PPage 196
- English Word Pianoforte Definition A well-known musical instrument somewhat resembling the harpsichord, and consisting of a series of wires of graduated length, thickness, and tension, struck by hammers moved by keys.
- English Word Pianograph Definition A form of melodiograph applied to a piano.
- English Word Piapec Definition A West African pie (Ptilostomus Senegalensis).
- English Word Piarist Definition One of a religious order who are the regular clerks of the Scuole Pie (religious schools), an institute of secondary education, founded at Rome in the last years of the 16th century.
- English Word Piassava Definition A fibrous product of two Brazilian palm trees (Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia Piassaba), -- used in making brooms, and for other purposes. Called also piacaba and piasaba.
- English Word Piaster Definition A silver coin of Spain and various other countries. See Peso. The Spanish piaster (commonly called peso, or peso duro) is of about the value of the American dollar. The Italian piaster, or scudo, was worth from 80 to 100 cents. The Turkish and Egyptian piasters are now worth about four and a half cents.
- English Word Piastre Definition See Piaster.
- English Word Piation Definition The act of making atonement; expiation.
- English Word Piatti Definition Cymbals.
- English Word Piazza Definition An open square in a European town, especially an Italian town; hence (Arch.), an arcaded and roofed gallery; a portico. In the United States the word is popularly applied to a veranda.
- English Word Piazzas Definition of Piazza
- English Word Pibcorn Definition A wind instrument or pipe, with a horn at each end, -- used in Wales.
- English Word Pibroch Definition A Highland air, suited to the particular passion which the musician would either excite or assuage; generally applied to those airs that are played on the bagpipe before the Highlanders when they go out to battle.
- English Word Pic Definition A Turkish cloth measure, varying from 18 to 28 inches.
- English Word Pica Definition The genus that includes the magpies.
- English Word Pica Definition A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia.
- English Word Pica Definition A service-book. See Pie.
- English Word Pica Definition A size of type next larger than small pica, and smaller than English.
- English Word Picador Definition A horseman armed with a lance, who in a bullfight receives the first attack of the bull, and excites him by picking him without attempting to kill him.
- English Word Picamar Definition An oily liquid hydrocarbon extracted from the creosote of beechwood tar. It consists essentially of certain derivatives of pyrogallol.
- English Word Picapare Definition The finfoot.
- English Word Picard Definition One of a sect of Adamites in the fifteenth century; -- so called from one Picard of Flanders. See Adamite.
- English Word Picaresque Definition Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.
- English Word Picariae Definition An extensive division of birds which includes the woodpeckers, toucans, trogons, hornbills, kingfishers, motmots, rollers, and goatsuckers. By some writers it is made to include also the cuckoos, swifts, and humming birds.
- English Word Picarian Definition Of or pertaining to Picariae.
- English Word Picarian Definition One of the Picariae.
- English Word Picaroon Definition One who plunders; especially, a plunderer of wrecks; a pirate; a corsair; a marauder; a sharper.
- English Word Picayune Definition A small coin of the value of six and a quarter cents. See Fippenny bit.
- English Word Picayunish Definition Petty; paltry; mean; as, a picayunish business.
- English Word Piccadil Definition Alt. of Piccadilly