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ly managed or effected; embarrassing. A long and awkward process. Macaulay. An awkward affair is one that has gone wrong, and is difficult to adjust. C. J. Smith.

r crown's awry." Shak. Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry. Into the devious air. Milton.

Odd; having no fellow; not one of a pair; single; as, the azygous muscle of the uvula.

slang in which every word is written or pronounced backwards; as, nam for man. -- Back stairs, stairs in the back part of a house; private stairs. Also used adjectively. See Back stairs, Backstairs, and Backstair, in the Vocabulary. -- Back step (Mil.), the retrograde movement of a man or body of men, without changin…

A fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet both must go out for lack of fuel.

Of a Bunsen or similar air-fed burner, to light so that the flame proceeds from the internal gas jet instead of from the external jet of mixed gas and air. -- Back"-fir`ing, n.

Firmness; moral principle; steadfastness. Shelley's thought never had any backbone. Shairp. To the backbone, through and through; thoroughly; entirely. "Staunch to the backbone." Lord Lytton.

To plow again, in the fall; -- said of prairie land broken up in the spring. [Western U.S.]

A brush made of badgers' hair, used by artists. Badger dog. (Zoöl.) See Dachshund.

A sort of silken purse formerly tied about men's hair behind, by way of ornament. [Obs.]

A wig, in use in the 18th century, with the hair at the back of the head in a bag.

Anything which allures; a lure; enticement; temptation. Fairfax.

Act of weighing mentally; comparison; estimate. A fair balance of the advantages on either side. Atterbury.

Destitute of the natural or common covering on the head or top, as of hair, feathers, foliage, trees, etc.; as, a bald head; a bald oak. On the bald top of an eminence. Wordsworth.

Destitute of hair on the head; baldheaded. Shak.

cover, and corded for storage or transportation; also, a bundle of straw Bale of dice, a pair of dice. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

A flaming, roundish body shot into the air; a case filled with combustibles intended to burst and give light or set fire, or to produce smoke or stench; as, a fire ball; a stink ball.

A bag made of silk or other light material, and filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, so as to rise and float in the atmosphere; especially, one with a car attached for aërial navigation.

he genus Diodon or the genus Tetraodon, having the power of distending its body by taking air or water into its dilatable esophagus. See Globefish, and Bur fish.

A spider which has the habit of rising into the air. Many kinds ( esp. species of Lycosa) do this while young by ejecting threads of silk until the force of the wind upon them carries the spider aloft.