📖 P — The English dictionary · page 15

peaceably — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: In a calm, friendly way, without quarrelling.↗ Example: And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.↗ (Torah GEN.37.4, JPS 1917)↗ · And she said: 'Comest thou peaceably?'↗ And he said: 'Peaceably.'↗ (Prophets 1KI.2.13, JPS 1917)↗ · And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Comest thou peaceably?'↗ (Prophets 1SA.16.4, JPS 1917)↗ · Their tongue is a sharpened arrow, it speaketh deceit; one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him.↗ (Prophets JER.9.7, JPS 1917)↗

peaceful — Everyday, meaning 1: Peaceful means calm and quiet, without noise or worry.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Peaceful means without war or fighting.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A peaceful person or protest does not use violence.↗ Example: The garden is peaceful in the morning.↗ · They held a peaceful protest.↗ · The country has been peaceful for many years.↗ · The baby looked peaceful asleep.↗ · We found a peaceful spot by the lake.↗ · Be kind and peaceful to others.↗ · The two villages lived in peaceful friendship.↗ · The library is a peaceful place to read.↗ · The shores of the peaceful lake still smile in beauty.↗

peacefully — Everyday, meaning 1: Peacefully means in a calm, quiet way.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Peacefully means without fighting or violence.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (euphemism) «Died peacefully» is a gentle way to say someone died without pain or struggle.↗ Example: The cat slept peacefully on the sofa.↗ · Let's solve this peacefully, without shouting.↗ · The crowd left peacefully.↗ · (euphemism) Grandad died peacefully in his sleep.↗ · The ducks floated peacefully on the pond.↗ · The two teams shook hands peacefully.↗ · The baby was breathing peacefully.↗ · They lived peacefully side by side.↗ · He lay down and slept peacefully.↗ · They spend their days in prosperity, and peacefully they go down to the grave.↗ (Writings JOB.21.13, JPS 1917)↗

peacekeeper — Everyday, meaning 1: A soldier or police officer, often sent by the United Nations, whose job is to stop fighting and keep peace between groups after a war.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A person who calms arguments and helps others make friends again.↗ Example: UN peacekeepers wear blue helmets.↗ · Irish soldiers have served as peacekeepers in Lebanon for many years.↗ · The peacekeepers patrolled the border to stop the fighting.↗ · My sister is the peacekeeper in our family when we argue.↗ · Canada was proud of its peacekeepers.↗ · A peacekeeper helps both sides talk instead of fight.↗ · Peacekeepers protected the camp where refugees lived.↗

peacemaker — Everyday, meaning 1: A person who helps people or groups stop fighting and make friends again.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (Bible) In the Bible, Jesus says «Blessed are the peacemakers», and Christians believe peacemakers do God's work.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal) Someone in a family or class who often calms arguments down.↗ Example: My sister is the peacemaker when my brothers argue.↗ · The teacher asked Ava to be the peacemaker at the football game.↗ · «Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.»↗ · A good peacemaker listens to both sides first.↗ · The two kings sent a peacemaker to stop the war.↗ · Grandad always played the peacemaker at family dinners.↗ · Being a peacemaker takes patience and courage.↗

peach — Everyday, meaning 1: A peach is a soft, round, sweet fruit with fuzzy skin and a big stone (pit) inside.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Peach is a soft pinkish-orange color.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something lovely can be called «a peach».↗ Example: There are 7 red peaches and 15 green peaches.↗ · There are 9 baskets with 5 peaches each.↗ · She picked 32 more peaches.↗ · How many more green peaches than red?↗ · The peach was so juicy it dripped.↗ · Don't eat the peach stone.↗ · Georgia is called the Peach State.↗ · Her dress was a pale peach color.↗ · We made peach pie for dessert.↗ · A peach has fuzzy skin, a nectarine has smooth skin.↗ · “This is indeed the largest peach I have ever seen!↗

peacock — Everyday, meaning 1: A peacock is a large male bird with a long, brilliant blue-green tail with «eye» patterns, which it spreads out in a huge fan to attract females.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Strictly, the peacock is the male; the female is a peahen, and both are peafowl.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A person who is vain and shows off how they look can be called a peacock.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A peacock butterfly is a butterfly with eye spots on its wings.↗ Example: The peacock spread its tail in a huge shimmering fan.↗ · A peacock's tail feathers have spots that look like eyes.↗ · The peacock screeched loudly in the park.↗ · The peahen is brown, but the peacock is blue and green.↗ · He strutted around in his new trainers like a peacock.↗ · She was as proud as a peacock of her painting.↗ · We saw a peacock butterfly on the buddleia.↗ · The peacock is the national bird of India.↗ · There stood beneath the tree two handsome peacocks.↗ · For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.↗ (Writings 2CH.9.21, JPS 1917)↗ · For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram; once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.↗ (Prophets 1KI.10.22, JPS 1917)↗

