📖 P — The English dictionary · page 27

physician — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal, especially US) A medical doctor, especially one who treats illness with medicine rather than surgery.↗ Example: The physician listened to my heart.↗ · Ask your physician before taking new medicine.↗ · My aunt is a physician at the hospital.↗ · The king's physician gave him a bitter potion.↗ · A physician looks after people who are ill.↗ · Our family physician knows all of us.↗ · A wound from Kay's sword no physician could heal.↗ · And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.↗ (Torah GEN.50.2, JPS 1917)↗ · But ye are plasterers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.↗ (Writings JOB.13.4, JPS 1917)↗ · And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great; yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.↗ (Writings 2CH.16.12, JPS 1917)↗

physicist — Everyday, meaning 1: A scientist who studies physics: the science of matter, energy, forces, light, sound, electricity and how the universe works.↗ Example: Isaac Newton was a famous physicist.↗ · Marie Curie was both a physicist and a chemist.↗ · The physicist explained how rainbows form.↗ · She wants to be a physicist and study black holes.↗ · Physicists built the huge machine to smash atoms.↗ · A physicist helped design the hospital's scanner.↗

physics — Everyday, meaning 1: Physics is the science of matter and energy and how they act: forces, motion, light, sound, heat, electricity, magnetism and the universe.↗ Example: We learned about forces in physics.↗ · Physics explains why things fall.↗ · My sister studies physics at university.↗ · The laws of physics say you can't make energy from nothing.↗ · Light, sound and magnets are physics topics.↗ · She wants to be a physics teacher.↗

physiological — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) Having to do with how the bodies of living things work: breathing, heart rate, digestion, growing.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Of the body rather than the mind: a physiological reaction is a body reaction.↗ Example: A racing heart is a physiological response to fear.↗ · Food, water and sleep are basic physiological needs.↗ · Exercise causes physiological changes like faster breathing.↗ · Doctors study the physiological effects of being in space.↗ · Blushing is a physiological reaction you can't easily control.↗ · Some illnesses are physiological; others are psychological.↗

physiology — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: The science of how the bodies of living things work and what their parts do.↗ Example: It is unclear if the author or editor of this section is employing Hebrew terms in a novel way, is unfamiliar with human physiology, or is using animal organs to some symbolic effect, or some combination thereof.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)↗

physiotherapist — Everyday, meaning 1: A physiotherapist is a health worker who helps people move better and get stronger after an injury, illness or operation, using exercises, massage and stretches.↗ Example: The physiotherapist gave me exercises for my knee.↗ · After the accident, Dad saw a physiotherapist every week.↗ · The football team's physio ran onto the pitch.↗ · Our physiotherapist showed Nan how to use a walking frame.↗ · A physiotherapist helps you get stronger.↗ · I do my stretches every night, like the physiotherapist said.↗

physiotherapy — Everyday, meaning 1: Physiotherapy is treatment that helps people heal and move better using exercises, stretching, massage and sometimes heat or cold, not medicine.↗ Example: After breaking her leg, Mia had physiotherapy.↗ · Physiotherapy helped Grandad walk again.↗ · I go to physiotherapy on Thursdays.↗ · Physiotherapy exercises can be hard work.↗ · The swimmer needed physiotherapy for her shoulder.↗ · Her physiotherapy took six weeks.↗

physique — Everyday, meaning 1: The size and shape of a person's body, especially how strong and muscly it is.↗ Example: The swimmer has a powerful physique.↗ · The rugby player's physique was huge and strong.↗ · Each athlete's physique suits their sport.↗ · The giant in the story had a frightening physique.↗ · Exercise can change your physique over time.↗ · Don't compare your physique with photos online, which are often edited.↗

phytoplankton — Everyday, meaning 1: Phytoplankton are tiny living things, mostly too small to see, that float near the surface of seas and lakes and make their own food from sunlight, like plants do.↗ Example: Phytoplankton float near the surface of the sea.↗ · Phytoplankton use sunlight to make food, just like plants.↗ · Tiny animals called zooplankton eat phytoplankton.↗ · Ocean phytoplankton make about half of the Earth's oxygen.↗ · A phytoplankton bloom turned the sea green.↗ · Krill feed on phytoplankton, and whales eat krill.↗ · Without phytoplankton, ocean food chains would collapse.↗

