Prospect noun [ Latin prospectus , from prospicere , prospectum , to look forward; pro before, forward + specere , spicere , look, to see: confer Old French prospect . See Spy , v. , and confer Prospectus .]
1. That which is embraced by eye in vision; the region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.

His eye discovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land.

Milton.

2. Especially, a picturesque or widely extended view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape.

I went to Putney . . . to take prospects in crayon.

Evelyn.

3. A position affording a fine view; a lookout. [ R.]

Him God beholding from his prospect high.

Milton.

4. Relative position of the front of a building or other structure; face; relative aspect.

And their prospect was toward the south.

Ezek. xl. 44.

5. The act of looking forward; foresight; anticipation; as, a prospect of the future state. Locke.

Is he a prudent man as to his temporal estate, that lays designs only for a day, without any prospect to, or provision for, the remaining part of life ?

Tillotson.

6. That which is hoped for; ground for hope or expectation; expectation; probable result; as, the prospect of success. "To brighter prospects born." Cowper.

These swell their prospects d exalt their pride,
When offers are disdain'd, and love deny'd.

Pope.

Prospect transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Prospected ; present participle & verbal noun Prospecting .] To look over; to explore or examine for something; as, to prospect a district for gold.

Prospect intransitive verb To make a search; to seek; to explore, as for mines or the like; as, to prospect for gold.

Prospection noun The act of looking forward, or of providing for future wants; foresight.

Prospective adjective [ Latin prospectivus : confer French prospectif . See Prospect , noun ]
1. Of or pertaining to a prospect; furnishing a prospect; perspective. [ Obsolete]

Time's long and dark prospective glass.

Milton.

2. Looking forward in time; acting with foresight; -- opposed to retrospective .

The French king of Sweden are circumspect, industrious, and prospective , too, in this affair.

Sir J. Child.

3. Being within view or consideration, as a future event or contingency; relating to the future: expected; as, a prospective benefit.

Points on which the promises, at the time of ordination, had no prospective bearing.

W. Jay.

Prospective noun
1. The scene before or around, in time or in space; view; prospect. Sir H. Wotton.

2. A perspective glass. [ Obsolete] Chaucer. Beau. & Fl.

Prospectively adverb In a prospective manner.

Prospectiveness noun Quality of being prospective.

Prospectless adjective Having no prospect.

Prospector noun [ Latin , one who looks out.] One who prospects; especially, one who explores a region for minerals and precious metals.

Prospectus noun [ Latin , a prospect, sight, view: confer French prospectus . See Prospect .] A summary, plan, or scheme of something proposed, affording a prospect of its nature; especially, an exposition of the scheme of an unpublished literary work.

Prosper transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Prospered ; present participle & verbal noun Prospering .] [ French prospérer intransitive verb , or Latin prosperare , intransitive verb , or Latin prosperare , transitive verb , from prosper or prosperus . See Prosperous .] To favor; to render successful. " Prosper thou our handiwork." Bk. of Common Prayer.

All things concur to prosper our design.

Dryden.

Prosper intransitive verb
1. To be successful; to succeed; to be fortunate or prosperous; to thrive; to make gain.

They, in their earthly Canaan placed,
Long time shall dwell and prosper .

Milton.

2. To grow; to increase. [ Obsolete]

Black cherry trees prosper even to considerable timber.

Evelyn.

Prosperity noun [ French prospérité , Latin prosperitas . See Prosperous .] The state of being prosperous; advance or gain in anything good or desirable; successful progress in any business or enterprise; attainment of the object desired; good fortune; success; as, commercial prosperity ; national prosperity .

Now prosperity begins to mellow.

Shak.

Prosperities can only be enjoyed by them who fear not at all to lose them.

Jer. Taylor.

Syn. -- Prosperousness; thrift; weal; welfare; well being; happiness.

Prosperous adjective [ Latin prosperus or prosper , originally, answering to hope; pro according to + the root of sperare to hope. See Despair .]
1. Tending to prosperity; favoring; favorable; helpful.

A happy passage and a prosperous wind.

Denham.

2. Being prospered; advancing in the pursuit of anything desirable; making gain, or increase; thriving; successful; as, a prosperous voyage; a prosperous undertaking; a prosperous man or nation.

By moderation either state to bear
Prosperous or adverse.

Milton.

