powderplott (pouder plot)

See gunpowder plot, under gunpowder. powder-post (pou'dér-post), n. Wood decayed to powder, or eaten by a worm which leaves its holes full of powder. [Local, U. S.] The grubs of the law have gnawed into us, and we are all powder -post. S. Judd , Margaret, ii. 7. powder-prover (pou'dėr-prö'vèr), n . A device or apparatus for testing the efficiency of gunpowder; a ballistic pendulum; an eprouvette. powder-puff (pou'der-puf), n . 1. A soft feathery ball, as of swansdown, by which powder is applied to the skin.-2. Same as pluff , 2. a ship in which gunpowder is kept. See mag a zine, 1. powder-scuttle (pou'der-skut'l), n. A small opening in a ship's deck for pa ing powder from the magazine for the service of the guns. powder-shoot (pouʼdėr-shöt), n. A canvas tube for conveying conveying empty empty powder powder-boxes from the gun-deck of a ship to a lower deck. powder-traitort (pou'der-trā"tor), n. A conspirator in a gunpowder plot. When he has brought his design to perfection, and disposed of all his materials, he lays his train, like a powder traitor, and gets out of the way, while he blows up all those that trusted him. Butler, Remains, II. 453. powder-treasont (pou ́dėr-trē"zn), n. Conspiracy involving the use of gunpowder; a gunpowder plot. Powder treason surpa es all the barbarities of the Hea Bacon, Works (ed. 1765), III., Index. thens. IMG:content-0774.png:[blocks in formation] By statute of 22 Hen. VIII. c. 11, perversely and maliciously to cut down or destroy the powdike in the fens of Norfolk and Ely is felony. Black stone , Com., IV. xvii. powet, n . and v . An obsolete form of paw1 . power1 (pou'ėr), n . poer , pocir , poueir , pooir , povoir , F. pou voir Pr. Sp. Pg. poder = It. potere , power, prop. inf., be able, * potere , for L. po e , be able: see potent .] 1. In genera absence of external restriction and limitation that it depends only upon the inward determination of the subject whether or not it will [ act. general, such an Knowledge itself is a power whereby he [God] knoweth. Bacon, Of Heresies. 2. An endowment of a voluntary being whereby it becomes po ible for that being to do or effect something. The power is said to belong to the being exercising it, and to be a power to act or of acting in a specified way. The person or thing affected by the action is said to be under the power of the subject, which is said to have power over or upon that object. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one ve el unto honour and another unto dishonour? Rom. ix. 21. And brought thee out of the land of Egypt with his mighty power . Deut. iv. 36. The devil hath power To a ume a pleasing shape. Shak ., Hamlet, ii. 2. I know my soul hath power to know all things, Yet is she blind and ignorant in all. Sir J. Davies , Immortal. of Soul, Int. Dryden , Imit. of Horace, III. xxix. Not heaven upon the past has power . 3. A property of an inanimate thing or agency, especially a property of modifying other things. Not that nepenthe which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to Joveborn Helena Is of such power to stir up joy as this. Milton , Comus, 1. 675. The spot he loved has lost the power to please. Cowper , Retirement. Or alum styptics with contracting power . Pope , R. of the L., ii. 131. 4. Used absolutely, with specification of the effect: ( a ) The property whereby anything fulfils its proper functions well or strongly: as, a IMG:content-0775.png:[blocks in formation] There are some things which are i ues of an absolute power , some are expre es of supreme dominion some are actions of a judge. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), L. 24. All empire is no more than power in trust. Dryden, Abs. and Achit., i. 411. Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power . Tennyson, Death of Wellington. Power means nothing more than the extent to which a man can make his individual will prevail against the wills of other men, so as to control them. J. Bryce , American Commonwealth, I. 213. 6t. The domain within which authority or government is exercised; jurisdiction. No brewestere out of fraunchyse, ne may brewe wt-ynne the power of the Citee. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 355. 7. In law: ( a ) Legal capacity: as, the power to contract; the power of testation, or making a will. (b) Legal authority conferred, and enabling one to do what otherwise he could not do; the dominion which one person may exercise over the property of another: as, the pow er of an agent, which is his delegated authority to act in the name or on behalf of his principal. In Roman law, power ( potestas ), in its largest sense, was held to comprise the control of the head of the household over slaves, children, descendants, and wife. In its more limited sense, it was used for the control over children and descendants, the power over the wife being distinguished by the name manus. He had a umed no powers to which he was not entitled by his services and peculiar situation. Pre scott , Ferd. and Isa., ii. 19. Henry was a prince who had only to learn the extent of his powers in order to attempt to exercise them. Stubbs , Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 253. (c) In the law of conveyancing, an authority to do some act in relation to the title to lands or the creation of estates therein or to charges thereon, either conferred by the owner on another or reserved to himself when granting the lands or some interest therein; usually a pow er of appointment , which is the conferring on a person of the power of disposing of an interest in lands, quite irrespective of the fact whether or not he has any interest in the land itself. Digby . If the donee of the power has no interest in the land, the power is said to be collateral , as distinguished from a power appendant or appurtenant , as it is called when the interest he may dispose of must be carved out of or reduce his own interest; and from a power in gro , as it is called when the interest he may appoint will not take effect until his own interest has terminated: as, a power to a tenant for life to appoint the estate after his death among his children. A general power is one that may be exercised in favor of any one whatever, even the donee himself; a special or particular power can be exercised only in favor of a person or some of a cla of persons specified in the document creating the power, or for specified purposes: as, a power to sell, to exchange, to lease, and the like. 8. A written statement of legal authority; a document guaranteeing legal authority. When I said I was empowered, etc., he desired to see my powers. Swift, Letter, Oct. 10, 1710. 91. Pecuniary ability; wealth. Eche brother other suster tht ben of the frater nite, zif he be of power , he schal geue somewhat in maintenance of the bretherhede, what hym lyketh. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 4. 10. A large quantity; a great number. [Colloq.] I am providing a power of pretty things for her against I see her next. Richardson , Pamela, II. 389. ( Davies .) They ate a power , and they drank bottle after bottle. Harper's Mag., LXXIX. 49. 11. ( a ) [Tr. of ML. potestas .] An active faculty of the mind whose exercise is dependent on the will. When power is applied to the soul, it is used in a larger signification than faculty; for by it we designate the capacities that are acquired, as well as those that are original. Porter , Human Intellect, § 36. (b) [Tr. of L. potent i a . ] A capacity for acting or suffering in any determinate way. There are nations in the East so enslaved by custom that they seem to have lost all power of change except the capability of being destroyed. W. K. Clifford , Lectures, I. 105. 12. In Aristo tel i an metaph ., the state of being of that which does not yet exist, but is in germ, ready to exist, the general conditions of its existence being fulfilled; the general principle of existence. We say in power, as in the wood a statue, and in the whole a part, because it may be brought out; and a theo power rem not yet discovered, but capable of discovery, which is the actuality. For as a person building is to a builder, and the thing waking to the thing sleeping, and the seeing to him who has his eyes shut though he has sight, and that which is severed from matter to matter, and work done to material unworked, so is act to power. Aristotle, Metaphysics, viii. 6. 13. In mech., that with which work can be done. (a) Energy, whether kinetic or potential (as of a head of water or a steam-engine), considered as a commodity to be bought and sold in definite quantities. Hence (since this is usually provided in the kinetic form)-(b) Kinetic en ergy. If the power with which a system is moving at any instant be denoted by T, its expre ion becomes T = mv . B. Peirce , Anal. Mechanics, p. 307. (c) The mechanical advantage of a machine. (d) A simple machine. (e) Mechanical energy as distinguished from hand-labor. 14. In arith. and real alg., the result of multiplying a quantity into itself a specified number of times. The first power of a quantity is the quantity itself; the nth power, where n is any positive integer, is the continued product of the quantity taken n times - that is, the quantity composed of n factors each equal to the quan tity. A negative power, where n is a negative integer, is the reciprocal of the corresponding positive power: thus, x-n = 1 4663 in power. See incommensurable. - In power, in control of the administrative and executive functions of a government: a phrase noting the position of ministers or political parties when a majority vote or some other influence has given them the ascendancy. In power a servant, out of power a friend. Lord Melcombe, quoted in Pope's Epil. to Satires, ii. 161. He [Pitt] had often declared that, while he was in power , England should never make a peace of Utrecht. Macaulay , Frederic the Great. Irrational power, as defined by the advocates of the freedom of the will, a power which is determined to one or another of two opposites, so that it either can act but cannot refrain, or can refrain but cannot act. - Judicial, justiciary, legislative, locomotive power. See the adjectives.