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from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

y to back and fortify their laws with rewards and punishments. South. The mate backed the captain manfully. Blackw. Mag.

ntriguing; as if finding access by the back stairs. A backstairs influence. Burke. Female caprice and backstairs influence. Trevelyan.

To seize, capture, or entrap; as, to bag an army; to bag game.

d in bailing water out of a boat. [Obs.] The bail of a canoe . . . made of a human skull. Capt. Cook.

A ratchet-shaped scape wheel, which in some watches is acted upon by the axis of the balance wheel proper (in those watches called a balance).

iron, etc., put into the hold to sink a vessel in the water to such a depth as to prevent capsizing.

Incapable of being penetrated by balls from firearms.

in wood, usually cylindrical, for holding ruffs (the bands of the 17th century), collars, caps, bonnets, etc.

A narrow band or fillet; a part of a head-dress. Around the edge of this cap was a stiff bandeau of leather. Sir W. Scott.

or the stockholders (or their representatives, the directors), acting in their corporate capacity.

Capable of being baptized; fit to be baptized. Baxter.

and with poetic feeling for color, light, and atmosphere. It is exemplified, esp. in landscapes, by Corot, Rousseau, Daubigny, Jules Dupré, and Diaz. Associated with them are certain painters of animals, as Troyon and Jaque, and of peasant life, as Millet and Jules Breton.

Wearing rich caparisons. Fifteen hundred men . . . barded and richly trapped. Stow.

y, time, etc.); hence, scarcely; hardly; as, there was barely enough for all; he barely escaped.

of a feather. Barrel bulk (Com.), a measure equal to five cubic feet, used in estimating capacity, as of a vessel for freight. -- Barrel drain (Arch.), a drain in the form of a cylindrical tube. -- Barrel of a boiler, the cylindrical part of a boiler, containing the flues. -- Barrel of the ear (Anat.), the tympanum…

Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- She was barren of children. Bp. Hall.

A kind of cap formerly worn by soldiers; -- called also barret cap. Also, the flat cap worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics.

ariety, called the liquid barretter, wire is replace by a column of liquid in a very fine capillary tube.

which the ovary of certain flowers, as the passion flower, is seated; a carpophore or thecaphore.