| pricking | 1. The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point. "There is that speaketh like the prickings of a sword." 2. <veterinary> The driving of a nail into a horse's foot so as to produce lameness. Same as Nicking. 3. A sensation of being pricked. 4. The mark or trace left by a hare's foot; a prick; also, the act of tracing a hare by its footmarks. 5. Dressing one's self for show; prinking. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| prickle | <plant biology> A hard, pointed outgrowth from the surface of a plant, involving several layers of cells but not containing a vein. (05 Mar 1998) |
| prickle cell | <cell biology> Large flattened polygonal cells of the stratum germinosum of the epidermis (just above the basal stem cells), that appear in the light microscope to have fine spines projecting from their surfaces, these terminate in desmosomes that link the cells together and have many tonofilaments of cytokeratin within them. (05 Mar 1998) |
| prickle cell layer | The layer of polyhedral cells in the epidermis; shrinkage artifacts and adhesion of these cells at their desmosomal junctions gives a spiny or prickly appearance. Synonym: prickle cell layer, spinous layer. (05 Mar 2000) |
| prickleback | <zoology> The stickleback. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| pricklefish | <zoology> The stickleback. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| prickly | Full of sharp points or prickles; armed or covered with prickles; as, a prickly shrub. <botany> Prickly ash, any one of several species of South American burrowing rodents belonging to Ctenomys and allied genera. The hair is usually intermingled with sharp spines. (05 Mar 1998) |
| prickly heat | An eruption of papules and vesicles at the orifices of sweat glands, accompanied by redness and inflammatory reaction of the skin. Synonym: heat rash, lichen infantum, lichen strophulosus, prickly heat, strophulus, summer rash, tropical lichen, lichen tropicus, wildfire rash. (05 Mar 2000) |
| prickmadam | <botany> A name given to several species of stonecrop, used as ingredients of vermifuge medicines. See: stonecrop. Origin: F. Trique-madame. (05 Mar 1998) |
| prickwood | <botany> A shrub (Euonymus Europaeus); so named from the use of its wood for goads, skewers, and shoe pegs. Synonym: spindle tree. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| pride | <zoology> A small European lamprey (Petromyzon branchialis). Synonym: prid, and sandpiper. Origin: Cf. AS. Lamprede, LL. Lampreda, E. Lamprey. 1. The quality or state of being proud; inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, rank, etc, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others. "Those that walk in pride he is able to abase." (Dan. Iv. 37) "Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt." (Franklin) 2. A sense of one's own worth, and abhorrence of what is beneath or unworthy of one; lofty self-respect; noble self-esteem; elevation of character; dignified bearing; proud delight; in a good sense. "Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride." (Goldsmith) "A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." (Macaulay) 3. Proud or disdainful behavior or treatment; insolence or arrogance of demeanor; haughty bearing and conduct; insolent exultation; disdain. "Let not the foot of pride come against me." (Ps. Xxxvi. 11) "That hardly we escaped the pride of France." (Shak) 4. That of which one is proud; that which excites boasting or self-gratulation; the occasion or ground of self-esteem, or of arrogant and presumptuous confidence, as beauty, ornament, noble character, children, etc. "Lofty trees yclad with summer's pride." (Spenser) "I will cut off the pride of the Philistines." (Zech. Ix. 6) "A bold peasantry, their country's pride." (Goldsmith) 5. Show; ostentation; glory. "Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war." (Shak) 6. Highest pitch; elevation reached; loftiness; prime; glory; as, to be in the pride of one's life. "A falcon, towering in her pride of place." (Shak) 7. Consciousness of power; fullness of animal spirits; mettle; wantonness; hence, lust; sexual desire; especially, an excitement of sexual appetite in a female beast. Pride of India, or Pride of China. <botany> The camel. Synonym: Self-exaltation, conceit, hauteur, haughtiness, lordliness, loftiness. Pride, Vanity. Pride is a high or an excessive esteem of one's self for some real or imagined superiority, as rank, wealth, talents, character, etc. Vanity is the love of being admired, praised, exalted, etc, by others. Vanity is an ostentation of pride; but one may have great pride without displaying it. Vanity, which is etymologically "emptiness," is applied especially to the exhibition of pride in superficialities, as beauty, dress, wealth, etc. Origin: AS. Pr<ymac/te; akin to Icel. Pr<ymac/thi honor, ornament, pra to adorn, Dan. Pryde, Sw. Pryda; cf. W. Prydus comely. See Proud. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| prie | <botany> The plant privet. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| priest | 1. A presbyter; one who belongs to the intermediate order between bishop and deacon. He is authorised to perform all ministerial services except those of ordination and confirmation. 2. One who officiates at the altar, or performs the rites of sacrifice; one who acts as a mediator between men and the divinity or the gods in any form of religion; as, Buddhist priests. "The priests of Dagon." "Then the priest of Jupiter . . . Brought oxen and garlands . . . And would have done sacrifice with the people." "Every priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." (Heb. V. 1) In the new Testament presbyters are not called priests; but Christ is designated as a priest, and as a high priest, and all Christians are designated priests. Origin: OE. Prest, preost, AS. Preost, fr. L. Presbyter, Gr. Elder, older, n, an elder, compar. Of an old man, the first syllable of which is probably akin to L. Pristinus. Cf. Pristine, Presbyter. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| priestess | A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Priestley | John Gillies, British physiologist, 1880-1941. See: Haldane-Priestley sample. (05 Mar 2000) |