Syn. -- Fortunate; successful; flourishing; thriving; favorable; auspicious; lucky. See Fortunate .

-- Pros"per*ous*ly , adverb -- Pros"per*ous*ness , noun

Prosphysis noun [ New Latin , from Greek ...; ... to + ... to grow.] (Medicine) A growing together of parts; specifically, a morbid adhesion of the eyelids to each other or to the eyeball. Dunglison.

Prospicience noun [ Latin prospicientia , from prospiciens , present participle of prospicere . See Prospect .] The act of looking forward.

Prostate adjective [ Greek ... standing before, from ... to set before; ... before + ... to set: confer French prostate .] (Anat.) Standing before; -- applied to a gland which is found in the males of most mammals, and is situated at the neck of the bladder where this joins the urethra. -- noun The prostate gland.

Prostatic adjective (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the prostate gland.

Prostatic catheter . (Medicine) See under Catheter .

Prostatitis noun [ New Latin See Prostate , and -itis .] (Medicine) Inflammation of the prostate.

Prosternation noun [ French See Prostration .] Dejection; depression. [ Obsolete] Wiseman.

Prosternum noun [ New Latin See Pro- and Sternum .] (Zoology) The ventral plate of the prothorax of an insect.

Prosthesis noun [ Latin , from Greek ... an addition, from ... to put to, to add; ... to + ... to put, place.]
1. (Surg.) The addition to the human body of some artificial part, to replace one that is wanting, as a log or an eye; -- called also prothesis .

2. (Gram.) The prefixing of one or more letters to the beginning of a word, as in be loved.

Prosthetic adjective [ Confer Greek ... disposed to add, ... put on.] Of or pertaining to prosthesis; prefixed, as a letter or letters to a word.

Prostibulous adjective [ Latin prostibulum prostitute.] Of or pertaining to prostitutes or prostitution; meretricious. [ Obsolete] Bale.

Prostitute transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Prostituted ; present participle & verbal noun Prostituting .] [ Latin prostitutus , past participle of prostituere to prostitute; pro before, forth + statuere to put, place. See Statute .]
1. To offer, as a woman, to a lewd use; to give up to lewdness for hire. "Do not prostitute thy daughter." Lev. xix. 29.

2. To devote to base or unworthy purposes; to give up to low or indiscriminate use; as, to prostitute talents; to prostitute official powers. Milton.

Prostitute adjective [ Latin prostitutus , past participle ] Openly given up to lewdness; devoted to base or infamous purposes.

Made bold by want, and prostitute for bread.

Prior

Prostitute noun [ Latin prostituta .]
1. A woman giver to indiscriminate lewdness; a strumpet; a harlot.

2. A base hireling; a mercenary; one who offers himself to infamous employments for hire.

No hireling she, no prostitute to praise.

Pope.

Prostitution noun [ Latin prostitutio : confer French prostitution .]
1. The act or practice of prostituting or offering the body to an indiscriminate intercourse with men; common lewdness of a woman.

2. The act of setting one's self to sale, or of devoting to infamous purposes what is in one's power; as, the prostitution of abilities; the prostitution of the press. "Mental prostitution ." Byron.

Prostitutor noun [ Latin ] One who prostitutes; one who submits himself, of or offers another, to vile purposes. Bp. Hurd.

Prostomium noun ; plural Prostomia . [ New Latin , from Greek ... before + ..., ..., mouth.] (Zoology) That portion of the head of an annelid situated in front of the mouth. -- Pro*sto"mi*al adjective

Prostrate adjective [ Latin prostratus , past participle of prosternere to prostrate; pro before, forward + sternere to spread out, throw down. See Stratum .]
1. Lying at length, or with the body extended on the ground or other surface; stretched out; as, to sleep prostrate . Elyot.

Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire.

Milton.

2. Lying at mercy, as a supplicant. Dryden.

3. Lying in a humble, lowly, or suppliant posture.

Prostrate fall
Before him reverent, and there confess
Humbly our faults.

Milton.

4. (Botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.

Prostrate transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Prostrated ; present participle & verbal noun Prostrating .]
1. To lay fiat; to throw down; to level; to fell; as, to prostrate the body; to prostrate trees or plants. Evelyn.

2. to overthrow; to demolish; to destroy; to deprive of efficiency; to ruin; as, to prostrate a village; to prostrate a government; to prostrate law or justice.

