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Originally, the place of a king; but afterward, an apartment provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice; and hence, any large hall used for this purpose.

The entire tract of country drained by a river, or sloping towards a sea or lake.

larva makes and carries about a bag or basket-like case of silk and twigs, which it afterwards hangs up to shelter the pupa and wingless adult females.

Inclined upward; as, the basset edge of strata. Lyell.

The upward direction of a vein in a mine; the emergence of a stratum at the surface.

A work projecting outward from the main inclosure of a fortification, consisting 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…

To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.

The main body, as distinct from the van and rear; battalia. [Obs.] Hayward.

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.

A window forming a bay or recess in a room, and projecting outward from the wall, either in a rectangular, polygonal, or semicircular form; -- often corruptly called a bow window.

de and wind. [Southern U. S.] A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses. G. W. Cable.

e ship at right angles, or in the direction of her beams, and that point of the compass toward which her stern is directed. -- Beam center (Mach.), the fulcrum or pin on which the working beam of an engine vibrates. -- Beam compass, an instrument consisting of a rod or beam, having sliding sockets that carry steel or…

To render or give; to bring forward. "Your testimony bear" Dryden.

A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.

An advance of; farther onward, in place or time. The golden age . . . is before us. Carlyle.

for, or to ask to have a guardian appointed for. Else some will beg thee, in the court of wards. Harrington. Hence: To beg (one) for a fool, to take him for a fool. I beg to, is an elliptical expression for I beg leave to; as, I beg to inform you. -- To bag the question, to assume that which was to be proved in a disc…

ymen living in imitation of the Beguines. They arose in the thirteenth century, were afterward subjected to much persecution, and were suppressed by Innocent X. in

Toward the back part or rear; backward; as, to look behind.

In a state of backwardness, in respect to what is seasonable or appropriate, or as to what should have been accomplished; not equally forward with some other person or thing; dilatory; backward; late; tardy; as, behindhand in studies or in work. In this also [dress] the country are very much behindhand. Addison.…

That part of the human body which extends downward from the breast to the thighs, and contains the bowels, or intestines; the abdomen.