<B>prizer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) a person who competes for a prize. </DL>
<A NAME="prizering">
<B>prize ring,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a square space enclosed by ropes, used for prizefights. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=prizefighting.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="prizewinner">
<B>prizewinner, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person or thing that wins a prize. <BR> <I>Ex. A biochemist and Nobel prizewinner (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="prizewinning">
<B>prizewinning, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> that has won a prize. <BR> <I>Ex. a prizewinning novel.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="prizeworthy">
<B>prizeworthy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> deserving of a prize. <BR> <I>Ex. a prizeworthy invention.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="prn">
<B>PRN</B> (no periods) or <B>P.R.N.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> pro re nata; as the occasion requires (used in prescriptions). </DL>
<A NAME="pro">
<B>pro</B> (1), adverb, adjective, noun, pl. <B>pros.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>adv., adj. </I> in favor of; for. <BR> <I>Ex. to argue a question pro and con (adv.). Being pro one usually meant being anti the other (New Yorker) (adj.).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a reason in favor of. The pros and cons of a question are the arguments for and against it. <DD><B> 2a. </B>a person who votes in favor of something. <DD><B> b. </B>an affirmative vote. </DL>
<A NAME="pro">
<B>pro</B> (2), noun, pl. <B>pros,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) professional. <BR> <I>Ex. Television also has its circus of seasoned pros whom one sees week after week (Listener). Early in his pro career Moore had difficulty getting fights in this country (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<B>pro-</B> (1),<DL COMPACT><DD> (prefix.) <DD><B> 1. </B>forward, as in <I>proceed, project.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>forth; out, as in <I>prolong, proclaim, prolapse.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>on the side of; in favor of; in behalf of, as in <I>pro-British, proclerical.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>in place of; acting as, as in <BR> <I>Ex. pronoun, proconsul.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pro">
<B>pro-</B> (2),<DL COMPACT><DD> (prefix.) <DD><B> 1. </B>before; preceding; prior to, as in <BR> <I>Ex. prologue, proinsulin, proseminar.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>in front of; anterior, as in <BR> <I>Ex. prothorax, proscenium.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pro">
<B>PRO</B> (no periods) or <B>P.R.O.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Public Relations Officer. <BR> <I>Ex. Those who get in his way ... end up as small-time P.R.O.s at remote Engineer Corps posts (New Yorker). Churches throughout Surrey were "gratifyingly packed," according to the Archbishop of Canterbury's PRO (Punch).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pro">
<B>P.R.O.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Public Record Office (of Great Britain). </DL>
<A NAME="proa">
<B>proa, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a swift Malay sailing boat built with one side flat and balanced by an outrigger. Also, <B>prau.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="proabortion">
<B>proabortion, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> favoring or permitting induced abortions. <BR> <I>Ex. proabortion legislation. The American Civil Liberties Union joined with the proabortion groups, making a woman's right to choose an abortion its top priority issue (Morton Rothstein).</I> noun <B>proabortionism.</B> noun <B>proabortionist.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pressgang">
<B>press-gang, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) <DD><B> 1. </B>to force into naval or military service; press. <BR> <I>Ex. The greater the efforts to press-gang conscripts, the more recruits the Vietcong get (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to force, impress, or lure into an activity. <BR> <I>Ex. ... stopping us from being press-ganged into a fashion that won't last (Sunday Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="proam">
<B>pro-am, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> including both professional and amateur players. <BR> <I>Ex. a pro-am match, a pro-am event.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a pro-am game, match, or tournament. <BR> <I>Ex. Pro-ams are increasingly part of the golfing scene (London Times).</I> </DL>
<B>probabilism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the philosophical doctrine that certainty is impossible and that probability suffices to govern faith and practice. <DD><B> 2. </B>(in the Roman Catholic Church) the doctrine that where authorities differ as to the lawfulness of an action, either opinion may be followed. </DL>
<A NAME="probabilist">
<B>probabilist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who holds the doctrine of probabilism. </DL>
<A NAME="probabilistic">
<B>probabilistic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>having to do with or based on probability. <BR> <I>Ex. Clausius, Maxwell, and Boltzmann showed how to derive the laws of gases from probabilistic assumptions about the behavior of individual molecules (Scientific American).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>of probabilists or probabilism in theology. adv. <B>probabilistically.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="probability">
