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To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail. Blench not at thy chosen lot. Bryant. This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never blenched from its fulfillment. Jeffrey.

One who blenches, flinches, or shrinks back.

To talk loudly; to boast; to storm. [Colloq.] You blow behind my back, but dare not say anything to my face. Bartlett. To blow hot and cold Etym: (a saying derived from a fable of , to favor a thing at one time and treat it coldly at another; or to appear both to favor and to oppose. -- To blow off, to let steam escap…

, a molding board; a board or surface painted or arranged for a game; as, a chessboard; a backgammon board.

An aquatic hemipterous insect of the genus Notonecta; -- so called from swimming on its back, which gives it the appearance of a little boat. Called also boat fly, boat insect, boatman, and water boatman.

In Persia, a punishment of capital offenders, by laying them on the back in a covered boat, where they are left to perish.

louse (Pediculus vestimenti), which sometimes infests the human body and clothes. See Grayback. -- Body plan (Shipbuilding), an end elevation, showing the conbour of the sides of a ship at certain points of her length. -- Body politic, the collective body of a nation or state as politically organized, or as exercisin…

(a) Perfectly upright; perpendicular; straight up; unbendingly erect. Addison. (b) On the back at full length. [Obs.] Chaucer.

hat its joints come in the middle of the first, and the same position of stretchers comes back every fifth line; Combined cross and English bond, where the inner part of the wall is laid in the one method, the outer in the other.

A covering for the head, worn by women, usually protecting more or less the back and sides of the head, but no part of the forehead. The shape of the bonnet varies greatly at different times; formerly the front part projected, and spread outward, like the mouth of a funnel.

Hose made to be worn with boots, as by travelers on horseback. Sir W. Scott.

o as to startle some one (as by children in play), or of looking out and drawing suddenly back, as if frightened. I for sorrow sung, That such a king should play bopeep, And go the fools among. Shak.

One who assists or supports another in a contest; an abettor; a backer. [Colloq.] Lord Palmerston considered himself the bottleholder of oppressed states. The London Times.

rface. Barrels with the bottom knocked out. Macaulay. No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms. W. Irving.

ul. To box off (Naut.), to turn the head of a vessel either way by bracing the headyards aback. -- To box the compass (Naut.), to name the thirty-two points of the compass in their order.

er heel; -- so called from the circumstance of bracing the head yards abox (i. e., sharp aback, on the wind). Totten.

The movable piece which closes the breech of a breech-loading firearm, and resists the backward force of the discharge. It is withdrawn for the insertion of a cartridge, and closed again before the gun is fired.

That part of a harness which passes round the breech of a horse, enabling him to hold back a vehicle.

le road. (a) Same as Bridle path. Lowell. (b) A road in a pleasure park reserved for horseback exercise. -- Bridle track, a bridle path. -- Scolding bridle. See Branks, 2.

e, a morsel of bread. 1 Kings xvii. 11. To France shall we convey you safe, And bring you back. Shak.