Portrait.—See Queen's pictures.
To sit for one's portrait, verb. phr. (prison).—See quot.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick (1857) 339. Here they stopped, while the tip-staff delivered his papers; and here Mr. Pickwick was apprised that he would remain until he had undergone the ceremony known to the initiated as sitting for your portrait. . . . Mr. Pickwick complied with the invitation, and sat himself down: when Mr. Weller, who stationed himself at the back of the chair, whispered that the sitting was merely another term for undergoing an inspection by the different turnkeys, in order that they might know prisoners from visitors.
Portuguese Man-of-War, subs.
phr. (nautical).—A nautilus.
Pos (Poss or Poz), adj. and adv.
(common).—Positive.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation. Lady Smart. What! . . . Do you say it upon Rep? Neverout. Poz, I saw her with my own Eyes.
1711. Spectator, No. 135. It is perhaps . . . speaking no more than we needs must which has so miserably curtailed some of our words, that . . . they often lose all but their first syllables, as in mob, rep, pos, incog, and the like.
1715. Addison, Drummer, iii. I will be flattered, that's pos.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, v. 329. Drunk I was last night, that's poss, my wife began to scold.
1839-40. Thackeray, Catherine [Century]. I will have a regiment to myself, that's poz.
1853. Diogenes, 11. 46. But the crier said, poz, They were fresh as it was.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' from the Pink 'Un ['The Dolls'], 24. While the public morals-shaper Thinks of writing to the paper To upset the show, if pos.
Pose, verb. (old colloquial).—1.
To puzzle; and (2) to posture, to
pretend, to feign. [Sense 1 has
been chiefly influenced by the
scholastic M.E. posen (Prompt.
Parv.) = to examine, whence to
puzzle; whilst sense 2 owes more
to posture, which again is from
the same Latin root.] Whence
poser (1) = an unanswerable
question or argument; and (2)
an impostor, a pretender: also
to put a poser. Also (3) poser
[apposer, opposer or oppositor]
(old) = a bishop's examining
chaplain; (in modern schools)
= an examiner—at Eton for
King's College, and at Winchester
for New College scholarships and
exhibitions.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, iv. 291. The childe Jesus . . . sittynge and apposynge the doctours.
1574. Queen Elizabeth, Endorsement on Recommendation of Candidates for College Election, 8 May. To our trustie and welbeloved, the wardens of the new Colledges in Oxford and nere Winchester and others of them and to the oppositors and others having interest in the election of scollers.
1577-87. Harrison, England, 1. 11. iii. 84. In those [Windsor, Wincester, Eaton, Westminster schools] . . . the triall is made by certeine apposers yearlie appointed to examine them.
1603. Bacon, Discourse [1887]. Let his questions not be troublesome, for that is fit for a poser.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Norfolk, 11. 462. The university [of Cambridge] . . . appointed Dr. Cranmer . . . to be poser-general of all candidates in Divinity.
1647-8. J. Beaumont, Psyche, i. 110 I still am pos'd about the case, But wiser you shall judge.
1662. Donne, Satires [1819]. A thing which would have pos'd Adam to name.
1807. Crabbe, Parish Register [Works (1823)], i. 62. Then by what name th' unwelcome guest to call Was long a question, and it posed them all.
1820. Lamb, South Sea House [Century]. A sucking babe may have posed him.
1838. W. Desmond, Stage Struck, 1. My own aunt by the mother's side—but how to find her out will be a poser, for we never could learn the name of the great man she caught.
