Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PE-DANT'IC, or PE-DANT'IC-AL, a.

Ostentatious of learning; vainly displaying or making a show of knowledge; applied to persons or things; a pedantic writer or scholar; a pedantic description or expression.

PE-DANT'IC-AL-LY, adv.

With a vain or boastful display of learning.

PED'ANT-IZE, v.i.

To play the pedant; to domineer over lads; to use pedantic expressions. – Cotgrave.

PED'ANT-RY, n. [Fr. pedanterie.]

Vain ostentation of learning; a boastful display of knowledge of any kind. Horace has enticed me into this pedantry of quotation. – Cowley. Pedantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning. – Rambler.

PE-DA'RI-AN, n.

A Roman senator who gave his vote by the feet, that is, by walking over to the side he espoused, in division of the senate. – Encyc.

PED'ATE, a. [L. pedatus, from pes, the foot.]

In botany, when the footstalk of a leaf is divided at the top, with a leaflet in the fork, and several leaflets on each division, it is said to be pedate.

PED'A-TI-FID, a. [L. pes, foot, and findo, to divide.]

A pedatifid leaf in botany, is one whose parts are not entirely separate, but divided in a pedate manner. – Martyn.

PED'DLE, v.i. [perhaps from the root of petty, W. pitw, Fr. petit, small.]

1. To be busy about trifles.
2. To travel about the country and retail goods. He peddles for a living.

PED'DLE, v.t.

To sell or retail, usually by traveling about the country.

PED'DLER, n. [from peddle, to sell by traveling; or from L. pes, pedis, the foot.]

A traveling foot-trader; one that carries about small commodities on his back, or in a cart or wagon, and sells them. Spenser. Swift.

PED'DLER-ESS, n.

A female peddler. – Overbury.

PED'DLER-Y, n.

Small wares sold or carried about for sale by peddlers.

PED'DLING, ppr.

1. Traveling about and selling small wares.
2. adj. Trifling; unimportant.

PED'E-RAST, n. [Gr. παιδεραστης, from παις, a boy, and ερως, love.]

A sodomite. – Encyc.

PED-E-RAST'IC, a.

Pertaining to pederasty.

PED'E-RAST-Y, n.

Sodomy; the crime against nature.

PED-E-RE'RO, n. [Sp. pedrero, from piedra, a stone, L. petra, Gr. πετρος; so named from the use of stones in tin charge, before the invention of iron balls.]

A swivel gun; sometimes written paterero.

PED'ES-TAL, n. [Sp. pedestal; It. piedestallo; Fr. piedestal; L. pes, the foot, and Teut. stall; G. stellen, to set.]

In architecture, the lowest part of a column or pillar; the part which sustains a column or serves as its foot. It consists of three parts, the base, the die and the cornice. – Addison. Encyc.

PE-DES'TRI-AL, a. [L. pedestris.]

Pertaining to the foot. – Moseley.

PE-DES'TRI-AN, a. [L. pedestris, from pes, the foot.]

Going on foot; walking; as, a pedestrian journey.

PE-DES'TRI-AN, n.

1. One that walks or journeys on foot.
2. One that walks for a wager; a remarkable walker.

PE-DES'TRI-AN-ISM, n.

1. A walking; usually for a wager.
2. The practice of walking.

PE-DES'TRI-AN-IZE, v.

To practice walking.

PE-DES'TRI-OUS, a.

Going on foot; not winged. – Brown.

PED'I-CEL, or PED'I-CLE, n. [L. pediculus, from pes, the foot.]

In botany, the ultimate division of a common peduncle; the stalk that supports one flower only when there are seven on a peduncle. Any short and small footstalk although it does not stand upon another footstalk, is likewise called a pedicel. – Martyn.