<B>prevision, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>foresight; foreknowledge. <BR> <I>Ex. She knew by prevision what most women learn only by experience (Thomas Hardy).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a prophetic vision or perception. <BR> <I>Ex. Some prevision warned the explorer of danger.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="previsional">
<B>previsional, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with prevision; foreseeing; forecasting. adv. <B>previsionally.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="prevocalic">
<B>prevocalic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> immediately preceding a vowel. </DL>
<A NAME="prevocational">
<B>prevocational, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with training taken before entering a vocational school. </DL>
<B>prewar, </B>adjective, adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> before a war. <BR> <I>Ex. ... so security-conscious a regime as theone that ruled prewar and wartime Japan (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="prewire">
<B>prewire, </B>transitive verb. <B>-wired,</B> <B>-wiring.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to install electrical wiring during construction of a building or room. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative:) <BR> <I>Ex. All newborns smile, ... and all babies tightly clutch objects placed in their palms. Both habits have apparently been prewired into the brain as firmly as the optic nerve (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<B>prexy, </B>noun, pl. <B>prexies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) a president, especially of a college or university. <BR> <I>Ex. The gentleman ... is still prexy of one of the land's snootiest colleges (Saturday Review).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="prey">
<B>prey, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>any animal or animals hunted or seized for food by another animal. <BR> <I>Ex. Mice and birds are the prey of cats. The relative number of predatory fish ... increased significantly compared with their prey (F. S. Bodenheimer).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the habit of hunting and killing other animals for food. <BR> <I>Ex. Hawks are birds of prey.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) a person or thing injured; victim. <BR> <I>Ex. to be a prey to fear, be a prey to disease. Meanwhile, Victoria, in growing agitation, was a prey to temper and to nerves (Lytton Strachey).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Archaic.) booty; spoil; plunder. <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>prey on</B> (or <B>upon</B>), <B>a. </B>to hunt or kill for food. <BR> <I>Ex. Cats prey upon mice.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Figurative.) to do harm; be a strain upon; injure; irritate. <BR> <I>Ex. Worry about her debts preys on her mind.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>to rob; plunder. <BR> <I>Ex. A succession of ferocious invaders descended through the western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of Hindostan (Macaulay).</I> noun <B>preyer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="priacanthid">
<B>priacanthid, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> any one of various small, carnivorous, acanthopterygian fish of tropical seas, occasionally found off the coast of the United States. <DD><I>adj. </I> belonging or having to do with these fish. </DL>
<A NAME="priam">
<B>Priam, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Legend.) the king of Troy at the time of the Trojan War. He was the father of many children, including Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. </DL>
<A NAME="priapean">
<B>Priapean, </B>adjective. =Priapic.</DL>
<A NAME="priapic">
<B>Priapic</B> or <B>priapic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with Priapus and his worship. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=phallic.</B> adv. <B>Priapically,</B> <B>priapically.</B> </DL>
<B>Priapus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek and Roman Mythology.) the Greek and Roman god of procreation. He protected gardens, vineyards, and flocks. </DL>
<A NAME="priapus">
<B>priapus, </B>noun. =phallus.</DL>
<A NAME="price">
<B>price, </B>noun, verb, <B>priced,</B> <B>pricing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the amount for which a thing is sold or can be bought; cost to the buyer. <BR> <I>Ex. The price of this hat is $10.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a reward offered for the capture of a person alive or dead. <BR> <I>Ex. Every member of the gang has a price on his head.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) what must be given, done, or undergone to obtain a thing; amount paid for any result. <BR> <I>Ex. to secure wealth at the price of health. We paid a heavy price for the victory, for we lost ten thousand soldiers.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>value; worth. <BR> <I>Ex. a diamond of great price.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>money or other consideration for which a person's support or consent may be obtained. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to put a price on; set the price of. <BR> <I>Ex. The hat was priced at $10.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) to ask the price of; find out the price of. <BR> <I>Ex. Mother is pricing rugs.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>at any price,</B> </I>at any cost, no matter how great. <BR> <I>Ex. We wanted to win at any price.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>beyond</B> (or <B>without</B>) <B>price,</B> </I>so valuable that it cannot be bought or be given a value in money. <BR> <I>Ex. a painting beyond price. A robe of samite without price ... clung about her lissome limbs (Tennyson).</I> noun <B>pricer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pricecommission">
