Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  He lay along

  Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out

  Upon the brook that brawls along this wood. Shakesp.

  No tree beareth so many bastard fruits as the oak: for besides the acorns, it beareth galls, oak apples, oak nuts, which are inflammable, and oak berries, sticking close to the body of the tree without stalk. Bacon’s Nat. History.

  The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,

  Shoots rising up and spreads by slow degrees:

  Three centuries he grows, and three he stays

  Supreme in state; and in three more decays. Dry.

  An oak growing from a plant to a great tree, and then lopped, is still the same oak. Locke.

  A light earthy, stony, and sparry matter, incrusted and affixed to oak leaves. Woodward on Foss.

  In the days of Homer every grove, river, fountain, and oak tree, were thought to have their peculiar deities. Odyss.

  Let India boast her plants, nor envy we

  The weeping amber and the balmy tree,

  While by our oaks the precious loads are born,

  And realms commanded which those trees adorn. Pope.

  Oak. [Evergreen.]

  The leaves are, for the most part, indented, or sinuated, and in some the edges of the leaves are prickly, and are evergreen: it hath amentaceous flowers, which are produced at remote distances from the fruit on the same tree: the fruit is an acorn like the common oak. The wood of this tree is accounted very good for many sorts of tools and utensils; and affords the most durable charcoal in the world. Miller.

  Oakápple. n.s. [oak and apple.] A kind of spongy excrescence on the oak.

  Another kind of excrescence is an exudation of plants joined with putrefaction, as in oakapples, which are found chiefly upon the leaves of oaks. Bacon’s Nat. Hist.

  Oáken. adj. [from oak.] Made of oak; gathered from oak.

  No nation doth equal England for oaken timber wherewith to build ships. Bacon’s Advice to Villiers.

  By lot from Jove I am the pow’r

  Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bow’r. Milton.

  Clad in white velvet all their troop they led,

  With each an oaken chaplet on his head. Dryden.

  An oaken garland to be worn on festivals, was the recompense of one who had covered a citizen in battle. Addison.

  He snatched a good tough oaken cudgel, and began to brandish it. Arbuthnot’s J. Bull.

  Oakenpin. n.s. An apple.

  Oakenpin, so called from its hardness, is a lasting fruit, yields excellent liquor, and is near the nature of the Westbury apple, though not in form. Mortimer.

  Oákum. n.s. [A word probably formed by some corruption.] Cords untwisted and reduced to hemp, with which, mingled with pitch, leaks are stopped.

  They make their oakum, wherewith they chalk the seams of the ships, of old seer and weather beaten ropes, when they are over spent and grown so rotten as they serve for no other use but to make rotten oakum, which moulders and washes away with every sea as the ships labour and are tossed. Ral.

  Some drive old oakum thro’ each seam and rift;

  Their left hand does the calking-iron guide;

  The rattling mallet with the right they lift. Dryden.

  Oar. n.s. [are, Saxon; perhaps by allusion to the common expression of plowing the water, from the same root with ear, to plow, aro, Lat.] A long pole with a broad end, by which vessels are driven in the water, the resistance made by water to the oar pushing on the vessel.

  Th’ oars were silver,

  Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

  The water which they beat, to follow faster,

  As amorous of their strokes. Shakesp. Jul. Cæsar.

  So tow’rds a ship the oar-finn’d gallies ply,

  Which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly,

  Stand but to fall reveng’d. Denham’s Poems.

  In shipping such as this, the Irish kern

  And untaught Indian, on the stream did glide,

  E’er sharp-keel’d boats to stem the flood did learn,

  Or fin-like oars did spread from either side. Dryden.

  Its progressive motion may be effected by the help of several oars, which in the outward ends of them shall be like the fins of a fish to contract and dilate. Wilkins.

  To Oar. v.n. [from the noun.] To row.

  He more undaunted on the ruin rode,

  And oar’d with labouring arms along the flood. Pope.

  Oáry. adj. [from oar.] Having the form or use of oars.