peafowl — Everyday, meaning 1: Peafowl are large birds of the pheasant family; the male is a peacock, the female is a peahen, and the babies are peachicks.↗ Example: Peafowl wandered across the castle lawn.↗ · A peacock is a male peafowl, and a peahen is a female.↗ · Baby peafowl are called peachicks.↗ · The Indian peafowl is India's national bird.↗ · Peafowl screech loudly at dawn.↗ · Green peafowl live in South-East Asia.↗

peahen — Everyday, meaning 1: A female peafowl.↗ She is mostly brown and grey, without the huge colourful tail of the male peacock.↗ Example: The peahen sat quietly on her eggs.↗ · Peahens are brown, so they are hard to spot.↗ · The peacock spread his tail to impress the peahen.↗ · We saw a peahen and three peachicks at the zoo.↗ · A peahen does not have a long, colourful tail.↗ · The peahen called loudly to her chicks.↗

peak — Everyday, meaning 1: A peak is the pointed top of a mountain, or a mountain with a pointed top.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A peak is the highest point or level of something, like the peak of a graph.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To peak is to reach the highest point.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: Peak describes the busiest or best time, like peak hours.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: The peak of a cap is the stiff part that sticks out at the front.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: Peaked can describe a hat or roof that has a pointed top.↗ Example: We climbed to the peak of the mountain.↗ · Snow covered the peaks.↗ · The graph shows a peak on Saturday.↗ · Shops are busiest at peak times.↗ · The temperature peaked at thirty degrees.↗ · He was at the peak of his career.↗ · Pull the peak of your cap down to shade your eyes.↗ · Immediately there rose out of the earth, goodness knows whence,[220] high, ever so high mountains, their peaks touching the sky.↗ · A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of peaks is the mountain of Bashan.↗ (Writings PSA.68.16, JPS 1917)↗ · Why look ye askance, ye mountains of peaks, at the mountain which God hath desired for His abode?↗ (Writings PSA.68.17, JPS 1917)↗

peal — Everyday, meaning 1: The loud ringing sound of bells.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A loud sound, such as a peal of thunder or a peal of laughter.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To ring loudly.↗ Example: The church bells pealed for the wedding.↗ · A peal of thunder shook the house.↗ · Peals of laughter came from the playground.↗ · The bells rang out a joyful peal.↗ · The doorbell pealed loudly.↗ · The bells pealed at midnight on New Year's Eve.↗ · The lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled in one long-continued peal all night.↗

peanut — Everyday, meaning 1: A small oval seed that grows in a shell under the ground and is eaten as a snack, roasted or salted.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: "Peanuts" can also mean a very small amount of money.↗ e.g. "He works for peanuts."↗ Example: I like peanut butter on toast.↗ · Elephants in cartoons eat peanuts.↗ · Leo has a peanut allergy, so he checks every label.↗ · Our school is a nut-free zone.↗ · The peanut grows under the ground.↗ · We shared a bag of roasted peanuts at the game.↗ · She sold her old bike for peanuts.↗

peanuts — Everyday, meaning 1: Small oval seeds that grow in pods under the ground, eaten roasted or as peanut butter.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) A very small amount of money.↗ Example: I love peanut butter sandwiches.↗ · Peanuts grow underground in pods.↗ · Our school is nut-free because some children are allergic to peanuts.↗ · Salted peanuts make you thirsty.↗ · Elephants in cartoons eat peanuts, but that is not their real diet.↗ · He works hard but gets paid peanuts.↗ · Read the label to check for peanuts.↗ · Peanuts are legumes, like peas and beans.↗

pear — Everyday, meaning 1: A pear is a sweet, juicy fruit, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with a green, yellow or brown skin.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A pear tree is the tree that grows pears.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: «Pear-shaped» means narrow at the top and wide at the bottom; «go pear-shaped» (UK) means go wrong.↗ Example: I put one pear on the table.↗ · Ana picked 7 pears and gave 2 to Jo.↗ · Each bag has 5 pears.↗ · This pear is soft and juicy.↗ · Pears grow on trees in the orchard.↗ · I had a pear and some cheese for a snack.↗ · Cut the pear and take out the core.↗ · A light bulb is pear-shaped.↗ · “Give me another basket of pears,” he said.↗

