Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PROP'A-GA-TOR, n.

1. One that continues or multiplies his own species by generation.
2. One that continues or multiplies any species of animals or plants.
3. One that spreads or causes to circulate, as a report.
4. One that plants and establishes in a country destitute; as, a propagator of the Gospel.
5. One that plants, originates or extends; one that promotes.

PRO-PEL', v.t. [L. propello; pro, forward, and pello, to drive.]

To drive forward; to urge or press onward by force. The wind or steam propels ships; balls are propelled by the force of gunpowder; mill wheels are propelled by water or steam; the blood is propelled through the arteries and veins by the action of the heart. [This word is commonly applied to material bodies.]

PRO-PEL'LED, pp.

Driven forward.

PRO-PEL'LING, ppr.

Driving forward.

PRO-PEND', v.i. [L. propendeo; pro, forward, and pendeo, to hang.]

To lean toward; to incline; to be disposed in favor of any thing. [Little used.] – Shak.

PRO-PEND'EN-CY, n. [L. propendens.]

1. A leaning toward; inclination; tendency of desire to any thing.
2. Preconsideration; attentive deliberation. [Little used.] – Hale.

PRO-PEND'ENT, a.

Inclining forward or toward. – South.

PRO-PEND'ING, ppr.

Inclining toward.

PRO-PENSE', a. [propens'; L. propensus.]

Leaning toward, in a moral sense; inclined; disposed, either to good or evil; as, women propense to holiness. – Hooker.

PRO-PEN'SION, or PRO-PEN'SI-TY, n. [Fr. propension; L. propensio.]

1. Bent of mind, natural or acquired; inclination; in a moral sense; disposition to any thing good or evil, particularly to evil; as, a propensity to sin; the corrupt propensity of the will. – Rogers. It requires critical nicety to find out the genius or propensions of a child. – L'Estrange.
2. Natural tendency; as, the propension of bodies to a particular place. – Digby. [In a moral sense, propensity is now chiefly used.]

PROP'ER, a. [Fr. propre; It. proprio or propio; Sp. propio; L. proprius, supposed to be allied to prope, near; W. priawd, proper, appropriate.]

1. Peculiar; naturally or essentially belonging to a person or thing; not common. That is not proper, which is common to many. Every animal has his proper instincts and inclinations, appetites and habits. Every muscle and vessel of the body has its proper office. Every art has its proper rules. Creation is the proper work of an Almighty Being.
2. Particularly suited to. Every animal lives in his proper element.
3. One's own. It may be joined with any possessive pronoun; as, our proper son. – Shak. Our proper conceptions. – Glanville. Now learn the difference at your proper cost. – Dryden. Note. Own is often used in such phrases; “at your own proper cost.” This is really tautological, but sanctioned by usage, and expressive of emphasis.
4. Noting an individual; pertaining to one of a species, but not common to the whole; as, a proper name. Dublin is the proper name of a city.
5. Fit; suitable; adapted; accommodated. A thin dress is not proper for clothing in a cold climate. Stimulants are proper remedies for debility. Gravity of manners is very proper for persons of advanced age. In Athens, all was pleasure, mirth and play, / All proper to the spring and sprightly May. – Dryden.
6. Correct; just; as, a proper word; a proper expression.
7. Not figurative. – Burnet.
8. Well formed; handsome. Moses was a proper child. – Heb. xi.
9. Tall; lusty; handsome with bulk. [Low and not used.] – Shak.
10. In vulgar language, very; as, proper good; proper sweet. [This is very improper, as well as vulgar.] Proper receptacle, in botany, that which supports only a single flower or fructification; proper perianth or involucre, that which incloses only a single flower; proper flower or corol, one of the single florets or corollets in an aggregate or compound flower; proper nectary, separate from the petals and other parts of the flower. – Martyn.

PROP'ER-LY, adv.

1. Fitly; suitably; in a proper manner; as, a word properly applied; a dress properly adjusted.
2. In a strict sense. The miseries of life are not properly owing to the unequal distribution of things. – Swift.

PROP'ER-NESS, n.

1. The quality of being proper. [Little used.]
2. Tallness. [Not in use.]
3. Perfect form; handsomeness.

PROP'ER-TY, n. [This seems to be formed directly from proper; if not, it is contracted. The Latin is proprietas, Fr. proprieté, from which we have propriety.]

