📖 P — The English dictionary · page 41

pointer — Everyday, meaning 1: A stick, arrow or needle used to point at something, such as on a dial, scale or clock.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) A useful tip or piece of advice.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: The arrow on a computer screen that you move with the mouse.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A type of hunting dog.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (computers) A value that tells where something is stored.↗ Example: Read the scale where the pointer stops.↗ · The pointer on the scales showed 3 kilograms.↗ · Move the pointer to the icon and click.↗ · Can you give me a few pointers on my drawing?↗ · The teacher used a pointer to show the map.↗ · Never shine a laser pointer in anyone's eyes.↗ · A pointer dog stands still and points at birds.↗

pointless — Everyday, meaning 1: Pointless means having no purpose or use.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In a game or test, pointless can mean scoring no points.↗ Example: It's pointless arguing with my brother; he never listens.↗ · Shouting at the rain is pointless.↗ · The meeting felt long and pointless.↗ · Our team was pointless after the first round.↗ · It's pointless to water the garden when it's raining.↗ · Without a plan, the trip seemed pointless.↗

poison — Everyday, meaning 1: A substance that can make you very ill or kill you if you swallow, breathe in or touch it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Verb: to harm or kill someone with poison, or to put poison in something.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something that spoils or harms: «Gossip is poison to a friendship».↗ Example: Bleach is a poison if you drink it.↗ · Keep poisons locked away from little children.↗ · Some berries are poison — don't eat them.↗ · The witch poisoned the apple.↗ · Food poisoning comes from bad or undercooked food.↗ · Poison ivy gives you an itchy rash.↗ · Call the poison help line if someone swallows medicine by mistake.↗ · The skull and crossbones symbol means poison.↗ · "We'll poison her--poison her!" shrieked the witches.↗ · Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the cruel poison of asps.↗ (Torah DEU.32.33, JPS 1917)↗ · He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall slay him.↗ (Writings JOB.20.16, JPS 1917)↗ · Who have whet their tongue like a sword, and have aimed their arrow, a poisoned word; (Writings PSA.64.4, JPS 1917)↗ · Yea, they put poison into my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.↗ (Writings PSA.69.22, JPS 1917)↗

poisonous — Everyday, meaning 1: Containing poison; able to make you very ill or kill you if eaten, drunk, breathed in or touched.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Of a person or remarks: very unkind and harmful (figurative).↗ Example: Some mushrooms are poisonous.↗ · Don't eat berries from the bushes — they might be poisonous.↗ · Bleach is poisonous, so keep it locked away.↗ · Poison dart frogs are poisonous to touch.↗ · Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas you can't smell.↗ · Foxgloves are poisonous plants.↗ · Is this spider poisonous or venomous?↗ · Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.↗ · Poisonous flies and gnats flew into the coach by thousands.↗

poke — Everyday, meaning 1: To poke is to push something with your finger or a pointed object.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To poke out is to stick out from somewhere so you can see part of it.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A poke is a quick push with a finger or stick.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To poke around is to look around in a place, sometimes where you should not.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: To poke fun at someone is to laugh at them unkindly.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: To buy a pig in a poke means to buy something without looking at it first.↗ Example: Don't poke the dog with a stick.↗ · He poked me in the arm to wake me.↗ · A rabbit poked its head out of the burrow.↗ · Never poke anything into a socket.↗ · Stop poking around in my room!↗ · It's unkind to poke fun at people.↗ · Daffodils were poking up through the soil.↗

poker — Everyday, meaning 1: A card game in which players bet money or chips on whose cards are best, often bluffing (pretending).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A metal rod used to move burning wood or coal in a fireplace.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Someone who pokes (rare).↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (poker face) A face that shows no feelings.↗ Example: Gran stirred the fire with the poker.↗ · Never play with the hot poker.↗ · The grown-ups played poker with chips.↗ · He kept a poker face while he lied about the cake.↗ · A poker is made of iron.↗ · In poker, a "flush" is five cards of the same suit.↗ · She rattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the walls.↗

poky — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) Of a room or house: small and cramped, with not enough space.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (USA, informal) Slow and dull.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (noun, USA slang, «the pokey») jail.↗ Example: They lived in a poky little flat above the shop.↗ · My bedroom is a bit poky.↗ · The car was poky and slow.↗ · Mole feared the Rat would think his house was poky.↗ · It was hard to cook in the poky kitchen.↗ · We squeezed into a poky little café.↗

polar — Everyday, meaning 1: To do with the North Pole or the South Pole, or the very cold areas around them.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Completely opposite.↗ e.g. "polar opposites".↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In science, to do with the poles of a magnet or of the Earth.↗ Example: Polar bears live in the Arctic.↗ · Penguins live in the southern polar region.↗ · The polar ice caps are melting as the Earth warms.↗ · In polar winters the sun may not rise for weeks.↗ · My brother and I are polar opposites: he is loud and I am quiet.↗ · Explorers need special clothes for polar journeys.↗ · We made a model of a polar habitat in class.↗ · Birds from the Polar regions came flying here, and of course the stork and the swallow were not absent.↗

polarisation — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) Polarisation of light is when light waves are made to vibrate in only one direction, as in polarised sunglasses that cut glare.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Polarisation of people is when a group splits into two sides with opposite views that move further apart.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (science) It can also mean something gaining two opposite poles or charges, like a magnet or battery.↗ Example: Polarised sunglasses use the polarisation of light to cut glare.↗ · The class argued, and there was real polarisation.↗ · News reports talk about polarisation in politics.↗ · Polarisation means people end up on two opposite sides.↗ · Fishermen wear polarised glasses to see into water.↗ · Polarisation in the group meant nobody would agree.↗

