Search the Dictionary

An organization composed originally of Chinese rebels that had been driven into Tonkin by the suppression of the Taiping rebellion, but later increased by bands of pirates and adventurers. It took a prominent part in fighting the French during their hostilities with Anam, 1873-85.

far as he can the modern layers of black wash, and let the man himself, fair or foul, be seen. C. Kingsley.

The act or practice of collecting natives of the islands near Queensland for service on the Queensland sugar plantations. [Australia]

as tradesmen and employers do for mutual protection; as, to blacklist a workman who has been discharged. See Black list, under Black, a. If you blacklist us, we will boycott you. John Swinton.

coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence. Nares.

To tarnish, as reputation or character; to defame. There had nothing passed between us that might blemish reputation. Oldys.

A form of decay seen in fleshy, overripe fruit. Lindley.

An inflammation in the foot of a horse, between the sole and the bone. [Obs.]

ng would have to a person who is blind; not well marked or easily discernible; hidden; unseen; concealed; as, a blind path; a blind ditch.

One of the leather screens on a bridle, to hinder a horse from seeing objects at the side; a blinker.

The time between daylight and candle light. [Humorous]

sight or discernment. Nor bigots who but one way see, through blinkers of authority. M. Green.

n which condemned persons lay their necks when they are beheaded. Noble heads which have been brought to the block. E. Everett.

Gray; bluish gray. [Obs.] Our bloncket liveries been all too sad. Spenser.

showy man; a rake. Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty Shak. It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. Thackeray.

Money paid to the next of kin of a person who has been killed by another.

A green siliceous stone sprinkled with red jasper, as if with blood; hence the name; -- called also heliotrope.

he very custom of hearing anything spouted withers and blows upon a fine passage, may be seen in those speeches from [Shakespeare's] Henry V. which are current in the mouths of schoolboys. C. Lamb. A lady's maid whose character had been blown upon. Macaulay.

Swollen; inflated; distended; puffed up, as cattle when gorged with green food which develops gas.

l, and hence called also bastard pennyroyal. -- Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low spirits. "Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils, or lay them all in a red sea of claret" Thackeray. -- Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum. -- Blue gum, an Au…