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A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body, on which it revolves, or may be supposed to revolve; a line passing through a body or system around which the parts are symmetrically arranged.

A bushing in the hub of a wheel, through which the axle passes.

the horizon intercepted between the meridian of the place and a vertical circle passing through the center of any object; as, the azimuth of a star; the azimuth or bearing of a line surveying.

Pulpy throughout, like a berry; -- said of fruits. Gray.

A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc. Hop back, Jack back, the cistern which receives the infusion of malt and hops from the copper. -- Wash back, a vat in which distillers ferment…

iple; steadfastness. Shelley's thought never had any backbone. Shairp. To the backbone, through and through; thoroughly; entirely. "Staunch to the backbone." Lord Lytton.

The distance through which one part of connected machinery, as a wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear; also, the jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.…

Chemical decomposition brought about by bacteria without the addition of oxygen.

A game played on an oblong board, having, at one end, cups or arches into or through which balls are to be driven by a rod held in the hand of the player.

Purulent matter. [Obs.] Barrough.

A narrow opening, often cruciform, through which arrows might be discharged.

rench versification, sometimes imitated in English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.

as a pendulum, for measuring the force and velocity of projectiles by means of the arc through which their impact impels it.

onplace, hackneyed, or trivial; the commonplace, in speech. The highest things were thus brought down to the banalities of discourse. J. Morley.

To beat, as with a club or cudgel; to treat with violence; to handle roughly. The desperate tempest hath so banged the Turks. Shak.

The ground at the top of a shaft; as, ores are brought to bank. Bank beaver (Zoöl.), the otter. [Local, U.S.] -- Bank swallow, a small American and European swallow (Clivicola riparia) that nests in a hole which it excavates in a bank.

A variety of small barnyard fowl, with feathered legs, probably brought from Bantam, a district of Java.

A blackish or dun variety of the pigeon, originally brought from Barbary.

e, said of guns when they are elevated so as to fire over the top of a parapet, and not through embrasures. -- Barbette gun, or Barbette battery, a single gun, or a number of guns, mounted in barbette, or partially protected by a parapet or turret. -- Barbette carriage, a gun carriage which elevates guns sufficiently…

An opening in the wall of a fortress, through which missiles were discharged upon an enemy.