Search the Dictionary

In comfortable circumstances as regards property; forehanded. Rich and much beforehand. Bacon.

ruth of, upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider; as, to believe a person, a statement, or a doctrine. Our conqueror (whom I now Of force believe almighty). Mi…

Anything that resembles a belt, or that encircles or crosses like a belt; a strip or stripe; as, a belt of trees; a belt of sand.

Encircled by, or secured with, a belt; as, a belted plaid; girt with a belt, as an honorary distinction; as, a belted knight; a belted earl.

At best, in the utmost degree or extent applicable to the case; under the most favorable circumstances; as, life is at best very short. -- For best, finally. [Obs.] "Those constitutions . . . are now established for best, and not to be mended." Milton. -- To get the best of, to gain an advantage over, whether fairly…

To put in a certain situation or condition; to circumstance; to place. [Only in p. p.] They shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: . . . and curse their king and their God. Is. viii. 21. Many far worse bestead than ourselves. Barrow.

To draw into, or catch in, a trap; to insnare; to circumvent. Gower.

se the good qualities of. Love betters what is best. Wordsworth. He thought to better his circumstances. Thackeray.

ceed in ingenuity, in research, or in anything else; hence, in a bed sense, to deceive or circumvent. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. 1 Thess. iv. 6.

A circle in or, i. e., gold, representing the gold coin called bezant. Burke.

ge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.

es, a paper issued by a State, on the mere faith and credit of the State, and designed to circulate as money. No State shall "emit bills of credit." U. S. Const. Peters. Wharton. Bouvier (b) Among merchants, a letter sent by an agent or other person to a merchant, desiring him to give credit to the bearer for goods or…

To make fast ( a thing) about or upon something, as by tying; to encircle with something; as, to bind a belt about one; to bind a compress upon a part.

set screw used to bind parts together, esp. one for making a connection in an electrical circuit.

t of the planets when they are distant from each other by twice the fifth part of a great circle -- that is, twice 72 degrees.

A kind of wood-turning lathe for making noncircular and irregular forms, as felloes, gun stocks, lasts, spokes, etc., after a given pattern. The pattern and work rotate on parallel spindles in the same direction with the same speed, and the work is shaped by a rapidly rotating cutter whose position is varied by the pat…

The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial.

Any vessel or canal in which blood circulates in an animal, as an artery or vein.

The whale; -- so called by seamen, from the circumstance of its spouting up a column of water.

; 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.