1. A peculiar quality of any thing; that which is inherent in a subject, or naturally essential to it; called by logicians an essential mode. Thus color is a property of light; extension and figure are properties of bodies.
2. An acquired or artificial quality; that which is given by art or bestowed by man. The poem has the properties which constitute excellence.
3. Quality; disposition. It is the property of on old sinner to find delight in reviewing his own villainies in others. – South.
4. The exclusive right of possessing, enjoying and disposing of a thing; ownership. In the beginning of the world, the Creator gave to man dominion over the earth, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air, and over every living thing. This is the foundation of man's property in the earth and in all its productions. Prior occupancy of land and of wild animals gives to the possessor the property of them. The labor of inventing, making or producing any thing constitutes one of the highest and most indefeasible titles to property. Property is also acquired by inheritance, by gift or by purchase. Property is sometimes held in common, yet each man's right to his share in common land or stock is exclusively his own. One man may have the property of the soil, and another the right of use, by prescription or by purchase.
5. Possession held in one's own right. – Dryden.
6. The thing owned; that to which a person has the legal title, whether in his possession or not. It is one of the greatest blessings of civil society that the property of citizens is well secured.
7. An estate, whether in lands, goods or money; as, a man of large property or small property.
8. An estate; a farm; a plantation. In this sense, which is common in the United States and in the West Indies, the word has a plural. The still-houses on the sugar plantations, vary in size, according to the fancy of the proprietor or the magnitude of the property. – Edwards' W. Indies. I shall confine myself to such properties as fall within the reach of daily observation. – Ib.
9. Nearness or right. Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity and property of blood. – Shak.
10. Something useful; an appendage; a theatrical term. I will draw a bill of properties. – Shak. High pomp and state are useful properties. – Dryden.
11. Propriety. [Not in use.] – Camden. Literary property, the exclusive right of printing, publishing and making profit by one's own writings. No right or title to a thing can be so perfect as that which is created by a man's own labor and invention. The exclusive right of a man to his literary productions, and to the use of them for his own profit, is entire and perfect, as the faculties employed and labor bestowed are entirely and perfectly his own. On what principle then can a legislature or a court determine that an author can enjoy only a temporary property in his own productions? If a man's right to his own productions in writing is as perfect as to the productions of his farm or his shop, how can the former be abridged or limited, while the latter is held without limitation? Why do the productions of manual labor rank higher in the scale of rights or property, than the productions of the intellect?

PROP'ER-TY, v.t.

To invest with qualities, or to take as one's own; to appropriate. [An awkward word and not used.] – Shak.

PRO-PHANE', a. [See PROFANE.]

PROPH'A-SIS, n. [Gr. προφασις, from προφημι, to foretell.]

In medicine, prognosis; foreknowledge of a disease.

PROPH'E-CY, n. [Gr. προφητεια, from προφημι, to foretell; προ, before, and φημι, to tell. This ought to be written prophesy.]

1. A foretelling; prediction; a declaration of something to come. As God only knows future events with certainty, no being but God or some person informed by him, can utter a real prophecy. The prophecies recorded in Scripture, when fulfilled, afford most convincing evidence of the divine original of the Scriptures, as those who uttered the prophecies could not have foreknown the events predicted without supernatural instruction. – 2 Pet. i.
2. In Scripture, a book of prophecies; a history; as, the prophecy of Ahijah. – 2 Chron. ix.
3. Preaching; public interpretation of Scripture; exhortation or instruction. – Prov. xxxi.

PROPH'E-SI-ED, pp.

Foretold; predicted.

PROPH'E-SI-ER, n.

One who predicts events.

PROPH'E-SY, v.i.

1. To utter predictions; to make declaration of events to come. – Jer. xi.
2. In Scripture, to preach; to instruct in religious doctrines; to interpret or explain Scripture or religious subjects; to exhort. – 1 Cor. xiii. Ezek. xxvii.

PROPH'E-SY, v.t.

1. To foretell future events; to predict. I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. – 1 Kings xxii.
2. To foreshow. [Little used.] – Shak.

PROPH'E-SY-ING, n.

The act of foretelling or of preaching.

PROPH'E-SY-ING, ppr.

Foretelling events.

PROPH'ET, n. [Gr. προφητης; L. propheta; Fr. prophète.]

1. One that foretells future events; a predicter; a foreteller.
2. In Scripture, a person illuminated, inspired or instructed by God to announce future events; as Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, &c.
3. An interpreter; one that explains or communicates sentiments. – Exod. vii.
4. One who pretends to foretell; an imposter; as, a false prophet. – Acts xiii. School of the prophets, among the Israelites, a school or college in which young men were educated and qualified for public teachers. These students were called sons of the prophets.