World Book 1997 4.0

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<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>DICTIONARY: peg - peking man</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> <A HREF="a.dic">A</A> <A HREF="b.dic">B</A> <A HREF="c.dic">C</A> <A HREF="d.dic">D</A> <A HREF="e.dic">E</A> <A HREF="f.dic">F</A> <A HREF="g.dic">G</A> <A HREF="h.dic">H</A> <A HREF="i.dic">I</A> <A HREF="j.dic">J</A> <A HREF="k.dic">K</A> <A HREF="l.dic">L</A> <A HREF="m.dic">M</A> <A HREF="n.dic">N</A> <A HREF="o.dic">O</A> <A HREF="p.dic">P</A> <A HREF="q.dic">Q</A> <A HREF="r.dic">R</A> <A HREF="s.dic">S</A> <A HREF="t.dic">T</A> <A HREF="u.dic">U</A> <A HREF="v.dic">V</A> <A HREF="w.dic">W</A> <A HREF="x.dic">X</A> <A HREF="y.dic">Y</A> <A HREF="z.dic">Z</A> <A NAME="peg"> peg, noun, verb, pegged, pegging.<DL COMPACT><DD>noun 1. a pin or small bolt of wood or metal, used to fasten parts together, to hang things on, to stop a hole, to make fast a rope or string, or to mark the score in a game. Ex. Hang your coat on the peg in the wall. The head [of a violin] contains pegs, or pins, which are used to tighten or loosen the strings (R. G. Pauly). <DD> 2. a step; degree. Ex. His work is several pegs above yours. <DD> 3. (Informal.) a hard throw of a ball, especially in baseball. Ex. Willie Mays saved the Giants a run in the second inning with one of his amazing pegs (New York Times). <DD> 4. (Informal.) <DD> a. a wooden leg; peg leg. Ex. The hardest thing about the role was keeping Ahab's wooden peg away from him (Newsweek). <DD> b. a leg. Ex. You'll hear about the cannonball that carried off his pegs (Oliver Wendell Holmes). <DD> 5. (British.) a small drink of alcoholic liquor. Ex. I suspected the old fellow was going to cool his wrath with a 'peg' (F. M. Crawford). <DD> 6. (Dialect.) a tooth, especially a child's tooth. <DD> 7. an implement furnished with a pin, claw, or hook, used for tearing, harpooning, and other work where it is necessary to catch on to an object. <DD> 8. the price at which a commodity, stock, or other security is pegged. <DD>v.t. 1. to fasten or hold with pegs. Ex. We must peg down our tent. <DD> 2. to mark with pegs. <DD> 3. to keep the price of (a commodity, stock, or other security) from going up or down. Ex. to peg wheat at $1.56 a bushel. <DD> 4. (Figurative.) to attach; make dependent on. Ex. The Algerian franc is pegged to the French franc. <DD> 5. (Informal.) to mark; tag; identify. Ex. He was pegged as a jolly, jowly journeyman closing out a career (Maclean's). The two titles, in fact, most precisely peg the tone and content of each feature (New York Times). <DD> 6. (Informal.) to throw hard. Ex. The left fielder pegged the ball to the shortstop. <DD> 7. to strike or pierce with a peg. <DD>v.i. 1. (Informal.) to work hard; keep on energetically and patiently. Ex. He pegged away at his studies so that he would get high marks. <DD> 2. to keep score by moving pegs, as in cribbage. <DD> 3. to hit a croquet peg with the ball. expr. a peg to hang (something) on, an occasion, pretext, or excuse for. Ex. The chief use of a fact is as a peg to hang a thought on (Lancet). expr. off the peg, ready-made. Ex. Clothes made in his workrooms are sold off the peg (Punch). expr. peg out, <DD> a. to peg or pitch one's tent. Ex. We are pegging out in a very comfortless spot (Harper's). <DD> b. to die. Ex. A fierce little piece bought to console the children after the dog pegged out (Punch). <DD> c. to mark the boundary of (a mining claim or other piece of ground) with pegs. Ex. I ... pegged out eight square feet, paid the licence fee, and returned to my mates (W. H. Hall). expr. take down a peg (or two), to lower the pride of; humble. Ex. She took that proud girl down a peg or two. adj. peglike. </DL> <A NAME="pegasi"> Pegasi, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> genitive of Pegasus (the constellation). </DL> <A NAME="pegasus"> Pegasus, noun,<DL COMPACT><DD> (genitive) (def. 3) Pegasi. <DD> 1. (Greek Mythology.) a horse with wings, the steed of the Muses. <DD> 2. poetic genius; the means by which poets soar in the realms of poetry. <DD> 3. a constellation in the northern sky near Andromeda. Ex. Standing high in the eastern sky, just below Cygnus, we find Pegasus, the winged horse, which contains no stars of the first magnitude although it does have a characteristic figure called the "great square" (Science News Letter). expr. mount (one's) Pegasus, to begin writing a poem. Ex. Then he mounted the ... vulture-winged Pegasus of passion (Christina Stead). </DL> <A NAME="pegboard"> pegboard, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. a board containing evenly spaced holes for pegs, used for scoring games, such as cribbage. <DD> 2. a larger board, attached to a wall, having holes in which pegs or hooks are inserted to hold tools, utensils, displays, memorandums, etc. </DL> <A NAME="pegbox"> pegbox, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the head of a stringed instrument containing the pegs to which the strings are attached for tuning. </DL> <A NAME="peggedpants"> pegged pants,<DL COMPACT><DD> pants wide at the hips and gradually narrowing to the ankles; peg tops. </DL> <A NAME="pegger"> pegger, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. a person or thing that pegs. <DD> 2. a machine for driving pegs in shoemaking. </DL> <A NAME="pegleg"> peg