Search the Dictionary

A gold coin of Byzantium or Constantinople, varying in weight and value, usually (those current in England) between a sovereign and a half sovereign. There were also white or silver bezants. [Written also besant, byzant, etc.]

To drink; to sip; to tipple. He was constantly bibbing. Locke.

Double location; the state or power of being in two places at the same instant; -- a miraculous power attributed to some of the saints. Tylor.

An aspect of the planets when they are distant from each other by twice the fifth part of a great circle -- that is, twice 72 degrees.

A native or inhabitant of Biscay.

In the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Anglican or Protestant Episcopal churches, one ordained to the highest order of the ministry, superior to the priesthood, and generally claiming to be a successor of the Apostles. The bishop is usually the spiritual head or ruler of a diocese, bishopric, or see. Bishop in partibus [inf…

en of the base is as two to one. The bisilicates include many of the most common and important minerals.

Blatant quality.

unds or soldiers) a first taste or sight of blood, as in hunting or war. It was most important too that his troops should be blooded. Macaulay.

A red or reddish color; a rosy tint. Light's last blushes tinged the distant hills. Lyttleton. At first blush, or At the first blush, at the first appearance or view. "At the first blush, we thought they had been ships come from France." Hakluyt.

The tropic bird. Boatswain's mate, an assistant of the boatswain. Totten.

Of or pertaining to Bohemia, or to the language of its ancient inhabitants or their descendants. See Bohemian, n., 2.

To bolt to the bran, to examine thoroughly, so as to separate or discover everything important. Chaucer. This bolts the matter fairly to the bran. Harte. The report of the committee was examined and sifted and bolted to the bran. Burke.

The skipjack (Sarda Mediterranea) of the Atlantic, an important and abundant food fish on the coast of the United States, and (S. Chilensis) of the Pacific, and other related species. They are large and active fishes, of a blue color with black oblique stripes.

on; the boring of piles and ship timbers by certain marine mollusks. One of the most important applications of boring is in the formation of artesian wells. Tomlinson.

that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Burrill. Erskine.

or a lake and a seas; as, the Bosporus (formerly the Thracian Bosporus) or Strait of Constantinople, between the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora; the Cimmerian Bosporus, between the Black Sea and Sea of Azof. [Written also Bosphorus.]

The affections; fancy; imagination. [R.] Shak. To have on the brain, to have constantly in one's thoughts, as a sort of monomania. [Low] Brain box or case, the bony on cartilaginous case inclosing the brain. -- Brain coral, Brain stone coral (Zoöl), a massive reef-building coral having the surface covered by ridges se…

A native or an inhabitant of Brazil. Brazilian pebble. See Pebble, n., 2.

A single respiration, or the time of making it; a single act; an instant. He smiles and he frowns in a breath. Dryden.