<B>price commission,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a governmental commission in charge of regulating price and rent increases, especially to curb inflation. </DL>
<A NAME="pricecontrol">
<B>price control,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the fixing of prices, usually by a government agency, especially by establishing maximum or minimum prices for commodities and rents. <BR> <I>Ex. Rationing and price controls locked up the excess purchasing power in savings and staved off the worst of the inflation until the end of the war (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pricecutter">
<B>price cutter,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person or group that practices price cutting. </DL>
<A NAME="pricecutting">
<B>price cutting,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a sharp reduction of prices, especially when undertaken at a loss in order to eliminate competitors. <BR> <I>Ex. As to stabilizing the industry, minimum prices did tend to diminish price cutting (New York Times).</I> adj. <B>price-cutting.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="priceearningsratio">
<B>price-earnings ratio,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the ratio between the market price of a stock and its dollar earnings per share. A price of $64 with earnings of $8 per share has a ratio of 8 to 1. <BR> <I>Ex. The price-earnings ratios of many blue-chip ... which had swollen far out of proportion (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pricefixer">
<B>price fixer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a manufacturer that engages in price fixing. </DL>
<A NAME="pricefixing">
<B>price fixing,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the control of prices by a governmental agency. <DD><B> 2. </B>an illegal agreement among several manufacturers to set a noncompetitive price on a product which they all make. <BR> <I>Ex. It was the first large-scale criminal price fixing case against the industry in more than 20 years (Time).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>the practice of setting and maintaining a retail price for one's products. adj. <B>price-fixing.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="priceindex">
<B>price index,</B> =consumer price index.</DL>
<A NAME="priceless">
<B>priceless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>beyond price; extremely valuable. <BR> <I>Ex. Many museums have collections of priceless paintings by famous artists.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) very amusing or absurd; delightful. <BR> <I>Ex. Send me some of your priceless little sketches for my rummage sale on the 26th (Punch).</I> noun <B>pricelessness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pricelevel">
<B>price level,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the general level of prices, as may be shown by a consumer price index. <BR> <I>Ex. But until the public shows strong and definite hostility toward inflationary wage settlements, we must expect rising labor costs to push the price level slowly upward (Sumner H. Slichter).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the average price of any product during a certain period. <BR> <I>Ex. The whole TV price level slid downhill with [the] introduction of portable sets priced substantially below table or console models (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="priceprop">
<B>price prop,</B> =price support.</DL>
<A NAME="pricering">
<B>price ring,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) a number of manufacturers who act together to set a noncompetitive price on a product which they all make. </DL>
<A NAME="pricesupport">
<B>price support,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> artificial support, generally provided by a government, to keep prices of products or commodities or foreign exchange rates from falling below certain stipulated levels. It may take the form of direct subsidy to the producer, or of government purchase at the level of support when the price in the open market falls below that level, or of loans to permit producers to hold back their production in storage pending a rise in price in the open market or an increase in protective tariffs. </DL>
<A NAME="pricesupported">
<B>price-supported, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that is given price support. <BR> <I>Ex. price-supported agricultural commodities.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pricetag">
<B>price tag,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a tag or ticket marked with the price of the article to which it is attached. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) an estimated worth or cost; value. <BR> <I>Ex. To answer these questions means putting a price tag on events which are obviously incalculable (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pricewar">
<B>price war,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a period of intense competition between merchants, especially retail merchants, in which prices are progressively slashed until they may drop below cost. </DL>
<A NAME="pricewise">
<B>pricewise, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> with respect to price or prices. <BR> <I>Ex. to compete pricewise.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pricey">
<B>pricey, </B>adjective, <B>pricier,</B> <B>priciest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British Informal.) expensive. <BR> <I>Ex. When we travel ... we avoid the pricey hotels (Sunday Times).</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> Also, <B>pricy.</B> </DL>
