assed an examination in the
youngest class."--Oliver Wendell Holmes _Elsie Venner_ (1861).

=Peck'sniff=, "architect and land surveyor," at Salisbury. He talks
homilies even in drunkenness, prates about the beauty of charity, and
duty of forgiveness, but is altogether a canting humbug, and is
ultimately so reduced in position that he becomes a "drunken, begging,
squalid, letter-writing man," out at elbows, and almost shoeless.
Pecksniff's specialty is the "sleek, smiling abominations of hypocrisy."

If ever man combined within himself all the mild qualities of the
lamb with a considerable touch of the dove, and not a dash of the
crocodile, or the least possible suggestion of the very mildest
seasoning of the serpent, that man was Mr. Pecksniff, "the
messenger of peace."

_Charity_ and _Mercy Pecksniff_, the two daughters of the "architect and
land surveyor." Charity is thin, ill-natured, and a shrew, eventually
jilted by a weak young man, who really loves her sister. Mercy
Pecksniff, usually called "Merry," is pretty and true-hearted; though
flippant and foolish as a girl, she becomes greatly toned down by the
troubles of her married life.--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1843).

=Peculiar=, negro slave, endowed with talent, ambitious of an opportunity
to develop and use these, but hopeless of gaining it, until emancipated
by the Civil War between the United States and the Southern
Confederacy.--Epes Sargent, _Peculiar_.

=Pedant=, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio in Shakespeare's
comedy called _The Taming of the Shrew_ (1695).

=P[`e]dre= (_Don_), a Sicilian nobleman, who has a Greek slave of great
beauty, named Isidore (3 _syl._). This slave is loved by Adraste (2
_syl._), a French gentleman, who gains access to the house under the
guise of a portrait-painter. He next sends his slave, Za[:i]da,[TN-75]
to complain to the Sicilian of ill-treatment, and Don P[`e]dre
volunteers to intercede on her behalf. At this moment Adraste comes up,
and demands that Za[:i]de be given up to deserved chastisement.
Pedr[`e][TN-76] pleads for her, Adraste appears to be pacified, and
Pedr[`e][TN-76] calls for Za[:i]de to come forth. Isidore, in the veil
of Za[:i]de, comes out, and Pedr[`e][TN-76] says, "There, take her home,
and use her well." "I will do so," says Adraste, and leads off the Greek
slave.--Moli[`e]re, _Le Sicilien ou L'Amour Peintre_ (1667).

=Pedrillo=, the tutor of Don