Search the Dictionary

In Ireland, a territorial division, corresponding nearly to the English hundred, and supposed to have been originally the district of a native chief. There are 252 of these baronies. In Scotland, an extensive freehold. It may be held by a commoner. Brande & C.

A light helmet, at first open, but later made with a visor. [Written also basinet, bassinet, basnet.]

Without a base; having no foundation or support. "The baseless fabric of this vision." Shak.

A large subdivision of fungi coördinate with the Ascomycetes, characterized by having the spores borne on a basidium. It embraces those fungi best known to the public, such as mushrooms, toadstools, etc.

special oblong or pyriform cell, with slender branches, which bears the spores in that division of fungi called Basidiomycetes, of which the common mushroom is an example.

Abatement; diminution. Moxon. Batement light (Arch.), a window or one division of a window having vertical sides, but with the sill not horizontal, as where it follows the rake of a staircase.

The division of fishes which includes the rays and skates.

Provisions ordered from the buttery; also, the charges for them; -- only in the pl., except when used adjectively. [Univ. of Oxford, Eng.]

A student at Oxford who is supplied with provisions from the buttery; formerly, one who paid for nothing but what he called for, answering nearly to a sizar at Cambridge. Wright.

A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns. Barbette battery. See Barbette. -- Battery d'enfilade, or Enfilading battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a…

A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; an engagement; a combat.

as marked off by the buttresses, vaulting, mullions of a window, etc.; one of the main divisions of any structure, as the part of a bridge between two piers.

The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit.

Having the power to impart or complete blissful enjoyment; blissful. "The beatific vision." South. -- Be`a*tif"ic*al*ly, adv.

A scale of wind force devised by Sir F. Beaufort, R. N., in 1805, in which the force is indicated by numbers from 0 to 12.

A division of the Bantus, dwelling between the Orange and Zambezi rivers, supposed to be the most ancient Bantu population of South Africa. They are divided into totemic clans; they are intelligent and progressive.

garded as the type from which the aromatic compounds are derived. This ring formula is provisionally accepted as representing the probable constitution of the benzene molecule, C6H6, and as the type on which its derivatives are formed.

One of the ova or eggs of a fish. Travis. In berry, containing ova or spawn.

To smear with any viscous, glutinous matter; to bedaub; to soil. Besmeared with precious balm. Spenser.

t; to suffer. [Obs.] So loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Shak.