pressure (preshur)

[OF. pre ure = Sp. presura = It. pre ura, I take the pre ure of thine hand. 4709 3. The action of moral force; exertion of authority or influence; compulsion; a constraining influence or impulse. The objections are. rather like the intemperate talk of an angry child than pre ures of reason or probability. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), II. 256. The convocation, which under the influence of Archbishop Bourchier was more amenable to royal pre ure , was made to bestow a tenth in the following April. Stubbs , Const. Hist., § 359. The Preacher's contemporary, too, Malachi, felt the pres sure of the same circumstances, had the same occasions of despondency. M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, ii. 4. Weight upon the mind; burdensome ne ; oppre ivene ; also, burden; oppre ion. . Companions in grief sometimes diminish And make the pre ure easy. Fletcher and Shirley , Night-Walker, iv. 6. My own and my people's pre ures are grievous. Eikon Basilike . The rulers augmented at the same time those public burdens the pre ure of which is generally the immediate cause of revolutions. Macaulay , Mirabeau. Days of difficulty and pre ure . Tennyson , Enoch Arden. 5. Urgency; demand on one's time or energies; need for prompt or decisive action: as, the pres sure of busine . Writing hastily and under pre ure, his language is frequently involved and carele . A. Dobson, Int. to Steele, p. xlvi. 6. Impre ion; stamp; character impre ed. I'll wipe away All saws of books, all forms, all pre ures past. Shak ., Hamlet, i. 5. 100. Absolute pre ure. See absolute. Absolute steam pre ure, the total pre ure computed from the zero of an absolute vacuum: distinguished from relative pre ure, or from pre ure indicated in pounds, kilograms, or other measure of weight above the ordinary atmospheric pre ure at the sea-level. Ordinary steam-gages indicate pre ure above that of the atmosphere. To the pre ure so indicated the pre ure of the atmosphere must be added to obtain the absolute steam pre ure. - Atmospheric pre ure. See atmosphere, 2. Center of pre ure. (a) In physics, that point of a body at which the whole amount of pre ure may be applied with the same effect it would produce if distributed. (b) Specifically, in hydros., that point of a plane, or of the side of a ve el containing a liquid, to which if a force were applied equal to the total pre ure and in the opposite direction, it would exactly balance the total pre ure. - High pre ure. (a) Formerly, a phrase noting all steam-engines working at pre ures materially higher than atmospheric pre ure, but now merely a relative term. See low pre ure. (b) Figuratively, a high degree of mental tension. Mi Squeers was taken with one or two chokes and catchings of breath, indicative of feelings at a high pre ure. Intensity of a pre ure. See intensity. - Low pre ure, in steam-engines, a phrase noting a motor using steam at a comparatively small pre ure. The precise signification of the term is undetermined, but the standard of pre ure is steadily rising, so that engines that were formerly considered high-pre ure are now looked upon as low-pre ure engines. The phrase formerly implied the presence of a condenser and pre ure of not more than six pounds above atmospheric pre ure, but it now has reference solely to the pre ure, and describes that only relatively. - Pre ure myelitis, myelitis due to compre ion of the spinal cord, as by a tumor. - Pre ure of atmosphere. See atmosphere, 2. Dickens, Nicholas Nickle by, xii. In a planing