Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLU'RAL-IZE, v.t.

To make plural by using the termination of the plural number.

PLU'RAL-LY, adv.

In a sense implying more than one.

PLU-RI-LIT'ER-AL, a. [L. plus and litera, letter.]

Containing more letters than three.

PLU-RI-LIT'ER-AL, n.

A word consisting of more letters than three.

PLU'RI-SY, n. [L. plus, pluris.]

Superabundance. [Not used.] – Shak.

PLUS, n. [L. more.]

In algebra, a character marked thus, +, used as a sign of addition.

PLUSH, n. [G. plüsch, shag; D. pluis, flock, nap, plush; pluizen, to fray, pick, carp, fleece. Qu. Fr. peluche. The Italian peluzzo signifies a little hair or down, from pelo, hair, L. pilus.]

Shag; a species of shaggy cloth or stuff with a velvet nap on one side, composed regularly of a woof of a single thread and a double warp; the one, wool of two threads twisted, the other of goat's or camel's hair. But some plushes are made wholly of worsted; others wholly of hair. – Encyc.

PLUSH'ER, n.

A marine fish. – Carew.

PLU-TO'NI-AN, a.

Plutonic – which see.

PLU-TO'NI-AN, n.

One who maintains the origin of mountains, &c. to be from fire. – Journ. of Science. The Plutonian theory of the formation of rocks and mountains is opposed to the Neptunian.

PLU-TON'IC, a. [from Pluto, in mythology, the king of the infernal regions.]

Pertaining to or designating the system of the Plutonists; as, the Plutonic theory. – Kirwan.

PLU'TO-NISM, n.

The doctrines of the Plutonists.

PLU'TO-NIST, n.

One who adopts the theory of the formation of the world in its present state from igneous fusion. – Good.

PLU'VI-AL, or PLU'VI-OUS, a. [L. pluvialis, from pluvia, rain; Fr. and It. pluviale; Sp. pluvial.]

Rainy; humid. Brown.

PLU'VI-AL, n. [Fr. pluvial.]

A priest's scope. – Ainsworth.

PLU-VI-AM'E-TER, n. [L. pluvia, rain, and Gr. μετρον, measure.]

A rain-gage, an instrument for ascertaining the quantity of water that falls in rain, or in rain and snow, in any particular climate or place.

PLU-VI-A-MET'RIC-AL, a.

Pertaining to a pluviameter; made or ascertained by a pluviameter. – Journ. of Science.

PLY, n.

1. A fold; a plait. – Arbuthnot.
2. Bent; turn; direction; bias. The late learners can not so well take the ply. – Bacon.

PLY, v.i.

1. To bend; to yield. The willow plied and gave way to the gust. – L'Estrange.
2. To work steadily. He was forced to ply in the streets. – Spectator.
3. To go in haste. Thither he plies undaunted. – Milton.
4. To busy one's self; to be steadily employed. – Dryden.
5. To endeavor to make way against the wind. – Mar. Dict.

PLY, v.t. [Fr. plier, to bend or fold, formerly written ployer whence employ; Arm. plega, W. plygu, It. piegare, Sp: plegar, Port. pregar, L. plico, Gr. πλεκω, to fold; Sax. pleggan, to play and to lie on; D. pleegen, to use, to exercise; Dan. plejer, to exercise, to perform an office, to tend, to nurse; G. pflegen, id.; Sw. pläga. That these words are from the root of lie, lay, is obvious, for in G. liegen, to lie, signifies also to ply, to apply. The prefix p may be used for the Teutonic be; be-liegen, to lie close, to bend to. See Lay and Lie.]

1. To lay on, to put to or on with force and repetition; to apply to closely, with continuation of efforts or urgency. And plies him with redoubled strokes. – Dryden. The hero from afar / Plies him with darts and stones. – Dryden. We retain the precise sense in the phrase to lay on, to put it on him.
2. To employ with diligence; to apply closely and steadily; to keep busy. Her gentle wit she plies. – Spenser. The wearied Trojans ply their shattered oars. – Dryden.
3. To practice or perform with diligence. Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply. – Waller.
4. To urge; to solicit with pressing or persevering importunity. He plies the duke at morning and at night. – Shak.
5. To urge; to press; to strain; to force.

PLY'ER, n.

He or that which plies. In fortification, plyers denotes a kind of balance used in raising and letting down a drawbridge, consisting of timbers joined in the form of St. Andrew's cross.

PLY'ING, n.

1. Urgent solicitation. – Hammond.
2. Effort to make way against the wind.

PLY'ING, ppr.

Laying on with steadiness or repetition; applying closely; employing; performing; urging; pressing or attempting to make way against the wind.

PNEU-MAT'IC, or PNEU-MAT'IC-AL, a. [numat'ic; Gr. πνευματικος, from πνευμα, breath, spirit; πνεω, to breathe or blow.]

1. Consisting of air, as a thin compressible substance; opposed to dense or solid substances. The pneumatic substance being, in some bodies, the native spirit of the body. – Bacon.
2. Pertaining to air, or to the philosophy of its properties; as, pneumatic experiments; a pneumatic engine. – Locke. Encyc.
3. Moved or played by means of air; as, a pneumatic instrument of music.

PNEU-MAT'ICS, n.

1. In natural philosophy, that branch which treats of air. In chimistry, that branch which treats of the gases.
2. In the schools, the doctrine of spiritual substances, as God, angels, and the souls of men. – Dict.