paigle, a cowslip. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 7); spelt paggles, pl., Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 25. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).
painful, painstaking, laborious. L. L. L. ii. 23; Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 147; ‘Such servants are oftenest painfull and good’, Tusser, Husbandry, 170. Still in use in the north country (EDD.).
painted, adorned with bright colouring; ‘A peinted sheathe’, a handsome exterior, Udall, tr. of Apoth., Diogenes, § 190; pride, vainglory, id., Socrates, § 56; ‘Peinted termes’, grandiloquence, id., Antigonus, § 14.
painted cloth, cloth or canvas painted in oils and used for hangings in rooms. L. L. L. v. 2. 579; As You Like It, iii. 2. 290; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 28. It often showed moral pictures. See NED.
pair of cards, a pack of cards; ‘A payre of cardes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 49; Fletcher, Sea-voyage, i. 1 (Tibalt). See Nares.
pair of organs, an organ. Middleton, A Mad World, ii. 1 (Sir B.); ‘Unes orgues, a payre of organs, an instrument of musyke’, Palsgrave, 183. See NED. (s.v. Organ, 2 c).
pair-royal, in cribbage and other card games, three cards of the same denomination; a throw of three dice all turning up the same number of points, as three twos, &c. Hence, a set of three persons or things, Ford, Broken Heart, v. 3; ‘That great pair-royal of adamantine sisters’, Quarles, Emblems, v; Howell, Lex. Tetraglotton, Dedication; Butler, Ballad upon the Parliament (last line; pair-royal, riming with trial); ‘That paroyall of armies’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 2. 22. See Nares and NED. ‘Prial’ is in prov. use in various parts of England in the sense of (1) a ‘pair-royal’ in cards, (2) three of a sort, (3) a gathering of persons of a similar disposition (EDD.). See [parreal].
paise; see [peise].
pall, to become faint, to fail in strength. Hamlet, v. 2. 9; Phaer, Aeneid ix (NED.); to enfeeble, weaken; to daunt, appal, King James I, Kingis Quair, st. 18; Fletcher, Bloody Brother, ii. 1 (Latorch); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 532).
palliard, a lewd person, a thorough rascal. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 563; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Palliards, one of the twenty-four orders of Vagabonds; beggars who excited compassion by means of artificial sores, made by binding some corrosive to the flesh; see Harman, Caveat, p. 44, and Aydelotte, p. 27. F. paillard, ‘a knave, rascall’, &c. (Cotgr.); lit. one who lies on straw; F. paille, L. palea, straw.