powder-gun 
powder-gun (pou'der-gun), . An instrument 
for diffusing insect-powder. 
powder-horn (pou'der-hdrn), . A powder- 
flask made of horn, usually the horn of an ox 
or cow. the larger end fitted with a wooden or 
metal bottom, and the small end with a mov- 
able stopper or some special device for mea- 
suring out a charge of powder. Whenever gun- 
powder has been used for loading apart from cartridges 
and the like, powder-horns have been common. See cut 
on preceding page. 
The father bought a powder-horn, and an almanac, and 
a comb-case ; the mother a great fruztower, and a fat 
amber necklace. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Iv. 8. 
powder-hose (pou'der-hoz), n. A tube of strong 
linen filled with a combustible compound, used 
for firing mines; a fuse. 
powderiness (pou'der-i-nes), n. . The state or 
property of being powdery, or of being divided 
into minute particles ; resemblance to powder ; 
pulverulence. 
powdering (pou'der-ing), w. [Verbal n. of 
potcder, r.] 1. pi. Small pieces of fur pow- 
dered or sprinkled on other furs, in resemblance 
to the spots on ermine ; also, bands of ermine. 
Powderingi have been worn on the capes of the robes of 
English peers as part of the insignia of rank ; and the de- 
sign has been often reproduced in heraldic bearings. 
A dukes daughter Is borne a Marchionesse, and shall 
weare as many Poudringet as a Marchionesae. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. 8., extra ser.), L 14. 
2. Decoration by means of numerous small 
figures, usually the same figure often repeated. 
See powdered, 2. 
powdering-gown (pou'der-ing-goun), n. A 
loose gown formerly worn by men and women 
to protect their clothes when having the hair 
powdered ; a dressing-gown. 
I will sit in my library, in my night-cap and powdering- 
gown, and give as much trouble as I can. 
Jane Autten, Pride and Prejudice, xv. 
ppwdering-mill (pou'der-ing-mil), ii. A grind- 
ing- or pulverizing-mill, as for ore, snuff, etc. 
powdering-tub (pou'der-ing-tub), w. 1. A tub 
or vessel in which meat is corned or salted. 
2. A heated tub in which an infected lecher 
was cured by sweating. 
From the powdering-tub of infamy 
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, 
Doll Tearsheet Shot., Hen. V., 1L 1. 7ft 
powder-magazine (pou'der-mag-a-zen'), n. 1. 
A place where powder is stored, as a bomb- 
proof building in fortified places, etc. 2. A 
specially constructed place on board a man- 
of-war for the storage and issue of explosives. 
See magazine, 1. 
powder-man (pou'der-man), n. 1. On a man- 
of-war, a member of a gun's crew detailed to 
fetch powder for the gun. 2. A man in charge 
of explosives in an operation of any nature re- 
quiring their use. 
In driving the heading, each of the three shifts Is made 
up of a lioss, 4 drill men, 4 helpers on drills, 1 powderinan, 
1 car man, and 2 laborers. Sei. Amer., N. S., I.I \ . 86. 
powder-mill (pou'der-mil), . A mill in which 
gunpowder is made. 
powder-mine (pou'der-min), n. An excavation 
filled with gunpowder for the purpose of blast- 
ing rocks, or for blowing up an enemy's works 
in war. 
powder-monkey (pou'der-mung'ki), . A boy 
employed on snips to carry powder from the 
magazine to the guns. [Obsolete or colloquial.] 
One poet feigns that the town Is a sea, the playhouse a 
ship, the manager the captain, the players sailors, and the 
orange-girls powdrr-monneji. 
Sir J. llaickint, Johnson (ed. 1787), p. 196. 
powder-paper (pon'der-pa'per), n. A substi- 
tute for gunpowder, consist ing of paper impreg- 
nated with a mixture of potassium chlorate, ni- 
trate, prussiate, and chromate, powdered wood- 
charcoal, and a little starch. It is stronger than 
gnnpowilcr, produces less smoke and less recoil, and Is not 
so much affected by humidity. 
powder-plott (pou'der-plot), w. See gunpowder 
/'//. under i/iiiipoicder. 
powder-post (pou'der-post), n. Wood decayed 
to powder, or eaten by a worm which leaves its 
holes full of powder. [Local, U. S.] 
The grubs of the law hare gnawed Into us, and we are 
all poirdrr-pntt. S. Judd, Margaret, II. 7. 
powder-prover (pou'der-pi-8'ver), n. A device 
or apparatus for testing the efficiency of gun- 
powder; a ballistic pendulum; an eprouvette. 
powder-puff (pou'dor-pnf), n. 1. A soft fea- 
thery 'mil, as of swansdown. by which powder 
is applied to the skin. 2. Same tapluff, 2. 
