BASKET n.
-- Basket hilt, a hilt with a covering wrought like basketwork to protect the hand. Hudibras. Hence, Baskethilted, a. -- Basket work, work consisting of plaited osiers or twigs. -- Basket worm (Zoöl.), a lepidopterous insect of the genus Thyridopteryx and allied genera, esp. T. ephemeræformis. The larva makes and ca…
BATTERY n.
of the carriages, etc., of the battery. -- In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing. -- Masked battery, a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy. -- Out of battery, or From battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.…
BEACH n.
, of the family Orchestidæ, living on the sea beaches, and leaping like fleas. -- Beach grass (Bot.), a coarse grass (Ammophila arundinacea), growing on the sandy shores of lakes and seas, which, by its interlaced running rootstocks, binds the sand together, and resists the encroachment of the waves. -- Beach wagon,…
BEAD n.
sed in a rosary for counting prayers, as by Roman Catholics and Mohammedans, whence the phrases to tell beads, to at one's beads, to bid beads, etc., meaning, to be at prayer.
BEE n.
s through; -- called also bee blocks. Bee beetle (Zoöl.), a beetle (Trichodes apiarius) parasitic in beehives. -- Bee bird (Zoöl.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird. -- Bee flower (Bot.), an orchidaceous plant of the genus Ophrys (O. apifera), whose flowers have som…
BEER n.
ermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." Shak.