Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PROS'PER-ING, ppr.

Rendering successful; advancing in growth, wealth or any good.

PROS-PER'I-TY, n. [L. prosperitas.]

Advance or gain in any thing good or desirable; successful progress in any business or enterprise; success; attainment of the object desired; as, the prosperity of arts; agricultural or commercial prosperity; national prosperity. Our disposition to abuse the blessings of providence renders prosperity dangerous. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. – Prov. i.

PROS'PER-OUS, a. [L. prosperus.]

1. Advancing in the pursuit of any thing desirable; making gain or increase; thriving; successful; as, a prosperous trade; a prosperous voyage; a prosperous exhibition or undertaking; a prosperous man, family or nation; a prosperous war. The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit. – Zech. viii.
2. Favorable; favoring success; as, a prosperous wind. – Denham.

PROS'PER-OUS-LY, adv.

With gain or increase; successfully. – Bacon.

PROS'PER-OUS-NESS, n.

The state of being successful; prosperity.

PRO-SPI'CIENCE, n. [L. prospiciens.]

The act of looking forward. – Dict.

PROS'TATE, a. [from Gr. προιστημι, to set before.]

In anatomy, the prostate gland is a gland situated just before the neck of the bladder in males, and surrounding the beginning of the urethra. It is situated on the under and posterior part of the neck of the bladder, so as to surround the lower side of the urethra. – Encyc. Wistar.

PROS-TER-NA'TION, n. [L. prosterno, to prostrate; pro and sterno.]

A state of being cast down; dejection; depression. [Little used.] – Wiseman.

PROS'THE-SIS, or PROTH'E-SIS, n.¹ [Gr.]

1. In surgery, the addition of an artificial part to supply a defect of the body; as a wooden leg, &c. – Quincy. Coxe.
2. In medicine, an overlapping; as, the prosthesis of one febrile period upon another.

PROS'THE-SIS, or PROTH'E-SIS, n.²

In grammar, a figure consisting in prefixing one or more letters to the beginning of a word, as be-loved.

PROS-THET'IC, a. [Gr. προσθετος.]

Prefixed, as a letter to a word.

PROS'TI-TUTE, a.

Openly devoted to lewdness; sold to wickedness or to infamous purposes. Made bold by want and prostitute for bread. – Prior.

PROS'TI-TUTE, n.

1. A female given to indiscriminate lewdness; a strumpet. – Dryden.
2. A base hireling; a mercenary; one who offers himself to infamous employments for hire. No hireling she, no prostitute to praise. – Pope.

PROS'TI-TUTE, v.t. [L. prostituo; pro and statuo, to set.]

1. To offer freely to a lewd use, or to indiscriminate lewdness. Do not prostitute thy daughter. Lev. xix.
2. To give up to any vile or infamous purpose; to devote to any thing base; to sell to wickedness; as, to prostitute talents to the propagation of infidel principles; to prostitute the press to the publication of blasphemy.
3. To offer or expose upon vile terms or to unworthy persons. – Tillotson.

PROS'TI-TU-TED, pp.

Offered to common lewdness; devoted to base purposes.

PROS'TI-TU-TING, ppr.

Offering to indiscriminate lewdness; devoting to infamous uses.

PROS-TI-TU'TION, n. [Fr. from L. prostituo.]

1. The act or practice of offering the body to an indiscriminate intercourse with men; common lewdness of a female. – Spectator.
2. The act of setting one's self to sale, or offering one's self to infamous employments; as, the prostitution of talents or abilities.

PROS'TI-TU-TOR, n.

One who prostitutes; one who submits himself or offers another to vile purposes.

PROS'TRATE, a. [L. prostratus, from prosterno, to lay flat; pro and sterno.]

1. Lying at length, or with the body extended on the ground or other surface. Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire. – Milton.
2. Lying at mercy, as a supplicant. – Shak. Chapman.
3. Lying in the posture of humility or adoration. Milton. Pope.

PROS'TRATE, v.t.

1. To lay flat; to throw down; as, to prostrate the body; to prostrate trees or plants.
2. To throw down; to overthrow; to demolish; to ruin; as, to prostrate a village; to prostrate a government; to prostrate law or justice; to prostrate the honor of a nation.
3. To prostrate one's self, to throw one's self down or to fall in humility or adoration. – Duppa.
4. To bow in humble reverence.
5. To sink totally; to reduce; as, to prostrate strength.

PROS'TRA-TED, pp.

Laid at length; laid flat; thrown down; destroyed:

PROS'TRA-TING, ppr.

Laying flat; throwing down; destroying.

PROS-TRA'TION, n.

1. The act of throwing down or laying; flat; as, the prostration of the body, of trees, or of corn.
2. The act of falling down, or the act of bowing in humility or adoration; primarily, the act of falling on the face, but it is now used for kneeling or bowing in reverence and worship.
3. Great depression; dejection; as, a prostration of spirits.
4. In medicine, a latent, not an exhausted state of the vital energies; great oppression of natural strength and vigor; that state of the body in disease in which the system is oppressed. – Coxe. Prostration is different and distinct from exhaustion, and is analogous to the state of a spring lying under such a weight that it is incapable of action; while exhaustion is analogous to the state of a spring deprived of its elastic powers. Prostration does not require the use of invigorating remedies, as exhaustion does.

PRO'STYLE, n. [Gr. προστυλος; προ and στυλος, a column.]

In architecture, a range of columns in the front of a temple. – Encyc.

PRO'SY, a.

1. Like prose.
2. Dull.