polder — Everyday, meaning 1: A piece of low, flat land taken back from the sea or a lake and protected by dykes (walls of earth), mainly in the Netherlands.↗ Example: Much of Holland is made of polders.↗ · Windmills pumped water out of the polders.↗ · The polder is below sea level.↗ · Farmers grow tulips on the polders.↗ · A dyke protects the polder from the sea.↗ · We cycled across a flat Dutch polder.↗

pole — Everyday, meaning 1: A pole is a long thin stick, often of wood or metal, that stands up straight or is held.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The North Pole and the South Pole are the most northern and southern points of the Earth.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A magnet has two poles, north and south.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A Pole is a person from Poland.↗ Example: Poles are put every 5 m along a 50 m road.↗ · A pole is 3 m long.↗ · Part of the pole is in the water.↗ · How many poles are needed?↗ · Santa is said to live at the North Pole.↗ · Penguins live near the South Pole, not the North Pole.↗ · The north pole of one magnet pulls the south pole of another.↗ · We put up the tent with four poles.↗ · "They're close to the North Pole," said George.↗ · And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live.'↗ (Torah NUM.21.8, JPS 1917)↗ · And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.↗ (Torah NUM.21.9, JPS 1917)↗ · And they came unto the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it upon a pole between two; they took also of the pomegranates, and of the figs. — (Torah NUM.13.23, JPS 1917)↗

polecat — Everyday, meaning 1: A polecat is a wild animal of the weasel family, with dark brown fur and a pale face mask, that gives off a strong smell when frightened.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (USA) In the USA, «polecat» is an old country word for a skunk.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (old, insult) Calling someone a polecat once meant they were nasty.↗ Example: The polecat hunted rabbits at night.↗ · Pet ferrets are related to polecats.↗ · Polecats live in Britain and Europe.↗ · The polecat has a dark mask on its face.↗ · (USA) Grandpa called the skunk a polecat.↗ · A frightened polecat gives off a nasty smell.↗ · She had a mane like a horse, horns like a deer, a face like a bear, eyes like a polecat; while her body had something of each.↗

police — Everyday, meaning 1: The police are the people whose job is to keep everyone safe, help people in danger and make sure the laws are kept.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A police officer is one person who works for the police.↗ Example: There are 12 police officers at the station.↗ · Each police car has 2 officers.↗ · 4 police cars came.↗ · How many police officers work in 3 shifts of 8?↗ · If you are lost, ask a police officer for help.↗ · The police are looking for the missing dog.↗ · A police car went past with its siren on.↗ · We visited the police station on our school trip.↗ · They hurried off to consult the police and see what could be done.↗

policeman — Everyday, meaning 1: A policeman is a man who is a member of the police, the people whose job is to keep people safe and make sure laws are obeyed.↗ Example: The policeman helped the old lady cross the road.↗ · If you get lost, look for a policeman or police officer.↗ · Two policemen came to talk to our class about safety.↗ · The policeman wrote down what the boy had seen.↗ · My uncle is a policeman in Dublin.↗ · A policeman on a horse rode through the park.↗ · "What's the matter, old man?" asked a sympathizing policeman.↗

policy — Everyday, meaning 1: A plan or set of rules that a school, company or government decides to follow: the school's policy on phones.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An insurance policy: a written agreement that an insurance company will pay if something bad happens.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A sensible way of acting: «Honesty is the best policy».↗ Example: Our school has a no-phones policy in class.↗ · Honesty is the best policy.↗ · The new policy says all pupils wear hats outside.↗ · Mum read the insurance policy carefully.↗ · The library's policy is a fine of 10p a day for late books.↗ · The government changed its policy on bus fares.↗ · It's against company policy to give refunds without a receipt.↗ · Being kind is always a good policy.↗ · "Honesty's the best policy!" quoth Ivan, as he skipped about in his new quarters.↗

polio — Everyday, meaning 1: A serious illness caused by a virus that can damage the nerves and cause paralysis, so people cannot move parts of their body.↗ Its full name is poliomyelitis.↗ Example: Polio vaccines have saved millions of children from paralysis.↗ · Grandma remembers getting the polio vaccine on a sugar lump.↗ · Polio is caused by a virus.↗ · Jonas Salk made one of the first polio vaccines.↗ · Today polio has almost disappeared from the world.↗ · Some people who had polio needed leg braces to walk.↗

poliomyelitis — Everyday, meaning 1: A serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the nerves and can cause paralysis, especially in children.↗ It can be prevented by a vaccine.↗ Example: Poliomyelitis is usually called polio.↗ · The polio vaccine has saved millions of children.↗ · Jonas Salk made the first polio vaccine.↗ · Poliomyelitis can cause paralysis in the legs.↗ · Today polio is very rare thanks to vaccination.↗ · President Roosevelt used a wheelchair after he had polio.↗

polish — Everyday, meaning 1: (verb) To rub something to make it smooth and shiny.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (noun) A cream, liquid or wax used to make things shiny: «shoe polish», «nail polish».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (verb) To improve something to make it better: «polish your story».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (noun) A smooth shine.↗ Note: «Polish» with a capital P means from Poland.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: To polish off something is to finish it quickly, such as eating all of a meal.↗ Example: He polished his shoes until they shone.↗ · Mum put on red nail polish.↗ · Polish the table with a soft cloth.↗ · Spend ten minutes polishing your story.↗ · He polished off the whole pizza.↗ · The old coin had a nice polish.↗ · Keep nail polish remover away from little children.↗ · You must have seen old Kerick polishing off a drove.↗ · His hands are as rods of gold set with beryl; his body is as polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.↗ (Writings SNG.5.14, JPS 1917)↗ · Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire; (Writings LAM.4.7, JPS 1917)↗ · And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me; and He hath made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He concealed me; (Prophets ISA.49.2, JPS 1917)↗