The Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms

really pay off the judges to select his daughter as Miss Tyneside? 11 pay out. a distribute, deal out, give out, disperse, disburse: The managing director paid out bonuses to the entire staff. b disburse, expend, spend, contribute, Colloq shell out, lay out, US and Canadian and Australian and New Zealand kick in with, Slang cough up, fork out or over or up: In the office, we are forever paying out for leaving presents.

c release, loosen, let out, slack or slacken off (on): Pay out more rope so that he can reach it. d See 5, above: We'll pay him out for everything he's done to you, never fear!

--n. 12 payment, compensation, recompense, settlement, return; remuneration, consideration, reward, money, wages, salary, fee, honorarium, remittance, stipend, income, takings, take-home (pay), gain, profit, Colloq US take: His sole pay for painting the kitchen was a big hug and a kiss. The work is tedious, but the pay isn't bad.

distribution, outlay, fee, contribution, charge, expense,

payout: You are not authorized to make payment of any amount over œ100.

pay-off n. 1 See pay, 12, above. 2 result, outcome, upshot, conclusion, wind-up, settlement, final reckoning, Colloq punch-line, crunch, grand finale, Slang US and Canadian kicker: The pay-off was that permission to march on Sunday was denied. 3 bribe, graft, rebate; ransom, blood-money, Colloq kickback, hush money, Chiefly US payola, US plugola: The pay-off was always made in cash, in used notes.

16.2 peace...

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peace n. 1 serenity, tranquillity, calm, calmness, placidity or placidness, peace of mind, quiet, peacefulness, peaceableness, stillness: For a summer holiday, we enjoy the peace of the Lakes. 2 harmony, accord, harmoniousness, concord, amity, peacefulness, peacetime; cease-fire, armistice, truce: Since

the Second World War, Europe has enjoyed more than 45 years of relative peace.

peaceable adj. 1 See peaceful, 1, below. 2 pacific, inoffensive, dovish, peace-loving, mild, non-violent, non-belligerent, unbelligerent, unwarlike, non-warring, non-combative, temperate, agreeable, compatible, congenial, genial, friendly, amiable, amicable, cordial, civil: Despite cultural differences, the two countries maintained peaceable relations.

peaceful adj. 1 peaceable, serene, placid, calm, quiet, quiescent, gentle, restful, tranquil, untroubled, undisturbed, unruffled: After our week-end guests left, the house was again peaceful. 2 See peaceable, 2, above.

peacemaker

the bells nearly drove him mad. The doleful peal rang out for yet another fisherman lost at sea. A resounding peal of thunder shook the house.

--v. 2 ring, toll, chime, clang, tintinnabulate, reverberate, resonate, resound; knell; boom, crash, roar, roll, rumble, thunder: The cowbells pealed plaintively, reminding me of my youth in the Alps. Lightning flashed, and the echoing thunder pealed through the valley.

worker, (country) bumpkin, bucolic; peon, fellah, muzhik or mouzhik or mujik; Historical esne, serf, Archaic swain, hind, churl, Derogatory yokel, hill-billy, bog-trotter, oaf, lump, lout, boor, churl, clod, clodhopper; Colloq US and Canadian hick, galoot or galloot, Derogatory hayseed, rube, Derogatory

and offensive US poor white (trash): Regimes came and went, but the life of the medieval peasant endured.

peccadillo

n. slip, error, lapse, mistake, infraction, violation, misdeed, shortcoming, misstep, blunder, faux pas, indiscretion, gaffe, botch, stumble, fault, petty sin, (minor) transgression, trespass, Colloq slip-up, goof: We have to forgive the occasional peccadillo.

