Search the Dictionary

To treat like a young child; to keep dependent; to humor; to fondle. Young.

One who keeps a baby farm.

The business of keeping a baby farm.

ails of a ship so that the wind strikes them alternately in front and behind, in order to keep the ship in the middle of a river or channel while the current or tide carries the vessel against the wind. Hence: (Fig.) To take opposite positions alternately; to assert and deny. [Colloq.] -- To back out, To back down, to…

In cricket, the longstop; also, the wicket keeper.

To keep back; to hinder. [Obs.]

Custody; keeping. [Obs.] Silly Faunus now within their bail. Spenser.

iginally, a person put in charge of something especially, a chief officer, magistrate, or keeper, as of a county, town, hundred, or castle; one to whom power Abbott. Lausanne is under the canton of Berne, governed by a bailiff sent every three years from the senate. Addison.

alance knife, a carving or table knife the handle of which overbalances the blade, and so keeps it from contact with the table. -- Balance of power. (Politics), such an adjustment of power among sovereign states that no one state is in a position to interfere with the independence of the others; international equilibr…

lescent] By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the Evelyn. Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. Bp. Hall. Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. Drayton.

To keep steady; to steady, morally. 'T is charity must ballast the heart. Hammond.

A mastiff or other large and fierce dog, usually kept chained or tied up. The keeper entered leading his bandog, a large bloodhound, tied in a leam, or band, from which he takes his name. Sir W. Scott.

bank a fire, To bank up a fire, to cover the coals or embers with ashes or cinders, thus keeping the fire low but alive.

who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for traffic in money, bills of exchange, etc.

er, in which hides are steeped in tanning. -- Bark stove (Hort.), a glazed structure for keeping tropical plants, having a bed of tanner's bark (called a bark bed) or other fermentable matter which produces a moist heat.

A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or to keep back a crowd. No sooner were the barriers opened, than he paced into the lists. Sir W. Scott.

A barkeeper.

To beat with a stick; to cudgel. One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters. Pepys.

To keep repeating needlessly; to iterate. Sir T. Herbert.

A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for a lewd purpose; a procurer or procuress; a lewd person; -- usually applied to a woman.