Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A student under the direct supervision of a teacher or professor.
- n. Law A minor under the supervision of a guardian.
- n. The apparently black circular opening in the center of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to the retina.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A youth or any person of either sex under the care of an instructor or tutor; in general, a scholar; a disciple.
- n. A ward; a youth or person under the care of a guardian.
- n. In civil law, a person under puberty (fourteen for males, twelve for females), over whom a guardian has been appointed.
- Under age; in a state of pupilage or nonage; minor.
- n. The orifice of the iris; the hole or opening in the iris through which light passes. The pupil appears usually as a black spot in the middle of the colored part of the eye, this appearance being due to the darkness of the back of the eye. The pupil contracts when the retina is stimulated, as by light, on accommodation for near distances and on convergence of the visual axes; pain may cause a dilatation. The size of the pupil is determined by the circular and radiating muscular fibers of the iris. It may also be influenced by drugs: thus, opium contracts and belladonna dilates the pupil. The same consequences may result from disease or injury. The shape of the pupil in most animals is circular, as the expression of the uniform action of the contractile fibers of the iris; but in many animals it is oval, elliptical, or slit-like. Thus, the pupil of the cat contracts to a mere chink in the sunlight, and dilates to a circle in the dark. The pupil of the horse is a broad, nearly parallel-sided fissure obtusely rounded at each end. The variability of the pupil in size is not less remarkable in owls than in cats, but in these birds it keeps its circular figure, changing in size from a mere point to a disk which leaves the iris a mere rim. The pupil sometimes gives zoological characters, as in distinguishing foxes from wolves or dogs. See
iris , 6, and cuts undereye . - n. In zoology: The central dark part of an ocellated spot. See ocellus, 4.
- n. A dark, apparently interior, spot seen in the compound eyes of certain insects, and changing in position as it is viewed from different sides.
Wiktionary
- n. law, obsolete An orphan who is a minor and under the protection of the state.
- n. A student under the supervision of a teacher or professor.
- n. anatomy The hole in the middle of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to be focused on the retina.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) The aperture in the iris; the sight, apple, or black of the eye. See the Note under eye, and iris.
- n. A youth or scholar of either sex under the care of an instructor or tutor.
- n. A person under a guardian; a ward.
- n. (Civil Law) A boy or a girl under the age of puberty, that is, under fourteen if a male, and under twelve if a female.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a young person attending school (up through senior high school)
- n. a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution
- n. the contractile aperture in the center of the iris of the eye; resembles a large black dot
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman pupille ("orphan"), from Latin pūpillus ("orphan, minor"), variant of pūpulus ("little boy"), from pūpus ("child, boy"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English pupille, orphan, from Old French, from Latin pūpillus, diminutive of pūpus, boy.Middle English, from Old French pupille, from Latin pūpilla, little doll, pupil of the eye (from the tiny image reflected in it); see pupil1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The other pupil is also a Scotch Lad Brother to Sir — Ramsey; but I don't like him, and of course he will never come to much.”
“Often the curiosity of the child concerning a letter leads us to teach that desired consonant; a name pronounced may awaken in him a desire to know what consonants are necessary to compose it, and this will, or willingness, of the pupil is a much more efficacious means than any rule concerning the progression of the letters.”
“Therefore, the Liberal Democrats have proposed the concept of what we call a pupil premium, an enhanced level of funding".”
“Huerta argues that HCZ's blanket approach to its neighbourhood's social needs means that the financial cost per pupil is too high to be replicated nationwide.”
The Guardian: Can Geoffrey Canada rescue America's ailing schools? Barack Obama hopes so
“In fact, the sheer enjoyment of an apt pupil is what leads some academic to try to land jobs at those research 1 schools, where they can teach grad students. musa Says:”
“Besides, Harmon's star pupil is Phil Mickelson (FSY), who is trying to replace Woods at No. 1.”
“As near as I can tell a statistical study of word usage or a psychology lab experiment in pupil dilation upon seeing four letter words would hit your concentric levels of criticism square in the bullseye.”
“Five church schools, in Blackburn, Birmingham, Bradford, Oldham and London, have become 99 per cent Muslim and in two – another school in Blackburn and one in Dewsbury – every pupil is Muslim.”
“In the classroom, one pupil is "studying a stick", another is operating on a toy cow, while another is learning belly dancing.”
