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High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. [He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley.

Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian. Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all. Swift.

Obligation; tie of duty. He must resolve by no means to be . . . brought under the bondage of onserving oaths. South.

To form or enlarge by means of a boring instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole. Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. T. W. Harris.

An ancient species of divination by means of plants, esp. sage and fig leaves.

de of a strip of wood, or other elastic material, with a cord connecting the two ends, by means of which an arrow is propelled.

In hatmaking, the act or process of separating and distributing the fur or hair by means of a bow, to prepare it for felting.

To move around by means of braces; as, to brace the yards. To brace about (Naut.), to turn (a yard) round for the contrary tack. -- To brace a yard (Naut.), to move it horizontally by means of a brace. -- To brace in (Naut.), to turn (a yard) by hauling in the weather brace. -- To brace one's self, to call up one's…

r early larval stage of certain starfishes, having a bilateral structure, and swimming by means of bands of vibrating cilia.

An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine.

fall out; to terminate friendship. To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited. Collier.

pier up stream, and made to pass from bank to bank by the action of the current or other means. -- Girder bridge or Truss bridge, a bridge formed by girders, or by trusses resting upon abutments or piers. -- Lattice bridge, a bridge formed by lattice girders. -- Pontoon bridge, Ponton bridge. See under Pontoon. --…

nt. -- To bring over. (a) To fetch or bear across. (b) To convert by persuasion or other means; to cause to change sides or an opinion. -- To bring to. (a) To resuscitate; to bring back to consciousness or life, as a fainting person. (b) (Naut.) To check the course of, as of a ship, by dropping the anchor, or by coun…

applied to any subject, and retaining the literal idea more or less clearly, the precise meaning depending largely on the substantive. A broad mixture of falsehood. Locke.

Mean; servile. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

To give an appearance of bronze to, by a coating of bronze powder, or by other means; to make of the color of bronze; as, to bronze plaster casts; to bronze coins or medals. The tall bronzed black-eyed stranger. W. Black.

ommunicating to articles in metal, wood, clay, plaster, etc., the appearance of bronze by means of bronze powders, or imitative painting, or by chemical processes. Tomlinson.

tongues or catches, used for fastening things together, as parts of dress or harness, by means of a strap passing through the frame and pierced by the tongue.

To raise or place on a foundation; to form, establish, or produce by using appropriate means. Who builds his hopes in air of your good looks. Shak.

To intimidate with threats and by an overbearing, swaggering demeanor; to act the part of a bully toward. For the last fortnight there have been prodigious shoals of volunteers gone over to bully the French, upon hearing the peace was just signing. Tatler.