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To surround with an army so as to preclude escape; to besiege; to blockade. The wail of famine in beleaguered towns. Longfellow.

To hem in; to waylay; to surround; to besiege; to blockade. "Beset with foes." Milton. Let thy troops beset our gates. Addison.

nted impression of heated tools, without gilding; -- called also blank tooling, and blind blocking. -- Blind wall, a wall without an opening; a blank wall.

the puddling furnace, deprived of its dross, and shaped usually in the form of an oblong block by shingling.

ives, and the middle term a universal affirmative. Baroko and Bocardo have been stumbling blocks to the logicians. Bowen.

A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.

. The bricks may be arranged for this purpose in several different ways, as in English or block bond (Fig. 1), where one course consists of bricks with their ends toward the face of the wall, called headers, and the next course of bricks with their lengths parallel to the face of the wall, called stretchers; Flemish bo…

knowledge derived from books. [Often in a disparaging sense.] Whate'er these book-learned blockheads say, Solon's the veriest fool in all the play. Dryden.

Filled with book learning. [R.] "The bookful blockhead." Pope.

A rope reeved through a block at the end of a yard, by which the yard is moved horizontally; also, a rudder gudgeon.

r brake, in the Vocabulary. -- Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels. -- Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe. -- Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs. -- Brake wheel, a wheel on the platfo…

cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to the shore, and is drawn to land by hauling lines. -- Breeches pipe, a forked pipe forming two branches united at one end. -- Knee breeches, breeches coming to the knee,…

A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp. The Assyrians appear to have made much less use of bricks baked in the furnace than the Babylonians. Layard.

A block of compacted coal dust, or peat, etc., for fuel.

To shape roughly, as a block of stone, by chiseling with a coarse tool. [Scot. & North of Eng.]

plant (Ruscus aculeatus) of the Smilax family, used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks; -- called also knee holly. See Cladophyll. -- Dyer's broom, a species of mignonette (Reseda luteola), used for dyeing yellow; dyer's weed; dyer's rocket. -- Spanish broom. See under Spanish.

anuf.), a large circular boiler, or kier, used in bleaching. -- Bucking stool, a washing block.

A block of wood or plate of iron made to fit a hawse hole, or the circular opening in a half-port, to prevent water from entering when the vessel pitches. Blind buckler (Naut.), a solid buckler. -- Buckler mustard (Bot.), a genus of plants (Biscutella) with small bright yellow flowers. The seed vessel on bursting rese…

A small circular or oval wooden block without sheaves, having a groove around it and a hole through it, used for connecting rigging.

ul the fore tack to, called a tack bumpkin. (b) Onr from each quarter, for the main-brace blocks, and called brace bumpkin. (c) A small outrigger over the stern of a boat, to extend the mizzen. [Written also boomkin.]