Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PROF'IT-A-BLE, a. [Fr.]

1. Yielding or bringing profit or gain; gainful; lucrative; as, a profitable trade; profitable business; a profitable study or profession.
2. Useful; advantageous. What was so profitable to the empire, became fatal to the emperor. – Arbuthnot.

PROF'IT-A-BLE-NESS, n.

1. Gainfulness; as, the profitable riches of trade.
2. Usefulness; advantageousness. – More. Calamy.

PROF'IT-A-BLY, adv.

1. With gain; gainfully. Our ships are profitably employed.
2. Usefully; advantageously; with improvement. Our time may be profitably occupied in reading.

PROF'IT-ED, pp.

Benefited; advanced in interest or happiness; improved. What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? – Matth. xvi.

PROF'IT-ING, n.

Gain; advantage; improvement. That thy profiting may appear to all. – 1 Tim. iv.

PROF'IT-ING, ppr.

Gaining interest or advantage; improving.

PROF'IT-LESS, a.

Void of profit, gain or advantage. – Shak.

PROF'LI-GA-CY, n. [See Profligate.]

A profligate or very vicious course of life; a state of being abandoned in moral principle and in vice. Barrington.

PROF'LI-GATE, a. [L. profligatus, profligo, to rout, to ruin; pro and fligo, to drive or dash. The word then signifies dashed, broken or ruined in morals. See Flog and Afflict.]

Abandoned to vice; lost to principle, virtue or decency; extremely vicious; shameless in wickedness; as, a profligate man or wretch. Next age will see / A race more profligate than we. – Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate the muse, / Debas'd to each obscene and impious use. – Dryden.

PROF'LI-GATE, n.

An abandoned man; a wretch who has lost all regard to good principles, virtue or decency. How could such a profligate as Antony, or a boy of eighteen like Octavius, ever dare to dream of giving law to such an empire? – Swift.

PROF'LI-GATE, v.t.

1. To drive away; a Latin signification. [Not used.]
2. To overcome. [Not used.] – Harvey.

PROF'LI-GATE-LY, adv.

1. Without principle or shame. – Swift.
2. In a course of extreme viciousness; as, to spend life profligately.

PROF'LI-GATE-NESS, n.

1. The quality or state of being lost to virtue and decency. – Butler.
2. An abandoned course of life; extreme viciousness; profligacy.

PROF-LI-GA'TION, n.

Defeat; rout. [Not used.] – Bacon.

PROF'LU-ENCE, n. [L. profluens, profluo; pro and fluo, to flow.]

A progress or course. [Not used.] – Wotton.

PROF'LU-ENT, a.

Flowing forward; as, a profluent stream. – Milton.

PRO-FORMA, adv. [Pro forma; L.]

For the sake of form.

PRO-FOUND', a. [Fr. profond; It. profondo; Sp. profundo; L. profundus; pro and fundus, bottom. See Found.]

1. Deep; descending or being far below the surface, or far below the adjacent places; as, a gulf profound. – Milton.
2. Intellectually deep; that enters deeply into subjects; not superficial or obvious to the mind; as, a profound investigation; profound reasoning; a profound treatise.
3. Humble; very lowly; submissive; as, so profound reverence for the Supreme Being. – Duppa.
4. Penetrating deeply into science or any branch of learning; as, a profound scholar; a profound mathematician; a profound historian.
5. Deep in skill or contrivance. The revolters are profound to make slaughter. – Hos. v.
6. Having hidden qualities. Upon the corner of the moon / There hangs a vap'rous drop profound. – Shak.

PRO-FOUND', n.

1. The deep; the sea; the ocean; as, the vast profound. – Dryden.
2. The abyss. I travel this profound. – Milton.

PRO-FOUND', v.i.

To dive; to penetrate. [Not in use.] – Glanville.

PRO-FOUND'LY, adv.

1. Deeply; with deep concern. Why sigh you so profoundly? – Shak.
2. With deep penetration into science or learning; with deep knowledge or insight; as, profoundly wise; profoundly skilled in music or painting. – Dryden.

PRO-FOUND'NESS, n.

1. Depth of place.
2. Depth of knowledge or of science. – Hooker.

PRO-FUND'I-TY, n. [It. profondità; Sp. profundidad; from L. profundus.]

Depth of place, of knowledge or of science. – Milton.

PRO-FUSE', a. [L. profusus, profundo, to pour out; pro and fundo.]

1. Lavish; liberal to excess; prodigal; as, a profuse government; a profuse administration. Henry the Eighth, a profuse king, dissipated the treasures which the parsimony his father had amassed. A man's friends are generally too profuse of praise, and his enemies too sparing.
2. Extravagant; lavish; as, profuse expenditures.
3. Overabounding; exuberant. On a green shady hank, profuse of flowers. – Milton. O liberty! thou goddess heavenly bright, / Profuse of bliss. – Addison. Profuse ornament in painting, architecture or gardening, as well as in dress or in language, shows a mean or corrupted taste. – Kames.

PRO-FUSE', v.t. [s as z.]

1. To pour out. [Little used.] – Armstrong.
2. To squander. [Little used.] – Steele.