leg,<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. a wooden leg. <DD> 2. (Informal.) a person who has a wooden leg. </DL> <A NAME="peglegged"> peg-legged, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having a wooden leg. </DL> <A NAME="pegmatite"> pegmatite, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. a coarsely crystallized kind of granite occurring in veins and dikes, and usually containing crystals of the common minerals found in granite, but sometimes containing rare minerals rich in such elements as lithium, uranium, and tantalum. <DD> 2. granite with a graphic texture. </DL> <A NAME="pegmatitic"> pegmatitic, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> consisting of, characteristic of, or resembling pegmatite. Ex. pegmatitic deposits in Norway. </DL> <A NAME="pegmatization"> pegmatization, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the filling of a rock with veins of pegmatite. </DL> <A NAME="pegtankard"> peg tankard,<DL COMPACT><DD> a tankard with pegs inserted at regular intervals, formerly used to mark the quantity each person was to drink. </DL> <A NAME="pegtop"> peg top,<DL COMPACT><DD> a wooden top with a metal peg on which it spins when a string wound around the top is rapidly uncoiled. </DL> <A NAME="pegtop"> peg-top, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> shaped like a peg top. </DL> <A NAME="pegtops"> peg tops,<DL COMPACT><DD> trousers wide at the hips and gradually narrowing to the ankles. </DL> <A NAME="pegtoptrousers"> peg-top trousers or peg trousers, =peg tops.</DL> <A NAME="peh"> peh, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Also, pe. </DL> <A NAME="pehlevi"> Pehlevi, noun. =Pahlavi.</DL> <A NAME="pei"> P.E.I.,<DL COMPACT><DD> Prince Edward Island. </DL> <A NAME="peignoir"> peignoir, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> 1. a loose or very full dressing gown for women, originally worn while the hair was being combed. Ex. [She] padded about the palace kitchen in her silken peignoir, serving endless cups of coffee (Time). <DD> 2. any negligee. </DL> <A NAME="pein"> pein, noun, transitive verb. =peen.</DL> <A NAME="peineforteetdure"> peine forte et dure,<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD> 1. very severe and harsh punishment. <DD> 2. a former method of punishment or torture inflicted on a prisoner who refused to plead. It consisted of placing heavy weights on the body of the prisoner until he pleaded or died. </DL> <A NAME="peise"> peise, transitive verb, peised, peising.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Dialect.) <DD> 1. to weigh or measure the weight of, as in a balance. <DD> 2. (Figurative.) to weigh in the mind; consider; ponder. <DD> 3. to weigh down; oppress; burden. </DL> <A NAME="pejorate"> pejorate, verb, -rated, -rating.<DL COMPACT><DD>v.t. to make worse; cause to deteriorate; disparage. <DD>v.i. to become worse. </DL> <A NAME="pejorative"> pejorative, adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD>adj. 1. tending to make worse; disparaging; depreciatory. Ex. Throughout all the changes of religion, social and political constitution, and rulers, the real mistress of the Greeks has been sophism--sometimes, but not always, in the pejorative sense of the word (Atlantic). <DD> 2. of or having to do with various disparaging or depreciatory derivative words formed by the addition of a suffix to a root word of neutral or favorable connotations. <DD>noun a pejorative word, suffix, or phrase. Ex. What it [ingratiatingly] actually means is something like 'cringingly anxious to please.' It is a pejorative, and it should be used only as such (New Yorker). adv. pejoratively. </DL> <A NAME="pekan"> pekan, noun. =fisher (def. 1a).</DL> <A NAME="peke"> Peke, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a Pekingese dog. Ex. The breed standard issued by the Kennel Club decrees ... that the Peke be leonine in shape with massive skull (Cape Times). </DL> <A NAME="pekin"> pekin, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a silk fabric, originally made only in China, often patterned with broad stripes or figures. </DL> <A NAME="pekin"> Pekin, noun, or Pekin duck,<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a breed of large white ducks, originally of China, raised primarily for the production of meat. Ex. Pekin ducks, which weigh about 8 pounds, are the most common commercially raised ducks in the United States (William H. Drury). </DL> <A NAME="pekinese"> Pekinese, noun, pl. -ese, adjective. =Pekingese.</DL> <A NAME="peking"> Peking, noun, or Peking duck, =Pekin.</DL> <A NAME="pekingese"> Pekingese, noun, pl. -ese, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD>noun 1. a very small dog originally of China, with long silky hair and a pug nose. <DD> 2. a native or inhabitant of Peking, China. Ex. Most Pekingese, men and women alike, now wear a baleful blue dungaree uniform that gives them, and the city streets, a monotonous look (Time). <DD> 3. the form of Chinese used in Peking, the standard form of Mandarin. <DD>adj. of or having to do with Peking or its people. </DL> <A NAME="pekingman"> Peking man,<DL COMPACT><DD> a prehistoric man of the Pleistocene, identified from fossil bones found in caves near Peking in 1929; Sinanthropus pekinensis. Ex. Peking man, Java man, the Neanderthal--none dates farther back than 600,000 years (Newsweek). </DL> <A HREF="pekingol.dic">NEXT</A>