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That which secures against an enemy, or defends from attack; any means of defense or protection. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense, . . . the floating bulwark of our island. Blackstone.

An idle, worthless fellow, who is without any visible means of support; a dissipated sponger. [Slang, U.S.]

A kind of swindling game or scheme, by means of cards or by a sham lottery. [Written also bunco.] Bunko steerer, a person employed as a decoy in bunko. [Slang, U.S.]

To encumber with weight (literal or figurative); to lay a heavy load upon; to load. I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened. 2 Cor. viii. 13.

A system of carrying on the business of government by means of departments or bureaus, each under the control of a chief, in contradiction to a system in which the officers of government have an associated authority and responsibility; also, government conducted on this system.

rated parody; grotesque satire. Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accouterments of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people. Addison.

business, to occupy one's self with a thing as a special charge or duty. [Colloq.] -- To mean business, to be earnest. [Colloq.]

With, as means, way, process, etc.; through means of; with aid of; through; through the act or agency of; as, a city is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take by force.

e government of their members. In this sense the word has probably been influenced by by, meaning secondary or aside.

A private path; an obscure way; indirect means. God known, my son, By what bypaths, and indirect crooked ways, I met this crown. Shak.

hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. The cabalists pretend even to foretell events by this means.

Of or pertaining to the cabala; containing or conveying an occult meaning; mystic. The Heptarchus is a cabalistic of the first chapter of Genesis. Hallam.

A lowbred, presuming person; a mean, vulgar fellow. [Cant] Thackeray.

To intrude or live on another meanly; to beg. [Prov. or Slang, Eng.] Wright.

See Cadmean.

An instrument with a graduated disk by means of which the angles of gems are measured in the process of cutting and polishing.

Base; wicked and mean; cowardly; despicable. Arnold had sped his caitiff flight. W. Irving.

a powder, or to a friable state, by the action of heat; to expel volatile matter from by means of heat, as carbonic acid from limestone, and thus (usually) to produce disintegration; as to, calcine bones.

r purpose; to adapt by forethought or calculation; to fit or prepare by the adaptation of means to an end; as, to calculate a system of laws for the government and protection of a free people. [Religion] is . . . calculated for our benefit. Abp. Tillotson.

An apparatus for conveying and distributing heat, especially by means of hot water circulating in tubes.