pearl — Everyday, meaning 1: A small hard shiny round thing, white or cream, that grows inside an oyster or some other shellfish and is used in jewellery.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A very precious or excellent thing or person: a pearl of a book.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A pale shiny white colour.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: «Pearls of wisdom»: wise sayings (often said as a joke).↗ Example: Grandma wears a string of pearls.↗ · A pearl grows slowly inside an oyster.↗ · Divers searched the sea bed for pearls.↗ · Her teeth were pearly white.↗ · He shared his pearls of wisdom about football.↗ · A necklace has 48 pearls; if 6 fall off, 42 are left.↗ · The pirate's chest was full of gold and pearls.↗ · What had become of those wonderful pearls?↗

peasant — Everyday, meaning 1: A peasant was a poor farmer or farm worker in the past, especially in the Middle Ages, who worked a small piece of land and often had to give part of the crops to a lord.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In some countries today, peasant means a farmer on a small farm who grows food mostly for the family.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (rude, insult) Calling someone a peasant means they are uneducated or have bad manners; it is unkind.↗ Example: Most people in medieval England were peasants.↗ · The peasants worked in the lord's fields for three days a week.↗ · In the Peasants' Revolt, peasants marched on London.↗ · The peasant's cottage had one room shared with a cow.↗ · In the fairy tale, a poor peasant married the princess.↗ · «You peasant!» he said — which was very rude.↗ · Peasant farmers in many countries still grow their own food.↗ · "I've no money," said the peasant.↗

peasantry — Everyday, meaning 1: All the peasants of a country taken together: the poor farm workers and small farmers, especially in the past.↗ Example: The peasantry worked the lord's fields.↗ · Most of the people in medieval England belonged to the peasantry.↗ · The peasantry rose up in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.↗ · Heavy taxes made life hard for the peasantry.↗ · The king feared the anger of the peasantry.↗ · The Holodomor caused the deaths of millions of the Ukrainian peasantry.↗ · We may take next the legends current among the peasantry about various saints.↗

pease — Early Modern English, meaning 1: Peas, the small round green vegetables; the old plural of pea.↗ Example: The witch made pease-soup of it, and set it before the daughter.↗ (The Red Fairy Book) · One day the youngest child was sent to drive the sparrows away from her grandfather's pease.↗ (Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore)

peat — Everyday, meaning 1: Soft, dark brown soil made of plants that have half-rotted very slowly in wet, boggy places over thousands of years; it can be dried and burned as fuel.↗ Example: Peat forms very slowly in wet bogs.↗ · In Ireland, families once burned peat on their fires.↗ · Peat bogs store a lot of carbon.↗ · Buy peat-free compost to protect the bogs.↗ · Ancient bodies have been found preserved in peat.↗ · The peat smoke smelled earthy.↗ · By and bye the season came when they must cut the peats and pile them up to dry, so that they might have fires in the winter.↗

pebble — Everyday, meaning 1: A pebble is a small, smooth, round stone, often found on beaches and in rivers.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Pebbles are rounded because water rubbed them for a long time.↗ Example: She found a white pebble on the beach.↗ · We skimmed pebbles across the lake.↗ · The river had rolled the pebbles until they were smooth.↗ · The path was covered with grey pebbles.↗ · Never throw pebbles at people or cars.↗ · Put some pebbles at the bottom of the fish tank.↗ · In the story Hansel dropped white pebbles to find the way home.↗ · The other denied in anger that he had thrown the pebble.↗

peck — Everyday, meaning 1: (of a bird) To hit or pick up something with the beak.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Noun: a quick hit with a beak.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Noun: a quick light kiss: a peck on the cheek.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (old measure) A unit of dry volume, a quarter of a bushel, used for grain and fruit.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: «Peck at your food»: to eat only a little, without hunger.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: To peck at things can also mean to try many new things briefly, without settling on any one of them.↗ Example: The hen pecked at the corn.↗ · A woodpecker pecks holes in tree bark.↗ · Mum gave me a peck on the cheek.↗ · Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.↗ · The baby bird pecked its way out of the egg.↗ · He only pecked at his dinner because he wasn't hungry.↗ · The oldest chicken is top of the pecking order.↗ · Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log.↗