Pe"on*age (?), n. The condition of a peon.
Pe"on*ism (?), n. Same as Peonage. D. Webster.
Pe"o*ny (?), n.; pl. Peonies (#). [OE. pione, pioine, pioni, OF. pione,
F. pivoine, L. paeonia, Gr. &?;, fr. &?;, &?;, the god of healing. Cf.
PÊan.] (Bot.) A plant, and its flower, of the ranunculaceous genus
PÊonia. Of the four or five species, one is a shrub; the rest are
perennial herbs with showy flowers, often double in cultivation.
[Written also pÊony, and piony.]
<! p. 1063 !>
Peo"ple (?), n. [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple, F. peuple, fr. L.
populus. Cf. Populage, Public, Pueblo.] 1. The body of persons who
compose a community, tribe, nation, or race; an aggregate of
individuals forming a whole; a community; a nation.
Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Gen. xlix. 10.
The ants are a people not strong.
Prov. xxx. 25.
Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues.
Rev. x. 11.
Earth's monarchs are her peoples.
Whitter.
A government of all the people, by all the people, for all the
people.
T. Parker.
Peopleis a collective noun, generally construed with a plural verb, and
only occasionally used in the plural form (peoples), in the sense of
nations or races.
2. Persons, generally; an indefinite number of men and women; folks;
population, or part of population; as, country people; -- sometimes
used as an indefinite subject or verb, like on in French, and man in
German; as, people in adversity.
People were tempted to lend by great premiums.
Swift.
People have lived twenty-four days upon nothing but water.
Arbuthnot.
3. The mass of comunity as distinguished from a special class; the
commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; as, nobles and
people.
And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
Addison.
4. With a possessive pronoun: (a) One's ancestors or family; kindred;
relations; as, my people were English. (b) One's subjects; fellow
citizens; companions; followers. "You slew great number of his people."
Shak.
Syn. -- People, Nation. When speaking of a state, we use people for the
mass of the community, as distinguished from their rulers, and nation
for the entire political body, including the rulers. In another sense
of the term, nation describes those who are descended from the same
stock; and in this sense the Germans regard themselves as one nation,
though politically subject to different forms of government.
Peo"ple (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Peopled p. pr. & vb. n. Peopling
(&?;).] [Cf. OF. popler, puepler, F. puepler. Cf. Populate.] To stock
with people or inhabitants; to fill as with people; to populate.
"Peopled heaven with angels." Dryden.
As the gay motes that people the sunbeams.
Milton.
Peo"pled (?), a. Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited. "The
peopled air." Gray.
Peo"ple*less, a. Destitute of people. Poe.
Peo"pler (?), n. A settler; an inhabitant. "Peoplers of the peaceful
glen." J. S. Blackie.
Peo"plish (?), a. Vulgar. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Pe*o"ri*as (?), n. pl.; sing. Peoria (&?;). (Ethnol.) An Algonquin
tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited a part of Illinois.
Pe*pas"tic (?), a. & n. [Gr. &?; to ripen, suppurate: cf. F.
pÈpastique.] (Med.) Same as Maturative.
{ Pep"e*rine (?), ||Pep`e*ri"no (?), } n. [It. peperino, L. piper
pepper. So called on account of its color.] (Geol.) A volcanic rock,
formed by the cementing together of sand, scoria, cinders, etc.
||Pep"lis (?), n. [L., a kind of plant, Gr. &?;.] (Bot.) A genus of
||plants including water purslane.
||Pep"lus (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?;.] 1. An upper garment worn by
||Grecian and Roman women.