<B>probability, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the quality or fact of being likely or probable; good chance. <BR> <I>Ex. There is a probability of rain.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>something likely to happen. <BR> <I>Ex. A storm is one of the probabilities for tomorrow.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>the likelihood that an event will occur, estimated as the ratio p/(p + q), where p is the probable number of occurrences and q is the probable number of nonoccurrences. <BR> <I>Ex. But this process proved to be one that was regulated by chance and the laws or probability rather than by the causal or determinative principles (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>the science or study of probability theory. <BR> <I>Ex. Work in the honors section leads ... to a fifth year of study that includes probability and statistics (Atlantic).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>in all probability,</B> </I>probably. <BR> <I>Ex. In all probability I will go with you. ... these cliffs corresponding in all probability to ancient lines of fault (Samuel Haughton).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="probabilitycurve">
<B>probability curve,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Statistics.) a bell-shaped curve; normal curve. </DL>
<A NAME="probabilitytheory">
<B>probability theory,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a branch of mathematics dealing with chance or random phenomena, and forming the theoretical basis of statistics. <BR> <I>Ex. Probability theory ... is concerned with the problem of calculating the probabilities of complex events consisting of collections of "elementary" events whose probabilities are known or postulated (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="probable">
<B>probable, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>likely to happen. <BR> <I>Ex. Cooler weather is probable after this shower.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>likely to be true. <BR> <I>Ex. Something he ate is the probable cause of his pain.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>affording ground for belief. <BR> <I>Ex. probable evidence.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="probablecause">
<B>probable cause,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Law.) good reason for assuming that a charge has sufficient evidence. </DL>
<A NAME="probableerror">
<B>probable error,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Statistics.) the amount by which the arithmetical mean of a sample is expected to vary because of chance alone. <BR> <I>Ex. The probable error means that in sampling data some error is bound to occur (Emory S. Bogardus).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="probably">
<B>probably, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> more likely than not. <BR> <I>Ex. He will probably refuse the offer.</I> (SYN) presumably. </DL>
<A NAME="proband">
<B>proband, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the subject of a study, test, or experiment. </DL>
<A NAME="probang">
<B>probang, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Medicine.) a slender, elastic rod tipped with a sponge, ball, or the like, used to remove foreign bodies, as from the esophagus. </DL>
<A NAME="probate">
<B>probate, </B>noun, adjective, verb, <B>-bated,</B> <B>-bating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Law.) <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the official proving of the will of a person who has died as genuine. <DD><B> 2. </B>a true copy of a will with a certificate that it has been proved genuine. <DD><I>adj. </I> of or concerned with the probating of wills or a probate court. <BR> <I>Ex. a probate judge.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to prove by legal process the genuineness of (a will). </DL>
<A NAME="probatecourt">
<B>probate court,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a court concerned with the probate of wills and the settlement of the estates of dead persons. </DL>
<A NAME="probation">
<B>probation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a trial or testing of conduct, character, or qualifications. <BR> <I>Ex. the general doctrine of religion, that our present life is a state of probation for a future one (Joseph Butler). After a period of probation a novice becomes a nun.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>any act or process of testing. <DD><B> 3a. </B>the system of letting young offenders against the law, or first offenders, go free without receiving the punishment which they are sentenced to, unless there is a further offense. <BR> <I>Ex. The person on probation makes monthly reports, pays the fine ... , and makes restitution ... to the person or persons injured by him (Emory S. Bogardus).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>the status of an offender freed in this way. <DD><B> 4. </B>a status or period of trial for students who have failing marks, have broken rules, etc.. <BR> <I>Ex. He was admitted to the sixth grade on probation.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>proof; demonstration. </DL>
<B>probationary, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with probation. <BR> <I>Ex. Pythagoras ... required from those he instructed in philosophy a probationary silence of five years (Samuel Johnson).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>on probation. <BR> <I>Ex. The College elected him probationary Fellow (W. J. Courthope).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="probationer">
<B>probationer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who is on probation. (SYN) novice, novitiate. </DL>
<A NAME="probationership">
<B>probationership, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the condition or period of a probationer. </DL>
<A NAME="probationofficer">
<B>probation officer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an officer appointed to supervise offenders placed on probation. </DL>
<A NAME="probative">
<B>probative, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>giving proof or evidence. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the probative fact (Jeremy Bentham).</I> (SYN) demonstrative. <DD><B> 2. </B>for a trial or test. <BR> <I>Ex. Some are only probative, and designed to ... stir up those virtues which before lay dormant in the soul (Robert South).</I> </DL>
