overplus, and yet not mere sufficiency, but harmony,
proportion, fitness to a design, or ideal. _Ample_ and _abundant_ may be
applied to any subject. We have time _enough_, means that we can reach
our destination without haste, but also without delay; if we have
_ample_ time, we may move leisurely, and note what is by the way; if we
have _abundant_ time, we may pause to converse with a friend, to view
the scenery, or to rest when weary. _Lavish_ and _profuse_ imply a
decided excess, oftenest in the ill sense. We rejoice in _abundant_
resources, and honor _generous_ hospitality; _lavish_ or _profuse_
expenditure suggests extravagance and wastefulness. _Luxuriant_ is used
especially of that which is _abundant_ in growth; as, a _luxuriant_
crop.

Antonyms:

deficient, inadequate, narrow, scanty, small,
drained, insufficient, niggardly, scarce, sparing,
exhausted, mean, poor, scrimped, stingy,
impoverished, miserly, scant, short, straitened.

Preposition:

Plentiful _in_ resources.

* * * * *

POETRY.

Synonyms:

meter, numbers, poesy, song,
metrical composition, poem, rime, verse.

_Poetry_ is that form of literature that embodies beautiful thought,
feeling, or action in melodious, rhythmical, and (usually) metrical
language, in imaginative and artistic constructions. _Poetry_ in a very
wide sense may be anything that pleasingly addresses the imagination;
as, the _poetry_ of motion. In ordinary usage, _poetry_ is both
imaginative and metrical. There may be _poetry_ without _rime_, but
hardly without _meter_, or what in some languages takes its place, as
the Hebrew parallelism; but _poetry_ involves, besides the artistic
form, the exercise of the fancy or imagination in a way always
beautiful, often lofty or even sublime. Failing this, there may be
_verse_, _rime_, and _meter_, but not _poetry_. There is much in
literature that is beautiful and sublime in thought and artistic in
construction, which is yet not _poetry_, because quite devoid of the
element of _song_, whereby _poetry_ differs from the most lofty,
beautiful, or impassioned prose. Compare METER.

Antonyms:

prosaic speech, prosaic writing, prose.

* * * * *

POLITE.

Synonyms:

accomplished, courtly, genteel, urbane,
civil, cultivated, gracious, well-behav