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Inquisition in Spain and Portugal condemning or acquitting persons accused of religious offenses.

A post of security or defense. [Poetic] Into the castle's tower, The only Aventine that now is left him. Beau. & Fl.

tion of mind; disliking; disinclined; unwilling; reluctant. Averse alike to flatter, or offend. Pope. Men who were averse to the life of camps. Macaulay. Pass by securely as men averse from war. Micah ii. 8.

Turned away, esp. as an expression of feeling; also, offended; unpropitious. Who scornful pass it with averted eye. Keble.

To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter. Blackstone.

Upholding; defense; vindication. [Obs.] Can my avowance of king-murdering be collected from anything here written by me Fuller.

The defendant in replevin, who avows the distress of the goods, and justifies the taking. Cowell.

to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender. -- To back water (Naut.), to reverse the action of the oars, paddles, or propeller, so as to force the boat or ship backward.

A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an added metallic back.

In baseball, a fence, prop. at least 90 feet behind the home base, to stop the balls that pass the catcher; also, the catcher himself.

Wanting good qualities, whether physical or moral; injurious, hurtful, inconvenient, offensive, painful, unfavorable, or defective, either physically or morally; evil; vicious; wicked; -- the opposite of good; as a bad man; bad conduct; bad habits; bad soil; bad health; bad crop; bad news.

A line of palisades serving as an exterior defense. [Written also bayle.] [Obs.]

Admitting of bail; as, a bailable offense.

A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban; as, a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes. Ban of the empire (German Hist.), an imperial interdict by which political rights and privileges, as those of a prince, city, or district, were taken away.…

To drive away; to compel to depart; to dispel. "Banish all offense." Shak.

To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. "Banked well with earth." Holland.

er purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door. Thou shalt make bars of shittim wood. Ex. xxvi. 26.

An offense against purity of style or language; any form of speech contrary to the pure idioms of a particular language. See Solecism. The Greeks were the first that branded a foreign term in any of their writers with the odious name of barbarism. G. Campbell.

Accoutered with defensive armor; -- said of a horse. See Barded ( which is the proper form.) Sir W. Raleigh.

A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. [Often in the pl.]