  His hair transforms to down, his fingers meet,

  In skinny films, and shape his oary feet. Addison.

  The swan with arched neck,

  Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows

  Her state with oary feet. Milton.

  Oast. n.s. A kiln. Not in use.

  Empty the binn into a hog-bag, and carry them immediately to the oast or kiln, to be dried. Mortimer.

  Oatcáke. n.s. [oat and cake.] Cake made of the meal of oats.

  Take a blue stone they make haver or oatcakes upon, and lay it upon the cross bars of iron. Peacham.

  Oáten. adj. [from oat.] Made of oats; bearing oats.

  When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

  And merry larks are ploughmens clocks. Shakesp.

  Oats. n.s. [aten, Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

  It is of the grass leaved tribe; the flowers have no petals, and are disposed in a loose panicle: the grain is eatable. The meal makes tolerable good bread. Miller.

  The oats have eaten the horses. Shakespeare.

  It is bare mechanism, no otherwise produced than the turning of a wild oatbeard, by the insinuation of the particles of moisture. Locke.

  For your lean cattle, fodder them with barley straw first, and the oat straw last. Mortimer’s Husbandry.

  His horse’s allowance of oats and beans, was greater than the journey required. Swift.

  Óbelisk. n.s. [obeliscus, Latin.]

  1. A magnificent high piece of solid marble, or other fine stone, having usually four faces, and lessening upwards by degrees, till it ends in a point like a pyramid. Harris.

  Between the statues obelisks were plac’d,

  And the learn’d walls with hieroglyphicks grac’d. Pope.

  2. A mark of censure in the margin of a book, in the form of a dagger [†].

  He published the translation of the Septuagint, having compared it with the Hebrew, and noted by asterisks what was defective, and by obelisks what redundant. Grew.

  Obequitátion. n.s. [from obequito, Latin.] The act of riding about. Oberrátion. n.s. [from oberro, Latin.] The act of wandering about.

  P

  Is a labial consonant, formed by a slight compression of the anterior part of the lips; as, pull, pelt. It is confounded by the Germans and Welsh with b: it has an uniform sound: it is sometimes mute before t; as, accompt, receipt; but the mute p is in modern orthography commonly omitted.

  Pábular. adj. [pabulum, Lat.] Affording aliment or provender. Pabulátion. n.s. [pabulum, Lat.] The act of feeding or procuring provender. Pábulous. adj. [pabulum, Lat.] Alimental; affording aliment. Pace. n.s. [pas, French.]

  1. Step; single movement in walking.

  Behind her death,

  Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet

  On his pale horse. Milton’s Paradise Lost, b. x.

  2. Gait; manner of walk.

  He himself went but a kind of languishing pace, with his eyes sometimes cast up to heaven, as though his fancies strove to mount higher. Sidney.

  He saw Menalcas come with heavy pace;

  Wet were his eyes, and chearless was his face. Addison.

  3. Degree of celerity. To keep pace, is not to be left behind.

  To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

  Creeps in this petty pace from day to-day,

  To the last syllable of recorded time;

&nbs
p; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

  The way to dusky death. Shakesp. Macbeth.

  Bring me word

  How the world goes, that to the pace of it

  I may spur on my journey. Shakesp. Coriolanus.

  His teachers were fain to restrain his forwardness; that his brothers, under the same training, might hold pace with him. Wotton’s Buckingham.

  The beggar sings ev’n when he sees the place,

  Beset with thieves, and never mends his pace. Dryden.

  Just as much

  He mended pace upon the touch. Hudibras, p. i.

  Marcia could answer thee in sighs, keep pace

  With all thy woes, and count out tear for tear. Addison.

  Hudibras applied his spur to one side of his horse, as not doubting but the other would keep pace with it. Addison.

  4. Step; gradation of business. A gallicism.

  The first pace necessary for his majesty to make, is to fall into confidence with Spain. Temple.

  5. A measure of five feet. The quantity supposed to be measured by the foot from the place where it is taken up to that where it is set down.

