PRESTER, a meteor, consisting of an exhalation thrown downwards from the clouds with such violence, that by the collision it is set on fire. The word is Greek, πρεστηρ, the name of a kind of serpent, called also dipsas, to which this meteor is supposed to bear a resemblance. The prester differs from the thunderbolt in the manner of its inflammation, and in its burning and breaking every thing it touches with greater violence.