<B>pension</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a boarding house or boarding school in France and other parts of Continental Europe. <BR> <I>Ex. In the tiny village of Trisenberg, high up on the mountainside, I very much liked a small homely pension run by a friendly, jolly woman, who does all the cooking (Observer).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>payment, such as for board and lodging or for the board and education of a child. <BR> <I>Ex. A full day's pension, if one has a room with bath, will cost about £3 (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pensionable">
<B>pensionable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) <DD><B> 1. </B>qualified for or entitled to a pension. <DD><B> 2. </B>entitling to a pension. <BR> <I>Ex. The Civil Service is to offer pensionable jobs to men and women aged between 40 and 60 (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pensionary">
<B>pensionary, </B>noun, pl. <B>-aries,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B><B>=pensioner.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>(formerly, in the Netherlands) the chief magistrate of a city. <BR> <I>Ex. Jean Sersanders, the pensionary of Ghent (J. F. Kirk).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>consisting or of the nature of a pension. <DD><B> 2. </B>receiving a pension. <DD><B> 3. </B>mercenary; hireling; venal. </DL>
<A NAME="pensione">
<B>pensione, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ni.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Italian.) a boarding house, or pension, in Italy. <BR> <I>Ex. "Take it or leave it" is the attitude of the pensione keeper of the better sort when showing a room. As for the inferior pensioni, they have a practice of shanghaiing tourists (Mary McCarthy).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pensioner">
<B>pensioner, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who receives a pension. <BR> <I>Ex. In a country that is slowly growing old, there is the overriding problem of the old-age pensioners (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a hireling; dependent. <DD><B> 3. </B>a student who pays all his expenses, such as for food and lodging, (commons) at Cambridge University, England, and is not supported by any foundation. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) <DD><B> a. </B>(British.) a gentleman-at-arms. <DD><B> b. </B>a member of a bodyguard; attendant; retainer. </DL>
<A NAME="pensionfund">
<B>pension fund,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a fund set up on an actuarial basis to provide pensions for a group at a later date. <BR> <I>Ex. This man earned £17 a week, had looked after his money, and contributed about £1 a week to a pension fund that would give him £6 10s a week when he retired at 65 (Manchester Guardian).</I> adj. <B>pension-fund.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pensionless">
<B>pensionless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> receiving no pension. </DL>
<A NAME="pensionnaire">
<B>pensionnaire, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a person who boards in a pension. <BR> <I>Ex. On the fifth floor where the salon, the dining room and kitchen, and some of the rooms occupied by the pensionnaires (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pensionplan">
<B>pension plan,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a plan, usually set up on an actuarial basis by an employer alone or by an employer jointly with a union, to provide pensions for retired or disabled employees. </DL>
<A NAME="pensive">
<B>pensive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>thoughtful in a serious or sad way. <BR> <I>Ex. She was in a pensive mood, and sat staring out the window.</I> (SYN) meditative, reflective. <DD><B> 2. </B>melancholy. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the pensive shade of the Italian ruins (George W. Curtis).</I> (SYN) sober, grave, sad. adv. <B>pensively.</B> noun <B>pensiveness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="penstab">
<B>pen-stab, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an article for a writing desk, commonly a small vessel containing a brush with the bristles turned upward, for thrusting a pen into after using. </DL>
<A NAME="penstabber">
<B>pen-stabber, </B>noun. =pen-stab.</DL>
<A NAME="penstemon">
<B>penstemon, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any chiefly North American herb of a group of the figwort family, cultivated for their showy clustered flowers that are usually tubular and two-lipped and of various colors; beardtongue. Also, <B>pentstemon.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="penster">
<B>penster, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a petty writer. </DL>
<A NAME="penstock">
<B>penstock, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a channel for carrying water to a water wheel. <DD><B> b. </B>a pipe for carrying water to a turbine. <BR> <I>Ex. Water to drive the turbines drops sixteen times the height of Niagara Falls, through a penstock bored into the mountain and connecting with a huge ten-mile-long tunnel from Tahtsa Lake to the east (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a sluice or floodgate for restraining or regulating the flow from a head of water formed by a weir, dam, or other obstruction. <BR> <I>Ex. Apart from the associated damage to penstocks and valves, the large-scale flooding might cause great damage to industrial facilities downstream (The Effects of Atomic Weapons).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pent">
<B>pent</B> (1), adjective, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> closely confined; penned; shut. <BR> <I>Ex. pent in the house all winter.</I> <DD><I>verb </I> a past tense and a past participle of <B>pen</B> (2). <BR> <I>Ex. as if he had in prison long been pent (Edmund Spenser).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pent">
<B>pent</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a sloping roof or covering; penthouse. </DL>
<A NAME="pent">
