Poker dice. A game played with five dice in which the count is usually made, in order, by pairs, two pairs, three of a kind, full houses, four of a kind, and five of a kind (the highest throw), similar to poker; also, the dice used in this game, esp. when marked with the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, and nine instead of the usual digits.
Police power. (Law) The inherent power of a government to regulate its police affairs. The term police power is not definitely fixed in meaning. In the earlier cases in the United States it was used as including the whole power of internal government, or the powers of government inherent in every sovereignty to the extent of its dominions (11 Peters (U. S.) 102). The later cases have excepted from its domain the development and administration of private law. Modern political science defines the power as a branch of internal administration in the exercise of which the executive should move within the lines of general principles prescribed by the constitution or the legislature, and in the exercise of which the most local governmental organizations should participate as far as possible (Burgess). Under this limitation the police power, as affecting persons, is the power of the state to protect the public against the abuse of individual liberty, that is, to restrain the individual in the exercise of his rights when such exercise becomes a danger to the community. The tendency of judicial and popular usage is towards this narrower definition.
||Po`lis`soir" (?), n. [F.] 1. A polishing or grinding implement or instrument.
2. (Glass Making) A tool consisting of a flat wooden block with a long iron handle, used for flattening out split cylinders of blown glass.
Po"lo, n. A game similar to hockey played by swimmers.
Po"lo (?), n. [Sp., an air or popular song in Andalucia.] A Spanish gypsy dance characterized by energetic movements of the body while the feet merely shuffle or glide, with unison singing and rhythmic clapping of hands.
Po*lo"ni*um (?), n. [NL. So named after Poland, in L. form Polonia, one of the discoverers being a Pole.] (Chem.) A supposed new element, a radioactive substance discovered by M. and MMe. Curie in pitchblende. It is closely related chemically to bismuth. It emits only alpha rays and is perhaps identical with radium F.
Pol"y*phase (?), a. [Poly- + phase.] (Elec.) Having or producing two or more phases; multiphase; as, a polyphase machine, a machine producing two or more pressure waves of electro-motive force, differing in phase; a polyphase current.
Pol"y*phas`er (?), n. (Elec.) A machine generating more than one pressure wave; a multiphaser.
{ Pol`y*pho"tal (?), Pol"y*phote (?) }, a. [Poly- + Gr. &?;, &?;, light.] (Elec.) Pertaining to or designating arc lamps so constructed that more than one can be used on a single circuit.
Pol"y*type (?), n. [Poly- + - type: cf. F. polytype, a.] (Print.) A cast, or facsimile copy, of an engraved block, matter in type, etc. -- Pol"y*type, a.
Pol"y*type, v. t. [imp. & p. p. -typed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. - typing (?).] (Print.) To produce a polytype of; as, to polytype an engraving.
Po"mi*cul`ture (?), n. [L. pomum fruit + cultura culture.] (Hort.) The culture of fruit; pomology as an art.
Pom*pe"ian (?), a. [L. Pompeianus.] Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, Pompeii, an ancient city of Italy, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a. d., and partly uncovered by modern excavations.
Pompeian red. (Art) A brownish red approaching maroon, supposed to be imitated from the color of the wall panels of houses in Pompeii, which were decorated during the last age of the Republic.
Pom"-pom` (?), n. [Imitative.] A Vickers-Maxim one-pounder automatic machine cannon using metallic ammunition fed from a lopped belt attached to the gun; -- popularly so called from its peculiar drumming sound in action. Sometimes, any of other similar automatic cannons.
Pom"pon (?), n. (a) A hardy garden chrysanthemum having buttonlike heads of flowers. (b) Any of several dwarf varieties of the Provence rose.
Ponce"let (?), n. [After Jean Victor Poncelet, French engineer.] (Physics) A unit of power, being the power obtained from an expenditure of one hundred kilogram-meters of energy per second. One poncelet equals g watts, when g is the value of the acceleration of gravity in centimeters.
Po"ne (p"n), n. [L. pone, imper. of ponere to place.] 1. (a) An original writ, now superseded by the writ of certiorari, for removing a case from an inferior court into the Court of Exchequer. (b) An obsolete writ to enforce appearance in court by attaching goods or requiring securities.
