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A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. [Often in the pl.]

A name given to several species of Salsola from which soda is made, by burning the barilla in heaps and lixiviating the ashes.

A member of a religious order, named from St. Barnabas.

er, or column, when treated as a separate feature, usually in projection, or especially ornamented.

The name given to several aromatic herbs of the Mint family, but chiefly to the common or sweet basil (Ocymum basilicum), and the bush basil, or lesser basil (O. minimum), the leaves of which are used in cookery. The name is also given to several kinds of mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Basil thyme, a name given to the f…

nturies of Christianity, the plan of which was taken from the basilica of the Romans. The name is still applied to some churches by way of honorary distinction.

A large piece of ordnance, so called from its supposed resemblance to the serpent of that name, or from its size. [Obs.]

The pedestal of a column, pillar, or statue. [Obs.] If no basis bear my rising name. Pope.

tress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

An aboriginal American name for the sweet potato (Ipomæa batatas).

atavi, an ancient Germanic tribe; or to (b) as, a Batavian legion. Batavian Republic, the name given to Holland by the French after its conquest in 1795.

A name given to several species of fishes: (a) The Malthe vespertilio of the Atlantic coast. (b) The flying gurnard of the Atlantic (Cephalacanthus spinarella). (c) The California batfish or sting ray (Myliobatis Californicus.)

A city in the west of England, resorted to for its hot springs, which has given its name to various objects. Bath brick, a preparation of calcareous earth, in the form of a brick, used for cleaning knives, polished metal, etc. -- Bath chair, a kind of chair on wheels, as used by invalids at Bath. "People walked out, o…

A name given by Prof. Huxley to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol. He supposed that it was free living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.

The fool's club. [Obs.] "A fool's bauble was a short stick with a head ornamented with an ass's ears fantastically carved upon it." Nares.

Massachusetts, which had been called the Colony of Massachusetts Bay; -- a nickname.

Mississippi; -- a nickname, from its numerous bayous.

he waves; especially, a sandy or pebbly shore; the strand. Beach flea (Zoöl.), the common name of many species of amphipod Crustacea, of the family Orchestidæ, living on the sea beaches, and leaping like fleas. -- Beach grass (Bot.), a coarse grass (Ammophila arundinacea), growing on the sandy shores of lakes and seas…

A little perforated ball, to be strung on a thread, and worn for ornament; or used in a rosary for counting prayers, as by Roman Catholics and Mohammedans, whence the phrases to tell beads, to at one's beads, to bid beads, etc., meaning, to be at prayer.

Ornamental work in beads.