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Lower; inferior; applied to impulses or springs of action. [R.] "Basilar instincts." H. W. Beecher.

r arrangement of troops (brigades, regiments, battalions, etc.), or of a naval force, for action. A drawing up the armies in battalia. Jer. Taylor.

A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; an engagement; a combat.

itive verb transitive; as, befall (to fall upon); bespeak (to speak for). (c) To make the action of a verb particular or definite; as, beget (to get as offspring); beset (to set around).

ater-worn stones, gravel, sand, and other shore deposits, above the present level of wave action, whether actually raised by elevation of the coast, as in Norway, or left by the receding waters, as in many lake and river regions.

n attack, or retreat, etc. -- Beat of a watch, or clock, the stroke or sound made by the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of beat, according as the strokes is at equal or unequal intervals.

To do the first act or the first part of an action; to enter upon or commence something new, as a new form or state of being, or course of action; to take the first step; to start. "Tears began to flow." Dryden. When I begin, I will also make an end. 1 Sam. iii. 12.

The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Gen. i. 1.

God, believe also in me." John xiv. 1. (c) To believe that the qualities or effects of an action or state are beneficial: as, to believe in sea bathing, or in abstinence from alcoholic beverages. -- To believe on, to accept implicitly as an object of religious trust or obedience; to have faith in.

A young lady of superior beauty and attractions; a handsome lady, or one who attracts notice in society; a fair lady.

An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind. Bellows camera, in photography, a form of ca…

held, with a just loathing and disdain, . . . how below all history the persons and their actions were. Milton. Who thinks no fact below his regard. Hallam.

he doctrine of utilitarianism taught by Jeremy Bentham; the doctrine that the morality 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 exp…

A transparent crystalline substance, C6H5.CO.NH2, obtained by the action of ammonia upon chloride of benzoyl, as also by several other reactions with benzoyl compounds.

naphtha produced by the destructive distillation of coal, from which it is separated by fractional distillation. The name is sometimes applied also to the impure commercial product or benzole, and also, but rarely, to a similar mixed product of petroleum. Benzene nucleus, Benzene ring (Chem.), a closed chain or ring, c…

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

To asperse with calumny or reproach. Whom never faction could bespatter. Swift.

Utmost; highest endeavor or state; most nearly perfect thing, or being, or action; as, to do one's best; to the best of our ability. At best, in the utmost degree or extent applicable to the case; under the most favorable circumstances; as, life is at best very short. -- For best, finally. [Obs.] "Those constitutions…

To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; -- usually with the reciprocal pronoun. You have so bestirred your valor. Shak. Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. Milton.

Belonging to, or participated in by, two, and involving reciprocal action or affecting their mutual relation; as, opposition between science and religion. An intestine struggle, open or secret, between authority and liberty. Hume.