“The absolute tell-tale would be if you could see a solid white mouth, or if the eye pupil is round (not a cottonmouth) or elliptical (cottonmouth).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pupil’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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SCIE - neurology
abducens.....draw..., ablation.....carr..., acetylcholine......., adrenalin.....nea..., afferent.....to c..., agnosia.....no kn..., alar.....wing-like, alexia.....no words, alveus.....canal, amacrine.....no l..., ambidextrous........, ambiguus.....doub... and 701 more...
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Anatomy of plants and animals
A collection of anatomical names for parts of humans, animals, plants, and whatever anyone else can recall.
anther, stamen, pistil, filament, style, stigma, calyx, petal, sepal, peduncle, carpel, leaf and 22 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Allographic Homophones
Words that can be pronounced identically but are spelled differently. I've started with unusual or extensive sets. In some of these sets, no one speaker would pronounce them all the same. I've trie...
air, are, ayr, ayre, e'er, ere, err, eyre, heir, apatite, appetite, picnic and 226 more...
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Scriptie: The Return of the King
i can't carry it ..., at the end of all..., it's done, reach, eagles, veil, grass, water, cream, strawberries, barley, summer and 200 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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Grrrrr
Words I loathe
panties, moist, exercise, dishes, cleaning, running, secretary, orientated, pilates, pupil, badonkadonk, emulsion and 1 more...
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Metaforwhats
Abiguous words, equivocation, poetically delightful, simple yet multi-meaninged polysemy; emblems and gremlins. I've put the paradoxical ones on the Contranympho list.
frequency, snap, windswept, button, syntax, aftertaste, seed, notes, door, spark, click, prism and 85 more...
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The Da Vinci Code
Reading the novel The Da Vinci Code and getting known with some unfamiliar words. That's it.
prelate, prelature, stagger, archway, lunged, gilded, mortification, heave, heap, canvas, anticipated, parquet and 69 more...
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Get Schooled
education, school, student, pupil, college, university, classroom, teaching, public school, private school, parochial school, catholic school and 52 more...
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The Eyes Have It
parts of the human eye
iris, pupil, sclera, macula, retina, vitreous, conjunctiva, cornea, lens, choroid, optic nerve, ciliary body and 34 more...
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new glasses
tomorrow I am getting new glasses because my other ones were run over by a car
ocular, retina, lens, optometrist, optician, ophthalmologist, frames, optical, vision, socket, pupil, iris and 4 more...
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Eclectic Etymology
A varied list of words with intriguing origins.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pupil.
npydyuan Well said, seanahan. Oct 18, 2007
uselessness Eh, only if you believe in evolution. ;-) Oct 18, 2007
seanahan I feel very strongly about this. It is our lot in life to do a little better than those before us. To give our children a little more than our parent gave us. To add a little bit to science and culture, making the whole of humanity a little bit greater for our presence. Oct 18, 2007
chained_bear Apparently, eyeballs make lousy pupils. Ahuh! Huhhuh! < -- weak, upper-class-twit laugh. Oct 17, 2007
reesetee Haha! Fewer presidents to learn! The thought never crossed my mind when I was a kid.
Right, I agree. I meant that our progress toward perfection may not appear to be as swift simply because there's more to learn. Thus, we remain relatively (and unfortunately) unenlightened, unbeautiful, unsublime, and still with war-hunger-poverty-hate.
Though in my view, it's still a good life. :-)
On the other hand, I don't think eyeballs really learn much at all. At least not that we're aware. Oct 17, 2007
chained_bear I agree, rt. I used to think, when I was a kid, how patently unfair it was to have to memorize all the presidents. Kids 100 years ago had half as many to memorize! Not fair.
That said... npydyuan's point (or da Vinci's) is a good one: the best pupils are going to eventually be better than the people who taught them, because there *is* more to learn, and to continually learn is what makes a good pupil.
Unless you're talking about pupil in the eyeball sense, in which case... all bets are off. Oct 17, 2007
reesetee Well, wouldn't that assume, though, that the general body of human knowledge stays constant? In real life, it hardly does, and in fact (in terms of sheer volume) it's grown ever larger since da Vinci's time. So even if we are excellent pupils, isn't there just more and more to learn with every generation? Oct 17, 2007
npydyuan I read that Leonardo da Vinci said something along the lines of "it is a poor pupil who does not surpass his master." Are we largely then a race of poor pupils? Because if we weren't, wouldn't our progress toward perfection have skyrocketed by now? If everyone always got better as the generations wore on, shouldn't we be enlightened, beautiful, sublime, war-hunger-poverty-hate free by now? Oct 17, 2007