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Preterition

The act of passing, or going past; the state of being past.

Preteritive

Used only or chiefly in the preterit or past tenses, as certain verbs.

Preternatural

Beyond of different from what is natural, or according to the regular course of things, but not clearly supernatural or miraculous; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; uncommon; irregular; abnormal; as, a preternatural appearance; a preternatural stillness; a preternatural presentation (in childbirth) or labor.

Pretex

To frame; to devise; to disguise or excuse; hence, to pretend; to declare falsely.

Pretext

Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise.

Pretor

A civil officer or magistrate among the ancient Romans.

Pretorium

The general's tent in a Roman camp; hence, a council of war, because held in the general's tent.

Prettiness

The quality or state of being pretty; -- used sometimes in a disparaging sense.

Pretty

In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; -- less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact; pretty cold weather.

Prettyism

Affectation of a pretty style, manner, etc.

Pretypify

To prefigure; to exhibit previously in a type.

Pretzel

A kind of German biscuit or cake in the form of a twisted ring, salted on the outside.

Prevail

To overcome; to gain the victory or superiority; to gain the advantage; to have the upper hand, or the mastery; to succeed; -- sometimes with over or against.

Prevailing

Having superior force or influence; efficacious; persuasive.

Prevalence

The quality or condition of being prevalent; superior strength, force, or influence; general existence, reception, or practice; wide extension; as, the prevalence of virtue, of a fashion, or of a disease; the prevalence of a rumor.

Prevalent

Gaining advantage or superiority; having superior force, influence, or efficacy; prevailing; predominant; successful; victorious.

Prevaricate

To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert.

Prevarication

The act of prevaricating, shuffling, or quibbling, to evade the truth or the disclosure of truth; a deviation from the truth and fair dealing.

Prevenance

A going before; anticipation in sequence or order.

Prevenancy

The act of anticipating another's wishes, desires, etc., in the way of favor or courtesy; hence, civility; obligingness.

Prevene

To come before; to anticipate; hence, to hinder; to prevent.

Prevenient

Going before; preceding; hence, preventive.

Prevent

To come before the usual time.

Preventable

Capable of being prevented or hindered; as, preventable diseases.

Preventative

That which prevents; -- incorrectly used instead of preventive.

Preventer

One who goes before; one who forestalls or anticipates another.

Prevention

The act of going, or state of being, before.

Preventive

That which prevents, hinders, or obstructs; that which intercepts access; in medicine, something to prevent disease; a prophylactic.

Prevertebral

Situated immediately in front, or on the ventral side, of the vertebral column; prespinal.

Previous

Going before in time; being or happening before something else; antecedent; prior; as, previous arrangements; a previous illness.

Previously

Beforehand; antecedently; as, a plan previously formed.

Previousness

The quality or state of being previous; priority or antecedence in time.

Prevision

Foresight; foreknowledge; prescience.

Prewarn

To warn beforehand; to forewarn.

Prey

To take booty; to gather spoil; to ravage; to take food by violence.

Preyer

One who, or that which, preys; a plunderer; a waster; a devourer.

Prial

A corruption of pair royal. See under Pair, n.

Prian

A fine, white, somewhat friable clay; also, the ore contained in a mixture of clay and pebbles.

Priapean

A species of hexameter verse so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three feet each, having generally a trochee in the first and the fourth foot, and an amphimacer in the third; -- applied also to a regular hexameter verse when so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three feet each.

Priapism

More or less permanent erection and rigidity of the penis, with or without sexual desire.

Priapulacea

A suborder of Gephyr/a, having a cylindrical body with a terminal anal opening, and usually with one or two caudal gills.

Price

To pay the price of.

Priced

Rated in price; valued; as, high-priced goods; low-priced labor.

Priceite

A hydrous borate of lime, from Oregon.

Priceless

Too valuable to admit of being appraised; of inestimable worth; invaluable.

Prick

To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture; as, a sore finger pricks.

Prick-eared

Having erect, pointed ears; -- said of certain dogs.

Pricker

One who, or that which, pricks; a pointed instrument; a sharp point; a prickle.

Pricket

A buck in his second year. See Note under 3d Buck.

Pricking

The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.

Pricking-up

The first coating of plaster in work of three coats upon laths. Its surface is scratched once to form a better key for the next coat. In the United States called scratch coat.

Prickle

To prick slightly, as with prickles, or fine, sharp points.

Prickliness

The quality of being prickly, or of having many prickles.

Prickly

Full of sharp points or prickles; armed or covered with prickles; as, a prickly shrub.

Prickmadam

A name given to several species of stonecrop, used as ingredients of vermifuge medicines. See Stonecrop.

Prickpunch

A pointed steel punch, to prick a mark on metal.

Pricksong

Music written, or noted, with dots or points; -- so called from the points or dots with which it is noted down.

Prickwood

A shrub (Euonymus Europ/us); -- so named from the use of its wood for goads, skewers, and shoe pegs. Called also spindle tree.

Pricky

Stiff and sharp; prickly.

Pride

To be proud; to glory.

Pridian

Of or pertaining to the day before, or yesterday.

Prier

One who pries; one who inquires narrowly and searches, or is inquisitive.

Priest-ridden

Controlled or oppressed by priests; as, a priest-ridden people.

Priestcap

A form of redan, so named from its shape; -- called also swallowtail.

Priestcraft

Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others.

Priestery

Priests, collectively; the priesthood; -- so called in contempt.

Priestess

A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans.

Priesthood

The office or character of a priest; the priestly function.

Priestism

The influence, doctrines, principles, etc., of priests or the priesthood.

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