pi — Everyday, meaning 1: Pi is a special number, about 3.14, that links the distance around a circle to the distance across it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Pi (π) is also a letter of the Greek alphabet.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Pi can also be a shrill, high sound, like the noise of a pipe.↗ Example: Use 3.14 for pi.↗ · The circumference is pi times the diameter.↗ · Area of a circle is pi times the radius times the radius.↗ · The symbol for pi is π.↗ · The digits of pi go on forever: 3.14159…↗ · A wheel 1 meter across moves about 3.14 meters in one turn.↗ · Some people can remember a hundred digits of pi.↗ · Our class ate pie on Pi Day.↗ · On he ran, and louder grew the sounds of pipe and drum: pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi . . .zum, zum, zum, zum.↗ · 'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon, over against it shall ye encamp by the sea.↗ (Torah EXO.14.2, JPS 1917)↗ · And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.↗ (Torah EXO.14.9, JPS 1917)↗ · The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into captivity.↗ (Prophets EZK.30.17, JPS 1917)↗

piano — Everyday, meaning 1: A piano is a big musical instrument with black and white keys.↗ You press the keys and small hammers hit strings inside.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In music, piano means play softly.↗ Example: She practises the piano 30 minutes a day.↗ · Each piano lesson costs 20 dollars.↗ · A piano has 88 keys.↗ · How long did he play the piano this week?↗ · She plays the piano in the school concert.↗ · The piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys.↗ · Inside the piano, hammers hit the strings.↗ · Moving a piano needs four strong people.↗ · The teacher wrote «p» for piano, which means softly.↗ · But when the old man played, the piano sounded quite out of tune.↗

pic — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) Short for picture or photo.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal, especially UK, Australia) A film, short for "picture" (old.↗ e.g. "the pics").↗ Example: Send me a pic of your new puppy!↗ · That's a great pic of the beach.↗ · Can I take a pic of you?↗ · She changed her profile pic.↗ · I've got loads of pics from the trip.↗ · Never send pics to strangers online.↗

pick — Everyday, meaning 1: To pick is to take something with your fingers; to pick up is to lift it and get it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To pick fruit or flowers is to pull them off the plant.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To pick is to choose: «Pick a card».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To pick someone up is to collect them in a car.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: Your pick is your choice.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: To pick can also mean to peck, as a bird does with its beak.↗ Example: Zoe picks up 3 more marbles.↗ · Ben picked 14 apples from the tree.↗ · Mia picks 5 flowers every day.↗ · Pick a number from 1 to 10.↗ · Mum picks me up from school at 3.↗ · Please pick up your toys.↗ · Take your pick of the cakes.↗ · It is not kind to pick on younger children.↗ · Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!’↗ · The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young vultures shall eat it.↗ (Writings PRO.30.17, JPS 1917)↗

pickaxe — Everyday, meaning 1: A pickaxe is a heavy tool with a long wooden handle and a curved metal head with a point on one or both ends, used for breaking hard ground, rock or ice.↗ Example: The miner swung his pickaxe at the rock.↗ · Gold rush diggers carried pickaxes and shovels.↗ · Workers broke up the road with a pickaxe.↗ · In the game you need a pickaxe to dig for diamonds.↗ · A pickaxe is too heavy for small children to use.↗ · The climbers used an ice axe, a kind of small pickaxe.↗ · Jack took a horn, a shovel, a pickaxe, his armor, and a dark lantern, and one winter’s evening he went to the mount.↗

picker — Everyday, meaning 1: A person who picks fruit, vegetables, flowers or cotton, often as a job.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A person or tool that picks or chooses something: a litter picker, a nose picker (rude, joking).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (work) A person in a warehouse who collects items for orders.↗ Example: Strawberry pickers start work very early in summer.↗ · We used litter pickers to clean the playground.↗ · My cousin worked as a fruit picker in Queensland.↗ · The machine is a cotton picker that harvests whole fields.↗ · Grape pickers fill baskets in the vineyard.↗ · «Stop it, you nose picker!» laughed my little brother.↗ · Warehouse pickers collect the things people order online.↗ · Every bush was weighted to the ground with the largest, dark red, ripe raspberries, such a wealth of berries as two little berry pickers had never found before!↗

