810 P O I 
No poignant fauce fhe knew, nor coftly treat: 
Her hunger gave a reliffi to her meat. Dryden. 
Severe; piercing; painful.—If God makes ufe of fome 
poignant difgrace to let out the poifonous vapour, is not 
the mercy greater than the feverity of the cure ? South's 
Serm. 
Full three long hours his body did fuftain 
Moll exquifite and poignant pain. Norris. 
Irritating; fatirical ; keen. 
POI'GNANTLY, adv. In a piercing, ftimulating, or 
irritating, manner. 
POILE (La), a bay on the fouth of Newfoundland ; 
thirty-two miles eaft of Cape Ray. 
POIL'LY, a town of France, department of the Loiret. 
Population 1200. Forty miles fouth by eaft of Orleans. 
POI'MEL, (Pointe de), a cape on the weft coaft of 
France. Lat. 48. 43. N. Ion. 3.44. W. 
POINA'DO,/. An old word for a poniard : 
Aye, there is one that backes a paper fteed. 
And manageth a pen-knife gallantly ; 
Strikes his poinado at a button’s breadth. 
Return from Parnaffus. 
POINCIA'NA, f. in botany, was fo named by Tourne- 
fort, in compliment to M. de Poinci, governor of the 
Antilles in the middle of the 17th century, who is faid 
to have paid confiderable attention to the natural hiftory 
of tliofe iflands. The genus in queftion was adopted by 
Linnaeus, and the generality of botanifts ; till Dr- Solan- 
der firft judged it to be not clearly diftindt from C/esal- 
pinia, in which it is now funk; fee that article, fpecies 
1, a, 7, 8. 
POIN'DING,/. The Scotch term for taking goods, &c. 
in execution, or by way of diftrefs. It is defined to be 
“ the diligence (procefs) which the law hath devifed for 
transferring the property of the debtor to the creditor in 
payment of his debt.” It is either real or perfonal : 
real poinding is a power of carrying off the effects on the 
ground in payment of fuch debts as are dehita fundi, or 
heritable ; perfonal poinding is the poinding of moveables 
for debt or for rent, &c. There is alfo a fpecies of poin¬ 
ding by attaching cattle trefpafling. Seeftat. 33 Geo. III. 
c. 74. § 5. 
POINT, /! [Fr. from punclum, Lat.] The fharp end 
of any inftrument, or body.— A pyramid reverfed may 
ftand for a while upon its point, if balanced by admirable 
Ikill. Temple. 
Doubts if he wielded not a wooden fpear 
Without a point ; he look’d, the point was there. Dryden. 
Headland; promontory.—I don’t fee why Virgil has given 
the epithet of Alta to Prochita, which is much lower than 
Ifchia, and all the points of land that lie within its neigh¬ 
bourhood. Addifon. —A fting of an epigram ; a fentence 
terminated with fome remarkable turn of words or 
thought.—He taxes Lucan, who crouded fentences toge¬ 
ther, and was too full of points. Dryden on Heroick Plays. 
Times corrupt, and nature ill inclin’d. 
Produc’d the point that left a fting behind. Pope . 
An indivifible part of fpace. We fometimes fpeak of fpace, 
or do fuppofe a point in it at fuch a diftance from any 
part of the univerfe. Locke. —An indivifible part of time; 
a moment: 
Then neither from eternity before, 
Nor from the time, when time’s firft point begun, 
Made he all fouls. Davies. 
A fmall fpace: 
On one fmall point of land, 
Weary’d, uncertain, and amaz’d, we ftand. Prior. 
Pundfilio; nicety.—We doubt not but fuch as are not 
much converfant with the variety of authors, may have 
fome leading helps to their ftudies of points of precedence 
by this flight defignation. Selden. 
Shalt thou difpute 
With God the points of liberty, who made 
Thee what thou art ? Milton's P. L, 
Part required of time or fpace; critical moment; exaiS 
place.—Kfau faid, behold I am at the point to die ; and 
what profit (hall this birthright do ? Gwi. xxv. 32.—De¬ 
mocritus, fpent with age, and juft at the point of death, 
calied for loaves of new bread, and, with the fteam under 
his nofe, prolonged his life till a feaft was paft. Temple .— 
They follow nature in their defires, carrying them no 
farther than fhe diredts, and leaving off at the point at 
which excefs would grow troublefome. Atterhury. 
How oft, when men are at the point of death, 
Plave they been merry ? which their keepers call 
A lightning before death. Shake]peare's Rom. and Jul. 
Degree; ftate.—The higheft point outward things can 
bring one unto, is the contentment of the mind, with 
which noeftate is miferable. Sidney. —In acommonwealth, 
the wealth of the country is fo diftributed, that inoft of 
the community are at their eafe, though few are placed in 
extraordinary points iof fplendour. Addifon. —Note of 
diftindlion in writing; a ftop : 
Commas and points they fet exadtly right, 
And ’twere a fin to rob them of their mite. Pope . 
A fpot; a part of a furface divided by fpots ; as the ace 
or fife point. One of the degrees into which the cir¬ 
cumference of the horizon and the mariner’s compafs is 
divided.—There arofe ftrong winds from the fouth, with 
a points aft, which carried us up. Bacon's New Atlantis. — 
A feaman, coming before the judges of the admiralty for 
admittance into an office of a ftiip, was by one of the 
judges much flighted ; the judge telling him that he be¬ 
lieved he could not fay the points of his compafs. Bacon. 
Carve out dials point by point, 
Thereby to fee the minutes how they run. Skakefpeare. 
Particular place to which any thing is diredted.—Eaft and 
Weft are but refpedtive and mutable points, according .un¬ 
to different longitudes or diftant parts of habitation. 
Brown's Vidg. Err. —Let the part, which produces ano¬ 
ther part, be more ftrong than that which it produces; 
and let the whole be feen by one point of fight. Dry den’s 
DufreJnoy. —The poet intended to fet the charadter of 
Arete in a fair point of light. Broome. —Particular; par¬ 
ticular mode.—A war upon the Turk is more worthy 
than upon any other Gentiles, in point of religion and in 
point of honour. Bacon. 
A figure like your father 
Arm’d at all points exadtly cap-a-pe, 
Appears before them. Shakefpeare's Hamlet. 
Who fetteth out prepared 
At all points like a prince attended with a guard, Drayton. 
He had a moment’s right, in point of time ; 
Had I feen firft, then his had been the crime. Dryden . 
An aim; the adt of aiming or ftriking: 
What a point your falcon made, 
And what a pitch fhe flew above the reft. Skakefpeare. 
The particular thing required ; the aim the thing points 
at.—There is no creature fo contemptible, but, by refo- 
lution, may gain his point. L’Eftrange. 
You gain your point, if your induftrious art 
Can make unulual words eafy. Rofcommon. 
Particular; inftance; example.—His majefty fhould make 
a peace, or turn the war diredtly upon fuch points as may 
engage the nation in the fupport of it. Temple. 
Fie, warn’d in dreams, his murder did foretel, 
From point to point, as after it befel. Dryden. 
A Angle pofition; a Angle aflertion ; a fingle part of a 
complicated queftion; a fingle part of any whole.—Sra- 
niflaus endeavours to eftablifh the duodecuple propor¬ 
tion, 
