Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Pl. pancratia (-ä). In Gr. antiquity, a gymnastic contest or game combining wrestling and boxing. The combatants fought naked, either with bare fists or with the soft cestus, and the contests were, at Olympia as almost everywhere, regulated by strict rules to guard against unfairness. The exercise was, however, very severe, as the fight was continued until one of the adversaries was either killed, which happened not seldom, or acknowledged his defeat. Also written
pangkration , pankration. - n. [capitalized] [NL.] A genus of ornamental plants, of the monocotyledonous order Amaryllideæ, the tribe Amarylleæ, and the subtribe Cyathiferæ, having a funnel-shaped perianth with narrow lobes, and ovary-cells containing many ovules. There are about 12 species, natives of the Mediterranean region, the Canaries, and the East Indies. They produce long narrow leaves from a coated bulb, and large handsome white flowers, usually many in an umbel, remarkable for a central cup formed of united petal-like bases of the stamens, and usually ornamented with a toothed or twelve-lobed border. See
sea-daffodil .
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Gr. Antiq.) An athletic contest involving both boxing and wrestling.
- n. (Bot.) A genus of Old World amaryllideous bulbous plants, having a funnel-shaped perianth with six narrow spreading lobes. The American species are now placed in the related genus Hymenocallis.
Examples
“But this is just as if a man after receiving blows should give up the Pancratium.”
“In the Pancratium it is in our power to desist and not to receive blows.”
“Naias major, All. 153. ex parte Pancratium tortuosum, Herb.”
“Pancratium, our butterfly orchis, white jasmine, and a host of others.”
“They comprised various trials of strength and skill, such as wrestling boxing, the Pancratium (boxing and wrestling combined), and the complicated Pentathlum (including jumping, running, the quoit, the javelin, and wrestling), but no combats with any kind of weapons.”
A Smaller history of Greece From the earliest times to the Roman conquest
“[* Pancratium undulatum, Amaryllis nervosa.] [* Potamogeton tenuifolium, Chara compressa, Typha tenuifolia.]”
“A fine Pancratium embalmed the air in the humid spots, and almost made us forget that those gloomy and marshy forests are highly dangerous to health.”
“Pancratium undulatum, and other large liliaceous plants.”
“Among this and other plants a lovely white amaryllis, the _Pancratium”
Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville
“THE Lobelia cardinalis grows in great plenty here, and has a most splendid appearance amidst extensive meadows of the golden Corymbous Jacobea (Senecio Jacobea) and odorous Pancratium.”
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