<B>palter, </B>intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to talk or act insincerely; trifle deceitfully. <BR> <I>Ex. Do not palter with the truth. Man crouches and blushes ... he palters and steals (Emerson).</I> (SYN) equivocate. <DD><B> 2. </B>to act carelessly; trifle. <BR> <I>Ex. Do not palter with a decision involving life and death. A hunger for music is one of our noblest appetites, and nothing to be paltered with (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to deal crookedly; use tricks and dodges in bargaining; haggle. <BR> <I>Ex. Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power (Tennyson).</I> noun <B>palterer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="paltrily">
<B>paltrily, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> in a paltry manner; despicably; meanly. </DL>
<A NAME="paltriness">
<B>paltriness, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the condition of being paltry; very slight value; meanness. </DL>
<A NAME="paltry">
<B>paltry, </B>adjective, <B>-trier,</B> <B>-triest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>almost worthless; trifling; petty; mean. <BR> <I>Ex. The thief stole a paltry sum of money from the child. He ... considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost (John L. Motley).</I> (SYN) insignificant. <DD><B> 2. </B>of no worth; despicable; contemptible. <BR> <I>Ex. a paltry trick, a paltry crowd. Pay no attention to paltry gossip. He is a paltry, imitating pedant (Jonathan Swift).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="paludal">
<B>paludal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with a marsh or fen; marshy. <DD><B> 2. </B>caused by or arising from a marsh; malarial. </DL>
<A NAME="paludament">
<B>paludament, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a kind of cloak or mantle worn in war by a general in ancient Rome, but later reserved exclusively for the emperor as head of the army. </DL>
<B>paludose, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> living or growing in marshes, as animals or plants. </DL>
<A NAME="paludrine">
<B>Paludrine, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Trademark.) a colorless, synthetic antimalarial drug. </DL>
<A NAME="palustral">
<B>palustral, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with marshes; found in or inhabiting marshes; paludal. <BR> <I>Ex. In these palustral homes we only croak and wither (Manchester Guardian).</I> </DL>
<B>paly</B> (2), adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Heraldry.) (of a shield or a bearing) divided palewise (vertically) into four or more (usually) equal parts of alternate tinctures. </DL>
<B>palynological, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with palynology. adv. <B>palynologically.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="palynologist">
<B>palynologist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who studies or is skilled in palynology. </DL>
<A NAME="palynology">
<B>palynology, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the study of plant spores and pollen, especially in fossil form. </DL>
<A NAME="palytoxin">
<B>palytoxin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a highly poisonous substance discharged by polyps, especialy as protection against octopuses. </DL>
<A NAME="pam">
<B>pam, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the jack of clubs in one variety of the game of loo. <DD><B> 2. </B>the variety of loo in which it is the best trump. </DL>
<A NAME="pam">
<B>pam.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> pamphlet. </DL>
<A NAME="pamaquine">
<B>pamaquine, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a yellowish, odorless synthetic drug effective in the treatment of malaria but often toxic to humans. </DL>
<A NAME="pamirsheep">
<B>Pamir sheep, =Marco Polo sheep.</B></DL>
<A NAME="pampa">
<B>pampa, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> singular of <B>pampas.</B> <BR> <I>Ex. Stoneless, soft, immensely fertile, the Argentine pampa stretches sea-flat to the horizon (Economist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pampas">
<B>pampas, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> the vast, grassy plains of South America, without trees. The pampas are south of the forest-covered belt of the Amazon Basin, especially in Argentina. <BR> <I>Ex. ... across the grassy pampas, where wild gauchos tend their restless herds (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pampasdeer">
<B>pampas deer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small, reddish or yellowish brown deer with simple antlers that lives on the South American pampas. The pampas deer is able to jump over eight- to ten-foot grass clumps. </DL>
<A NAME="pampasgrass">
<B>pampas grass,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an ornamental grass, native to South America but widely cultivated, having large, thick, feathery panicles of a silvery white, borne on stems which sometimes reach a height of 12 feet. </DL>
<A NAME="pampean">
<B>pampean, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with the pampas. <DD><I>noun </I> an Indian living on or in the region of the pampas. </DL>
<A NAME="pamper">
<B>pamper, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to indulge too much; allow too many privileges to. <BR> <I>Ex. to pamper a child, to pamper a sick person, to pamper one's appetite.</I> (SYN) spoil, humor. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) to cram or glut with food, especially rich food; feed luxuriously. noun <B>pamperer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pampero">
<B>pampero, </B>noun, pl. <B>-peros.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a piercing cold wind that blows from the Andes across the pampas of South America to the Atlantic. </DL>
<A NAME="pamph">
<B>pamph.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> pamphlet. </DL>
<A NAME="pamphlet">
<B>pamphlet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a booklet in paper covers. A pamphlet often deals with a question of current interest. <BR> <I>Ex. In Europe, the pamphlet is a short piece of writing essentially polemic in nature, concerned with a problem of the moment (Harper's).</I> (SYN) tract, brochure. <DD><B> 2. </B>any printed booklet with few pages. </DL>
<A NAME="pamphletary">
<B>pamphletary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of, like, or having to do with a pamphlet or pamphleteering. </DL>
<A NAME="pamphleteer">
<B>pamphleteer, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a person who writes pamphlets, especially on controversial subjects. <BR> <I>Ex. As a pamphleteer Thomas Paine is without his equal in American literature (Jones and Leisy).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> to write and issue pamphlets. </DL>
<A NAME="pampootie">
<B>pampootie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a simple shoe consisting of a piece of hide held to the foot by leather cords, worn by the island fishermen of western Ireland. </DL>
<A NAME="pamprodactylous">
<B>pamprodactylous, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Ornithology.) having all four toes turned forward, as in the coly. </DL>
