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ballast of prosperity. Barrow. Ballast engine, a steam engine used in excavating and for digging and raising stones and gravel for ballast. -- Ship in ballast, a ship carring only ballast.

A ditcher; a drain digger. [Prov. Eng.]

A gigantic African tree (Adansonia digitata), also naturalized in India. See Adansonia.

Destitute; indigent; empty; unfurnished or scantily furnished; -- used with of (rarely with in) before the thing wanting or taken away; as, a room bare of furniture. "A bare treasury." Dryden.

The dignity or rank of a baron.

A dignity or degree of honor next below a baron and above a knight, having precedency of all orders of knights except those of the Garter. It is the lowest degree of honor that is hereditary. The baronets are commoners.

The fee or domain of a baron; the lordship, dignity, or rank of a baron.

Morally low. Hence: Low-minded; unworthy; without dignity of sentiment; ignoble; mean; illiberal; menial; as, a base fellow; base motives; base occupations. "A cruel act of a base and a cowardish mind." Robynson (More's Utopia). "Base ingratitude." Milton.

A digest of the laws of Justinian, translated from the original Latin into Greek, by order of Basil I., in the ninth century. P. Cyc.

A species of hellebore (Helleborus foetidus), with digitate leaves. It has an offensive smell and acrid taste, and is a powerful emetic, cathartic, and anthelmintic.

Characterizing the nature of a beast; contrary to the nature and dignity of man; brutal; filthy. The beastly vice of drinking to excess. Swift.

A spade for digging turf. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.

Prior or preceding in dignity, order, rank, right, or worth; rather than. He that cometh after me is preferred before me. John i. 15. The eldest son is before the younger in succession. Johnson.

o ask habitually by the wayside or from house to house; to live by asking alms. I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed. Luke xvi. 3.

In the condition of, or like, a beggar; suitable for a beggar; extremely indigent; poverty-stricken; mean; poor; contemptible. "A bankrupt, beggarly fellow." South. "A beggarly fellowship." Swift. "Beggarly elements." Gal. iv. 9.

The governor of a province of the Ottoman empire, next in dignity to the grand vizier.

To exalt to the dignity of a god; to deify. [Obs.] "Begodded saints." South.

Left a distance by, in progress of improvement Hence: Inferior to in dignity, rank, knowledge, or excellence, or in any achievement. I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 2 Cor. xi. 5.

Inferior to in rank, excellence, dignity, value, amount, price, etc.; lower in quality. "One degree below kings." Addison.

Lower in rank, dignity, or excellence than; as, brutes are beneath man; man is beneath angels in the scale of beings. Hence: Unworthy of; unbecoming. He will do nothing that is beneath his high station. Atterbury.