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Severe in modes of judging, or living, or acting; rigid; rigorous; stern; as, an austere man, look, life. From whom the austere Etrurian virtue rose. Dryden.

The power of the driving motor varies from about 4 to 50 H. P. for ordinary vehicles, ranging from the run-about to the touring car, up to as high as 200 H. P. for specially built racing cars. Automobiles are also commonly, and generally in British usage, called motor cars.

Seen with one's own eyes; belonging to, or connected with, personal observation; as, autoptic testimony or experience.

Of, belonging to, or peculiar to, autumn; as, an autumnal tint; produced or gathered in autumn; as, autumnal fruits; flowering in autumn; as, an autumnal plant. Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa. Milton.

A particular time (as in Italy, at the ringing of the bells about half an hour after sunset, and also at early dawn), when the people repeat the Ave Maria. Ave Maria ! blessed be the hour ! Byron.

Belonging to, or resembling, oats or the oat grasses.

To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on. [Obs.] Thy judgment in avenging thine enemies. Bp. Hall.

Longing eagerly for; eager; greedy. "Avid of gold, yet greedier of renown." Southey.

Just drawn out of the ground, and hanging perpendicularly; atrip; -- said of the anchor. Totten.

Belonging to the axis of the body; as, the axial skeleton; or to the axis of any appendage or organ; as, the axial bones. Axial line (Magnetism), the line taken by the magnetic force in passing from one pole of a horseshoe magnet to the other. Faraday.

Pertaining to Babylon, or made there; as Babylonic garments,carpets, or hangings.

Bachelorhood; also, a manner or peculiarity belonging to bachelors. W. Irving.

ulary. -- Back step (Mil.), the retrograde movement of a man or body of men, without changing front. -- Back stream, a current running against the main current of a stream; an eddy. -- To take the back track, to retrace one's steps; to retreat. [Colloq.]

Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

A stitch made by setting the needle back of the end of the last stitch, and bringing it out in front of the end.

A microscopic vegetable organism, belonging to the class Algæ, usually in the form of a jointed rodlike filament, and found in putrefying organic infusions. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity…

To make to look like a bagpipe. To bagpipe the mizzen (Naut.), to lay it aback by bringing the sheet to the mizzen rigging. Totten.

or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks." Tubs hanging in the balks. Chaucer.

A popular kind of narrative poem, adapted for recitation or singing; as, the ballad of Chevy Chase; esp., a sentimental or romantic poem in short stanzas.

llast 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.