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t of. (a) To improve to the utmost; to use or dispose of to the greatest advantage. "Let there be freedom to carry their commodities where they can make the best of them." Bacon. (b) To reduce to the least possible inconvenience; as, to make the best of ill fortune or a bad bargain.

To stick over, as with sharp points pressed in; to mark by infixing points or spots here and there; to pierce. Truth shall retire Bestuck with slanderous darts. Milton.

ke. The rest, in imitation, to like arms Betook them. Milton. Whither shall I betake me, where subsist Milton.

To promise to take (as a future spouse); to plight one's troth to. What man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her Deut. xx. 7.

tter, in the way of improvement; so as to produce improvement. "If I have altered him anywhere for the better." Dryden.

from the outer bark of the common European birch (Betula alba), or from the tar prepared therefrom; -- called also birch camphor. Watts.

From one to another of; mutually affecting. There was some speech of marriage Betwixt myself and her. Shak. Betwixt and between, in a midway position; so-so; neither one thing nor the other. [Colloq.]

th cut at right angles to the surfaces of two cones whose apices coincide with the point where the axes of the wheels would meet.

mbly or collection of persons, especially of ladies. What a bevy of beaten slaves have we here ! Beau. & Fl.

chcraft or sorcery. See how I am bewitched; behold, mine arm Is like a blasted sapling withered up. Shak.

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

Past, out of the reach or sphere of; further than; greater than; as, the patient was beyond medical aid; beyond one's strength.

and value, usually (those current in England) between a sovereign and a half sovereign. There were also white or silver bezants. [Written also besant, byzant, etc.]

tendency imparted to the ball, which turns it from a straight line. Being ignorant that there is a concealed bias within the spheroid, which will . . . swerve away. Sir W. Scott.

An invitation of friends to drink ale at some poor man's house, and there to contribute in charity for his relief. [Prov. Eng.]

o remain firm under (a hardship); to endure; to suffer; to undergo. Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm. Shak.

rgeness of size; of much bulk or magnitude; of great size; large. "He's too big to go in there." Shak.

obstinately and blindly devoted to his own church, party, belief, or opinion. To doubt, where bigots had been content to wonder and believe. Macaulay.

des of a central area or organ, or of a central axis; as, bilateral symmetry in animals, where there is a similarity of parts on the right and left sides of the body.

The European whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus); also, its edible bluish black fruit. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Shak.