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rality of actions is estimated and determined by their utility; also, the theory that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are the only motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and jural conceptions.

To make torpid; to deprive of sensation or sensibility; to stupefy; as, a hand or foot benumbed by cold. The creeping death benumbed her senses first. Dryden.

Made sottish, senseless, or infatuated; characterized by drunken stupidity, or by infatuation; stupefied. "Besotted devotion." Sir W. Scott. -- Be*sot"ted*ly, adv. -- Be*sot"ted*ness, n. Milton.

of a beast; brutal; below the dignity of reason or humanity; irrational; carnal; beastly; sensual. Shak.

Out of one's senses; distracted; mad. [Obs.] Shak.

- To go beyond, to exceed 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.

or translated; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; -- sometimes in a restricted sense, the Old Testament; as, King James's Bible; Douay Bible; Luther's Bible. Also, the book which is made up of writings similarly accepted by the Jews; as, a rabbinical Bible.

greatness, fullness, importance, inflation, distention, etc., whether in a good or a bad sense; as, a big heart; a big voice; big looks; to look big. As applied to looks, it indicates haughtiness or pride. God hath not in heaven a bigger argument. Jer. Taylor.

ef or opinion opposed to or differing from them as unreasonable or wicked. In an extended sense, a person who is intolerant of opinions which conflict with his own, as in politics or morals; one obstinately and blindly devoted to his own church, party, belief, or opinion. To doubt, where bigots had been content to wond…

Nonsense; vain words. B. Jonson.

, a blind channel leading out from a river; -- sometimes called an anabranch. This is the sense of the word as used in the Public Works Department; but the term has also been locally applied to mere back-waters forming stagnant pools and to certain water channels arising from a source.

, city, or country, where a person is born; place of origin or birth, in its more general sense. "The birthplace of valor." Burns.

To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth. "Frosts do bite the meads." Shak.

The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.…

In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud. Shak.

A ball of black color, esp. one used as a negative in voting; -- in this sense usually two words.

titute of interests, affections, hopes, etc.; as, to live a blank existence; destitute of sensations; as, blank unconsciousness.

Having the sensibilities deadened by excess or frequency of enjoyment; sated or surfeited with pleasure; used up.

To cry, as a calf or sheep; to bleat; to make a senseless noise; to talk inconsiderately. [Low]

To talk foolishly, or nonsensically. G. Eliot.