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To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth. "Frosts do bite the meads." Shak.

The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.…

In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud. Shak.

To make blind, literally or figuratively; to dazzle; to deceive. [Obs.] Chaucer.

State or condition of being blind, literally or figuratively. Darwin. Color blindness, inability to distinguish certain color. See Daltonism.

To obliterate, as writing with ink; to cancel; to efface; -- generally with out; as, to blot out a word or a sentence. Often figuratively; as, to blot out offenses. One act like this blots out a thousand crimes. Dryden.

Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of bluestocking. [Colloq.] The ladies were very blue and well informed. Thackeray. Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite. -- Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost black. -- Blue blood. See under Blood. -- Blue buck (Zoöl.), a small South African antelope…

A literary lady; a female pedant. [Colloq.]

hought to have come from Bohemia; in later times often applied to an adventurer in art or literature, of irregular, unconventional habits, questionable tastes, or free morals. [Modern]

Somewhat overstepping usual bounds, or conventional rules, as in art, literature, etc.; taking liberties in o composition or expression; as, the figures of an author are bold. "Bold tales." Waller. The cathedral church is a very bold work. Addison.

or, found in Bolton, Massachusetts. It is a silicate of magnesium, belonging to the chrysolite family.

A part or subdivision of a treatise or literary work; as, the tenth book of "Paradise Lost."

Authorship; literary skill.

o the diamond in hardness and other properties. It occurs in nature also in boracite, datolite, tourmaline, and some other minerals. Atomic weight 10.9. Symbol B.

A double salt of boric and silicic acids, as in the natural minerals tourmaline, datolite, etc.

That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.

ble odor; -- found at Bovey Tracey, Devonshire, England. It is of geological age of the oölite, and not of the true coal era.

Having a breast; -- used in composition with qualifying words, in either a literal or a metaphorical sense; as, a single-breasted coat. The close minister is buttoned up, and the brave officer open- breasted, on these occasions. Spectator.

ic animals.] (b) Well brought up, as shown in having good manners; cultivated; refined; polite.

and decorums of social life; manners; knowledge of, or training in, the ceremonies, or polite observances of society. Delicacy of breeding, or that polite deference and respect which civility obliges us either to express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we converse. Hume.