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Absent; gone; at a distance; as, the master is away from home.

ed; embarrassing. A long and awkward process. Macaulay. An awkward affair is one that has gone wrong, and is difficult to adjust. C. J. Smith.

A board serving as the back part of anything, as of a wagon.

Already past or gone; bygone. [R.] And flies unconscious o'er each backward year. Byron.

A half hoop for supporting the cover of a carrier's wagon, awning of a boat, etc.

Senseless jargon; ribaldry; nonsense; trash.

In early times, a separate building, usually polygonal, used for baptismal services. Small churches were often changed into baptisteries when larger churches were built near.

A popular song or melody sung by Venetian gondoliers.

A fortification, made in haste, of trees, earth, palisades, wagons, or anything that will obstruct the progress or attack of an enemy. It is usually an obstruction formed in streets to block an enemy's access.

The exterior side of the polygon, or that imaginary line which connects the salient angles of two adjacent bastions.

A fabulous serpent, or dragon. The ancients alleged that its hissing would drive away all other serpents, and that its breath, and even its look, was fatal. See Cockatrice. Make me not sighted like the basilisk. Shak.

a number, of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load. -- Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery. -- In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing. -- Masked battery, a…

A state of being obliged to face an antagonist or a difficulty, when escape has become impossible. Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay. Dryden. The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts. I. Taylor

y or recess in a room, and projecting outward from the wall, either in a rectangular, polygonal, or semicircular form; -- often corruptly called a bow window.

otstocks, binds the sand together, and resists the encroachment of the waves. -- Beach wagon, a light open wagon with two or more seats. -- Raised beach, an accumulation of water-worn stones, gravel, sand, and other shore deposits, above the present level of wave action, whether actually raised by elevation of the co…

e the wind. -- To bear back, to retreat. "Bearing back from the blows of their sable antagonist." Sir W. Scott. -- To bear down upon (Naut.), to approach from the windward side; as, the fleet bore down upon the enemy. -- To bear in with (Naut.), to run or tend toward; as, a ship bears in with the land. -- To bear o…

r. Beard grass (Bot.), a coarse, perennial grass of different species of the genus Andropogon. -- To one's beard, to one's face; in open defiance.

A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat.

Oregon; -- a nickname.

able ordinaries, containing a third or a fifth part of the field. It crosses the field diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base. Bend sinister (Her.), an honorable ordinary drawn from the sinister chief to the dexter base.