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

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

A pretext.

Situated in front of the tibia.

A civil officer or magistrate among the ancient Romans.

Pretorian.

A soldier of the pretorian guard.

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

The office or dignity of a pretor.

To torture beforehand.

In a pretty manner.

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

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

Spoken or speaking prettily.

Somewhat pretty.

Affectation of a pretty style, manner, etc.

To prefigure; to exhibit previously in a type.

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

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.

Having superior force or influence; efficacious; persuasive.

So as to prevail.

Prevalence; superior influence; efficacy.

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.

See Prevalence.

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

In a prevalent manner.

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

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

One who prevaricates.

Proof.

A going before; anticipation in sequence or order.

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

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

The act of going before; anticipation.

Going before; preceding; hence, preventive.

To come before the usual time.

The quality or state of being preventable.

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

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

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

So as to prevent or hinder.

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

Tending to prevent.

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

In a preventive manner.

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

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

Beforehand; antecedently; as, a plan previously formed.

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

To foresee.

Foresight; foreknowledge; prescience.

Foreseeing; prescient.

To warn beforehand; to forewarn.

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

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

Disposed to take prey.

An anterior zygapophysis.

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

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

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.

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

A hard rider.

To pay the price of.

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

A hydrous borate of lime, from Oregon.

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

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

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

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

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

The act of piercing or puncturing with a sharp point.

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.

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

The stickleback.

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

Prickly.

A tailor; -- so called in contempt.

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

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

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

An arrow.

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

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

Stiff and sharp; prickly.

To be proud; to glory.

Full of pride; haughty.

Without pride.

Of or pertaining to the day before, or yesterday.

Proudly.

To pry.

imp. p. p. of Pry.

A kneeling desk for prayers.

Proof.

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

To ordain as priest.

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

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

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.

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

A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans.

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

The office of a priest.

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

Without a priest.

Priestly.

The quality or state of being priestly.

Of or pertaining to a priest or the priesthood; sacerdotal; befitting or becoming a priest; as, the priestly office; a priestly farewell.

To prove.

A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow.

Priggism.

Like a prig; conceited; pragmatical.

The quality or state of being priggish; the manners of a prig.

imp. of Prick.

A nugget of virgin metal. Ore selected for excellence.

Tin extracted from the slag.

To dress or act smartly.

The first or chief female singer in an opera.

The state or condition of being prime or first, as in time, place, rank, etc., hence, excellency; supremacy.

A charge in addition to the freight; originally, a gratuity to the captain for his particular care of the goods (sometimes called hat money), but now belonging to the owners or freighters of the vessel, unless by special agreement the whole or part is assigned to the captain.

First; primary; original; chief.