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Water turned back in its course by an obstruction, an opposing current , or the flow of the tide, as in a sewer or river channel, or across a river bar.

Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- Bafflingly, adv. -- Bafflingness, n.

The person or persons who procure the release of a prisoner from the custody of the officer, or from imprisonment, by becoming surely for his appearance in court. The bail must be real, substantial bondsmen. Blackstone. A. and B. were bail to the arrest in a suit at law. Kent.

with total eclipses of the sun. Just before and after a total eclipse, the slender, unobscured crescent of the sun's disk appears momentarily like a row of bright spots resembling a string of beads. The phenomenon (first fully described by Francis Baily, 1774 -- 1844) is thought to be an effect of irradiation, and of…

A small cooper coin formerly current in the Roman States, worth about a cent and a half.

-- Balance thermometer, a thermometer mounted as a balance so that the movement of the mercurial column changes the indication of the tube. With the aid of electrical or mechanical devices adapted to it, it is used for the automatic regulation of the temperature of rooms warmed artificially, and as a fire alarm. -- Ba…

m of French versification, sometimes imitated in English, in which three or four rhymes recur through three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, the stanzas concluding with a refrain, and the whole poem with an envoy.

Fig.: That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security. It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity. Barrow. Ballast engine, a steam engine used in excavating and for digging and raising stones and gravel for ballast. -- Ship in ballast, a ship carring only ballast.

A curse or anathema. "Hecate's ban." Shak.

Pledge; security. [Obs.] Spenser. Band saw, a saw in the form of an endless steel belt, with teeth on one edge, running over wheels.

Bent; crooked; curved laterally, esp. with the convex side outward; as, a bandy leg.

The act of banishing, or the state of being banished. He secured himself by the banishment of his enemies. Johnson. Round the wide world in banishment we roam. Dryden.

rly in England), a promissory note of a bank payable to the bearer on demand, and used as currency; a bank note.

es of young men; -- so named in allusion to the Hebrew word Berachah (Meaning blessing) occurring in 2 Chron. xx. 26 and 1 Chron. xii.

s of elephantiasis incident to hot climates. -- Barbados nuts, the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant growing in South America and elsewhere. The seeds and their acrid oil are used in medicine as a purgative. See Physic nut.

To dry or cure by exposure on a frame or gridiron. They use little or no salt, but barbecue their game and fish in the smoke. Stedman.

A variety of small dog, having long curly hair.

An Italian marble of which the principal varieties occur in the neighborhood of Carrara and in Corsica. It commonly shows a dark gray or bluish ground traversed by veins.

A large omnibus used for excursions. [Local, U.S.]

Native sulphate of barium, a mineral occurring in transparent, colorless, white to yellow crystals (generally tabular), also in granular form, and in compact massive forms resembling marble. It has a high specific gravity, and hence is often called heavy spar. It is a common mineral in metallic veins.…