-Logical power, logical po ibility; the not involving any contradiction. - Low power. See objective , n., 3. Magnetic rotatory power. See magnetic. Medicinal power, the power of healing. - Ministerial powers. See ministerial. - Mixed power, a power of changing the subject of the power itself; a power at once active and pa ive: mixed act is used in an analogous sense. - Motive power. See motive.-Natural power. (a) Power to produce a natural motion. (b) Power within nature, not supernatural. Also called physical power. Nutritive power, power of a imilating nutriment. Obediential power, the power of a person, an animal, or a thing to do that which is beyond his or its natural powers, in consequence of miraculous interposition. - Objective power. See objective. - Occult power, an occult virtue or property of a natural thing. See occult. Pa ive A fractional power is that root of the power of the quantity power. See pa ive . Perspective power, the faculty denoted by the numerator of the fraction which is denoted by the denominator: thus, & is the nth root of am. (See exponent.) In imaginary algebra the definition of a power is extended. 15. In geom., the square of the distance of a point from the point of tangency to a given circle of a line through that point. This quantity is said to be the power of the point with respect to the circle.-16. A spiritual being in general. Specifically [ pl. ], in the celestial hierarchy, the sixth order of angels, ranking last in the second triad. The word translates the 'Ἐξουσίαι ( Pote states ) of Eph. i. 21 and Col. i. 16. See hierarchy. Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers . The lord of spirits and the prince of powers . Milton. 2 Mac. iii. 24. of super sensuous cognition. - Physical power. Same as natural power. - Police power. See police. - Political power, power of governing; influence in the government. Power of attorney. See attorney2.- Power of contradiction, the power in an individual of being determined to one or the other of two contradictory predicates. The corresponding power in a genus to be determined to one or the other of two species is not called by this name. - Power of life and death, authority to inflict or to remit capital punishment. Power of points. See point1. - Power of sale, a clause inserted in securities for debt, conferring on the creditor a power to sell the subject of the security if the debt is not paid as specified; also, in wills, conferring on the executor author ity to convert property into money. - Power of the keys. See key1.- Power to license. See license. - Practical power, the power of doing something; the power conferred by a practical science. - Pure power, force which wants all form; the state of first matter. - Rational power, a faculty connected with the reason, as that part of the soul 17. A person in authority or exercising great which distinguishes man from the beasts. - Real power, influence in his community. IMG:content-0776.png:[blocks in formation] 21. In optics, the degree to which an optical instrument, as a telescope or microscope, magnifies the apparent linear or superficial dimen sions of an object. See magnify.-22. The eyepiece of a telescope or the objective of a microscope.- Absolute unlimited power; power a power of doing, or suffering, or becoming: opposed to logical power. Receptive power. Same as subjective power.-Resolving power. See objective, n., 3. - Rhetorical power, the power of eloquence. - Rotatory power. See rotatory. Sensitive power, the capacity of sensation.-Signatory power. See signatory. - Sovereign power, the supreme power in a state. - Subjective power, the capability of a subject of receiving contradictory predicates, or of being determined in different ways: usually confounded with pa ive power. The great powers of Europe, in modern diplomower, the designating the principal nations of Europe. The great powers long recognized were Great Britain, France, Austria, Pru ia, and Ru ia. Later Pru ia was replaced by the new German Empire, Italy was recognized, and in 1887 Spain was admitted to the European concert. - Transmutative power, the power of producing a change in an object.-Treaty-making power. See treaty. - Violent power, the power of producing violent motion. - Vital power, the power of living. = Syn. Power, Strength, Force. Power and strength may be active or inactive; force is active. Strength is rather an inward capability; force an outward; power may be either: we speak of strength of character, power of habit, force of will; strength of tim ber, power of a steam-engine, force of a projectile. power2t, a. An obsolete form of poor. power3t, v. An obsolete form of pour1. power ablet (pou'èr-a-bl), a. [ IMG:content-0777.png:[blocks in formation] Eng.] uncontrolled by law. - Abutting power. See abut. Acpower-capstan (pou ́ér-kapstan), n. See cap cumulation of See accumulation. - Active powstan. er. See active. Agonistic power, power in strife. Animal power. See animal. - Animate power, a faculty of the soul or mind. - Appetitive power, a faculty of desiring. Apprehensive power, faculty of cognition. Artificial power, an art considered as a power. -Aug mentative power, the power of growth. - Balance of power. See balance. - Civil power. Same as political power. Cognoscitive power. Same as apprehensive power.