A man speaks frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!"
"Is this her first child?" the doctor queries.
"No, you idiot!" the man shouts. "This is her husband!"
n. (pl. -dia) membranous sac enclosing the heart. [greek kardia heart]
PERIPATETIC
—adj. - (of a teacher) working in more than one school or college etc.
- going from place to place; itinerant. —n. Peripatetic person, esp. A teacher. [greek pateo walk]
PERIPHRASIS
n. (pl. -phrases) 1 roundabout way of speaking; circumlocution.
- roundabout phrase. periphrastic adj. [greek: related to *phrase]
PERISTALSIS
n. Involuntary muscular wavelike movement by which the contents of the digestive tract are propelled along it. [greek peristello wrap around]
PERITONITIS
n. Inflammatory disease of the peritoneum.
PERMISSIBLE
adj. Allowable. permissibility n. [french or medieval latin: related to *permit]
PERMUTATION
n. - one of the possible ordered arrangements or groupings of a set of things.
- combination or selection of a specified number of things from a larger group, esp. Matches in a football pool. [latin permuto change thoroughly]
PERSONALITY
n. (pl. -ies) 1 a person's distinctive character or qualities (has a strong personality). B socially attractive qualities (was clever but had no personality).
- famous person (tv personality).
- (in pl.) Personal remarks.
PERSONALIZE
v. (also -ise) (-zing or -sing) 1 make personal, esp. By marking with one's name etc.
- personify.
PERSPECTIVE
—n. - a art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of relative positions, size, etc. B picture so drawn.
- apparent relation between visible objects as to position, distance, etc.
- mental view of the relative importance of things.
- view, esp. Stretching into the distance. —adj. Of or in perspective. in (or out of) perspective 1 drawn or viewed according (or not according) to the rules of perspective.
- correctly (or incorrectly) regarded in terms of relative importance. [latin perspicio -spect- look at]
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