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eadly or pernicious influence; destructive. "Baleful enemies." Shak. Four infernal rivers that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams. Milton.

One who, or that which balks.

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.

That which is used for steadying anything; ballast.

A leap of a horse, as between two pillars, or upon a straight line, so that when his four feet are in the air, he shows only the shoes of his hind feet, without jerking out.

Anything that heals or that mitigates pain. "Balm for each ill." Mrs. Hemans. Balm cricket (Zoöl.), the European cicada. Tennyson. -- Balm of Gilead (Bot.), a small evergreen African and Asiatic tree of the terebinthine family (Balsamodendron Gileadense). Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and fr…

Anything that heals, soothes, or restores. Was not the people's blessing a balsam to thy blood Tennyson. Balsam apple (Bot.), an East Indian plant ( Momordica balsamina), of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices. -…

A bank, especially that of Venice.

That which serves as the means of union or connection between persons; a tie. "To join in Hymen's bands." Shak.

Something resembling a bandage; that which is bound over or round something to cover, strengthen, or compress it; a ligature. Zeal too had a place among the rest, with a bandage over her eyes. Addison.

That which destroys life, esp. poison of a deadly quality. [Obs. except in combination, as in ratsbane, henbane, etc.]

pon the wrist or ankle; a ring bracelet. Bangle ear, a loose hanging ear of a horse, like that of a spaniel.

A man's loose gown, like that worn by the Banians.

[Local, U.S.] -- Bank swallow, a small American and European swallow (Clivicola riparia) that nests in a hole which it excavates in a bank.

f a proposed marriage, proclaimed in a church, or other place prescribed by law, in order that any person may object, if he knows of just cause why the marriage should not take place.

ion of Christians who deny the validity of infant baptism and of sprinkling, and maintain that baptism should be administered to believers alone, and should be by immersion. See Anabaptist.

Any railing that divides a room, or office, or hall of assembly, in order to reserve a space for those having special privileges; as, the bar of the House of Commons.

Beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it. The barbel, so called by reason of his barbs, or wattles in his mouth. Walton.

igner. [Historical] Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

rary to the pure idioms of a particular language. See Solecism. The Greeks were the first that branded a foreign term in any of their writers with the odious name of barbarism. G. Campbell.