picket — Everyday, meaning 1: A pointed wooden stake, used in a fence: a «picket fence».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (work) A group of workers on strike who stand outside their workplace to protest and ask others not to go in: a «picket line».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (verb) To stand outside a place to protest.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (old, army) A small group of soldiers on guard.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: To picket an animal means to tie it to a stake for the night.↗ Example: The house has a white picket fence.↗ · The nurses stood on the picket line in the cold.↗ · Workers picketed the factory gates.↗ · Mum said she would not cross the picket line.↗ · The picket held signs asking for fair pay.↗ · One picket in the fence was broken.↗ · “Yes,” said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk.↗ “I’m picketed for the night.↗

pickle — Everyday, meaning 1: A pickle is a vegetable, especially a small cucumber (gherkin), kept in vinegar or salty water so it lasts a long time and tastes sour.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (UK) Pickle is a thick, chunky, sour-sweet sauce eaten with cheese or cold meat, as in a cheese and pickle sandwich.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal) To be «in a pickle» means to be in a difficult or awkward situation.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (verb) To pickle food means to preserve it in vinegar or salt water.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (UK, informal) «Little pickle» is a fond name for a cheeky child.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: A pickle can also be a small pool of water, a puddle.↗ Example: Dad likes a pickle on the side of his burger.↗ · Can I have a cheese and pickle sandwich?↗ · We pickled onions in vinegar in science club.↗ · I was in a real pickle when I forgot my PE kit.↗ · Grandma calls my baby sister a little pickle.↗ · Pickling helped people keep food through the winter.↗ · The jar of pickles was too tight to open.↗ · So he walked on till he came to the drain near by, with just a pickle of water and a foot of mud in it.↗

pickled — Everyday, meaning 1: Pickled food has been kept in vinegar or salty water so it lasts a long time and tastes sour.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb) To pickle food is to keep it in vinegar or salt water.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (slang, old-fashioned) Pickled can mean drunk.↗ Example: I love pickled onions with cheese.↗ · Gran pickled the beetroot from her garden.↗ · Pickled cucumbers are called gherkins.↗ · Vinegar stops pickled food going bad.↗ · The museum kept animals pickled in jars.↗ · (slang) Uncle Pete was a bit pickled after the party.↗ · We pickled red cabbage in class.↗

pickpocket — Everyday, meaning 1: A thief who steals money, phones or wallets from people's pockets or bags without them noticing, often in crowds.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb, rare) To steal from someone's pocket in this way.↗ Example: Beware of pickpockets on the crowded train.↗ · A pickpocket stole Dad's wallet at the market.↗ · The police caught the pickpocket red-handed.↗ · Keep your phone in a zipped pocket to stop pickpockets.↗ · The pickpocket bumped into her and took her purse.↗ · In the story, a boy is taught to be a pickpocket.↗ · A pickpocket took 3 of the 10 coins; how many are left?↗

pickup — Everyday, meaning 1: A pickup (pickup truck) is a vehicle with a cabin in front and an open back for carrying things.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A pickup is the act of collecting someone or something: «school pickup».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A pickup is a rise or improvement, for example in sales.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (music) A pickup is the part on an electric guitar that turns string sounds into electric signals.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (verb phrase, two words) To pick up is to lift something, to collect someone, or to learn something easily.↗ Example: Grandpa drives a red pickup truck.↗ · Pickup time is half past three.↗ · Can you pick me up after football?↗ · Please pick up your coat from the floor.↗ · The pickup on the guitar was broken.↗ · She picked up French quickly on holiday.↗ · We loaded the hay into the back of the pickup.↗ · Safety: wait inside the school until pickup.↗

picky — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) A picky person is hard to please and only likes certain things, especially food.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) Picky can mean fussing about small details.↗ Example: My little brother is a picky eater.↗ · Don't be so picky — just eat your peas.↗ · The cat is picky about its food.↗ · She's picky about which socks she wears.↗ · Picky eaters often try new foods slowly.↗ · My teacher is picky about neat handwriting.↗ · He was too picky to choose a book.↗ · Are you a picky eater?↗