porcupine wood (por kupinwud)

The outer wood of the cocoanut-palm, which is very hard and durable, and when cut horizontally displays beautiful markings resembling those of porcupine-spines. porel (por), v. i.; pret. and pp. pored, ppr. poring. [Early mod. E. also poar; or over. What [why] sholde he studie and make hymselven wood Upon a book in cloystre alwey to poure? Chaucer , Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 185. Painfully to pore upon a book To seek the light of truth. Shak ., L. L. L., i. 1. 74. Many of the Pilgrims, by poaring on hot bricks, do vol, untarily perish their sights. Sandys, Travailes, p. 97. pore2 (por), n. [F. pore = Pr. pors = Sp. Pg. It. poro D. porie = G. pore = Sw. por = Dan. pore, The sweate came gushing out of euery pore. Chapman , Ody ey, xi. 4626 And gathering virtue in at every pore. Lowell, Under the Willows. 2. One of the small interstices between the particles or molecules of the matter of which a body is composed. The compre ibility of matter, its expansion and contraction with changes of temperature, and other considerations lead to the conclusion even the densest bodies are porous - that is, that the molecules forming them are not in actual contact, but separated by spaces which, though extremely minute, may have a mag- nitude considerable as compared with their own size. Which Atoms are still hovering up and down, and never rest till they meet with some Pores proportionable and cog- nate to their Figures, where they acquiesce. Howell , Letters, iv. 50. 3. In bot., a small aperture or hole, as that at the apex of the anthers in certain Ericaceæ; in Pyre no mycetes, same as ostiole; in Hymenomy cetes, same as tubulus. See cut under anther. -Abdominal, branchial, calycine pore. See the adjectives. Cortical poré, in bot., same as lenticel. Crural or femoral pores. See crural. - Met asternal pores. See met asternal.