Word Meanings - PURSE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. A small bag or pouch, the opening of which is made to draw together closely, used to carry money in; by extension, any receptacle for money carried on the person; a wallet; a pocketbook; a portemonnaie. Chaucer. Who steals my purse steals trash.

Additional info about word: PURSE

1. A small bag or pouch, the opening of which is made to draw together closely, used to carry money in; by extension, any receptacle for money carried on the person; a wallet; a pocketbook; a portemonnaie. Chaucer. Who steals my purse steals trash. Shak. 2. Hence, a treasury; finances; as, the public purse. 3. A sum of money offered as a prize, or collected as a present; as, to win the purse; to make up a purse. 4. A specific sum of money; as: In Turkey, the sum of 500 piasters. In Persia, the sum of 50 tomans. Light purse, or Empty purse, poverty or want of resources. -- Long purse, or Heavy purse, wealth; riches. -- Purse crab , any land crab of the genus Birgus, allied to the hermit crabs. They sometimes weigh twenty pounds or more, and are very strong, being able to crack cocoanuts with the large claw. They chiefly inhabit the tropical islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, living in holes and feeding upon fruit. Called also palm crab. -- Purse net, a fishing net, the mouth of which may be closed or drawn together like a purse. Mortimer. Purse pride, pride of money; insolence proceeding from the possession of wealth. Bp. Hall. -- Purse rat. See Pocket gopher, under Pocket. -- Sword and purse, the military power and financial resources of a nation.

Related words: (words related to PURSE)

• POUCH
  1. A small bag; usually, a leathern bag; as, a pouch for money; a shot pouch; a mail pouch, etc. 2. That which is shaped like, or used as, a pouch; as: A protuberant belly; a paunch; -- so called in ridicule. A sac or bag for carrying
• CARRIBOO
  See CARIBOU
• OPENNESS
  The quality or state of being open.
• CARRIABLE
  Capable of being carried.
• PERSONNEL
  The body of persons employed in some public service, as the army, navy, etc.; -- distinguished from matériel.
• PERSONIFICATION
  A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstract idea is represented as animated, or endowed with personality; prosopopas, the floods clap their hands. "Confusion heards his voice." Milton. (more info) 1. The act of personifying;
• WALLETEER
  One who carries a wallet; a foot traveler; a tramping beggar. Wright.
• SMALLISH
  Somewhat small. G. W. Cable.
• OPEN SEA
  A sea open to all nations. See Mare clausum.
• MONEYER
  1. A person who deals in money; banker or broker. 2. An authorized coiner of money. Sir M. Hale. The Company of Moneyers, the officials who formerly coined the money of Great Britain, and who claimed certain prescriptive rights and privileges.
• PERSONIZE
  To personify. Milton has personized them. J. Richardson.
• CARRIAGEABLE
  Passable by carriages; that can be conveyed in carriages. Ruskin.
• PERSONATE
  To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise. In fable, hymn, or song so personating Their gods ridiculous. Milton.
• TRASHILY
  In a trashy manner.
• PURSEFUL
  All that is, or can be, contained in a purse; enough to fill a purse.
• PERSONATOR
  One who personates. "The personators of these actions." B. Jonson.
• TRASHY
  Like trash; containing much trash; waste; rejected; worthless; useless; as, a trashy novel.
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• PURSERSHIP
  The office of purser. Totten.
• MONEYAGE
  1. A tax paid to the first two Norman kings of England to prevent them from debashing the coin. Hume. 2. Mintage; coinage.
• PROPENE
  See PROPYLENE
• DISMALLY
  In a dismal manner; gloomily; sorrowfully; uncomfortably.
• PROPENSE
  Leaning toward, in a moral sense; inclined; disposed; prone; as, women propense to holiness. Hooker. -- Pro*pense"ly, adv. -- Pro*pense"ness, n.
• UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
  The extension of the advantages of university instruction by means of lectures and classes at various centers.
• UNIPERSONAL
  Used in only one person, especially only in the third person, as some verbs; impersonal. (more info) 1. Existing as one, and only one, person; as, a unipersonal God.
• COEXTENSION
  The act of extending equally, or the state of being equally extended.
• INEXTENSION
  Want of extension; unextended state.