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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



2,685 words match “FIR”

BAROKO n.
A form or mode of syllogism of which the first proposition is a universal affirmative, and the other two are particular negative.
BASCINET n.
A light helmet, at first open, but later made with a visor. [Written also basinet, bassinet, basnet.]
BASE n.
e under Altern. -- Attic base. (Arch.) See under Attic. -- Base course. (Arch.) (a) The first or lower course of a foundation wall, made of large stones of a mass of concrete; -- called also foundation course. (b) The architectural member forming the transition between the basement and the wall above. -- Base hit (B…
BASE-BURNER n.
furnace or stove in which the fuel is contained in a hopper or chamber, and is fed to the fire as the lower stratum is consumed.
BASILICAN a.
Of, relating to, or resembling, a basilica; basilical. There can be no doubt that the first churches in Constantinople were in the basilican form. Milman.
BASIS n.
The ground work the first or fundamental principle; that which supports. The basis of public credit is good faith. A. Hamilton.
BASK v.
To warm by continued exposure to heat; to warm with genial heat. Basks at the fire his hairy strength. Milton.
BASTE v.
or with long stitches; -- usually, that the work may be held in position until sewed more firmly. Shak.
BASTION n.
g of two faces and two flanks, and so constructed that it is able to defend by a flanking fire the adjacent curtain, or wall which extends from one bastion to another. Two adjacent bastions are connected by the curtain, which joins the flank of one with the adjacent flank of the other. The distance between the flanks o…
BAT n.
at bolt (Machinery), a bolt barbed or jagged at its butt or tang to make it hold the more firmly. Knight.
BATTERY n.
work. -- Battery en écharpe, one that plays obliquely. -- Battery gun, a gun capable of firing 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, project…
BATTLE RANGE n.
The range within which the fire of small arms is very destructive. With the magazine rifle, this is six hundred yards.
BATTLEMENT n.
pl. The whole parapet, consisting of alternate solids and open spaces. At first purely a military feature, afterwards copied on a smaller scale with decorative features, as for churches.
BAVIN n.
A fagot of brushwood, or other light combustible matter, for kindling fires; refuse of brushwood. [Obs. or Dial. Eng.]
BEACON n. 2 definitions
A signal fire to notify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning. No flaming beacons cast their blaze afar. Gay.
BEAD n.
A small knob of metal on a firearm, used for taking aim (whence the expression to draw a bead, for, to take aim).
BEAR v. 2 definitions
To corroborate; to confirm. -- To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking. "Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings." Addison.
BEAT v.
t the bush, to approach a subject circuitously. -- To beat up and down (Hunting), to run first one way and then another; -- said of a stag. -- To beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to get helpers or participators in an enterprise.
BECKON n.
A sign made without words; a beck. "At the first beckon." Bolingbroke.
BECQUEREL RAYS n.
Radiations first observed by the French physicist Henri Becquerel, in working with uranium and its compounds. They consist of a mixture of alpha, beta, and gamma rays.
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