Part 226

Milton.

Petty averages. See under Average. -- Petty cash, money expended or received in small items or amounts. -- Petty officer, a subofficer in the navy, as a gunner, etc., corresponding to a noncommissionned officer in the army.

For petty constable, petty jury, petty larceny, petty treason, See Petit.

Syn. -- Little; diminutive; inconsiderable; inferior; trifling; trivial; unimportant; frivolous.

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Pet"ty*chaps (?), n. (Zoˆl.) Any one of several species of small European singing birds of the subfamily SylviinÊ, as the willow warbler, the chiff- chaff, and the golden warbler (Sylvia hortensis).

Pet"ty*whin (?), n. [Petty + whin.] (Bot.) The needle furze. See under Needle.

{ Pet"u*lance (?), Pet"u*lan*cy (?), } n. [L. petulania: cf. F. pÈtulance. See Petulant.] The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness; pettishness; capricious ill humor. "The petulancy of our words." B. Jonson.

Like pride in some, and like petulance in others.

Clarendon.

The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown.

Cowper.

Syn. -- Petulance, Peevishness. -- Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.

Pet"u*lant (?), a. [L. petulans, -antis, prop., making slight attacks upon, from a lost dim. of petere to fall upon, to attack: cf. F. pÈtulant. See Petition.] 1. Forward; pert; insolent; wanton. [Obs.] Burton.

2. Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill- natured freakishness; irritable. "Petulant moods." Macaulay.

Syn. -- Irritable; ill-humored; peevish; cross; fretful; querulous.

Pet"u*lant*ly, adv. In a petulant manner.

Pe*tul"ci*ty (?), n. [See Petulcous.] Wantonness; friskiness. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

Pe*tul"cous (?), a. [L. petulcus. Cf. Petulant.] Wanton; frisky; lustful. [Obs.] J. V. Cane.

Pe*tu"ni*a (?), n. [NL., fr. Braz. petun tobacco.] (Bot.) A genus of solanaceous herbs with funnelform or salver-shaped corollas. Two species are common in cultivation, Petunia violacera, with reddish purple flowers, and P. nyctaginiflora, with white flowers. There are also many hybrid forms with variegated corollas.

{ Pe*tunse", Pe*tuntse", Pe*tuntze" } (?), n. [From Chinese.] Powdered fledspar, kaolin, or quartz, used in the manufacture of porcelain.

Pet"worth mar"ble (?). A kind of shell marble occurring in the Wealden clay at Petworth, in Sussex, England; -- called also Sussex marble.

Petz"ite (?), n. [From Petz, who analyzed it.] (Min.) A telluride of silver and gold, related to hessite.

Peu*ced"a*nin (?), n. (Chem.) A tasteless white crystalline substance, extracted from the roots of the sulphurwort (Peucedanum), masterwort (Imperatoria), and other related plants; -- called also imperatorin.

Peu"cil (?), n. [Gr. &?; pine tree.] (Chem.) A liquid resembling camphene, obtained by treating turpentine hydrochloride with lime. [Written also peucyl.]

Pew (?), n. [OE. pewe, OF. puie parapet, balustrade, balcony, fr. L. podium an elevated place, a jutty, balcony, a parapet or balcony in the circus, where the emperor and other distinguished persons sat, Gr. &?;, dim. of &?;, &?;, foot; -- hence the Latin sense of a raised place (orig. as a rest or support for the foot). See Foot, and cf. Podium, Poy.] 1. One of the compartments in a church which are separated by low partitions, and have long seats upon which several persons may sit; -- sometimes called slip. Pews were originally made square, but are now usually long and narrow.

2. Any structure shaped like a church pew, as a stall, formerly used by money lenders, etc.; a box in theater; a pen; a sheepfold. [Obs.] Pepys. Milton.

Pew opener, an usher in a church. [Eng.] Dickens.