Chapter Pouter to Practically of P by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Pouter to Practically

Pouter
(Pout"er) n.

1. One who, or that which, pouts.

2. [Cf. E. pout, and G. puter turkey.] (Zoöl.) A variety of the domestic pigeon remarkable for the extent to which it is able to dilate its throat and breast.

Pouting
(Pout"ing), n. Childish sullenness.

Poutingly
(Pout"ing*ly), adv. In a pouting, or a sullen, manner.

Povert
(Pov"ert) n. Poverty. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Poverty
(Pov"er*ty) n. [OE. poverte, OF. poverté, F. pauvreté, fr. L. paupertas, fr. pauper poor. See Poor.]

1. The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need. "Swathed in numblest poverty." Keble.

The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.

Prov. xxiii. 21.

2. Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

Poverty grass (Bot.), a name given to several slender grasses (as Aristida dichotoma, and Danthonia spicata) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.

Syn. — Indigence; penury; beggary; need; lack; want; scantiness; sparingness; meagerness; jejuneness. Poverty, Indigence, Pauperism. Poverty is a relative term; what is poverty to a monarch, would be competence for a day laborer. Indigence implies extreme distress, and almost absolute destitution. Pauperism denotes entire dependence upon public charity, and, therefore, often a hopeless and degraded state.

Powan
(Pow"an Pow"en) , n. (Zoöl.) A small British lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeoides, or C. ferus); — called also gwyniad and lake herring.

Powder
(Pow"der) n. [OE. poudre, pouldre, F. poudre, OF. also poldre, puldre, L. pulvis, pulveris: cf. pollen fine flour, mill dust, E. pollen. Cf. Polverine, Pulverize.]

1. The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust.

Grind their bones to powder small.

Shak.

2. An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder. See Gunpowder.

Atlas powder, Baking powder, etc. See under Atlas, Baking, etc. — Powder down (Zoöl.), the peculiar dust, or exfoliation, of powder-down feathers. — Powder- down feather (Zoöl.), one of a peculiar kind of modified feathers which sometimes form patches on certain parts of some birds. They have a greasy texture and a scaly exfoliation. - - Powder-down patch (Zoöl.), a tuft or patch of powder-down feathers. — Powder hose, a tube of strong linen, about an inch in diameter, filled with powder and used in firing mines. Farrow. — Powder hoy (Naut.), a vessel specially fitted to carry powder for the supply of war ships. They are usually painted red and carry a red flag. — Powder magazine, or Powder room. See Magazine, 2. — Powder mine, a mine exploded by gunpowder. See Mine. — Powder monkey (Naut.), a boy formerly employed on war vessels to carry powder; a powder boy. — Powder post. See Dry rot, under Dry. — Powder puff. See Puff, n.