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A narrow passage or strait; as, the Great Belt and the Lesser Belt, leading to the Baltic Sea.

A festival of the heathen Celts on the first day of May, in the observance of which great bonfires were kindled. It still exists in a modified form in some parts of Scotland and Ireland.

A long seat, differing from a stool in its greater length. Mossy benches supplied the place of chairs. Sir W. Scott.

To be moved or strained out of a straight line; to crook or be curving; to bow. The green earth's end Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend. Milton.

in sickness, old age, and for the expenses of burial. Usually called friendly society in Great Britain.

To praise greatly or extravagantly. Goldsmith.

To quote constantly or with great frequency.

curring in India, characterized by multiple inflammatory changes in the nerves, producing great muscular debility, a painful rigidity of the limbs, and cachexy.

A controversy (1886 --93) between Great Britain and the United States as to the right of Canadians not licensed by the United States to carry on seal fishing in the Bering Sea, over which the United States claimed jurisdiction as a mare clausum. A court of arbitration, meeting in Paris in 1893, decided against the clai…

oating the better kinds of ironware. Ure. -- Berlin blue, Prussian blue. Ure. -- Berlin green, a complex cyanide of iron, used as a green dye, and similar to Prussian blue. -- Berlin iron, a very fusible variety of cast iron, from which figures and other delicate articles are manufactured. These are often stained or…

ta, which lays its eggs in the nostrils or in wounds of man and beast, where the larvæ do great injury.

tta is scarlet; that worn by other clerics is black, except that a bishop's is lined with green. [Also spelt beretta, biretta, etc.]

A mineral of great hardness, and, when transparent, of much beauty. It occurs in hexagonal prisms, commonly of a green or bluish green color, but also yellow, pink, and white. It is a silicate of aluminium and glucinum (beryllium). The aquamarine is a transparent, sea-green variety used as a gem. The emerald is another…

Like a beryl; of a light or bluish green color.

A great-grandfather. [Obs.]

To sweep, as with a besom. [Archaic or Poetic] Cowper. Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain. Barlow.

Having good qualities in the highest degree; most good, kind, desirable, suitable, etc.; most excellent; as, the best man; the best road; the best cloth; the best abilities. When he is best, he is a little worse than a man. Shak. Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight. Milton.

The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, b. See B, and cf. etymology of Alphabet. Beta (B, b) is used variously for classifying, as:

onvenience not foreseen to lead into error or sin. Genius . . . often betrays itself into great errors. T. Watts.

Having good qualities in a greater degree than another; as, a better man; a better physician; a better house; a better air. Could make the worse appear The better reason. Milton.