P A W 
430 PAW 
—If lions had been brought up to painting, where you 
have one lion under the feet of a man, you fhould have 
had twenty men under the paw of a lion. L’EJlrange. 
Each claims pofieflion, 
For both their paws are faftened on the prey. Dryclen. 
Hand. In contempt: 
Be civil to the w'retch imploring, 
And lay your paws upon him without roaring. Dryclen. 
To PAW, v.n. To draw the fore-footalongthe ground. 
—Fie [ihe horfe] paweth in the valley. Job. xxxix. 21. 
The fiery courier, when he hears from far, 
The fprightly trumpets and the fhouts of war, 
Pricks up his ears, and, trembling with delight 
Shifts place, and paws, and hopes the promifed fight. 
Dryclen. 
To PAW, v. a. To ftrike with a drawn ftrokeof the 
fore-foot: 
His hot courier paw'd th’ Hungarian plain, 
And adverfe legions flood the fhock in vain. Tickell. 
To handle roughly. To fawn ; to flatter. Ainfworth. 
PAW'AH, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar: forty 
miles louth-weft of Bahar. 
PAWA'RAH, a town of Hindooflan: forty-three 
miles fouth-weft of Benares. 
PAW'ED, adj. Having paws. Broad orlarge footed. 
Sherwood. 
PAW'EN, afmall ifland in the bay of Gunong Tellu, 
on the eaft coaft of the ifland of Celebes. Lat. o. 18. S, 
Ion. 122. 2. E. 
PAW'ING,/. Handling clumfily ; fometimes fondly. 
PAW'ING, or Pogum, atown of Eaft Friefland, near 
the Ems : thirty-two miles fouth of Emden. 
PAW'KY, adj. [from the Sax. pascan, to deceive, ac¬ 
cording to Dr. Jamiefon.l Arch ; cunning; artful. North. 
Grofe, 
PAW'LET, a townfhipof America,in Rutland-county, 
Vermont, containing 1938 inhabitants. It is watered by 
Pawlet-river, which joins Wood-creek, and the confluent 
ftream falls into South Bay at Fiddler’s Elbow. 
PAW'LOCZ, a town of Ruffian Poland, in the pala¬ 
tinate of Kiev : fixty miles fouth-weft of Kiev, fixty-two 
north-north-eaft of Braclaw. 
PAWN, f. [panel, Teut. pignus, Lat.] Something 
given to pledge as a fecurity for money borrowed or pro- 
mife made.—Her oath for love, her honour’s/iaww. Shakef- 
peare. —As for mortgaging and pawning, men will not 
take pawns without ufe ; or they will look for the for¬ 
feiture. Bacon. —He retains much of his primitive efteem, 
that abroad his very word will countervail the bond or 
pawn of another. Howell. —Here’s the very heart and 
foul, and life-blood, of Gomez ; pawns in abundance, till 
the next bribe helps their hufbands to redeem them. 
Dryden's Span. Friar. —The ftate of being pledged.—As 
the morning dew is a. pawn of the evening fatnefs, fo, O 
Lord, let this day’s comfort be the earned: of to-morrow’s. 
Donne. 
Sweet wife, my honour is at pawn, 
And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. ShaheJ'peare. 
Redeem from broking paxvn the blemifli’d crown, 
Wipe off the duff that hides our feeptre’s gilt. Shahefp. 
The party that pawns goods hath a general property in 
them ; they cannot be forfeited by the party that hath 
them in pawn, for any offence of his, nor be taken in 
execution for his debt; neither may they otherwife be 
put in execution till the debt for which they are pawned 
is fatisfied. 
If the paw’ii is laid up, and the pawnee robbed, he is 
not anlwerable ; though if the pawmee ufe the thing, as 
a jewel, watch, &c. that will not be the worfe for wear¬ 
ing, which he may do, it is at his peril; and, if he is 
robbed, he is anlwerable to the owner, as the uling occa- 
fioned the lofs, &c. If the pawn is of fuch a nature that 
the keeping is a charge to the pawnee, as a cow, a horfe, 
&c. he may milk the one, and ride the other, and this 
fhall go in recpmpence for his keeping. 
Things which will grow the worfe by ufing, as apparel. 
Sec. he may not ufe. 
PAWN, f. A common man at chefs; [peon, piem, 
French ; fuppofed to be from peon, w'hich in India fig- 
nifies a common foldier. Tocld .—Rather an abbreviation 
of efpion, Fr. a fpy; the pawn being lent forward to af- 
certain thepofition of the adverfary. Thus pioneer means, 
as nearly as poffible, efpion, efpiouneur, being fent before 
to fpy out what obftacles may retard the progrefs of the 
main body, and to remove them.] 
Here I a pawn admire, 
That ftill advancing higher, 
At top of all became 
Another thing and name. Cowley. 
To PAWN, v.a. To pledgte ; to give in pledge. It is 
now feldorn ufed but of pledges given for money.—One 
part of the nation is pawned to the other, with hardly a 
poflibility of being ever redeemed. Swift. 
She w'ho before had mortgag’d her eftate, 
And pawn'd the laft remaining piece of plate. Dryclen. 
PAW'N-BROKER, f. One who lends money upon 
pledge.—The ufurers or money-changers were a fort of a 
fcandalous employment at Rome ; thole money-feriveners 
feem to have been little better than our pawn-brokers. 
Arbuthnot. 
Pawn-brokers are a kind of bankers, who advance 
money at a peculiar rate of intereft, on goods impledged 
for fecurity of the capital ; and, in cafe of failure to re¬ 
deem the goods within a limited time, they may be fold 
to indemnify the lender. 
A part of the population of every flourifhing country 
confifts of neceflitous people, thofe frequently belonging 
to a clafs whole lkill contributes to its prolperity; but 
whofe income, often flender and precarious, cannot keep 
pace with the times, or lupport the demands of an in- 
creafing family. Expofed alfo to fudden difappointments 
and Ioffes, they are forced, from the want of pecuniary 
capital, to feek a temporary relief, by pledging their pro¬ 
perty for a certain fum, while they pay intereft on the ad¬ 
vance. But this advance, in general, bears a very incon- 
fiderable proportion to the value of the property, whence 
its confifcation, by the increafing difficulties of the owner, 
or of not being claimed on account of death or removal, 
proves molt advantageous to the holder; for, in the one 
cafe, he may become the abfolute proprietor himfelf, and, 
in the other, he fecures a high rate of intereft originally 
ftipuiated. In this point of view, a pawn-broker has an 
infinite fuperiority over an ordinary banker, or money¬ 
lender: the latter calculates only on the credit of his 
debtor, which is frequently nominal; the former never 
makes an advance without being put in pofieflion of what 
exceeds it in value ; his rate of intereft is much greater, 
and the credit of his debtor is of no importance. Nay, it 
is rather better that his circumftances fliould be defperate. 
It thence refults, that, like other trades, the number of 
pawn-brokers will increafe with the neceflities of the 
people requiring their aid, and, on that account, giving 
them employment; juft as bankers, whofe iffues increafe 
when the calls of the public require a more ample fupply 
of a circulating medium. Thus a ftrong inducement is 
continually held out to commence the profeflion of a 
pawn-broker; for the fecurities increafe in a much 
greater ratio than the debts, while the latter are void of 
any rifle. We find, in the city of London, that the number 
of pawn-brokers lately amounted to no lefs than about 
240 ; and it was calculated, that the property of necefli¬ 
tous perfons in their pofieflion, probably amounted to a 
million fterling. Their numbers alfo had fuddenly aug¬ 
mented, and they are ftill increafing. In Edinburgh, 
on the contrary, which is not above a tenth part of the 
