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The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively. [Obs.]

a coat of arms, or a bearing on a coat of arms; armorial bearings. Their blazon o'er his towers displayed. Sir W. Scott.

with blessings; happy; highly favored. All generations shall call me blessed. Luke i. 48. Towards England's blessed shore. Shak.

One who blesses; one who bestows or invokes a blessing.

To shut up, as a town or fortress, by investing it with troops or vessels or war for the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the introduction of supplies. See note under Blockade, n. "Blockaded the place by sea." Gilpin.

To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant. [R.] Milton. While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day. Keats.

oarse woolen fabric, used for floor cloths, to cover carpets, etc.; -- so called from the town of Bocking, in England, where it was first made.

An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place.

as in English or block bond (Fig. 1), where one course consists of bricks with their ends toward the face of the wall, called headers, and the next course of bricks with their lengths parallel to the face of the wall, called stretchers; Flemish bond (Fig.2), where each course consists of headers and stretchers alternat…

eck of a ship between the foremast and mainmast, where the boats, spare spars, etc., are stowed. Totten.

In England, an incorporated town that is not a city; also, a town that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.…

Originally, a bulwark or rampart of fortification or fortified town.

Ready or intending to go; on the way toward; going; -- with to or for, or with an adverb of motion; as, a ship is bound to Cadiz, or for Cadiz. "The mariner bound homeward." Cowper.

avor rendered; obliged; beholden. This holy word, that teacheth us truly our bounden duty toward our Lord God in every point. Ridley.

charity; disposed to give freely; generously liberal; munificent; beneficent; free in bestowing gifts; as, bounteous production. But O, thou bounteous Giver of all good. Cowper. -- Boun"te*ous*ly, adv. -- Boun"te*ous*ness, n.

Free in giving; liberal in bestowing gifts and favors. God, the bountiful Author of our being. Locke.

Liberality in bestowing gifts or favors; gracious or liberal giving; generosity; munificence. My bounty is as boundless as the sea. Shak.

they were advised, in 1643 and 1646, by the Dutch authorities, to gather into "villages, towns, and hamlets, as the English were in the habit of doing." Bancroft.

t polite deference and respect which civility obliges us either to express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we converse. Hume.

mixing, forming, or gathering; as, a storm brews in the west. There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest. Shak.