  Measuring land by walking over it, they styled a double step; i. e. the space from the elevation of one foot, to the same foot set down again, mediated by a step of the other foot; a pace equal to five foot; a thousand of which paces made a mile. Holder on Time.

  The violence of tempests never moves the sea above six paces deep. Wilkin’s Math. Magic.

  6. A particular movement which horses are taught, though some have it naturally, made by lifting the legs on the same side together.

  They rode, but authors having not

  Determin’d whether pace or trot;

  That’s to say, whether tollutation,

  As they do term it, or succussation. Hudibras.

  To Pace. v.n. [from the noun.]

  1. To move on slowly.

  He soft arrived on the grassie plain,

  And fairly paced forth with easy pain. Hubberd.

  As we pac’d along

  Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

  Methought, that Gloster stumbl’d. Shakesp. R. III.

  I beheld

  Crispinus, both in birth and manners vile,

  Pacing in pomp with cloak of Tyrian dye,

  Chang’d oft a day. Dryden’s Juvenal.

  The moon rose in the clearest sky I ever saw, by whose solemn light I paced on slowly without interruption. Pope.

  The nymph, obedient to divine command,

  To seek Ulysses, pac’d along the sand. Pope.

  2. To move.

  Remember well, with speed so pace,

  To speak of Perdita. Shakesp. Winter’s Tale.

  3. [Used of horses.] To move by raising the legs on the same side together.

  Pǽan. n.s. [from the songs sung at festivals to Apollo, begining Io pæan.] A song of triumph.

  O may I live to hail the glorious day,

  And sing loud pæans thro’ the crouded way. Roscomm.

  See from each clime the learn’d their incense bring:

  Hear, in all tongues consenting pæans ring. Pope.

  Paint. n.s. [from the verb.]

  1. Colours representative of any thing.

  Poets are limners

  To copy out ideas in the mind,

  Words are the paint by which their thoughts are shown,

  And nature is their object to be drawn. Granville.

  The church of the annunciation looks beautiful in the inside, all but one corner of it being covered with statues, gilding, and paint. Addison on Italy.

  Her charms in breathing paint engage,

  Her modest cheek shall warm a future age. Pope.

  2. Colours laid on the face.

  Together lay her pray’r book and her paint. Anon.

  To Paint. v.a. [peindre, French.]

  1. To represent by delineation and colours.

  Live to be the shew and gaze o’ th’ time,

  We’ll have thee as our rarer monsters are,

  Painted upon a pole. Shakesp. Macbeth.

  2. To cover with colours representative of something.

  Who fears a sentence or an old man’s saw,

  Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe. Shakesp.

  3. To represent by colours, appearances, or images.

  Till we from an author’s words paint his very thoughts in our minds, we do not understand him. Locke.

  4. To describe; to represent.

  The lady is disloyal. —

  — Disloyal? —

  — The word is too good to paint out her wickedness. Sha.

  5. To colour; to diversify.

  Such is his will that paints

  The earth with colours fresh,

  The darkest skies with store

  Of starry lights. Spenser.

  6. To deck with artificial colours.

  Hath not old custom made this life more sweet

  Than that of painted pomp? are not these woods

  More free from peril than the court? Shakesp.

  Jezebeel painted her face and tired her head. 2 Kings ix. 30.

  To Paint. v.n. To lay colours on the face.

  Such a sin to paint. Pope.

  Paínter. n.s. [peintre, Fr. from paint.] One who professes the art of representing objects by colours.

  In the placing let some care be taken how the painter did stand in the working. Wotton’s Architecture.

  Beauty is only that which makes all things as they are in their proper and perfect nature; which the best painters always chuse by contemplating the forms of each. Dryden.

  Paínting. n.s. [from paint.]

  1. The art of representing objects by delineation and colours.

  If painting be acknowledged for an art, it follows that no arts are without their precepts. Dryden.

  ’Tis in life as ’tis in painting,

  Much may be right, yet much be wanting. Prior.

