Search the Dictionary

Of or pertaining to Avernus, a lake of Campania, in Italy, famous for its poisonous vapors, which ancient writers fancied were so malignant as to kill birds flying over it. It was represented by the poets to be connected with the infernal regions.

Nitrogenized; nitrogenous.

Excess of urea or other nitrogenous substances in the urine.

The resinous and aromatic exudation of certain trees or shrubs. Dryden.

A glutinous pomatum for the fair.

order Ranunculaceæ, native in the north temperate zone. The red or white berries are poisonous.

Having poisonous qualities; deadly; destructive; injurious; noxious; pernicious. "Baneful hemlock." Garth. "Baneful wrath." Chapman. -- Bane"ful*ly, adv. --Bane"ful*ness, n.

king; to feast. Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, I would not taste thy treasonous offer. Milton.

A barbarous, cruel, or brutal action; an outrage. A heinous barbarism . . . against the honor of marriage. Milton.

A red wood of a leguminous tree (Baphia nitida), from Angola and the Gaboon in Africa. It is used as a dyewood, and also for ramrods, violin bows and turner's work.

Shale or bituminous shale. Kirwan.

A name given by Prof. Huxley to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol. He supposed that it was free living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.

ning to the Batrachidæ, a family of marine fishes, including the toadfish. Some have poisonous dorsal spines.

A ferruginous hydrate of alumina. It is largely used in the preparation of aluminium and alumina, and for the lining of furnaces which are exposed to intense heat.

A small poisonous snake of North America (Elaps fulvius), banded with yellow, red, and black.

A ray or collection of parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body; as, a beam of light, or of heat. How far that little candle throws his beams ! Shak.

A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs.

A leguminous shrub of southern Europe, with trifoliate leaves (Anagyris foetida).

ell-shaped flowers and shining black berries. The whole plant and its fruit are very poisonous, and the root and leaves are used as powerful medicinal agents. Its properties are largely due to the alkaloid atropine which it contains. Called also deadly nightshade.

A resinous substance, dry and brittle, obtained from the Styrax benzoin, a tree of Sumatra, Java, etc., having a fragrant odor, and slightly aromatic taste. It is used in the preparation of benzoic acid, in medicine, and as a perfume.