powder

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

• noun A substance consisting of ground, pulverized, or otherwise finely dispersed solid particles.
• noun Any of various preparations in the form of powder, as certain cosmetics and medicines.
• noun A dry explosive mixture, such as gunpowder.
• noun Light dry snow.
• transitive verb To turn into or produce as a powder.
• transitive verb To put powder on.
• transitive verb To strew or ornament with small objects or flecks.
• idiom (keep (one's) powder dry) To be ready for a challenge with little warning.
• idiom (take a powder) To make a quick departure; run away.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To reduce to powder; pulverize; triturate; pound, grind, or rub to fine particles.
• To sprinkle with powder, dust, ashes, etc.; specifically, to put powder upon: as, to powder the hair or the face.
• To sprinkle with salt, spices, or other seasoning; hence, to corn; pickle.
• To sprinkle as with powder; stud; ornament with a small pattern, continually repeated.
• To whiten by some application of white material in the form of a powder: thus, lace which has grown yellow is powdered by being placed in a packet of white lead and beaten.
• To scatter; place here and there as if sprinkled like powder: as, to powder violets on a silk ground.
• To fall to dust; be reduced to powder.
• To apply powder to the hair or face; use powder in the toilet.
• To attack violently; make a great stir.
• noun Fine, minute, loose, uncompacted particles, such as result from pounding or grinding a solid substance; dust.
• noun A preparation or composition, in the form of dust or minute loose particles, applied in various ways, as in the toilet, etc.: as, hair-powder; face-powder.
• noun A composition of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal, mixed and granulated: more particularly designated gunpowder (which see).
• noun Seasoning, either of salt or of spices.
• noun A medical remedy, or a dose of some medical remedy, in the form of powder, or minute loose or uncompacted particles: as, he has to take three powders every hour.

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

• intransitive verb To be reduced to powder; to become like powder.
• intransitive verb To use powder on the hair or skin.
• noun The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust.
• noun An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder. See Gunpowder.
• noun etc. See under Atlas, Baking, etc.
• noun (Zoöl.) the peculiar dust, or exfoliation, of powder-down feathers.
• noun (Zoöl.) one of a peculiar kind of modified feathers which sometimes form patches on certain parts of some birds. They have a greasy texture and a scaly exfoliation.
• noun (Zoöl.) a tuft or patch of powder-down feathers.
• noun a tube of strong linen, about an inch in diameter, filled with powder and used in firing mines.
• noun (Naut.) a vessel specially fitted to carry powder for the supply of war ships. They are usually painted red and carry a red flag.
• noun See Magazine, 2.
• noun a mine exploded by gunpowder. See Mine.
• noun (Naut.) a boy formerly employed on war vessels to carry powder; a powder boy.
• noun See Dry rot, under Dry.
• noun See Puff, n.
• transitive verb To reduce to fine particles; to pound, grind, or rub into a powder; to comminute; to pulverize; to triturate.
• transitive verb To sprinkle with powder, or as with powder; to be sprinkle.
• transitive verb obsolete To sprinkle with salt; to corn, as meat.

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

• noun The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust.
• noun An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder.
• noun informal Light, dry, fluffy snow.
• verb transitive To reduce to fine particles.
• verb transitive To sprinkle with powder, or as with powder.
• verb intransitive To be reduced to powder; to become like powder.
• verb intransitive To use powder on the hair or skin.