Search the Dictionary

The Charioteer, or Wagoner, a constellation in the northern hemisphere, situated between Perseus and Gemini. It contains the bright star Capella.

The power derived from opinion, respect, or esteem; influence of character, office, or station, or mental or moral superiority, and the like; claim to be believed or obeyed; as, an historian of no authority; a magistrate of great authority.

A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made hea…

Madagascariensis), remarkable for its long fingers, sharp nails, and rodent-like incisor teeth.

A worshiper of Baal; a devotee of any false religion; an idolater.

, babirussa) of the East Indies, sometimes domesticated; the Indian hog. Its upper canine teeth or tusks are large and recurved.

Cynocephalus and Papio; the dog-faced ape. Baboons have dog-like muzzles and large canine teeth, cheek pouches, a short tail, and naked callosities on the buttocks. They are mostly African. See Mandrill, and Chacma, and Drill an ape.

A devotee of Bacchus; one who indulges in drunken revels; one who is noisy and riotous when intoxicated; a carouser. "Tipsy bacchanals." Shak.

rsons on a "board" marked off into twenty-four spaces called "points". Each player has fifteen pieces, or "men", the movements of which from point to point are determined by throwing dice. Formerly called tables. Backgammon board , a board for playing backgammon, often made in the form of two rectangular trays hinged t…

k of wood, forming the of a fire on the hearth. [U.S.] There was first a backlog, from fifteen to four and twenty inches in diameter and five feet long, imbedded in the ashes. S. G. Goodrich.

A portable oven in which baking is done. [U.S.] A baker's dozen, thirteen. -- Baker foot, a distorted foot. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor. -- Baker's itch, a rash on the back of the hand, caused by the irritating properties of yeast. -- Baker's salt, the subcarbonate of ammonia, sometimes used instead of soda, in making bread.…

of small fishes or shrimps, pounded up with salt and spices, and then dried. It is much esteemed in China.

Pledge; security. [Obs.] Spenser. Band saw, a saw in the form of an endless steel belt, with teeth on one edge, running over wheels.

A steep acclivity, as the slope of a hill, or the side of a ravine.

A raised way or foot bank, running along the inside of a parapet, on which musketeers stand to fire upon the enemy.

e Bark stove (below). -- Bark pit, a pit filled with bark and water, in which hides are steeped in tanning. -- Bark stove (Hort.), a glazed structure for keeping tropical plants, having a bed of tanner's bark (called a bark bed) or other fermentable matter which produces a moist heat.

Wearing rich caparisons. Fifteen hundred men . . . barded and richly trapped. Stow.

gainor contracts to convey the lands to the bargainee, and becomes by such contract a trustee for and seized to the use of the bargainee. The statute then completes the purchase; i.e., the bargain vests the use, and the statute vests the possession. Blackstone. -- Into the bargain, over and above what is stipulated; b…

A short sword or dagger, worn in the fifteenth century. [Written also baslard.] Fairholt.

A Bessemer or open-hearth steel-making process in which a lining that is basic, or not siliceous, is used, and additions of basic material are made to the molten charge during treatment. Opposed to acid process, above. Called also Thomas process.