Emily Dickinson Lexicon

piercing, verbal adj. [see pierce, v.]

Painful; bittersweet; agonizing; acute.

pierless, adj. [see pier, n.] (webplay: bridge, supporting).

Supportless; intangible; without apparent basis; [fig.] invisible; without evidence; lacking visible foundation.

pigmy, adj. [Medieval L. pygmeu-s.]

Miniature; tiny; small; diminutive; elfin; fairy; Liliputian; minute; [fig.] floral; blossoming; [metaphor] butterfly.

Pilate, proper n. [see Pilate, Pontius.]

Pilate, Pontius, proper n. [L. pontos, sea, or pons, bridge + L. Pilātus, cap of liberty.]

Pontius Pilate (died A.D. 36); governor of the Roman province of Judea; procurator who yielded to the will of the Jewish people by sentencing Jesus Christ to crucifixion (see Matthew 27).

pile (-s), n. [Fr. pile, heap, pyramid, mass of masonry, pier of a bridge < L. pīla, pillar, pier, mole of stone.] (webplay: balls, earth, lesser, rising, side, soft, stamping, stones, top).

1. Heap; mass; collection; group; clump; stack; accumulation.
2. Fire pit; funeral pyre; mound of combustible material upon which a dead body or sacrifice is burned.

pile (-d), v. [see pile, n.] (webplay: cross, dead, earth, ground, head, large, place, sight, stones).

1. Accumulate; collect; stockpile; amass.
2. Stack; place in a heap; throw into a mound.
3. Increase; build up; [fig.] escalate; gradually intensify; grow incrementally louder or more powerful.
4. Phrase. “Pile on”: multiply; increase.

pilfered, verbal adj. [OFr or AFr pelfre-r, pillage, rob.]

Stolen; taken; confiscated; expropriated; purloined; seized; usurped; [amelioration] borrowed; mortal.

pilgrim, adj. [see pilgrim, n.] (webplay: ages, remains).

Wanderer's; exhausted traveler's.

pilgrim, n. [Early ME pelegrim < L. peregrīn-um, one that comes from foreign parts, stranger < per, through + ager, field, country, land.] (webplay: country, far, journey, place).

Stranger; foreigner; wanderer; wayfarer; traveler; sojourner; one in search of a safe haven.