Search the Dictionary

keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.

Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew's pitch. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc. See Asphalt.

Occurring or appearing once every two weeks; fortnightly. -- n.

Any Friday on which a public disaster has occurred, as: In England, December 6, 1745, when the news of the landing of the Pretender reached London, or May 11, 1866, when a financial panic commenced. In the United States, September 24, 1869, and September 18, 1873, on which financial panics began.

Using foul or scurrilous language; slanderous.

A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough. A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard. Macaulay.

In the manner of or resembling a blackguard; abusive; scurrilous; ruffianly.

or properties instead of one or more things mentioned individually, as where a mortgage secures various debts as a group, or subjects a group or class of different pieces of property to one general lien.

ague, calamity, or blighting influence, which destroys or causes to fail; to visit with a curse; to curse; to ruin; as, to blast pride, hopes, or character. I'll cross it, though it blast me. Shak. Blasted with excess of light. T. Gray.

Confounded; accursed; detestable. Some of her own blasted gypsies. Sir W. Scott.

A small, clear space in the segments of the ovum, the precursor of the nucleus.

l; to make a senseless noise; to patter. [Archaic] "The rain blattered." Jeffrey. They procured . . . preachers to blatter against me, . . . so that they had place and time to belie me shamefully. Latimer.

somewhat sore or watery, as the eyes; to dim, or blur, as the sight. Figuratively: To obscure (mental or moral perception); to blind; to hoodwink. That tickling rheums Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight. Cowper. To blear the eye of, to deceive; to impose upon. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The supposed faculty of perceiving subterraneous springs and currents by sensation; -- so called from one Bleton, of France.

To darken; to obscure to the eye or understanding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. Dryden. The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stillingfleet.

A post-office clerk whose duty is to decipher obscure addresses.

Making blind or as if blind; depriving of sight or of understanding; obscuring; as, blinding tears; blinding snow.

To secure or support by means of blocks; to secure, as two boards at their angles of intersection, by pieces of wood glued to each.

To obscure; to eclipse; to shadow. He sung how earth blots the moon's gilded wane. Cowley.

A large pustule, or a coarse eruption. Foul scurf and blotches him defile. Thomson.