-Commanding, directing, and executive powers, three faculties of the mind, in the psychology of A quinas, of which the first determines what shall be done, of action with intention. Commensurable that the endurin power, in math. See commensurable. - Connate power, a faculty po e ed from birth, not developed by education.Corporeal power, the virtue of an inanimate substance or thing. - Creative power, the power of creating. -Doctrine of enumerated powers, of implied powers. See enumerate, imply. - Emi ive, entitative, existent power. See the adjectives. - E ential power, power in an e ence to receive actual existence. Existential power, power in a thing that actually exists to do or become something.-Free power, a faculty which the mind is free to exercise or not. - Generative power, the faculty of propagating the kind. - Habitual power, power resulting from custom. - High power. See ob jective, n., 3.- Impa ive power, the power of resisting a force tending to produce a change. - Inanimate power, a power not belonging to the soul. — Incommensurable powered (pou'erd), a. [ especially in composition: as, high - powered or low - powered rifles or guns. The measure of a gun's powsowdy He that had seen Pericles lead the A then i ans which way he listed haply would have said he had been their prince; and yet he was but a power full and eloquent man in a Democracy. Milton , Prelatical Episcopaсу. 3. Characterized by great intellectual power. In his turn, he knew to prize Lord Marmion's powerful mind, and wise. Scott , Marmion, iv. 13. 4. Having great influence or moral power; cogent; efficacious. God makes sometimes a plain and simple man's good life as powerful as the most eloquent sermon. Donne , Sermons, v. What had I To oppose against such powerful arguments? Milton , S. A., 1. 862. 5. Great; numerous; numerically large. Compare power1, 10. [Colloq.] This piano was sort o' fiddle like - only bigger-and with a powerful heap of wire strings. Carlton, New Purchase, II. 8. ( Bartlett .) =Syn. Pui ant, forcible, cogent, influential; vigorous, robust, sturdy. powerful (pou'er-fül), adv. [ All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 203. powerfulne (pou'ėr-fül-nes), п. The character of being powerful; force; power; might; potency; efficacy. The powerfulne of Christ's birth consists in this, that he is made of God. Donne , Sermons, iii. power-hammer (pou'er-ham"ėr), n. A hammer actuated by machinery. power-house (pou'er-hous), n. In water-works, and other works in which machinery is driven by power from steam, electric, or other prime motors, a building especially provided to contain the prime motor or motors from which power is conveyed to the driven machinery by a main shaft and gearing, or by a belt or cable. power-lathe (pou'èr-lāh), n. A lathe in which the live head-stock mandrel is driven by steam, water, or other power, independently of the operator. The transmi ion of power from line-shafting and counter-shafts to lathes is usually performed by pulley-and-belt mechanism, variable speed being secured by cone-pulleys. powerle (pou'er-les), a. [ I give you welcome with a powerle hand, But with a heart full of unstained love. Shak., K. John, ii. 1. 15. With no will, Powerle and blind, must he some fate fulfil, Nor knowing what he is doing any more. William Morris , Earthly Paradise, I. 403. powerle ly (pou'ėr-les-li), adv . In a powerle manner; without power; weakly. powerle ne (pou'ėr-les-nes), n . The state or character of being powerle ; absence or lack of power. power-loom (pou'èr-löm), n. A loom worked by water, steam, or some other mechanical power. power-machine (pou'ér-ma-shēn"), п. A machine actuated by a mechanical force, as dis tinguished from one worked by hand. power-pre (pou'ér-pres), n. A printing-pre worked by steam, gas, or other mechanical agency, as distinguished from a hand-pre . powitch (pou'ich), n. [Chinook Indian.] The Oregon crab-apple, Pyrus rivularis, a small tree often forming dense thickets, the wood very hard, and the fruit eaten by the Indians. powke-need let (pouk'nē"dl), n. Same as pouke nel. The cedar Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree, And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind. Shak ., 3 Hen. VI., v. 2. 15. When first that sun too powerful beams displays, It draws up vapours which obscure its rays. Pope, E ay on Criticism, 1. 470. 2. Having great authority; pui ant; potent; mighty: as, a powerful nation. The Lords of Ro , Beaumond, and Willoughby, With all their powerful friends, are fled to him. Shak., Rich. II., ii. 2, 55,