Part 496

Southey.

Pre*pense"ly, adv. In a premeditated manner.

{ Pre*pol"lence (?), Pre*pol"len*cy (?), } n. [L. praepollentia.] The quality or state of being prepollent; superiority of power; predominance; prevalence. [R.] Coventry.

Pre*pol"lent (?), a. [L. praepollens, p. p. of praepollere to surpass in power; prae before + pollere to be powerful.] Having superior influence or power; prevailing; predominant. [R.] Boyle.

||Pre*pol"lent (?), n.; pl. Prepollices (#). [NL. See Pre-, Pollex.] ||(Anat.) An extra first digit, or rudiment of a digit, on the preaxial ||side of the pollex.

Pre*pon"der (?) v. t. To preponderate. [Obs.]

{ Pre*pon"der*ance (?), Pre*pon"der*an*cy (?), } n. [Cf. F. prÈpondÈrance.] 1. The quality or state of being preponderant; superiority or excess of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.

The mind should . . . reject or receive proportionably to the preponderancy of the greater grounds of probability.

Locke.

In a few weeks he had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of one power had destroyed.

Macaulay.

2. (Gun.) The excess of weight of that part of a canon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.

Pre*pon"der*ant (?), a. [L. praeponderans, -antis: cf. F. prÈpondÈrant. See Preponderate.] Preponderating; outweighing; overbalancing; -- used literally and figuratively; as, a preponderant weight; of preponderant importance. -- Pre*pon"der*ant*ly, adv.

Pre*pon"der*ate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Preponderated (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Preponderating.] [L. praeponderatus, p. p. of praeponderare; prae before + ponderare to weigh, fr., pondus, ponderis, a weight. See Ponder.] 1. To outweigh; to overpower by weight; to exceed in weight; to overbalance.

An inconsiderable weight, by distance from the center of the balance, will preponderate greater magnitudes.

Glanvill.

2. To overpower by stronger or moral power.

3. To cause to prefer; to incline; to decide. [Obs.]

The desire to spare Christian blood preponderates him for peace.

Fuller.

Pre*pon"der*ate, v. i. To exceed in weight; hence, to incline or descend, as the scale of a balance; figuratively, to exceed in influence, power, etc.; hence; to incline to one side; as, the affirmative side preponderated.

That is no just balance in which the heaviest side will not preponderate.

Bp. Wilkins.

Pre*pon"der*a`ting*ly (?), adv. In a preponderating manner; preponderantly.

Pre*pon`der*a"tion (?), n. [L. praeponderatio.] The act or state of preponderating; preponderance; as, a preponderation of reasons. I. Watts.

Pre*pose" (?), v. t. [F. prÈposer; pref. prÈ- (L. prae before) + poser. See Pose.] To place or set before; to prefix. [Obs.] Fuller.

Prep`o*si"tion (?), n. [L. praepositio, fr. praeponere to place before; prae before + ponere to put, place: cf. F. prÈposition. See Position, and cf. Provost.]

1. (Gram.) A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escaped by running.