch, pitch, shift].
Pitch (v.) Fall or plunge forward; "She pitched over the railing of the Balcony."
Pitch (v.) Set to a certain pitch; "He pitched his voice very low."
Pitch (v.) Sell or offer for sale from place to place [syn: peddle, monger, huckster, hawk, vend, pitch].
Pitch (v.) Be at an angle; "The terrain sloped down" [syn: slope, incline, pitch].
Pitch (v.) Heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting" [syn: cant, cant over, tilt, slant, pitch].
Pitch (v.) Erect and fasten; "pitch a tent" [syn: pitch, set up].
Pitch (v.) Throw or hurl from the mound to the batter, as in baseball; "The pitcher delivered the ball" [syn: deliver, pitch].
Pitch (v.) Hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with a backspin.
Pitch (v.) Lead (a card) and establish the trump suit.
Pitch (v.) Set the level or character of; "She pitched her speech to the teenagers in the audience" [syn: gear, pitch].
Pitch, () (Gen. 6:14), Asphalt or bitumen in its soft state, called "slime" (Gen. 11:3; 14:10; Ex. 2:3), found in pits near the Dead Sea (q.v.). It was used for various purposes, as the coating of the outside of vessels and in building. Allusion is made in Isa. 34:9 to its inflammable character. (See Slime.)
Pitch-black (a.) Black as pitch or tar.
Pitchblende (n.) A pitch-black mineral consisting chiefly of the oxide of uranium; uraninite. See Uraninite.
Pitch-dark (a.) Dark as a pitch; pitch-black.
Pitcher (n.) One who pitches anything, as hay, quoits, a ball, etc.; specifically (Baseball), the player who delivers the ball to the batsman.
Pitcher (n.) A sort of crowbar for digging.
Pitcher (n.) A wide-mouthed, deep vessel for holding liquids, with a spout or protruding lip and a handle; a water jug or jar with a large ear or handle.
Pitcher (n.) A tubular or cuplike appendage or expansion of the leaves of certain plants.
Pitcherfuls (n. pl. ) of Pitcherful.
Pitcherful (n.) The quantity a pitcher will hold.
Pitch-faced (a.) Having the arris defined by a line beyond which the rock is cut away, so as to give nearly true edges; -- said of squared stones that are otherwise quarry-faced.
Pitchfork (n.) A fork, or farming utensil, used in pitching hay, sheaves of grain, or the like.
Pitchfork (v. t.) To pitch or throw with, or as with, a pitchfork.
Pitchiness (n.) Blackness, as of pitch; darkness.
Pitching (n.) The act of throwing or casting; a cast; a pitch; as, wild pitching in baseball.
Pitching (n.) The rough paving of a street to a grade with blocks of stone. -- Mayhew.
Pitching (n.) (Hydraul. Eng.) A facing of stone laid upon a bank to prevent wear by tides or currents.
Pitching piece (Carp.), The horizontal timber supporting the floor of a platform of a stairway, and against which the stringpieces of the sloping parts are supported.
Pitching (n.) (Baseball) Playing the position of pitcher on a baseball team.
Pitching (n.) Abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance); "the pitching and tossing was quite exciting" [syn: lurch, pitch, pitching].
Pitch-ore (n.) (Min.) Pitchblende.
Pitchstone (n.) (Geol.) An igneous rock of semiglassy nature, having a luster like pitch.
Pitchstone (n.) Dark acid granitic glass.
Pitchwork (n.) The work of a coal miner who is paid by a share of his product.