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A conventional comment or saying, such as those characteristic of bromides. [Slang]

Pertaining to, or invented by, Brown; -- a term applied to a system of medicine promulgated in the 18th century by John Brown, of Scotland, the fundamental doctrine of which was, that life is a state of excitation produced by the normal action of external agents upon the body, and that disease consists in excess or def…

A robber upon the sea; a pirate; -- a term applied especially to the piratical adventurers who made depredations on the Spaniards in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. [Written also bucanier.]

or plate of iron made to fit a hawse hole, or the circular opening in a half-port, to prevent water from entering when the vessel pitches. Blind buckler (Naut.), a solid buckler. -- Buckler mustard (Bot.), a genus of plants (Biscutella) with small bright yellow flowers. The seed vessel on bursting resembles two buckl…

ag or sack with its contents; hence, a stock or store; an accumulation; as, a budget of inventions.

A brief statement of facts respecting some passing event, as military operations or the health of some distinguished personage, issued by authority for the information of the public.

fixture, etc., where the flame is produced. Bunsen's burner (Chem.), a kind of burner, invented by Professor Bunsen of Heidelberg, consisting of a straight tube, four or five inches in length, having small holes for the entrance of air at the bottom. Illuminating gas being also admitted at the bottom, a mixture of gas…

(wood, fabrics, etc.) to a process of saturation in a solution of chloride of zinc, to prevent decay; -- a process invented by Sir William Burnett.

A broad iron ring on a tilting lance just below the gripe, to prevent the hand from slipping.

A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored. Farrow.

Something gone by or past; a past event. "Let old bygones be" Tennyson. Let bygones be bygones, let the past be forgotten.

ording to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of employers to effect or to prevent a chang in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who seek by cunning practices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the communi…

pretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. The cabalists pretend even to foretell events by this means.

the hawse hole. -- To serve the cable, to bind it round with ropes, canvas, etc., to prevent its being, worn or galled in the hawse, et. -- To slip the cable, to let go the end on board and let it all run out and go overboard, as when there is not time to weigh anchor. Hence, in sailor's use, to die.…

Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.

A curved ridge in the floor of the leteral ventricle of the brain; the calcar avis, hippocampus minor, or ergot.

a machine for the mechanical performance of mathematical operations, for the most part invented by Charles Babbage and G. and E. Scheutz. It computes logarithmic and other mathematical tables of a high degree of intricacy, imprinting the results on a leaden plate, from which a stereotype plate is then directly made.…

lus of probabilities, the science that treats of the computation of the probabilities of events, or the application of numbers to chance. -- Calculus of variations, a branch of mathematics in which the laws of dependence which bind the variable quantities together are themselves subject to change. -- Differential cal…

An orderly list or enumeration of persons, things, or events; a schedule; as, a calendar of state papers; a calendar of bills presented in a legislative assemblly; a calendar of causes arranged for trial in court; a calendar of a college or an academy.

Of or pertaining to Calippus, an Athenian astronomer. Calippic period, a period of seventy-six years, proposed by Calippus, as an improvement on the Metonic cycle, since the 6940 days of the Metonic cycle exceeded 19 years by about a quarter of a day, and exceeded 235 lunations by something more.