<B>pellucid, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>transparent; clear. <BR> <I>Ex. the pellucid water of a mountain lake, a pellucid sky.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) clearly expressed; easy to understand. <BR> <I>Ex. pellucid language, a pellucid style.</I> adv. <B>pellucidly.</B> noun <B>pellucidness.</B> </DL>
<B>Pelmanism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the training system of the Pelman Institute, a British educational organization concerned with the learning and memorizing processes. </DL>
<A NAME="pelmet">
<B>pelmet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a valance or similar covering over a door or window to conceal a curtain rod. </DL>
<A NAME="peloponnesian">
<B>Peloponnesian, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with the Peloponnesus, a peninsula in Greece, or its people. <DD><I>noun </I> a person born or living in the Peloponnesus. </DL>
<A NAME="pelops">
<B>Pelops, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Mythology.) a son of Tantalus, and father of Atreus and Thyestes, served to the gods as food, but later restored to life by them. </DL>
<A NAME="peloria">
<B>peloria, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Botany.) regularity or symmetry of structure occurring abnormally in flowers normally irregular or unsymmetrical. </DL>
<A NAME="peloric">
<B>peloric, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characterized by peloria. </DL>
<A NAME="pelorize">
<B>pelorize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-rized,</B> <B>-rizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to affect with peloria. <BR> <I>Ex. The most perfectly pelorized examples had six petals, each marked with black striae like those on the standard petal (Charles Darwin).</I> noun <B>pelorization.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pelorovis">
<B>pelorovis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an extinct prehistoric giant sheep with a horn spread of twelve feet. </DL>
<A NAME="pelorus">
<B>pelorus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a device used on ships for taking bearings, consisting typically of a circular metal plate set in gimbals and having mounted on its surface a compass card and alidade, each of which may be revolved independently of the other. </DL>
<A NAME="pelota">
<B>pelota, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a game of Basque or Spanish origin played on a walled court with a hard rubber ball. <DD><B> b. </B>the ball, caught and slung back with a curved wicker racket strapped over the hand and lower arm. <BR> <I>Ex. After the pelota, a rubber-cored ball, is smacked against the wall, an opposition player must catch it and fire it back before it has bounced more than once (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the game of jai alai, or the ball used in this game. </DL>
<A NAME="pelt">
<B>pelt</B> (1), verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to throw things at; assail. <BR> <I>Ex. The children were pelting each other with snowballs. (Figurative.) The attorney pelted the witness with angry questions.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to beat heavily or continuously upon. <BR> <I>Ex. Hail pelted the roof.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to throw; hurl. <BR> <I>Ex. The clouds pelted rain upon us.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to beat heavily or continuously. <BR> <I>Ex. The rain came pelting down.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to throw. <DD><B> 3. </B>to go rapidly; hurry. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a pelting. <DD><B> 2. </B>speed. <BR> <I>Ex. The horse is coming at full pelt.</I> noun <B>pelter.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pelt">
<B>pelt</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the skin of a sheep, goat, or small fur-bearing animal, before it is tanned. <DD><B> 2. </B>the raw skin of a sheep, goat, or other animal stripped of its wool or fur and ready for tanning. <DD><B> 3. </B>something likened to the pelt of an animal. <BR> <I>Ex. his powerful arms folded on the grizzled pelt of his bare breast (Joseph Conrad).</I> <DD><B> 4a. </B>a skin of an animal worn as a garment. <DD><B> b. </B>a garment made of a skin. </DL>
<A NAME="pelta">
<B>pelta, </B>noun, pl. <B>-tae.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a kind of light, small, leather shield used especially by the ancient Greeks. </DL>
<A NAME="peltast">
<B>peltast, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an ancient Greek soldier armed with a pelta. </DL>
<A NAME="peltate">
<B>peltate, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Botany.) shield-shaped: <DD><B> a. </B>(of a leaf) having the petiole attached to the lower surface of the blade at or near the middle (instead of at the base or end). <DD><B> b. </B>(of stalked parts) having a similar attachment. adv. <B>peltately.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="peltiereffect">
