pilgarlic
Americannoun
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a person regarded with mild or pretended contempt or pity.
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Obsolete. a baldheaded man.
noun
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obsolete a bald head or a man with a bald head
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dialect a pitiable person
Other Word Forms
- pilgarlicky adjective
Etymology
Origin of pilgarlic
1520–30; earlier pyllyd garleke literally, peeled garlic, originally metaphor for a bald man, whose head is compared to a peeled garlic bulb. See pill 2, garlic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was in vain that he argued with his wife in all known languages and in some that are unknown, for, as she said, she only knew two languages, the one of Touraine and the other of the Stick, and this second she taught Panurge per modum passionis—that is by beating him, and this so thoroughly that poor Pilgarlic was sore from head to foot.
From Project Gutenberg
The stately white swans turned their arching necks interrogatively toward the splashing, and the brown ducks, Peezletree and Pilgarlic, quacked and gobbled softly to each other among the lily-pads.
From Project Gutenberg
The light one shall be Peezletree and the dark one Pilgarlic.
From Project Gutenberg
Apparently, all the negro cooks, teamsters, officers' servants, and roustabouts from the adjoining camps39 had been gathered there, with Groundhog, Pilgarlic, and similar specimens of the white teamsters among them and leading them.
From Project Gutenberg
"Seen the ghost of a dead rebel, Pilgarlic?"
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
