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A mineral occurring in triclinic crystals approaching pyroxene in angle, and of a greenish black color. It is a silicate of iron, manganese, and lime.

The degree of bachelor of arts. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges.

A person who has taken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university; as, a bachelor of arts.

To place or seat upon the back. [R.] Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed, Appeared to me. Shak.

An evergreen Chinese shrub of the Magnolia family (Illicium anisatum), and its aromatic seeds; Chinese anise; star anise.

not well; unskillfully; imperfectly; unfortunately; grievously; so as to cause harm; disagreeably; seriously.

Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury. [Now chiefly poetic]

A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks." Tubs hanging in the balks. Chaucer.

lm 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 from this tree is obtained the balm of Gilead of the shops, or balsam of Mecca. Th…

Huge; great in size. [Colloq.] Forby.

A dessert; a course of sweetmeats; a sweetmeat or sweetmeats. [Obs.] We'll dine in the great room, but let the music And banquet be prepared here. Massinger.

A member of one of the great family of Negroid tribes occupying equatorial and southern Africa. These tribes include, as important divisions, the Kafirs, Damaras, Bechuanas, and many tribes whose names begin with Aba-, Ama-, Ba-, Ma-, Wa-, variants of the Bantu plural personal prefix Aba-, as in Ba-ntu, or Aba-ntu, its…

ry, etc. Barbados cherry (Bot.), a genus of trees of the West Indies (Malpighia) with an agreeably acid fruit resembling a cherry. -- Barbados leg (Med.), a species of elephantiasis incident to hot climates. -- Barbados nuts, the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant growing in South America and elsewhere. The seeds…

ny form of speech contrary 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.

rbarous mode of speech. The ill habit . . . of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their untutored Anglicisms. Milton.

An ancient Greek instrument resembling a lyre.

Of or pertaining to bards, or their poetry. "The bardic lays of ancient Greece." G. P. Marsh.

An agreement between parties concerning the sale of property; or a contract by which one party binds himself to transfer the right to some property for a consideration, and the other party binds himself to receive the property and pay the consideration. A contract is a bargain that is legally binding. Wharton.…

The party to a contract who receives, or agrees to receive, the property sold. Blackstone.

ly Scolytidæ), which in the larval state bores under or in the bark of trees, often doing great damage.