Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PI-O-NEER, n. [Fr. pionnier, contracted from piochnier, from pioche, a pickax, piocher, to dig, that is, to peck, W. pigaw, Sp. and Port. picar. The Italians use guastatore, Sp. gastador, from guastare, gastar, to waste, to wear away. The Germans use schanzgräber, D. schansgraaver, a trench-digger.]

1. In the art and practice of war, one whose business is to march with or before an army, to repair the road or clear it of obstructions, work at intrenchments, or form mines for destroying an enemy's works. – Bacon.
2. One that goes before to remove obstructions or prepare the way for another.

PI-O-NEER, v.t.

To go before and prepare a way for others.

PI-O-NEER-ED, pp.

Preceded and prepared.

PI'O-NING, n.

The work of pioneers. [Not used.] – Spenser.

PI'O-NY, or PE'O-NY, n. [Sax. pionie, from L. pæonia; Gr. παιωνια, from παιων, Apollo, a physician, and a hymn.]

An herbaceous perennial plant, Pæonia officinalis, with tuberous roots, and bearing large beautiful red flowers. Also the popular name of all the species of the genus Pæonia, the individual species being distinguished by prefixing some appropriate descriptive epithet. – Encyc.

PI'OUS, a. [L. pius; Fr. pieux; Sp. It. and Port. pio. In Sp. and It. the word signifies not only pious, but mild and compassionate, and pity and piety are expressed by one and the same word. See Pity.]

1. Godly; reverencing and honoring the Supreme Being in heart and in the practice of the duties he has enjoined: having due veneration and affection for the character of God, and habitually obeying his commands; religious; devoted to the service of God; applied to persons.
2. Dictated by reverence to God; proceeding from piety; applied to things; as, pious awe; pious services or affections; pious sorrow.
3. Having due respect and affection for parents or other relatives; practicing the duties of respect and affection toward parents or other near relatives. – Taylor. Pope.
4. Practiced under the pretense of religion; as, pious frauds.

PI'OUS-LY, adv.

1. In a pious manner; with reverence and affection for God; religiously; with due regard to sacred things or to the duties God has enjoined. – Hammond.
2. With due regard to natural or civil relations and to the duties which spring from them. – Addison.

PI'OUS-MIND-ED, a.

Of a pious disposition.

PIP, n. [D. pip; Fr. pepie.]

1. A disease of fowls; a horny pellicle that grows on the tip of their tongue. – Johnson. Hudibras.
2. A spot on cards. – Addison.

PIP, v.i. [L. pipio; W. pipian; Dan. piper.]

To cry or chirp, as a chicken; commonly pronounced peep. Boyle.

PIPE, n. [Sax. pipe; W. pib; Ir. pib; piob; Sw. pip, pipa; D. pyp; G. pfeife, whence Eng. fife; Dan. pibe; Port. It and Sp. pipa; Fr. pipe; Arm. pip or pimp.]

1. A wind instrument of music, consisting of a long tube of wood or metal; as, a rural pipe. The word, I believe, is not now the proper technical name of any particular instrument, but is applicable to any tubular wind instrument, and it occurs in bagpipe.
2. A long tube or hollow body; applied to the veins and arteries of the body, and to many hollow bodies, particularly such as are used for conductors of water or other fluids.
3. A tube of clay with a bowl at one end; used in smoking tobacco.
4. The organs of voice and respiration; as in windpipe. – Peacham.
5. The key or sound of the voice. – Shak.
6. In England, a roll in the exchequer, or the exchequer itself. Hence, pipe-office is an office in which the clerk of the pipe makes out leases of crown lands, accounts of sherifs, &c.
7. A cask containing two hogsheads or 120 gallons, used for wine; or the quantity which it contains.
8. In mining, a pipe is where the ore runs forward endwise in a hole, and does not sink downward or in a vein. – Encyc.

PIPE, v.i.

1. To play on a pipe, fife, flute or other tubular wind instrument of music. – Dryden. Swift. We have piped to you, and ye have not danced. – Matth. xi.
2. To have a shrill sound; to whistle. – Shak.

PIPE, v.t.

To play on a wind instrument. 1 Cor. xiv.

PIP-ED, a.

Formed with a tube; tubular. – Encyc.

PIPE-FISH, n.

A fish of the genus Syngnathus. – Encyc.

PIP-ER, n.

One who plays on a pipe or wind instrument.

PIP'ER-IDGE, n.

A shrub, the berberis, or barberry. – Fam. of Plants. The piperidge of New England is the Nyssa villosa, a large tree with very tough wood.

PIP'ER-IN, n.

1. A concretion of volcanic ashes. – Da Costa. Kirwan.
2. A peculiar crystaline substance extracted from black pepper. The crystals of piperin are transparent, and they assume the tetrahedral prismatic form with oblique summits. – Carpenter.

PIPE-TREE, n.

The lilac.

PIP-ING, ppr.

1. Playing on a pipe.
2. adj. Weak; feeble; sickly. [Vulgar, and not in use in America.]
3. Very hot; boiling; from the sound of boiling fluids. [Used in vulgar language.]

PI-PIS'TREL, n.

A species of bat, the smallest of the kind.

PIP'KIN, n. [dim. of pipe.]

A small earthen boiler. – Pope.

PIP'PIN, n. [D. pippeling.]

A kind of apple; a tart apple. This name in America is given to several kinds of apples, as to the Newtown pippin, an excellent winter apple, and the summer pippin, a large apple, but more perishable than the Newtown pippin.

PIQ-UAN-CY, n. [pik'ancy. infra.]

Sharpness; pungency; tartness; severity. – Barrow.

PIQ-UANT, a. [pik'ant; Fr. from piquer, to prick or sting, It. piccare, Sp. and Port. picar, from the root of pike, peak.]

1. Pricking; stimulating to the tongue; as, rock as piquant to the tongue as salt. – Addison.
2. Sharp; tart; pungent; severe; as, piquant railleries. – Gov. of the Tongue.