Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIQ-UANT-LY, adv. [pik'antly.]

With sharpness or pungency; tartly. – Locke.

PIQUE, n. [peek; Fr. See Piquant.]

1. An offense taken; usually, slight anger, irritation or displeasure at persons, rather temporary than permanent, and distinguished either in degree or temporariness from settled enmity or malevolence. Out of personal pique to those in service, he stands as a looker on, when the government is attacked. – Addison.
2. A strong passion. – Hudibras.
3. Point; nicety; punctilio. Add long prescription of established laws, / And pique of honor to maintain a cause. – Dryden.

PIQUE, v.t. [peek; Fr. piquer. See Piquant.]

1. To offend; to nettle; to irritate; to sting; to fret; to excite a degree of anger. It expresses less than exasperate. The lady was piqued for her indifference. – Female Quixote.
2. To stimulate; to excite to action; to touch with envy, jealousy or other passion. Piqu'd by Protogenes' fame, / From Co to Rhodes Apelles came. – Prior.
3. With the reciprocal pronoun, to pride or value one's self. Men pique themselves on their skill in the learned languages. – Locke.

PIQ-UED, pp. [pee'ked.]

Irritated; nettled; offended; excited.

PIQ-UEER, [See PICKEER.]

PIQ-UEER-ER, n.

A plunderer; a freebooter. [See Pickeerer.] – Swift.

PIQ'UET, [See PICKET.]

PIQ-UET, n. [pick'et; Fr.]

A game at cards played between two persons, with only thirty two cards; all the deuces, threes, fours, fives and sixes being set aside. – Encyc.

PIQU'ING, ppr. [pee'king.]

Irritating; offending; priding.

PI'RA-CY, n. [Fr. piraterie; L. piratica, from Gr. πειρατεια, from πειραω, to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence L. periculum, experior. The primary sense of the root is to run, rush or drive forward; allied to Sax. faran, Eng. to fare. Class Br.]

1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land. – Waller. Arbuthnot. Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy. See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.
2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

PI'RATE, n. [It. pirato; L. and Sp. pirata; Gr. πειρατης, from πειραω. See Piracy. Formerly this word signified a ship or sea soldier, answering to the marine of the present day.]

1. A robber on the high seas; one that by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas. In strictness, the word pirate is one who makes it his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas.
2. An armed ship or vessel which sails without a legal commission, for the purpose of plundering other vessels indiscriminately on the high seas.
3. A bookseller that seizes the copies or writings of other men without permission. – Johnson.

PI'RATE, v.i.

To rob on the high seas. Arbuthnot.

PI'RATE, v.t.

To take by theft or without right or permission, as books or writings. They advertised they would pirate his edition. – Pope.

PI'RA-TED, pp.

Taken by theft or without right.

PI-RAT'IC-AL, a. [L. piraticus.]

1. Robbing or plundering by open violence on the high seas; as, a piratical commander or ship.
2. Consisting in piracy; predatory; robbing; as, a piratical trade or occupation.
3. Practicing literary theft. The errors of the press were multiplied by piratical printers. – Pope.

PI-RAT'IC-AL-LY, adv.

By piracy. – Bryant.

PI'RAT-ING, ppr.

1. Robbing on the high seas; taking without right, as a book or writing.
2. adj. Undertaken for the sake of piracy; as, a pirating expedition. – Mitford.

PI-ROGUE', or PI-RA-GUA, n. [piro'ge, or pirau'gua; Sp. piragua. This word is variously written, periagua or pirogue. The former is the spelling of Washington and Jefferson; the latter of Charlevoix.]

1. A canoe formed out of the trunk of a tree, or two canoes united. – Charlevoix.
2. In modern usage in America, a narrow ferry boat carrying two masts and a leeboard.

PIR-OU-ETTE, n. [piroet'; Fr.]

1. A whirling, or turning about on the toes in dancing.
2. The circumvolution of a horse on the same ground.

PIR'RY, n.

A rough gale of wind; a storm. [Not used.] – Elyot.

PIS'CA-RY, n. [It. pescheria, from pescare, to fish, Sp. pescar; Fr. pêcherie, from pêcher, to fish; L. piscis, a fish; piscor, to fish.]

In law, the right or privilege of fishing in another man's waters. – Blackstone.

PIS-CA'TION, n. [L. piscatio. See Piscary and Fish.]

The act or practice of fishing. – Brown.

PIS'CA-TO-RY, a. [L. piscatorius.]

Relating to fishes or to fishing; as, a piscatory eclogue. – Addison.

PIS'CES, n. [plur. L. piscis.]

In astronomy, the Fishes, the twelfth sign or constellation in the zodiac.

PIS'CI-NAL, a.

Belonging to a fish pond.