Part 451

Pow"der*y (?), a. 1. Easily crumbling to pieces; friable; loose; as, a powdery spar.

2. Sprinkled or covered with powder; dusty; as, the powdery bloom on plums.

3. Resembling powder; consisting of powder. "The powdery snow." Wordsworth.

Pow"dike (?), n. [Scot. pow, pou, a pool, a watery or marshy place, fr. E. pool.] A dike a marsh or fen. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Pow"dry (?), a. See Powdery.

Pow"er (?), n. (Zoˆl.) Same as Poor, the fish.

Pow"er, n. [OE. pouer, poer, OF. poeir, pooir, F. pouvoir, n. & v., fr. LL. potere, for L. posse, potesse, to be able, to have power. See Possible, Potent, and cf. Posse comitatus.] 1. Ability to act, regarded as latent or inherent; the faculty of doing or performing something; capacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power. "One next himself in power, and next in crime." Milton.

2. Ability, regarded as put forth or exerted; strength, force, or energy in action; as, the power of steam in moving an engine; the power of truth, or of argument, in producing conviction; the power of enthusiasm. "The power of fancy." Shak.

3. Capacity of undergoing or suffering; fitness to be acted upon; susceptibility; -- called also passive power; as, great power of endurance.

Power, then, is active and passive; faculty is active power or capacity; capacity is passive power.

Sir W. Hamilton.

4. The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government.

Power is no blessing in itself but when it is employed to protect the innocent.

Swift.

5. The agent exercising an ability to act; an individual invested with authority; an institution, or government, which exercises control; as, the great powers of Europe; hence, often, a superhuman agent; a spirit; a divinity. "The powers of darkness." Milton.

And the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

Matt. xxiv. 29.

6. A military or naval force; an army or navy; a great host. Spenser.

Never such a power . . . Was levied in the body of a land.

Shak.

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7. A large quantity; a great number; as, a power o&?; good things. [Colloq.] Richardson.

8. (Mech.) (a) The rate at which mechanical energy is exerted or mechanical work performed, as by an engine or other machine, or an animal, working continuously; as, an engine of twenty horse power.

The English unit of power used most commonly is the horse power. See Horse power.

(b) A mechanical agent; that from which useful mechanical energy is derived; as, water power; steam power; hand power, etc. (c) Applied force; force producing motion or pressure; as, the power applied at one and of a lever to lift a weight at the other end.

This use in mechanics, of power as a synonym for force, is improper and is becoming obsolete.

(d) A machine acted upon by an animal, and serving as a motor to drive other machinery; as, a dog power.

Power is used adjectively, denoting, driven, or adapted to be driven, by machinery, and not actuated directly by the hand or foot; as, a power lathe; a power loom; a power press.