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Having large, strong muscles; muscular; fleshy; strong. "Brawny limbs." W. Irving.

To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments. The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. Prescott.

The power of singing; a musical voice; -- so called, probably, from the connection of the voice with the lungs, which lie within the breast. [Obs.] By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. Shak. Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work. -- Bre…

A strong iron or steel plug screwed into the breech of a musket or other firearm, to close the bottom of the bore.

or as with, a bridle; to check, curb, or control; as, to bridle the passions; to bridle a muse. Addison. Savoy and Nice, the keys of Italy, and the citadel in her hands to bridle Switzerland, are in that consolidation. Burke.

rigade inspector, an officer whose duty is to inspect troops in companies before they are mustered into service. -- Brigade major, an officer who may be attached to a brigade to assist the brigadier in his duties.

A genus (Bromus) of grasses, one species of which is the chess or cheat.

essive use of bromine or one of its compounds. It is characterized by mental dullness and muscular weakness.

, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit. Hawthorne. When with downcast eyes we muse and brood. Tennyson.

brown as the oak leaves. Longfellow. Brown Bess, the old regulation flintlock smoothbore musket, with bronzed barrel, formerly used in the British army. -- Brown bread (a) Dark colored bread; esp. a kind made of unbolted wheat flour, sometimes called in the United States Graham bread. "He would mouth with a beggar th…

hite bryony) and of B. dioica is a strong, irritating cathartic. Black bryony, a plant (Tamus communis) so named from its dark glossy leaves and black root; black bindweed.

A muscle of the cheek; -- so called from its use in blowing wind instruments.

rom 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 bucklers or shields. -- Buckler thorn, a plant with seed vessels shaped like a buckler. See Christ's thorn…

A man who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures, etc.; a droll; a mimic; a harlequin; a clown; a merry-andrew.

argest or principal portion; the majority; as, the bulk of a debt. The bulk of the people must labor, Burke told them, "to obtain what by labor can be obtained." J. Morley.

n a mine; the limiting wall along a water front. Bulked line, a line beyond which a wharf must not project; -- usually, the harbor line.

; as, bulldog courage; bulldog tenacity. Bulldog bat (zo'94l.), a bat of the genus Nyctinomus; -- so called from the shape of its face.

missile, usually of lead, and round or elongated in form, to be discharged from a rifle, musket, pistol, or other small firearm.

antiquity, in which men torment, and fight with, a bull or bulls in an arena, for public amusement, -- still popular in Spain. -- Bull"fight`er (, n.

l West Indian trees of the order Sapotaceæ, as Dipholis nigra and species of Sapota and Mimusops. Most of them yield a substance closely resembling gutta-percha.