Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PER'TI-NA-CY, n. [supra.]

Obstinacy; stubbornness; persistency; resolution; steadiness. [Little used.] – Taylor.

PER'TI-NENCE, or PER-TI-NEN-CY, n. [L. pertinens, pertineo; per and teneo, to hold.]

Justness of relation to the subject or matter in hand; fitness; appositeness; suitableness. I have shown the fitness and pertinency of the apostle's discourse to the persons he addressed. – Bentley.

PER'TI-NENT, a. [L. pertinens.]

1. Related to the subject or matter in hand; just to the purpose; adapted to the end proposed; apposite; not foreign to the thing intended. We say, he used an argument not pertinent to his subject or design. The discourse abounds with pertinent remarks. He gave pertinent answers to the questions.
2. Regarding; concerning; belonging. [Little used.] – Hooker.

PER'TI-NENT-LY, adv.

Appositely; to the purpose, he answered pertinently.

PER'TI-NENT-NESS, n.

Appositeness.

PER-TIN'GENT, a. [L. pertingens.]

Reaching to.

PERT'LY, adv.

1. Briskly; smartly; with prompt boldness.
2. Saucily; with indecorous confidence or boldness. – Swift.

PERT'NESS, n.

1. Briskness; smartness.
2. Sauciness; forward promptness or boldness; implying less than effrontery or impudence. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. – G. Spring.
3. Petty liveliness; sprightliness without force, dignity or solidity. There is in Shaftsbury's works a lively pertness and a parade of literature. – Watts.

PER-TURB', or PER'TURB-ATE, v.t. [L. perturbo; per and turbo, properly to turn, or to stir by turning.]

1. To disturb; to agitate; to disquiet.
2. To disorder; to confuse. – Brown. [This verb is little used. The participle is in use.]

PER-TURB-A'TION, n. [L. perturbatio.]

1. Disquiet or agitation of mind. – Milton.
2. Restlessness of passions; great uneasiness.
3. Disturbance; disorder; commotion in public affairs. Bacon.
4. Disturbance of passions; commotion of spirit. – B. Jonson.
5. Cause of disquiet. Oh polished perturbation, golden care! – Shak.

PER'TURB-A-TOR, or PER-TURB'ER, n.

One that disturbs or raises commotion. [Little used.]

PER-TURB'ED, pp.

Disturbed; agitated; disquieted. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit. – Shak.

PER-TURB'ING, ppr.

Disturbing; agitating.

PER-TUSE', or PER-TUS'ED, a. [L. pertusus, pertundo; per and tundo, to beat.]

1. Punched; pierced with holes.
2. In botany, full of hollow dots on the surface, as a leaf.

PER-TU'SION, n. [s as z. L. pertusus, pertundo.]

1. The act of punching, piercing or thrusting through with a pointed instrument. The manner of opening a vein in Hippocrates's time, was by stabbing or pertusion. – Arbuthnot.
2. A little hole made by punching; a perforation. – Bacon.

PER'UKE, n. [Fr. perruque; It. perrucca; Sp. peluca; D. paruik; G. perrücke; Sw. peruk.]

An artificial cap of hair; a periwig. – Wiseman.

PER'UKE-MAK-ER, n.

A maker of perukes; a wig-maker.

PE-RU'SAL, n. [s as z. from peruse.]

1. The act of reading. This treatise requires application in the perusal. Woodward.
2. Careful view or examination. [Unusual.] – Tatler.

PE-RUSE', v.t. [s as z. Probably L. per and utor, usus.]

1. To read, or to read with attention. – Addison.
2. To observe; to examine with careful survey. [Obs.] I have perus'd her well. – Shak. Myself I then perus'd, and limb by limb / Survey'd. – Milton.

PE-RUS'ED, pp.

Read; observed; examined.

PE-RUS'ER, n.

One that reads or examines. – Woodward.

PE-RUS'ING, ppr.

Reading; examining.

PE-RU'VI-AN, a.

Pertaining to Peru, in South America. Peruvian bark, the bark of several species of Cinchona, trees of Peru; called also Jesuits' bark. The taste is bitter and astringent, and it is used as a tonic, in cases of debility, and particularly in intermittents.

PER-VADE', v.t. [L. pervado; per and vado, to go, Eng. to wade.]

1. To pass through an aperture, pore or interstice; to permeate as, liquors that pervade the pores. – Newton.
2. To pass or spread through the whole extent of a thing and into every minute part. What but God / Pervades, adjusts, and agitates the whole? – Thomson.
3. We use this verb in a transitive form to express a passive or an intransitive signification. Thus when we say, “the electric fluid pervades the earth,” or “ether pervades the universe,” we mean only that the fluid is diffused through the earth or universe, or exists in all parts of them. So when we say, “a spirit of conciliation pervades all classes of men,” we may mean that such a spirit passes through all classes, or it exists among all classes.

PER-VAD'ED, pp.

Passed through; permeated; penetrated in every part.