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A leaning or bias; proclivity; tendency of mind; inclination; disposition; purpose; aim. Shak. With a native bent did good pursue. Dryden.

motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and jural conceptions.

tween or to choose between courses; to distinguish between you and me; to mediate between nations.

which one surface makes with another when they are not at right angles; the slant or inclination of such surface; as, to give a bevel to the edge of a table or a stone slab; the bevel of a piece of timber.

The power of bewitching or fascinating; bewitchment; charm; fascination. There is a certain bewitchery or fascination in words. South.

A game at cards in which various combinations of cards in the hand, when declared, score points.

ty or prepossession toward an object or view, not leaving the mind indifferent; bent inclination. Strong love is a bias upon the thoughts. South. Morality influences men's lives, and gives a bias to all their actions. Locke.

A kind of divination, performed by selecting passages of Scripture at hazard, and drawing from them indications concerning future events.

Something which takes place or appears once in two years; esp. a biennial examination.

h the importer is not possessed of full information, may be provisionally landed for examination. -- Bill of store, a license granted at the customhouse to merchants, to carry such stores and provisions as are necessary for a voyage, custom free. Wharton. -- Bills payable (pl.), the outstanding unpaid notes or accept…

tie; as, to bind the conscience; to bind by kindness; bound by affection; commerce binds nations to each other. Who made our laws to bind us, not himself. Milton.

A combination of two short rectangular glass prisms cemented together at their diagonal faces so as to form a cube; -- called also optical cube. It is used in one form of photometer.

The pore or opening leading into the cavity of invagination, or archenteron.

To esteem or account happy; to felicitate. The nations shall bless themselves in him. Jer. iv. 3.

-- To come to blows, to engage in combat; to fight; -- said of individuals, armies, and nations.

One who has reached the highest degree of saintship, so that in his next incarnation he will be a Buddha, or savior of the world. -- Bo"dhi*sat`ship, n.

des of a ship at certain points of her length. -- Body politic, the collective body of a nation or state as politically organized, or as exercising political functions; also, a corporation. Wharton. As to the persons who compose the body politic or associate themselves, they take collectively the name of "people", or…

To refuse to support, as a nomination made by a party to which one has belonged or by a caucus in which one has taken part.

e black (Chem.), the black, carbonaceous substance into which bones are converted by calcination in close vessels; -- called also animal charcoal. It is used as a decolorizing material in filtering sirups, extracts, etc., and as a black pigment. See Ivory black, under Black. -- Bone cave, a cave in which are found bon…

A salt formed by the combination of boric acid with a base or positive radical.