Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Undressed pelts considered as a group.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Pelts collectively, or a lot of pelts together: usually applied in furriery to raw pelts with the fur on, dried or otherwise cured, but not yet tanned or dressed into the furs as worn.
- n. A pelt; a fur-skin.
- n. A trifle; trash.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Pelts or skins, collectively; skins with the fur on them; furs.
Etymologies
- From Old French peleterie, the trade of a skinner or peltmonger. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French peleterie, from peletier, furrier, from pel, skin, from Latin pellis; see pel-3 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Nor would the theory account for the absence of a taboo in the lower savagery, nor for the totemistic character of the lady, nor, least of all, for the peltry which is the most picturesque, if not the most important, incident in this group of tales.”
“Now it so happened that there was none of this kind of peltry at the fort of old Baranoff.”
Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains
“Father Lalemant enumerates the kind of peltry obtained by the French from the Indians, and the amount, as follows.”
“The taboo, strictly speaking, only appears where the peltry is absent.”
“Soleure would fain have joined with him in conversation respecting trade and merchandize, yet the Englishman, who dealt in articles of small bulk and considerable value, and traversed sea and land to carry on his traffic, could find few mutual topics to discuss with the Swiss trader, whose commerce only extended into the neighboring districts of Burgundy and Germany, and whose goods consisted of coarse woollen cloths, fustian, hides, peltry and such ordinary articles.”
“We've heard a lot of peltry from Barack Obama, as Hillary Clinton used to say.”
“The mud roof was covered with lynx, beaver, and other furs laid out to dry, beaver paws were pinned out on the logs, a part of the carcass of a deer hung at one end of the cabin, a skinned beaver lay in front of a heap of peltry just within the door, and antlers of deer, old horseshoes, and offal of many animals, lay about the den.”
“Canoes laden with peltry were perhaps the only craft which disturbed the waters of the Detroit river.”
“Indians; partly from what he received as a consideration for the difference between his full appointment and the half-pay, to which he is now restricted; and partly from the profits of a little traffick he drove in peltry, during his sachemship among the”
“He intended, personally, to inspect every peltry before allowing it to be sent north.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peltry’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Words beginning with P
peripatetic, pearlescent, perfunctory, palliate, permafrost, prosthetic, pliant, pluvious, percussion, procrastinate, progeria, prognathism and 49 more...
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Furriery
Anything to do with the fur trade.
furriery, badger, trap, trapper, beaver, polecat, fitch, fitchew, mink, chinchilla, rabbit, fur and 47 more...
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Moby-Dick
Interesting words and usages.
hypo, spile, hunks, grapnel, squitchy, skrimshander, monkey jacket, direful, grego, wrapall, dreadnaught, bosky and 158 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for peltry.
yarb "...wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams..."
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 54 Jul 25, 2008