Search the Dictionary

African people of the Bantu stock, divided into many tribes, subject to the English. They formerly practiced cannibalism, but have now adopted many European customs.

One of the Cheiroptera, an order of flying mammals, in which the wings are formed by a membrane stretched between the elongated fingers, legs, and tail. The common bats are small and insectivorous. See Cheiroptera and Vampire. Bat tick (Zoöl.), a wingless, dipterous insect of the genus Nycteribia, parasitic on bats.…

A student at Oxford who is supplied with provisions from the buttery; formerly, one who paid for nothing but what he called for, answering nearly to a sizar at Cambridge. Wright.

A kind of broadax formerly used as an offensive weapon.

A small copper coin, with a mixture of silver, formerly current in some parts of Germany and Switzerland. It was worth about four cents.

Having a beach or beaches; formed by a beach or beaches; shingly. The beachy girdle of the ocean. Shak.

Among distillers, a certain degree of strength in alcoholic liquor, as formerly ascertained by the floating or sinking of glass globules of different specific gravities thrown into it; now ascertained by more accurate meters.

Barley; the six-rowed barley or the four-rowed barley, commonly the former (Hord. vulgare). [Obs. except in North of Eng. and Scot.]

A conception or image of consummate beauty, moral or physical, formed in the mind, free from all the deformities, defects, and blemishes seen in actual existence; an ideal or faultless standard or model.

A hat, formerly made of the fur of the beaver, but now usually of silk. A brown beaver slouched over his eyes. Prescott.

A long screw formerly used to fasten a bedpost to one of the adjacent side pieces.

The second crust formed in port and some other wines after long keeping. It consists of pure, shining scales of tartar, supposed to resemble the wing of a bee.

Formerly; aforetime. [They] dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 2 Kings xiii. 5.

A man who rings a bell, especially to give notice of anything in the streets. Formerly, also, a night watchman who called the hours. Milton.

The womb. [Obs.] Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. Jer. i. 5.

A society or association formed for mutual insurance, as among tradesmen or in labor unions, to provide for relief in sickness, old age, and for the expenses of burial. Usually called friendly society in Great Britain.

constitution of the benzene molecule, C6H6, and as the type on which its derivatives are formed.

A yellowish crystalline substance, C6H5.CO.CO.C6H5, formed from benzoin by the action of oxidizing agents, and consisting of a doubled benzoyl radical.

A salt formed by the union of benzoic acid with any salifiable base.

of benzoic acid, of the oil of bitter almonds, and of an extensive series of compounds. [Formerly written also benzule.]