3. To throw down, or cause to fall in humility or adoration; to cause to bow in humble reverence; used reflexively; as, he prostrated himself. Milman.

4. To cause to sink totally; to deprive of strength; to reduce; as, a person prostrated by fever.

Prostration noun [ Latin prostratio : confer French prostration .]
1. The act of prostrating, throwing down, or laying fiat; as, the prostration of the body.

2. The act of falling down, or of bowing in humility or adoration; primarily, the act of falling on the face, but usually applied to kneeling or bowing in reverence and worship.

A greater prostration of reason than of body.

Shak.

3. The condition of being prostrate; great depression; lowness; dejection; as, a postration of spirits. "A sudden prostration of strength." Arbuthnot.

4. (Medicine) A latent, not an exhausted, state of the vital energies; great oppression of natural strength and vigor.

» Prostration , in its medical use, is analogous to the state of a spring lying under such a weight that it is incapable of action; while exhaustion is analogous to the state of a spring deprived of its elastic powers. The word, however, is often used to denote any great depression of the vital powers.

Prostyle adjective [ Latin prostylus , Greek ...; ... before + ... pillar, column: confer French prostyle .] (Architecture) Having columns in front. -- noun A prostyle portico or building.

Prosy adjective [ Compar. Prosier ; superl. Prosiest .]

1. Of or pertaining to prose; like prose.

2. Dull and tedious in discourse or writing; prosaic.

Prosylogism noun [ Prefix pro- + syllogism .] (Logic) A syllogism preliminary or logically essential to another syllogism; the conclusion of such a syllogism, which becomes a premise of the following syllogism.

Protactic adjective [ Greek ... placing or placed before, from ... to place in front; ... before + ... to arrange.] Giving a previous narrative or explanation, as of the plot or personages of a play; introductory.

Protagon noun [ Proto- + Greek ... a contest. See. Protagonist . So called because it was the first definitely ascertained principle of the brain.] (Physiol. Chem.) A nitrogenous phosphorized principle found in brain tissue. By decomposition it yields neurine, fatty acids, and other bodies.

Protagonist noun [ Greek ...; prw^tos first + ... an actor, combatant, from ... a contest.] One who takes the leading part in a drama; hence, one who takes lead in some great scene, enterprise, conflict, or the like.

Shakespeare, the protagonist on the great of modern poetry.

De Quincey.

Protamin noun [ Greek prw^tos first.] (Physiol. Chem.) An amorphous nitrogenous substance found in the spermatic fluid of salmon. It is soluble in water, which an alkaline reaction, and unites with acids and metallic bases.

Protandric adjective [ Proto- + Greek ..., ..., a man.] (Zoology) Having male sexual organs while young, and female organs later in life. -- Pro*tan"trism noun

Protandrous adjective (Botany) Proterandrous.

Protasis noun [ Latin , from Greek ..., from ... to stretch before, forward; ... before + ... to stretch.]
1. A proposition; a maxim. Johnson.

2. (Gram.) The introductory or subordinate member of a sentence, generally of a conditional sentence; -- opposed to apodosis . See Apodosis .

3. The first part of a drama, of a poem, or the like; the introduction; opposed to epitasis . B. Jonson.

Protatic adjective [ Greek ...: confer Latin protaticus , French protatique .] Of or pertaining to the protasis of an ancient play; introductory.

Proteaceous adjective [ From Proteus .] (Botany) Of or pertaining to the Proteaceæ , an order of apetalous evergreen shrubs, mostly natives of the Cape of Good Hope or of Australia.

Protean adjective
1. Of or pertaining to Proteus; characteristic of Proteus. " Protean transformations." Cudworth.

2. Exceedingly variable; readily assuming different shapes or forms; as, an amœba is a protean animalcule.

Proteanly adverb In a protean manner. Cudworth.

Protect transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Protected ; present participle & verbal noun Protecting .] [ Latin protectus , past participle of protegere , literally, to cover in front; pro before + tegere to cover. See Tegument .] To cover or shield from danger or injury; to defend; to guard; to preserve in safety; as, a father protects his children.

The gods of Greece protect you!

Shak.

Syn. -- To guard; shield; preserve. See Defend .

Protectingly adverb By way of protection; in a protective manner.