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tic stability; also, inherent stability. An aëroplane is inherently stable if it keeps in steady poise by virtue of its shape and proportions alone; it is automatically stable if it keeps in steady poise by means of self-operative mechanism.

An axis; as, the sun's axle. Had from her axle torn The steadfast earth. Milton.

t, a guide attached to the slide rest of a lathe, and placed in contact with the work, to steady it in turning. -- Back slang, a kind of slang in which every word is written or pronounced backwards; as, nam for man. -- Back stairs, stairs in the back part of a house; private stairs. Also used adjectively. See Back st…

r similar air-fed burner, to light so that the flame proceeds from the internal gas jet instead of from the external jet of mixed gas and air. -- Back"-fir`ing, n.

Firmness; moral principle; steadfastness. Shelley's thought never had any backbone. Shairp. To the backbone, through and through; thoroughly; entirely. "Staunch to the backbone." Lord Lytton.

ting properties of yeast. -- Baker's salt, the subcarbonate of ammonia, sometimes used instead of soda, in making bread.

The state of being in equipoise; equilibrium; even adjustment; steadiness. And hung a bottle on each side To make his balance true. Cowper. The order and balance of the country were destroyed. Buckle. English workmen completely lose their balance. J. S. Mill.

The last reef in a fore-and-aft sail, taken to steady the ship.

Any heavy matter put into the car of a balloon to give it steadiness.

That which is used for steadying anything; ballast.

cifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, straw, leaves, or twigs. And made for him [a…

A cord or rope interwoven in a bedstead so as to support the bed.

An instrument for tightening the parts of a bedstead.

One of the four standards that support a bedstead or the canopy over a bedstead.

"A wooden pin stuck anciently on the sides of the bedstead, to hold the clothes from slipping on either side." Johnson. Hostess, accommodate us with a bedstaff. B. Jonson. Say there is no virtue in cudgels and bedstaves. Brome.

The front or the back part of the frame of a bedstead. [Obs. or Dial. Eng.]

rm you. -- To bag the question, to assume that which was to be proved in a discussion, instead of adducing the proof or sustaining the point by argument. -- To go a-begging, a figurative phrase to express the absence of demand for something which elsewhere brings a price; as, grapes are so plentiful there that they g…

Advantage; favor; stead; benefit; interest; profit; support; defense; vindication. In behalf of his mistress's beauty. Sir P. Sidney. Against whom he had contracted some prejudice in behalf of his nation. Clarendon. In behalf of, in the interest of. -- On behalf of, on account of; on the part of.

To move quickly and unsteadily, or with a pattering noise; to quiver; to be tremulous, like flame. They [streamlets] bickered through the sunny shade. Thomson.

s devised by Euler for facilitating musical calculations, in which 1 is logarithm of 2, instead of 10, as in the common logarithms, and the modulus 1.442695 instead of .43429448. -- Binary measure (Mus.), measure divisible by two or four; common time. -- Binary nomenclature (Nat. Hist.), nomenclature in which the nam…