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A building used by the Romans as a place of public meeting, with court rooms, etc., attached.

habits the northern seas of Europe and America, and grows to a length of more than forty feet. It is a harmless species.

A sweet Spanish wine like muscadel in flavor. Brown bastard is your only drink. Shak.

ng the Turks, Chinese, and others, consisting in beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

A sheet of cotton used for filling quilts or comfortables; batting.

An aboriginal American name for the sweet potato (Ipomæa batatas).

ng; as, (a) pl. (Com. & Arch.) Sawed timbers about 7 by 2 1/2 inches and not less than 6 feet long. Brande & C. (b) (Naut.) A strip of wood used in fastening the edges of a tarpaulin to the deck, also around masts to prevent chafing. (c) A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part, to cover a crack, etc. Batten door (…

Cotton in sheets, prepared for use in making quilts, etc.; as, cotton batting.

To join in battle; to contend in fight; as, to battle over theories. To meet in arms, and battle in the plain. Prior.

aving from ten thousand to fifteen thousand tons displacement, and intended to be fit to meet the heaviest ships in line of battle.

To take place; to happen; as, the meeting was on Thursday.

A bickern; a bench anvil with a long beak, adapted to reach the interior surface of sheet metal ware; the horn of an anvil.

ir 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 off (Naut.), to steer away, as from land. -- To bear up. (a) To be supported; to have fortitude; to…

Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

To keep from motion, or stop the progress of, by the stilling of the wind; as, the fleet was becalmed.

Blankets, sheets, coverlets, etc., for a bed. Shak.

A gall produced on rosebushes, esp. on the sweetbrier or eglantine, by a puncture from the ovipositor of a gallfly (Rhodites rosæ). It was once supposed to have medicinal properties.

of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through; -- called also bee blocks. Bee beetle (Zoöl.), a beetle (Trichodes apiarius) parasitic in beehives. -- Bee bird (Zoöl.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird. -- Bee flower (Bot.), an orchidaceous plant of the ge…

To be necessary for; to be fit for; to be meet for, with respect to necessity, duty, or convenience; -- mostly used impersonally. And thus it behooved Christ to suffer. Luke xxiv. 46. [Also written behove.]

as distinguished from a thing without life; as, a human being; spiritual beings. What a sweet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.