<B>pent-,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (combining form.) the form of <B>penta-</B> before vowels, as in <I>pentacid.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="penta">
<B>penta-,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (combining form.) <DD><B> 1. </B>five. <BR> <I>Ex. Pentameter = poetry having five metrical feet to the line.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>having five atoms of a specified substance. <BR> <I>Ex. Pentabasic = having five atoms of replaceable hydrogen.</I> <DD> Also, <B>pent-</B> before vowels. </DL>
<A NAME="pentabasic">
<B>pentabasic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Chemistry.) having five atoms of hydrogen replaceable by basic atoms or radicals. <BR> <I>Ex. a pentabasic acid.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentacarpellary">
<B>pentacarpellary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Botany.) having five carpels. </DL>
<A NAME="pentachlorophenol">
<B>pentachlorophenol, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a chemical used as a wood preservative and fungicide. <BR> <I>Ex. Pentachlorophenol is sometimes used in swabbing decks of U.S. Navy vessels because it is a wood preservative (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentachord">
<B>pentachord, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Music.) <DD><B> 1. </B>an instrument with five strings. <DD><B> 2. </B>a diatonic series of five tones. </DL>
<A NAME="pentacid">
<B>pentacid, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Chemistry.) capable of combining with five molecules of a monobasic acid. </DL>
<A NAME="pentacle">
<B>pentacle, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a five-pointed star-shaped figure used as a magic or mystic symbol; pentagram. <BR> <I>Ex. He was tracing circles and pentacles in the grass and talking the language of the elves (G. K. Chesterton).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of certain other more or less star-shaped figures similarly used, such as a hexagram formed by overlapping triangles. </DL>
<A NAME="pentad">
<B>pentad, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a period of five years. <DD><B> 2. </B>an element, atom, or radical with a valence of five. <DD><B> 3. </B>a group or series of five. </DL>
<A NAME="pentadactyl">
<B>pentadactyl, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having five toes or fingers. <BR> <I>Ex. The limbs are almost typically pentadactyl (Hegner and Stiles).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentaerythritol">
<B>pentaerythritol, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a white, crystalline compound used for making synthetic lubricants, resins, and paints. </DL>
<A NAME="pentaerythritoltetranitrate">
<B>pentaerythritol tetranitrate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a white, crystalline substance derived from the esterification of pentaerythritol with nitric acid, used as an explosive and in treating certain heart disorders. (Abbr:) PETN (no periods). </DL>
<A NAME="pentagon">
<B>pentagon, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a plane figure having five angles and five sides. </DL>
<A NAME="pentagon">
<B>Pentagon, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a five-sided building that is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. It is in Arlington, Virginia. <DD><B> 2. </B>the Department of Defense. </DL>
<A NAME="pentagonal">
<B>pentagonal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having five sides and five angles. adv. <B>pentagonally.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pentagonese">
<B>Pentagonese, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Informal.) military jargon, especially as written or spoken in the Pentagon. <BR> <I>Ex. He has been highly successful in translating from the Pentagonese for other members of the Senate (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentagonian">
<B>Pentagonian, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) <DD><I>noun </I> a person who works in the Pentagon. <BR> <I>Ex. The season's dinner parties are invariably dimpled with a dizzying variety of ambassadors, Cabinet members, agency heads, socialites, Pentagonians, and sometimes the President himself (Time).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with the Pentagon. <BR> <I>Ex. Pentagonian military strategy.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentagram">
<B>pentagram, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a five-pointed star-shaped figure made by extending the sides of a regular pentagon until they meet, used as a mystic or magic symbol; pentacle, pentalpha, or pentangle. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Mathematics.) a figure of five lines connecting five points. </DL>
<A NAME="pentagrammatic">
<B>pentagrammatic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having the figure of a pentagram. </DL>
<A NAME="pentahedral">
<B>pentahedral, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having five faces. </DL>
<A NAME="pentahedron">
<B>pentahedron, </B>noun, pl. <B>-drons,</B> <B>-dra.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a solid figure having five faces. </DL>
<A NAME="pentail">
<B>pentail, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a variety of tree shrew, a small, squirrellike, insectivorous animal of Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands in Southeast Asia, having a long tail naked toward the base, but with the terminal portion fringed on opposite sides with long hairs, so as to look somewhat like a quill pen. </DL>
<A NAME="pentalogy">
<B>pentalogy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-gies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a combination of five mutually connected parts; pentad. <BR> <I>Ex. The story ... forms part of Heinlein's "History of the Future" pentalogy (Punch).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pentalpha">
<B>pentalpha, </B>noun. =pentagram.</DL>
<A NAME="pentamer">
<B>pentamer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a polymer consisting of five molecules. </DL>