<B>Peltier effect,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a heating or cooling effect produced by the passage of an electric current through the junction of two dissimilar metals, the heating or cooling depending on the direction of the current. </DL>
<B>Pelton wheel,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a form of water wheel or turbine having cup-shaped buckets arranged around its circumference, which are struck at a tangent by one or more jets of water moving at a high velocity. </DL>
<A NAME="peltry">
<B>peltry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>pelts; skins; furs. <DD><B> 2. </B>a pelt. <BR> <I>Ex. The traders Touching at times on the coast, to barter and chaffer for peltries (Longfellow).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pelure">
<B>pelure, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a crisp, hard, very thin paper. </DL>
<A NAME="pelvic">
<B>pelvic, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of, having to do with, or in the region of the pelvis. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>=pelvic fin.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pelvicarch">
<B>pelvic arch</B> or <B>girdle,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the bony or cartilaginous arch supporting the hindlimbs of vertebrates, in man formed by the innominate bones and the sacrum. <BR> <I>Ex. Each side of the pelvic girdle consists of an ilium, ischium, and pubis (A. Franklin Shull).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pelvicfin">
<B>pelvic fin,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> either of a pair of fins in fishes situated on the fore part of the lower surface of the body, and corresponding to the hindlimbs of higher vertebrates; ventral fin. </DL>
<A NAME="pelvimetric">
<B>pelvimetric, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with pelvimetry. <BR> <I>Ex. pelvimetric X rays.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pelvimetry">
<B>pelvimetry, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the measurement of the size of the pelvis, especially of the female, manually, by instrument, or by X rays. </DL>
<A NAME="pelvis">
<B>pelvis, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ves.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the basin-shaped cavity in human beings formed by the hipbones and the end of the backbone. <DD><B> 2. </B>the corresponding cavity of any vertebrate. <DD><B> 3. </B>the bones forming this cavity. <BR> <I>Ex. At the hips is the hip girdle, or pelvis, to which the leg bones are attached (Beauchamp, Mayfield and West).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>the expanded upper end of the ureter, forming a basinlike cavity in the kidney, which collects urine before its passage into the ureter. </DL>
<A NAME="pelycosaur">
<B>pelycosaur, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a prehistoric carnivorous reptile, sometimes more than eight feet in length, which had a tall spiny fin along its back and a few early mammalian characteristics. <BR> <I>Ex. Pelycosaurs were ancestors of the mammal-like reptiles called therapsids, and both belong to groups that form links between mammals and reptiles (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pemaquid">
<B>Pemaquid, </B>noun, pl. <B>-quids</B> or <B>-quid.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a member of an Algonkian tribe of North American Indians friendly to the Pilgrim settlers of Plymouth Colony. </DL>
<A NAME="pembroke">
<B>Pembroke, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> one of the two varieties of the Welsh corgi breed of dogs, characterized by a relatively short tail. </DL>
<A NAME="pembroketable">
<B>Pembroke table,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a kind of drop-leaf table. </DL>
<A NAME="pemmican">
<B>pemmican</B> or <B>pemican, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>dried, lean meat pounded into a paste with melted fat and pressed into cakes. It was an important food among certain tribes of North American Indians. <DD><B> 2. </B>a somewhat similar preparation, usually of beef, with sugar, currants, and other flavoring food. <BR> <I>Ex. A Cree Indian word for the conglomerate mixture of dried, shredded, and pounded meats, berries, roots, seeds, and whatever good or bad extraneous object may become trapped in the kneading, pemmican was--and is to this day--the "bread of life" of cold-country explorers (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pemoline">
<B>pemoline, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a synthetic drug used as a stimulant or to relieve depression. <BR> <I>Ex. Pemoline has been known sometime to be a mild brain stimulant, midway in strength between amphetamine and coffee (Sunday Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=magnesium pemoline.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pemphigoid">
<B>pemphigoid, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> like or of the nature of pemphigus. </DL>
<A NAME="pemphigus">
<B>pemphigus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a disease of the skin and mucous membranes characterized by eruption of large bubble-like blisters. </DL>
