Search the Dictionary

ebone," from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.

A signal fire; an alarm fire. Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide The glaring balefires blaze no more. Sir W. Scott.

Full of deadly or pernicious influence; destructive. "Baleful enemies." Shak. Four infernal rivers that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams. Milton.

In a baleful manner; perniciously.

The quality or state of being baleful.

A badgerlike animal of India (Arcionyx collaris).

A crossbow. [Obs.] Blount.

Like a fish of the genus Balistes; of the family Balistidæ. See Filefish.

A narrow opening, often cruciform, through which arrows might be discharged.

A pole or a frame raised as a sea beacon or a landmark.

wed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside. Bad plowmen made balks of such ground. Fuller.

One who, or that which balks.

In manner to balk or frustrate.

Uneven; ridgy. [R.] Holinshed.

Apt to balk; as, a balky horse.

Any round or roundish body or mass; a sphere or globe; as, a ball of twine; a ball of snow.

An ornament resembling a ball placed in a circular flower, the petals of which form a cup round it, -- usually inserted in a hollow molding.

A popular kind of narrative poem, adapted for recitation or singing; as, the ballad of Chevy Chase; esp., a sentimental or romantic poem in short stanzas.

A seller or maker of ballads; a poetaster. Shak.

A form of French versification, sometimes imitated in English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.