The Thirty-Nine Steps (46 page)

popular
ADJ
popular means ruled by the people, or Republican, rather than ruled by a monarch
With those of Greece compared and popular Rome
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

porringer
NOUN
a porringer is a small bowl
Of this festive composition each boy had one porringer, and no more
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

postboy
NOUN
a postboy was the driver of a horse-drawn carriage
He spoke to a postboy who was dozing under the gateway
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

post-chaise
NOUN
a fast carriage for two or four passengers
Looking round, he saw that it was a post-chaise, driven at great speed
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

postern
NOUN
a small gate usually at the back of a building
The little servant happening to be entering the fortress with two hot rolls, I passed
through the postern and crossed the drawbridge, in her company
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

pottle
NOUN
a pottle was a small basket
He had a paper-bag under each arm and a pottle of strawberries in one hand
… (
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

pounce
NOUN
pounce is a fine powder used to prevent ink spreading on untreated paper
in that grim atmosphere of pounce and parchment, red-tape, dusty wafers, ink-jars,
brief and draft paper, law reports, writs, declarations, and bills of costs
(
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens)

pox
NOUN
pox means sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis
how the pox in all its consequences and denominations
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

prelibation
NOUN
prelibation means a foretaste of or an example of something to come
A prelibation to the mower’s scythe
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

prentice
NOUN
an apprentice
and Joe, sitting on an old gun, had told me that when I was ’prentice to him regularly
bound, we would have such Larks there!
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

presently
ADV
immediately
I presently knew what they meant (
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

pumpion
NOUN
pumpkin
for it was almost as large as a small pumpion
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)