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A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc. Hop back, Jack back, the cistern which receives the infusion of malt and hops from the copper. -- Wash back, a vat in which distillers ferment…

eady to repel and baffle them all. South. Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. Prescott. The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us. Locke. Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another.…

either side; as, the balance of an account. " A balance at the banker's. " Thackeray. I still think the balance of probabilities leans towards the account given in the text. J. Peile.

The white-headed eagle (Haliæetus leucocephalus) of America. The young, until several years old, lack the white feathers on the head.

To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks.

Any solid spherical, cylindrical, or conical projectile of lead or iron, to be discharged from a firearm; as, a cannon ball; a rifball; -- often used collectively; as, powder and ball. Spherical balls for the smaller firearms are commonly called bullets.

Pertaining to projection, or to a projectile. Ballistic pendulum, an instrument consisting of a mass of wood or other material suspended as a pendulum, for measuring the force and velocity of projectiles by means of the arc through which their impact impels it.

A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.

r. Many kinds ( esp. species of Lycosa) do this while young by ejecting threads of silk until the force of the wind upon them carries the spider aloft.

A resin containing more or less of an essential or volatile oil.

A fabric made in Manilla from the older leaf sheaths of the abaca (Musa textilis).

at a given rate on the principal (face) of a bill or note from the time of discounting until it becomes due.

whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.

A slender tactile organ on the lips of certain fished.

Destitute; indigent; empty; unfurnished or scantily furnished; -- used with of (rarely with in) before the thing wanting or taken away; as, a room bare of furniture. "A bare treasury." Dryden.

A part of the tiling which projects beyond the principal rafters, in buildings where there is a gable. Gwilt.

ed beer, ale, and whisky. Barley bird (Zoöl.), the siskin. -- Barley sugar, sugar boiled till it is brittle (formerly with a decoction of barley) and candied. -- Barley water, a decoction of barley, used in medicine, as a nutritive and demulcent.

n of the Democratic party in New York, about the middle of the 19th century, which was hostile to extension of slavery, public debts, corporate privileges, etc., and supported Van Buren against Cass for president in 1848; --opposed to Hunker. [Political Cant, U. S.]

nd inverting it in a cup containing mercury. The column of mercury in the tube descends until balanced by the weight of the atmosphere, and its rise or fall under varying conditions is a measure of the change in the atmospheric pressure. At the sea level its ordinary height is about 30 inches (760 millimeters). See Sym…

A thick, strong stuff, somewhat like camlet; -- still used for outer garments in the Levant.