peculiar adj. 1 odd, curious, strange, queer, bizarre, weird, unusual, abnormal, anomalous, aberrant, deviant or deviate, eccentric, uncommon, outlandish, exceptional, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, offbeat, unorthodox, atypical, idiosyncratic, unconventional, out-of-the-way, quaint, unique, singular, one of a kind, sui generis, distinct, distinguished, special,

particular, quirky, funny, freakish, Slang far-out, freaky, Brit rum: Don't you agree that anyone who by choice goes barefoot in winter is a bit peculiar? She enjoys a peculiar immunity to

colds. 2 Usually, peculiar to. typical of, characteristic of,

characterized by, natural to, symptomatic of, appropriate to or for, distinctive of, restricted to, specific to, indicative of, denotative of, limited to, individual to, personal to, special to, unique to; seen or observed (only) in, local to, native to, indigenous to: Such behaviour is peculiar to those who have served long prison sentences.

--n. 3 Typography arbitrary, sort: Characters with diacritical marks are called 'peculiars' in the printing trades.

peculiarity

n. 1 idiosyncrasy, oddity, eccentricity, abnormality, irregularity, quirk, kink, crotchet, caprice: Keeping alligators was only one of Jess's peculiarities. 2 feature, characteristic, property, quality, trait, attribute, earmark, hallmark, mark, particularity, singularity, Brit speciality, US specialty: One of the peculiarities of the books is their wide margins.

pedantic adj. 1 didactic, doctrinaire, donnish, pedagogic, pedantical, preachy, professorial, bookish, ostentatious, pretentious, sententious, pompous, vain, stuffy, stilted, stiff, dry: A pedantic approach to marketing may be all right in the classroom, but it doesn't sell products. 2 perfectionist, scrupulous, overscrupulous, finicky or finical, fussy, punctilious, fastidious, meticulous, exact, chop-logic, hair-splitting, quibbling, Colloq nit-picking: His secretary

left because of his pedantic criticisms of her work.

peddle v. sell, hawk, market, vend, huckster, Colloq push, flog: He is a publishing tycoon today, but he started by peddling books door-to-door.

pedestal n. 1 foundation, base, platform, stand, substructure, mounting, pier, foot, mounting, support, Technical plinth, socle, dado:

The statue crumbled away and only its pedestal remained. 2 put or place or set on a pedestal. glorify, exalt, worship, deify, revere, idolize, dignify, apotheosize, ennoble, elevate, raise:

No woman is worth putting on a pedestal.

pedestrian

n. 1 walker, stroller, ambler, rambler, footslogger; itinerant, peripatetic: A special crossing has been installed for

peerless adj. without equal, unequalled, matchless, unmatched, unrivalled, unique, incomparable, beyond compare, unparalleled, nonpareil, inimitable, unexcelled, unsurpassed, superior,

superb, excellent, supreme, superlative, finest, best, ne plus ultra, sovereign, consummate, pre-eminent, paramount: James's mother was a peerless beauty and the toast of her generation.

peevish adj. irritable, testy, touchy, fretful, ill-humoured, waspish,

--v. 4 fasten, secure, make fast, fix, attach, pin: They pegged the tent firmly to the ground. 5 fix, attach, pin, set (by), control by, limit by, restrict, confine, freeze, bind, regulate, govern: In indexing, the rate of inflation is often used for pegging wages. 6 toss, throw, shy, flip, sling, cast: I'll bet a fiver you can't peg that stone across the river. 7 peg away or US also along. work (away) (at), persevere (at), apply oneself (to), persist (in or at), go to or at (it), keep

at (it), stick to or with or at (it), stay with or at (it),

carry on (with or at), Colloq plug away (at), beaver away (at), hammer or bang or peck away (at): Trevor pegs away at his homework every evening.

pell-mell adv. 1 helter-skelter, slapdash, rashly, feverishly, incautiously, confusedly, chaotically, wildly, impulsively, recklessly, slap-bang, impetuously, hastily, hurriedly, precipitately, spontaneously: The ice-cream vendor pedalled down the street with the children running pell-mell after him.