2. (pron. pn) (Card Playing) The player who cuts the cards, being usually the player on the dealer's right.
Poo"nah paint`ing (?). [From Poona, in Bombay Province, India.] A style of painting, popular in England in the 19th century, in which a thick opaque color is applied without background and with scarcely any shading, to thin paper, producing flowers, birds, etc., in imitation of Oriental work. Hence: Poonah brush, paper, painter, etc.
Pope's head (?). A long-handled brush for dusting ceilings, etc., also for washing windows. [Cant]
||Po*pov"tsy (?), n. pl. [Russ., prop., those having popes or priests.] See Raskolnik.
Pop"u*lism (?), n. (U. S. Politics) The political doctrines advocated by the People's party.
Pop"u*list (?), n. [L. populus people + -ist.] (U. S. Politics) A member of the People's party. -- Pop`u*lis"tic (#), a.
Por"gy (?), n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous sparoid food fishes, as the jolthead porgy, the sheepshead porgy (Calamus penna) of the West Indies, the grass porgy (Calamus arctifrons) of Florida, and the red porgy (Pagrus pagrus) of Europe.
Po"ro*type (?), n. [See Pore, n., and -type.] A copy of a print, writing, etc., made by placing it upon a chemically prepared paper which is acted upon by a gas which permeates the paper of the print, writing, etc.
{ ||Po`seur" (?), n. masc.; pl. Poseurs (&?;), ||Po`seuse" (?), n. fem.; pl. Poseuses (&?;) }, [F.] A person who poses or attitudizes, esp. mentally.
Pos"i*tive, a. 1. (Mach. & Mech.) (a) Designating, or pertaining to, a motion or device in which the movement derived from a driver, or the grip or hold of a restraining piece, is communicated through an unyielding intermediate piece or pieces; as, a claw clutch is a positive clutch, while a friction clutch is not. (b) Designating, or pertaining to, a device giving a to-and-fro motion; as, a positive dobby.
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2. (Vehicles) Designating a method of steering or turning in which the steering wheels move so that they describe concentric arcs in making a turn, to insure freedom from side slip or harmful resistance.
{ Post`ex*il"i*an (?), Post`ex*il"ic (?) }, a.} After the exile; specif. (Jewish Hist.), belonging to a period subsequent to the Babylonian captivity or exile (b. c. 597 or about 586-about 537).
Post*gla"cial (?), a. (Geol.) (a) Formed or occurring after the last glacial epoch of the Pleistocene period, or at a locality within the area of Pleistocene glaciation after the final disappearance of the glacier from the locality. (b) Of, pertaining to, or designating, an epoch after the last Glacial and before the Terrace epoch. [R.]
Post*grad"u*ate (?), a. [Pref. post- + graduate.] Of, pertaining to, or designating, the studies pursued after graduation, esp., after receiving the bachelor's degree at a college; graduate. -- n. A student who pursues such studies.
Most careful writers consider the word graduate to be the proper word to use in this sense.
Post`-im*pres"sion*ism, n. (Painting) In the broadest sense, the theory or practice of any of several groups of recent painters, or of these groups taken collectively, whose work and theories have in common a tendency to reaction against the scientific and naturalistic character of impressionism and neo-impressionism. In a strict sense the term post- impressionism is used to denote the effort at self-expression, rather than representation, shown in the work of Cézanne, Matisse, etc.; but it is more broadly used to include cubism, the theory or practice of a movement in both painting and sculpture which lays stress upon volume as the important attribute of objects and attempts its expression by the use of geometrical figures or solids only; and futurism, a theory or practice which attempts to place the observer within the picture and to represent simultaneously a number of consecutive movements and impressions. In practice these theories and methods of the post-impressionists change with great rapidity and shade into one another, so that a picture may be both cubist and futurist in character. They tend to, and sometimes reach, a condition in which both representation and traditional decoration are entirely abolished and a work of art becomes a purely subjective expression in an arbitrary and personal language.
Pot, v. t. 1. To shoot for the pot, i.e., cooking; to secure or hit by a pot shot; to shoot when no special skill is needed.
When hunted, it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed.
Encyc. of Sport.