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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



2,202 words match “ELF”

BUMPTIOUS a.
Self-conceited; forward; pushing. [Colloq.] Halliwell.
BUNCOMBE; BUNKUM n.
for the gratification of constituents, or to gain public applause; flattering talk for a selfish purpose; anything said for mere show. [Cant or Slang, U.S.] All that flourish about right of search was bunkum -- all that brag about hanging your Canada sheriff was bunkum . . . slavery speeches are all bunkum. Haliburton.…
BUNDLE v.
T. Hook. To bundle off, to send off in a hurry, or without ceremony. -- To bundle one's self up, to wrap one's self up warmly or cumbrously.
BURN v.
aste time; to perform superfluous actions. Shak. -- To burn one's fingers, to get one's self into unexpected trouble, as by interfering the concerns of others, speculation, etc. -- To burn out, to destroy or obliterate by burning. "Must you with hot irons burn out mine eyes" Shak. -- To be burned out, to suffer loss…
BUSH n.
ntners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 't is true that a good play needs no epilogue. Shak.
BUSINESS n.
to ruin one. [Colloq.] Wycherley. -- To make (a thing) one's business, to occupy one's self with a thing as a special charge or duty. [Colloq.] -- To mean business, to be earnest. [Colloq.]
BUSY v.
To make or keep busy; to employ; to engage or keep engaged; to occupy; as, to busy one's self with books. Be it thy course to busy giddy minds With foreign quarrels. Shak.
BUSYBODY n.
One who officiously concerns himself with the affairs of others; a meddling person. And not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. 1 Tim. v. 13.
BUXOM a.
beast, so tame ytaught to be, And buxom to his bands, is joy to see. Spenser. I submit myself unto this holy church of Christ, to be ever buxom and obedient to the ordinance of it. Foxe.
BY-ELECTION n.
An election held by itself, not at the time of a general election.
BY-END n.
Private end or interest; secret purpose; selfish advantage. [Written also bye-end.] "Profit or some other by-end." L'Estrange.
BY-INTEREST n.
Self-interest; private advantage. Atterbury.
BY-VIEW n.
A private or selfish view; self-interested aim or purpose. No by-views of his own shall mislead him. Atterbury.
CABAL n.
ctices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. "Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly t…
CABINET n.
apart for the safe keeping and exhibition of works of art, etc.; also, the collection itself. Cabinet council.
CABOCHON n.
A stone of convex form, highly polished, but not faceted; also, the style of cutting itself. Such stones are said to be cut en cabochon.
CALASH n.
ed as either an open or a close carriage. The baroness in a calash capable of holding herself, her two children, and her servants. W. Irving.
CALCULUS n.
words, from having the differential of an algebraic expression to find the expression itself.
CALENTURE n.
ometimes led the affected person to imagine the sea to be a green field, and to throw himself into it.
CALIGO n.
Dimness or obscurity of sight, dependent upon a speck on the cornea; also, the speck itself.
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