Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To consider carefully; ponder.
  • intransitive verb To be attentive; reflect.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To hang down.
  • To weigh in the mind; consider attentively.
  • noun In architecture, a long stone reaching through the thickness of a wall so that it is visible on both sides, and is therefore wrought and smoothed at both ends. Now usually called bond-stone, bonder, or through, also perpend-stone, perpent-stone. See cut under ashler.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To weight carefully in the mind.
  • intransitive verb rare To attend; to be attentive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb archaic To ponder, consider.
  • noun A brick or stone that has its longest dimension perpendicular to the face of a wall, especially one that extends through the wall's entire thickness
  • noun A vertical joint between bricks or blocks in a horizontal course

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin perpendere : per-, per- + pendere, to weigh; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin perpendere, from per- + pendere ("to weigh").

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  • The business end of a criminal

    April 3, 2009