Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PUL-VER-I-ZA'TION, n. [from pulverize.]

The act of reducing to dust or powder.

PUL'VER-IZE, v.t. [It. polverizzare; Fr. pulveriser.]

To reduce to fine powder, as by beating, grinding, &c. Friable substances may be pulverized by grinding or beating; but to pulverize malleable bodies, other methods must be pursued. – Encyc.

PUL'VER-IZ-ED, pp.

Reduced to fine powder.

PUL'VER-IZ-ING, ppr.

Reducing to fine powder.

PUL'VER-OUS, a.

Consisting of dust or powder; like powder.

PUL-VER'U-LENCE, n.

Dustiness; abundance of dust or powder.

PUL-VER'U-LENT, a.

1. Dusty; consisting of fine powder; powdery.
2. Addicted to lying and rolling in the dust, as fowls.

PUL'VIL, n.

A sweet scented powder. [Little used.] – Gay.

PUL'VIL, v.t.

To sprinkle with a perfumed powder. [Not used.] – Congreve.

PUL'VIN-A-TED, a. [L. pulvinar, a pillow.]

In architecture, enlarged or swelled, as in any portion of a column.

PU'MA, n.

A digitigrade carnivorous mammal, the Felis concolor, of the warmer parts of America, a rapacious quadruped of the cat family.

PUM'I-CATE, v.t.

To make smooth with pumice.

PUM'I-CA-TED, pp.

Smoothed with pumice.

PUM'I-CA-TING, ppr.

Making smooth with pumice.

PUM'ICE, n. [L. pumex, supposed to be from the root of spuma, foam; G. bimstein; D. puimsteen.]

A substance frequently ejected from volcanoes, of various colors, gray, white, reddish brown or black; hard, rough and porous; specifically lighter than water, and resembling the slag produced in an iron furnace. It consists of parallel fibers, and is supposed to be asbestos decomposed by the action of fire. – Encyc. Nicholson. Pumice is of three kinds, glassy, common, and porphyritic. – Ure.

PU-MI'CEOUS, a.

Pertaining to pumice; consisting of pumice or resembling it.

PUM'ICE-STONE, n.

The same as Pumice.

PUM'MEL, v.t. [See POMMEL.]

PUMP, n. [Fr. pompe, a pump and pomp; D. pomp; Dan. pompe; Sp. bomba, a pump and a bomb. We see that pump, pomp and bomb are the same word, differently applied by different nations. The L. bombus is of the same family, as is the Eng. bombast; Ir. buimpis, a pump; W. pwmp, a round mass. The primary sense of the root seems to be to swell.]

1. A hydraulic engine for raising water, by exhausting the incumbent air of a tube or pipe, in consequence of which the water rises in the tube by means of the pressure of the air on the surrounding water. There is however a forcing pump in which the water is raised in the tube by a force applied to a lateral tube, near the bottom of the pump.
2. A shoe with a thin sole. – Swift.

PUMP, v.i.

To work a pump; to raise water with a pump.

PUMP, v.t.

1. To raise with a pump; as, to pump water.
2. To draw out by artful interrogatories; as, to pump out secrets.
3. To examine by artful questions for the purpose of drawing out secrets. But pump not me for politics. – Otway. Chain-pump, is a chain equipped with a sufficient number of valves at proper distances, which working on two wheels, passes down through one tube and returns through another. – Mar. Dict.

PUMP-BOLTS, n.

Two pieces of iron, one used to fasten the pump-spear to the brake, the other as a fulcrum for the brake to work upon. – Mar. Dict.

PUMP'-BRAKE, n.

The arm or handle of a pump. – Mar. Dict.

PUMP'-DALE, n.

A long wooden tube, used to convey the water from a chain-pump across the ship and through the side. – Mar. Dict.

PUMP'ED, pp.

1. Raised with a pump.
2. Drawn out by artful interrogations.