--adj. 2 helter-skelter, slapdash, rash, feverish, incautious, confused, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, wild, mad, chaotic, tumultuous, panicky, impulsive, reckless, precipitate, impetuous, hasty, hurried: Quick action by the soldiers was responsible for the pell-mell rout of the attackers.

--n. 3 confusion, disorder, chaos, tumult, pandemonium, turmoil, mˆl‚e or melee, furore or US furor, commotion, bedlam, brouhaha, hubbub, excitement: In the pell-mell that followed, several bystanders were injured.

pelt° v. 1 bombard, shower, bomb, pepper, strafe, batter, shell, assail, assault, attack, US pummel or pommel, belabour, pound, Old-fashioned lay about, Slang US clobber, wallop, paste, work over: The hooligans pelted the crowd with sticks and stones. 2 Often, pelt down. beat, dash, pound, hit; come down, teem, pour, Colloq rain cats and dogs, bucket down, US rain pitchforks: The rain came pelting down just as we were ready to go out. 3 pelt along or over. hurry, rush, run, dash, shoot, scoot, scurry:

The constables pelted along after the escaping thief.

--n. 4 stroke, blow, whack, hit, smack, slap, thwack, bang, thump, Colloq wallop, belt: Chris received a pelt on the head

penal adj. correctional, punitive, disciplinary: Crime and its punishment are covered in the penal code. He was sent to a penal colony for life.

penalize v. punish, discipline, mulct, amerce, fine, handicap, impose or invoke a penalty against, impose a penalty on, Formal amerce; sentence: This judge penalizes speeders mercilessly.

self-punishment, self-mortification, regret, repentance, contrition, suffering, penitence: A year of public service was fair penance for the offence. 2 do penance. pay, suffer, make amends or reparation(s), atone, wear sackcloth and ashes or a

hair-shirt: She has done penance enough for her crime.

penchant n. inclination, bent, proclivity, leaning, bias, predisposition, predilection, partiality, proneness, propensity, tendency, affinity, liking, preference, fondness, taste: Agnes has a penchant for tennis and for men who play tennis.

pendant n. ornament, tassel, lavaliere or lavaliŠre, medallion, locket, necklace, riviŠre, ear-drop, tear-drop, drop, Old-fashioned carcanet: I recognized the pendant she wore at her neck as my mother's.

pending prep. 1 awaiting, waiting (for), depending on, till, until, 'til, till such time as; while, during: Pending the outcome of the trial, he was remanded in custody.

--adj. 2 unsettled, undetermined, undecided, unconfirmed, unfinished, inconclusive, up in the air, hanging fire, in the balance, in abeyance; forthcoming, imminent, impending, in the offing, Colloq US in a holding pattern, on hold: The pending negotiations on the rent will determine whether we stay or move house. While the matter is pending, we can do nothing.

pendulous adj. 1 pendent, hanging, drooping, sagging, dangling, suspended, pensile: The weaver-bird's pendulous nest is a marvel of engineering. 2 swinging, swaying, waving, undulating, undulatory, oscillating, oscillatory: I was hypnotized by the pendulous motion of the bell.

penetrate v. 1 enter, go or pass through or into, pierce, bore (into), lance, spear, go through or into, probe, stab, puncture, perforate, drill: The shell penetrated the tank's heavy armour. 2 permeate, diffuse, suffuse, pervade, filter or seep through,

percolate through: The soothing balm penetrated my aching body and I relaxed into a deep sleep. 3 reach, get to, get at, touch, affect, hit, strike: Her cruel words penetrated the darkest recesses of my soul. 4 sink in, be absorbed, be understood, register, come or get through, become clear, come across, be realized, Colloq soak in, seep in: It took a while for it to penetrate that she did not wish to see him again. 5 understand, sense, become aware or conscious of, see (through), gain insight (in)to, discern, uncover, discover, find (out), comprehend,

grasp, work out, unravel, fathom, perceive, Colloq get, figure