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A strip of sawed stuff, or a scantling; as, (a) pl. (Com. & Arch.) Sawed timbers about 7 by 2 1/2 inches and not less than 6 feet long. Brande & C. (b) (Naut.) A strip of wood used in fastening the edges of a tarpaulin to the deck, also around masts to prevent chafing. (c) A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part,…

Insignificant; contemptible. [Obs.]

See Acanthus, n., 1.

A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, esp. as a call or command. They have troops of soldiers at their beck. Shak.

To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand. His distant friends, he beckons near. Dryden. It beckons you to go away with it. Shak.

various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." Shak.

One greatly loved. My beloved is mine, and I am his. Cant. ii. 16.

A canticle (the Latin version of which begins with this word) which may be used in the order for morning prayer in the Church of England. It is taken from an apocryphal addition to the third chapter of Daniel.

To gain an ascendency over by charms or incantations; to affect (esp. to injure) by witchcraft or sorcery. See how I am bewitched; behold, mine arm Is like a blasted sapling withered up. Shak.

A fish of the genus Priacanthus, remarkable for the large size of the eye.

A friar of the Dominican order; -- called also predicant and preaching friar; in France, Jacobin. Also, sometimes, a Benedictine.

or their associated characteristics, as expression of face, look, etc.; expressionless; vacant. "Blank and horror-stricken faces." C. Kingsley. The blank . . . glance of a half returned consciousness. G. Eliot.

a blister. Dunglison. Blister beetle, a beetle used to raise blisters, esp. the Lytta (or Cantharis) vesicatoria, called Cantharis or Spanish fly by druggists. See Cantharis. -- Blister fly, a blister beetle. -- Blister plaster, a plaster designed to raise a blister; -- usually made of Spanish flies. -- Blister stee…

Money. [Cant] Beaconsfield.

Spurious; fictitious; sham; -- a cant term originally applied to counterfeit coin, and hence denoting anything counterfeit. [Colloq. U. S.]

accomplice of a gambler, auctioneer, etc., who entices others to bet or to bid; a decoy. [Cant] Bonnet head (Zoöl.), a shark (Sphyrna tiburio) of the southern United States and West Indies. -- Bonnet limpet (Zoöl.), a name given, from their shape, to various species of shells (family Calyptræidæ). -- Bonnet monkey (Z…

Bear's-breech, or Acanthus.

ishment of the young; a mammma; a teat. My brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother. Cant. viii. 1.

connects the paddle boxes. -- Bridge of the nose, the upper, bony part of the nose. -- Cantalever bridge. See under Cantalever. -- Draw bridge. See Drawbridge. -- Flying bridge, a temporary bridge suspended or floating, as for the passage of armies; also, a floating structure connected by a cable with an anchor or…

A tree (Terminalia latifolia) of Jamaica, the wood of which is used for boards, scantling, shingles, etc; -- sometimes called the almond tree, from the shape of its fruit.