4662 
powder-room (pou'der-rflm), n. The room in 
a ship in which gunpowder is kept. See niiii/n- 
r, 1. 
powder-scuttle (pou'der-skut'l), . A small 
opening in a ship's deck for passing powder 
from the magazine for the service of the 
guns. 
powder-shoot (pou'der-shOt), . A canvas tube 
for conveying empty powder-boxes from the 
gun-deck of a ship to a lower deck. 
powder-traitort (pou'der-tra'tor), i. A con- 
spirator in a gunpowder plot. 
When he has brought his design to perfection, and dis- 
posed of all hU materials, he lays his train, like a powder- 
traitor, and gets out of the way, while he blows up all those 
that trusted him. Butter, Remains, II. 45S. 
powder-treasont (pou'der-tre'zn), . Conspir- 
acy involving the use of gunpowder; a gun- 
powder plot. 
Powdertreaton surpasses all the barbarities of the Hea- 
thens. Bacon, Works (ed. 1766), III., Index. 
How near were we going in '88, and in the poicder-trea- 
ton t Rev. S. Ward, Sermons and Treatises, p. 90. 
powdery (pou'der-i), a. [< powder + -yi.] 1. 
In the form of powder ; resembling powder in 
the fineness of its particles ; pulverulent. 
Her feet disperse the powdery snow 
That rises up like smoke. 
Wordfworth, Lucy Grey, II. 85. 
The niched snow-bed sprays down 
It* powdery IM. M. Arnold, Switzerland, 1L 
The bee, 
All dusty as a miller, takes his toll 
Of powdery gold, and grumbles. 
Lowell, Under the Willows. 
2. Sprinkled or covered with powder; specifi- 
cally, in hot. and zool., covered with a fine bloom 
or meal resembling powder; powdered; fari- 
nose. 
News is often dispersed as thoughtlessly and effectively 
as that pollen which the bees carry off (having no idea how 
powdery they are). George Eliot, Mlddlemarch, II. 191. 
Delicate golden auriculas with powdery leaves and stems. 
.'- .(. Symondi, Italy and Greece, p. 291. 
3. Friable; easily reduced to powder. 
A brown powdry spar which holds iron is found amongst 
the iron ore. Woodward, On Fossils. 
Powdery grape-mildew. See grapr-mUdew. 
powdike (pou'dik), n. A dike made in a marsh 
or fen for carrying off its waters. Halliicell. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
By statute of 22 Hen. VIII. c. 11, perversely and mali- 
ciously to cut down or destroy the powdike in the fens of 
Norfolk and Ely is felony. Blactttone, Com., IV. xvil. 
powet, and v. An obsolete form of paic*. 
power 1 (pou'er), H. [< ME. pocr, potter, power, 
< OF. poer, poeir, poueir, pooir, povoir, F. pou- 
roir = Pr. Sp. Pg. poder = It. potere, power, 
prop, inf., be able, < ML. 'potere, for L. posse, 
be able: see potent.'] 1. In general, such an 
absence of external restriction and limitation 
that it depends only upon the inward deter- 
mination of the subject whether or not it will 
act. 
Knowledge Itself is a power whereby he [God] knoweth. 
Bacon, Of Heresies. 
2. An endowment of a voluntary being where- 
by it becomes possible for that being to do or 
effect something. The power Is said to belong to the 
being exercising It, and to be a power to act or of acting 
in a specified way. The person or thing affected by the 
action Is said to be under the power of the subject, which 
Is said to have power over or upon that object. 
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same 
lamp to make one vessel unto honour and another unto 
dishonour? Bom. Ix. 21. 
And brought thee out of the land of Egypt with his 
mighty power. I K-ut . IT. SS. 
The devil hath power 
To assume a pleasing shape. 
Shalt., Hamlet, II. 2. 
I know my soul hath power to know all things, 
Yet is she blind and ignorant in all. 
SirJ. Daniel, Immortal, of Soul, Int. 
Not heaven upon the past has power. 
Dryden, Imit. of Horace, III. xxlx. 
3. A property of an inanimate thing or agency, 
especially a property of modifying other things. 
Not that nepenthe which the wife of Thone 
In Egypt gave to Joveborn Helena 
Is of such power to stir up joy as this. 
Millrni, Comus, 1. 676. 
The spot he loved has lost the power to please. 
Cowper, Retirement. 
Or alum styptics with contracting power. 
Pope, R. of the L., ii. I.H. 
4. r-e.| absolutely, with specification of the 
effect : (a) The property whereby anything ful- 
fils its proper functions well or strongly: as, a 
power 
medicine of great power, (b) A gift or talent 
for influencing others. 