  2. Picture; the painted resemblance.

  This is the very painting of your fear;

  This is the air-drawn dagger which you said,

  Led you to Duncan. Shakesp. Macbeth.

  Painting is welcome;

  The painting is almost the natural man:

  For since dishonour trafficks with man’s nature,

  He is but outside: pencil’d figures are

  Ev’n such as they give out. Shakesp. Timon of Athens.

  3. Colours laid on.

  If any such be here

  That love this painting, wherein you see me smear’d,

  Let him express his disposition. Shakesp. Coriolanus.

  Palm. n.s. [palma, Latin; palmier, Fr.]

  1. A tree of great variety of species; of which the branches were worn in token of victory.

  The palm-tree hath a single imbranched stalk; the leaves are disposed in a circular form on the top, which, when they wither or fall off, are succeeded by new ones out of the middle of those which remain; among which sheaths or plain twigs break forth, opening from the bottom to the top, very full of flowers and clusters of embryos. There are twenty-one species of this tree, of which the most remarkable are, the greater palm or date-tree. The dwarf palm grows in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, from whence the leaves are sent hither and made into flag-brooms. The oily palm is a native of Guinea and Cape Verd island, but has been transplanted to Jamaica and Barbadoes. It grows as high as the main mast of a ship. Miller.

  Get the start of the majestick world,

  And bear the palm alone. Shakesp. Jul. Cæsar.

  Go forth into the mount and fetch palm-branches. Neh. viii. 15.

  Nothing better proveth the excellency of this soil, than the abundant growing of the palm-trees without labour of man. This tree alone giveth unto man whatsoever his life beggeth at nature’s hand. Raleigh.

  Above others who carry away the palm for excellence, is Maurice Landgrave of Hess. Peacham of Musick.

  Fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst
<
br />   And hunger both. Milton’s Par. Lost.

  Thou youngest virgin, daughter of the skies,

  Whose palms new pluck’d from Paradise,

  With spreading branches more sublimely rise. Dryden.

  2. Victory; triumph. [palme, Fr.]

  Namur subdu’d is England’s palm alone;

  The rest besieg’d; but we constrain’d the town. Dryden.

  3. The hand spread out; the inner part of the hand. [palma, Lat.]

  By this virgin palm now kissing thine,

  I will be thine. Shakespeare.

  Drinks of extreme thin parts fretting, put upon the back of your hand, will, with a little stay, pass through to the palm, and yet taste mild to the mouth. Bacon.

  Seeking my success in love to know,

  I try’d th’ infallible prophetick way,

  A poppy-leaf upon my palm to lay. Dryden.

  4. A hand, or measure of length, comprising three inches. [palme, Fr.]

  The length of a foot is a sixth part of the stature; a span one eighth of it; a palm or hand’s breadth one twenty-fourth; a thumb’s breadth or inch one seventy-second; a forefinger’s breadth one ninety-sixth. Holder on Time.

  Henry VIII. of England, Francis I. of France, and Charles V. emperor, were so provident, as scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either, but that the other two would set the balance of Europe upright again. Bacon.

  The same hand into a fist may close,

  Which instantly a palm extended shows. Denham.

  Pánder. n.s. [This word is derived from Pandarus, the pimp in the story of Troilus and Cressida; it was therefore originally written pandar, till its etymology was forgotten.] A pimp; a male bawd; a procurer.

  Let him with his cap in hand,

  Like a base pander, hold the chamber door

  Whilst by a slave

  His fairest daughter is contaminated. Shakesp. Hen. V.

  If thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pander to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. Shakesp. Cymbeline.

  If ever you prove false to one another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be call’d panders after my name. Shakesp. Troil. and Cressida.

  Camillo was his help in this, his pander,

  There is a plot against my life. Shakesp. Wint. Tale.

  The sons of happy Punks, the pander’s heir,

  Are privileged

  To clap the first, and rule the theatre. Dryden.

  Thou hast confess’d thyself the conscious pandar