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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



1,499 words match “TRACT”

BIND v. 3 definitions
To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind; as, attraction binds the planets to the sun; frost binds the earth, or the streams. He bindeth the floods from overflowing. Job xxviii. 11. Whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years. Luke xiii. 16.
BIPARTITE a.
Being in two parts; having two correspondent parts, as a legal contract or writing, one for each party; shared by two; as, a bipartite treaty.
BIRTH n.
Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble extraction. Elected without reference to birth, but solely for qualifications. Prescott.
BIRTHLESS a.
Of mean extraction. [R.] Sir W. Scott.
BISCUIT n.
are formed in miniature. Meat biscuit, an alimentary preparation consisting of matters extracted from meat by boiling, or of meat ground fine and combined with flour, so as to form biscuits.
BISTER; BISTRE n.
A dark brown pigment extracted from the soot of wood.
BITTER a.
), tale earth; calcined magnesia. -- Bitter principles (Chem.), a class of substances, extracted from vegetable products, having strong bitter taste but with no sharply defined chemical characteristics. -- Bitter salt, Epsom salts;; magnesium sulphate. -- Bitter vetch (Bot.), a name given to two European leguminous…
BIVALVE n.
which is usually strengthened by prominences called teeth. The shell is closed by the contraction of two transverse muscles attached to the inner surface, as in the clam, -- or by one, as in the oyster. See Mollusca.
BLAZING a.
zing torches. Sir W. Scott. Blazing star. (a) A comet. [Obs.] (b) A brilliant center of attraction. (c) (Bot.) A name given to several plants; as, to Chamælirium luteum of the Lily family; Liatris squarrosa; and Aletris farinosa, called also colicroot and star grass.
BLOOM n.
red fruits or leaves, as on grapes, plums, etc. Hence: Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness; a flush; a glow. A new, fresh, brilliant world, with all the bloom upon it. Thackeray.
BO TREE n.
bo tree of the Buddhists (Ficus religiosa), which is planted close to every temple, and attracts almost as much veneration as the status of the god himself. . . . It differs from the banyan (Ficus Indica) by sending down no roots from its branches. Tennent.
BOND n.
A unit of chemical attraction; as, oxygen has two bonds of affinity. It is often represented in graphic formulæ by a short line or dash. See Diagram of Benzene nucleus, and Valence. Arbitration bond. See under Arbitration. -- Bond crediter (Law), a creditor whose debt is secured by a bond. Blackstone. -- Bond debt (L…
BONE n.
called also animal charcoal. It is used as a decolorizing material in filtering sirups, extracts, etc., and as a black pigment. See Ivory black, under Black. -- Bone cave, a cave in which are found bones of extinct or recent animals, mingled sometimes with the works and bones of man. Am. Cyc. -- Bone dust, ground or…
BONNY a.
Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. Till bonny Susan sped across the plain. Gay. Far from the bonnie banks of Ayr. Burns.
BORDER v.
ers a forest, or is bordered on the north by a forest. The country is bordered by a broad tract called the "hot region." Prescott. Shebah and Raamah . . . border the sea called the Persian gulf. Sir W. Raleigh.
BORDERER n.
One who dwells on a border, or at the extreme part or confines of a country, region, or tract of land; one who dwells near to a place or region. Borderers of the Caspian. Dyer.
BORROW v.
) from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; -- a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.
BOTTOMRY n.
A contract in the nature of a mortgage, by which the owner of a ship, or the master as his agent, hypothecates and binds the ship (and sometimes the accruing freight) as security for the repayment of money advanced or lent for the use of the ship, if she terminates her voyage successfully. If the ship is lost by perils…
BOULANGISM n.
h Gen. Georges Boulanger (d. 1891), whose militarism and advocacy of revenge on Germany attracted to him a miscellaneous party of monarchists and Republican malcontents. -- Bou*lan"gist (#), n.
BOWER n.
A rustic cottage or abode; poetically, an attractive abode or retreat. Shenstone. B. Johnson.
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