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Entries starting with P

582 entries.

pleat

A fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with the purpose of adding controlled fullness and freedom of movement, or taking up excess fabric. There are many types of pleats, differing in their construction and appearance.

PLIC

Initialism of platform-level interrupt controller; in the RISC-V architecture, a component responsible for routing interrupts from their causes to harts.

plug

A block of wood let into a wall to afford a hold for nails.

plumming

The operation of finding, by means of a mine dial (compass), the place where to sink an air shaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to find which way the lode inclines.

ply

To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so that the direction of the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other; to work to windward, to beat, to tack.

pMOS

a MOSFET with a p-type channel (a semiconductor doped with an element creating a surplus of holes).

pMOSFET

A type of metal, oxide, semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) that utilizes an p-type channel, conducting when a voltage voltage below a threshold is applied to the gate relative to the source. It is commonly used in complementary metal, oxide, semiconductor (CMOS) technology alongside nMOSFETs.

PNR

Initialism of passenger name record: the complete details of a passenger's booking, including itinerary, contact details, and special requests; or the unique alphanumeric identifier for each booking.

pocket-hole

A type of joinery that involves drilling a hole at an angle in one piece which is then joined to another by a self-tapping screw.

pogo

Ellipsis of pogo oscillation, a dangerous condition where fluctuations in the thrust and acceleration produced by a rocket engine generate variations in the flow of fuel to the engine, amplifying the fluctuations of thrust and acceleration in a positive feedback cycle that can eventually tear the vehicle apart.

point

To fill up and finish the joints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface.

polaski

A fire fighting hand tool consisting of ax or adz head on a wooden handle, used to dig a fireline.

pole

To treat (copper) by blowing natural gas or other reducing agent through the molten oxide, burning off the oxygen.

Polybius square

A character code represented by two sets of six lit torches, used to send messages character by character, in a two point visual fire telegraph. The character code is generated by encoding characters in a grid, where each character generates two numbers, uniquely representing each character as a pair of numbers.

polygon of forces

A polygonal figure the sides of which are vectors representing several forces acting simultaneously upon one point, so that the vector necessary to make the figure closed is the resultant of those forces.

polynose

adjectiveManufacturing

Pertaining to a modification of viscose fibers in which the cellulose is copolymerized.

polyphase

Of, pertaining to, or involving multiple alternating currents that have the same frequency but differ in phase.

polyphase circuit

A group of alternating current circuits having two or more interrelated voltages, usually of equal amplitudes, phase differences, and periods, etc; if a neutral conductor exists, the voltages referenced to the neutral are equal in amplitude and phase; the most common version is that of 3-phase, equal in amplitude with phases 120 degrees apart.

polypin

A plastic version of the kind of brewery cask called a pin (equal to half a firkin), popular in homebrewing and the off-trade (deliveries for home consumption).

pomelle

A specific type of woodgrain in lumber and veneers, also known as "quilted" from the French.

ponding

The excessive accumulation of water in low-lying areas, remaining 48 hours after the end of rainfall under conditions ordinarily conducive to drying.

pontil mark

A ring-shaped or irregular scar on a glass object from where it was joined with a pontil or blowpipe. Common on bottles prior to the 1830s.

pony car

An affordable, compact, highly styled car with a sporty or performance-oriented image.

pool

A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.

pop rivet

A blind rivet; a rivet which can be fixed with access only to the factory head end; after passing the bucktail through the items to be secured, the rivet gun is attached to a frangible mandrel through the centre of the rivet, which upsets the bucktail to form the field head and breaks off when the correct pressure has been achieved.