This page gathers the 10,476 dictionary entries of which at least one sense is labelled “Obsolete” by Wiktionary. The definition shown is that sense; each word leads to its full entry. Page 69 of 105: from “perfect” to “pickle-herring”.
- perfect adj Fully trained or very knowledgeable; highly skilled
- perfective adj Tending to make perfect, or to bring to perfection.
- perforate adj Perforated.
- perforce verb To force; to compel.
- performant noun Someone who performs something, such as a ritual; a performer.
- perienteron noun The primitive perivisceral cavity; the space between the entoderm and the ectoderm, the forerunner of the schizocoel or enterocoel.
- period verb To come to a period; to conclude.
- perioecus noun Someone living on the same latitude as someone else, but on a different or opposite side of the world; one's antithesis.
- periscope noun A general or comprehensive view.
- perish verb To cause to perish.
- perisher noun An extreme act; a case of going all in.
- perite adj skilled
- perjure noun A perjured person.
- perk adj Smart; trim; spruce; jaunty; vain.
- perk up verb To exalt oneself, take on a higher status or position.
- perky adj Early-ripening.
- permit noun Formal permission.
- pern verb To take profit of; to make profitable.
- pernicious adj swift; celeritous.
- pernoctation noun A religious watch kept during normal sleeping hours, during which prayers or other ceremonies are performed; a vigil.
- perpendicular noun A meal eaten at a tavern bar while standing up.
- perpetuance noun Synonym of perpetuity.
- perplex noun A difficulty.
- perplexable adj Doubtful; ambiguous.
- perplexation noun vexation; annoyance
- perplexed adj Entangled; labyrinthine.
- perplexedness noun The quality of being intricate, complicated or entangled.
- persevere verb To stay constant; to continue in a certain state; to remain.
- persimmon-plum noun Fruit of the date plum (Diospyros lotus), small trees in the ebony family, native to Southwest Asia and Southeast Europe.
- persist verb To continue to be; to remain.
- persistive adj persistent
- person verb To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
- personable adj Synonym of personal (“done in person, without an intermediary”).
- personate verb To celebrate loudly; to extol, to praise.
- perspective adj Providing visual aid; of or relating to the science of vision; optical.
- perspicacious adj Able to physically see clearly; quick-sighted; sharp-sighted.
- perspicacity noun Keen eyesight.
- persuade verb To convince of by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe (something).
- pert verb To behave with pertness; to misbehave.
- perturbatory noun The supposed power of deflecting the divining rod by magnetic influence.
- perversed adj Split off; isolated; unconnected.
- perverted adj Reversed in chirality; flipped.
- pervious adj Capable of penetrating or permeating.
- peshkhana noun The tents and accompanying retinue sent on overnight, during a march, to the new camping ground, to receive the master on his arrival.
- pester verb To crowd together thickly.
- pet adj Good; ideal.
- petit noun A little schoolboy.
- petronel noun A short but large-caliber, heavy 16th- and 17th-century firearm that used a matchlock or wheellock mechanism, intermediate between the…
- petty noun A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
- petulance noun Rudeness, insolence.
- petulant adj Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.
- pewfellow noun An intimate associate; a companion.
- phalaenid noun Any moth of the former family Phalaenidae, now mostly classified in the Noctuidae and related families.
- phalange noun Synonym of phalanx (“group of soldiers, people etc.”).
- phantomy noun An illusion, a fantasy; the practice of illusion, deception.
- pharmacon noun A poison.
- pharmacopœian adj Obsolete typography of pharmacopoeian.
- phasis noun A phase (of the moon, a planet etc.).
- phene noun Benzene.
- Philadelphia pint noun A unit of volume corresponding to a cuboid with sides 4 inches by 3⅛ inches by 2⅜ inches, equal to 1.0065 US pints and used mainly for ice…
- philander noun A greater bilby, an Australian marsupial of species Macrotis lagotis (syn. Perameles lagotis).
- philippium noun A supposed metallic element obtainable from samarskite, later discovered to be a mixture of yttrium and terbium.
- philippize verb To write or speak in the style of a philippic; to rant.
- philobiblian adj Fond of books; devoted to literature.
- philomuse noun A lover of the Muses or poetry.
- philosopher noun An alchemist.
- phlogistic adj Burning, fiery.
- phoenix noun A marvelous person or thing.
- phoorza noun A custom house.
- phosphor noun Phosphorus.
- phosphoreal adj of or relating to phosphorus
- phosphorus noun Any substance exhibiting phosphorescence; a phosphor.
- photechy noun The ability of a radioactive substance to pass on useful properties of radiation (such as luminescence) to another substance.
- photogene noun A photograph.
- phren noun The diaphragm.
- phrenesis noun phrenitis
- phylactery noun Synonym of reliquary (“a container to display or hold religious relics”).
- phylactolaematous adj Of or relating to the former order of bryozoans, Phylactolaema, now probably corresponding to Phylactolaemata.
- phylloxanthin noun xanthophyll.
- phylon noun All of the organisms descending from a given common ancestor, regarded as a race, tribe, vel sim.; a clade.
- physeter noun A member of the genus Physeter; a sperm whale.
- physic noun A physician.
- physical adj Pertaining to the field of medicine; medical.
- physically adv According to the rules of medicine.
- physicianed adj Licensed as a physician.
- physiologic dead space noun The volume of the conducting airways of the lung. This definition became inadequate once the alveolar dead space was described.
- physiology noun The study and description of natural objects; natural science.
- physostomous adj Relating to the former grouping of fish Physostomi.
- phytomorph noun A hypothetical alga-like organism once thought to have had a symbiosis with some extinct fenestrid bryozoans, in an attempt to explain…
- piccolo noun A piccolo piano.
- piceous adj Of or pertaining to pitch (“a sticky, dark brown substance obtained from distilling turpentine or wood tar, or crude oil or tar”); having a…
- pick noun A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
- pick fault noun A critic; a censorious person.
- pickaninny Christmas noun Easter (Christian feast).
- pickcheese noun The blue tit.
- picked adj fine; spruce; smart; precise; dainty
- pickedness noun The state of being sharpened or pointed.
- pickeer verb To make a raid for booty; to maraud.
- picket verb To torture by forcing to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.
- pickle-herring noun A herring preserved in brine; a pickled herring.