Her beauty, grace, and power 
Wrought as a charm upon them. 
Tennyton, Guinevere. 
5. The ability or right to command or control; 
dominion; authority; the right of governing. 
All footer Is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Mat. xxvllL 18. 
There are some things which are Issues of an absolute 
power, some are expresses of supreme dominion some are 
actions of a judge. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 24. 
All empire is no more than power in trust. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achlt., I. 411. 
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power. 
Tennyfon, Death of Wellington. 
Paver means nothing more than the extent to which a 
man can make his individual will prevail against the wills 
of other men, so as to control them. 
J. Bryce, American Commonwealth, 1. 21S. 
6f. The domain within which authority or gov- 
ernment is exercised ; jurisdiction. 
No brewestere out of fraunchyse, ne may brewe w*-ynne 
the power of the Citee. Englith Gild* (E. E. T. 8.), p. 366. 
7. In laic: (a) Legal capacity: as, the power 
to contract; thepotrer of testation, or making 
a will. (6) Legal authority conferred, and en- 
abling one to do what otherwise he could not 
do ; the dominion which one person may exer- 
cise over the property of another: as, the potr- 
er of an agent, which is his delegated authority 
to act in the name or on behalf of his principal. 
In Roman law, power (potestas), In its largest sense, was 
held to comprise the control of the head of the household 
over slaves, children, descendants, and wife. In Its more 
limited sense, It was used for the control over children and 
descendants, the power over the wife being distinguished 
by the name mania. 
He had assumed no power* to which he was not entitled 
by his services and peculiar situation. 
Pretcott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 19. 
Henry was a prince who had only to learn the extent of 
hlspo!T In order to attempt to exercise them. 
Stubot, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 2SS. 
(c) In the law of conveyancing, an authority to 
do some act in relation to the title to lands or 
the creation of estates therein or to charges 
thereon, either conferred by the owner on an- 
other or reserved to himself when granting the 
lands or some interest therein ; usually a pow- 
er of appointment, which is the conferring on a 
person of the power of disposing of an interest 
in lands, quite irrespective of the fact whether 
or not he has any interest in the land itself. 
^'.'/''.'/. If the donee of the power has no Interest In the 
land, the power Is said to be collateral, as distinguished 
from a power appendant or appurtenant, as it Is called 
when the interest he may dispose of must be carved out 
of or reduce his own interest ; and from a power in grott, 
as It Is called when the interest he may appoint will not 
take effect until his own Interest has terminated : as, a 
pmcrr to a tenant for life to appoint the estate after his 
death among his children. A general power la one that may 
be exercised in favor of any one whatever, even the donee 
himself ; a ftpeciol or particular power can be exercised 
only In favor of a person or some of a class of persons 
specified In the document creating the power, or for speci- 
fied purposes : as, a power to sell, to exchange, to lease, 
and the like. 
8. A written statement of legal authority; a 
document guaranteeing legal authority. 
When I said I was empowered, etc., he de*ired to see 
mypowen. Sw\ft, Letter, Oct. 10, 1710. 
9f. Pecuniary ability; wealth. 
Eche brother other snster th' ben of the fraternlte, jlf 
he be of power, he schal aeue somewhat in maintenance 
of the bretherhede, what nym lyketh. 
Englah Wldt (E. K. T. S.\ p. 4. 
10. A large quantity; a great number. [Col- 
loq.] 
I am providing & power of pretty things for her against 
I see her next Kichardnon, Pamela, II. 889. (Darin.) 
They ate a pinecr, and they drank bottle after bottle. 
Uarper-i Mag., I.XXIX. 49. 
11. (a) [Tr. of ML. potestas.} An active fac- 
ulty of the mind whose exercise is dependent 
on the will. 
When power Is applied to the soul, It Is used In a larger 
Hignlncation than faculty ; for by It we designate the ca- 
pacities that are acquired, as well as those that are origi- 
nal. Porter, Human Intellect, | i. 
(ft) [Tr. of L. potential A capacity for actim; 
or suffering in any determinate way. 
There are nations In the East so enslaved by custom that 
they seem to have lost all prmvrof change except the capa- 
liillty ,,f hrlng destroyed. H'. A'. Cliford, Lecture*, I. 106. 
12. In Arixtottlitni niflii/ili., the state of being 
of that which does not yet exist, but is in germ, 
ready to exist, the general conditions of its i>x- 
istei l>eing fulfilled: the general principle of 
existence. 
We say in pnrer, as in the wood a statue, and In the 
whole! a part, because It may ue brought out; and a theo- 
