For I am perilous with knife in hand.
Chaucer.
-- Per"il*ous*ly, adv. -- Per"il*ous*ness, n.
Per"i*lymph (?), n. (Anat.) The fluid which surrounds the membranous
labyrinth of the internal ear, and separates it from the walls of the
chambers in which the labyrinth lies.
Per`i*lym*phan"gi*al (?), a. (Anat.) Around, or at the side of, a
lymphatic vessel.
Per`i*lym*phat"ic (?), a. (Anat.) (a) Pertaining to, or containing,
perilymph. (b) Perilymphangial.
Per*im"e*ter (?), n. [Gr. &?;; &?; around + &?; measure: cf. F.
pÈrimËtre.] 1. (Geom.) The outer boundary of a body or figure, or the
sum of all the sides.
2. An instrument for determining the extent and shape of the field of
vision.
{ Per`i*met"ric (?), Per`i*met"ric*al (?), } a. Of or pertaining to the
perimeter, or to perimetry; as, a perimetric chart of the eye.
Per*im"e*try (?), n. The art of using the perimeter; measurement of the
field of vision.
Per"i*morph (?), n. [Pref. peri- + Gr. &?; form.] (Min.) A crystal of
one species inclosing one of another species. See Endomorph.
Per`i*my"sial (?), a. (Anat.) (a) Surrounding a muscle or muscles. (b)
Of or pertaining to the perimysium.
||Per`i*my"si*um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; about + &?; muscle.] (Anat.)
||The connective tissue sheath which surrounds a muscle, and sends
||partitions inwards between the bundles of muscular fibers.
||Per`i*nÊ"um (?), n. See Perineum.
Per`i*ne"al (?), a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the perineum.
Per`i*ne"o*plas`ty (?), n. [Perineum + -plasty.] (Med.) The act or
process of restoring an injured perineum.
Per`i*ne*or"rha*phy (?), n. [Perineum + Gr. &?; to sew.] (Med.) The
operation of sewing up a ruptured perineum.
||Per`i*ne*phri"tis (?), n. [NL. See Peri-, and Nephritis.] (Med.)
||Inflammation of the cellular tissue around the kidney. --
||Per`i*ne*phrit"ic, a.
||Per`i*ne"um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?;, &?;.] (Anat.) The region which
||is included within the outlet of the pelvis, and is traversed by the
||urinogenital canal and the rectum.
Per`i*neu"ri*al (?), a. (Anat.) Surrounding nerves or nerve fibers; of
or pertaining to the perineurium.
||Per`i*neu"ri*um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; about + &?; a nerve.]
||(Anat.) The connective tissue sheath which surrounds a bundle of
||nerve fibers. See Epineurium, and Neurilemma.
Per`i*nu"cle*ar (?), a. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to a nucleus; situated
around a nucleus; as, the perinuclear protoplasm.
Pe"ri*od (?), n. [L. periodus, Gr. &?; a going round, a way round, a
circumference, a period of time; &?; round, about + &?; a way: cf. F.
pÈriode.] 1. A portion of time as limited and determined by some
recurring phenomenon, as by the completion of a revolution of one of
the heavenly bodies; a division of time, as a series of years, months,
or days, in which something is completed, and ready to recommence and
go on in the same order; as, the period of the sun, or the earth, or a
comet.
2. Hence: A stated and recurring interval of time; more generally, an
interval of time specified or left indefinite; a certain series of
years, months, days, or the like; a time; a cycle; an age; an epoch;
as, the period of the Roman republic.
How by art to make plants more lasting than their ordinary period.
Bacon.
3. (Geol.) One of the great divisions of geological time; as, the
Tertiary period; the Glacial period. See the Chart of Geology.
4. The termination or completion of a revolution, cycle, series of
events, single event, or act; hence, a limit; a bound; an end; a
conclusion. Bacon.
So spake the archangel Michael; then paused, As at the world's
great period.
Milton.
Evils which shall never end till eternity hath a period.
Jer. Taylor.
This is the period of my ambition.
Shak.
5. (Rhet.) A complete sentence, from one full stop to another; esp., a
well-proportioned, harmonious sentence. "Devolved his rounded periods."
Tennyson.
Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
B. Johnson.
The period, according to Heyse, is a compound sentence consisting of a
protasis and apodosis; according to Becker, it is the appropriate form
for the coˆrdinate propositions related by antithesis or causality.
Gibbs.
6. (Print.) The punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a complete
sentence, or of an abbreviated word.
7. (Math.) One of several similar sets of figures or terms usually
marked by points or commas placed at regular intervals, as in
numeration, in the extraction of roots, and in circulating decimals.
<! p. 1067 !>
8. (Med.) The time of the exacerbation and remission of a disease, or
of the paroxysm and intermission.