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A structure in form of a canopy, sometimes supported by columns, and sometimes suspended from the roof or projecting from the wall; generally placed over an altar; as, the baldachin in St. Peter's.

A broad belt, sometimes richly ornamented, worn over one shoulder, across the breast, and under the opposite arm; less properly, any belt. [Also spelt bawdrick.] A radiant baldric o'er his shoulder tied Sustained the sword that glittered at his side. Pope.

Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury. [Now chiefly poetic]

Plates or blades of "whalebone," from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.

A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body; as, the ball of the thumb; the ball of the foot.

A form of French versification, sometimes imitated in English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.

ed as a theatrical entertainment, or an interlude, by a number of persons, usually women. Sometimes, a scene accompanied by pantomime and dancing.

to. None of the competitors arriving to a sufficient number of balls, they fell to ballot some others. Sir H. Wotton.

Something commonplace, hackneyed, or trivial; the commonplace, in speech. The highest things were thus brought down to the banalities of discourse. J. Morley.

To confederate for some common purpose; to unite; to conspire together. Certain of the Jews banded together. Acts xxiii. 12.

Something resembling a bandage; that which is bound over or round something to cover, strengthen, or compress it; a ligature. Zeal too had a place among the rest, with a bandage over her eyes. Addison.

To content, as at some game in which each strives to drive the ball his own way. Fit to bandy with thy lawless sons. Shak.

To beat or thump, or to cause ( something) to hit or strike against another object, in such a way as to make a loud noise; as, to bang a drum or a piano; to bang a door (against the doorpost or casing) in shutting it.

let, of glass, gold, silver, or other material, worn by women in India and Africa, and in some other countries, upon the wrist or ankle; a ring bracelet. Bangle ear, a loose hanging ear of a horse, like that of a spaniel.

In England, a note, or a bill of exchange, of a bank, payable to order, and usually at some future specified time. Such bills are negotiable, but form, in the strict sense of the term, no part of the currency.

Destitute of, or wholly wanting (something once possessed, or something one should possess). "Bankrupt in gratitude." Sheridan. Bankrupt law, a law by which the property of a person who is unable or unwilling to pay his debts may be taken and distributed to his creditors, and by which a person who has made a full surre…

h a device or motto, extended on a crosspiece, and borne in a procession, or suspended in some conspicuous place.

A civil officer in some Swiss cantons.

To address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about my credulity. Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then bantered on my haggard looks the next day. W. Irving.

the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.