Search the Dictionary

a stick; to cudgel. One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters. Pepys.

A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope. Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope of a wall is regulated in building.

A bank or dam to keep back water.

which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven; one being called the fore beam, the other the back beam.

ay (Naut.), to change the course of a ship, and make her run before the wind. -- To bear back, to retreat. "Bearing back from the blows of their sable antagonist." Sir W. Scott. -- To bear down upon (Naut.), to approach from the windward side; as, the fleet bore down upon the enemy. -- To bear in with (Naut.), to ru…

A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.

] -- To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition. -- To beat off, to repel or drive back. -- To beat out, to extend by hammering. -- To beat out of a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give it up. "Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it to this day." South. -- To beat the dust. (Man.) (a) To take in…

A vat. See Back.

A chair with adjustable back, for the sick, to support them while sitting up in bed.

A sore on the back or hips caused by lying for a long time in bed.

The front or the back part of the frame of a bedstead. [Obs. or Dial. Eng.]

On the side opposite the front or nearest part; on the back side of; at the back of; on the other side of; as, behind a door; behind a hill. A tall Brabanter, behind whom I stood. Bp. Hall.

In a state of backwardness, in respect to what is seasonable or appropriate, or as to what should have been accomplished; not equally forward with some other person or thing; dilatory; backward; late; tardy; as, behindhand in studies or in work. In this also [dress] the country are very much behindhand. Addison.…

The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back. Belly doublet, a doublet of the 16th century, hanging down so as to cover the belly. Shak. -- Belly fretting, the chafing of a horse's belly with a girth. Johnson. -- Belly timber, food. [Ludicrous] Prior. -- Belly worm, a worm that br…

To sweep, as with a besom. [Archaic or Poetic] Cowper. Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain. Barlow.

consisted of a broad, heavy, double-edged, hook-shaped blade, having a short pike at the back and another at the top, and attached to the end of a long staff. France had no infantry that dared to face the English bows end bills. Macaulay.

s used in the Public Works Department; but the term has also been locally applied to mere back-waters forming stagnant pools and to certain water channels arising from a source.

To cause to turn aside or back; as, to blanch a deer.

se favor it is made; it is usually made by simply writing the name of the indorser on the back of the bill. -- Blank line (Print.), a vacant space of the breadth of a line, on a printed page; a line of quadrats. -- Blank tire (Mech.), a tire without a flange. -- Blank tooling. See Blind tooling, under Blind. -- Bla…

Crying as a sheep does. Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks from the seaside. Longfellow.