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Backward in time or order of succession; past. Forgetting those things which are behind. Phil. ii. 13.

To the most advantage; with the most success, case, profit, benefit, or propriety. Had we best retire I see a storm. Milton. Had I not best go to her Thackeray.

rior or more excellent manner; with more skill and wisdom, courage, virtue, advantage, or success; as, Henry writes better than John; veterans fight better than recruits. I could have better spared a better man. Shak.

highest order of the ministry, superior to the priesthood, and generally claiming to be a successor of the Apostles. The bishop is usually the spiritual head or ruler of a diocese, bishopric, or see. Bishop in partibus [infidelium] (R. C. Ch.), a bishop of a see which does not actually exist; one who has the office of…

, as by voting against with black balls; to ostracize. He was blackballed at two clubs in succession. Thackeray.

higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms; as, the bloom of youth. Every successive mother has transmitted a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty. Hawthorne.

to other related species, as the B. displosor, which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The common American species is B. fumans.

Unavailing; unprofitable; useless; without advantage or success. Chaucer. I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. Shak. -- Boot"less*ly, adv. -- Boot"less*ness, n.

repayment of money advanced or lent for the use of the ship, if she terminates her voyage successfully. If the ship is lost by perils of the sea, the lender loses the money; but if the ship arrives safe, he is to receive the money lent, with the interest or premium stipulated, although it may, and usually does, exceed…

To move with a sudden spring or leap, or with a succession of springs or leaps; as the beast bounded from his den; the herd bounded across the plain. Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds. Pope. And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider. Byron.

noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the colored people of the Southern United States, and so called, perhaps, because the exercise is continued until most of those who take part in it break down.

f a person in a position of trust, by some gift or promise. An attempt to bribe, though unsuccessful, has been holden to be criminal, and the offender may be indicted. Bouvier. The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe. Goldsmith.

clear; evident; plain. That he may with more ease, with brighter evidence, and with surer success, draw the bearner on. I. Watts.

A succession of blows; continued violence, as of winds or waves; afflictions; adversity. He seems to have been a plant of slow growth, but . . . fitted to endure the buffeting on the rudest storm. Wirt.

The close or fall of a strain; the point of rest, commonly reached by the immediate succession of the tonic to the dominant chord.

A Roman emperor, as being the successor of Augustus Cæsar. Hence, a kaiser, or emperor of Germany, or any emperor or powerful ruler. See Kaiser, Kesar. Malborough anticipated the day when he would be servilely flattered and courted by Cæsar on one side and by Louis the Great on the other. Macaulay.

same language as the majority of the members of a diocese or congregation. This plan was successfully opposed by the American party in the Church.

A namber of sheets of paper put loosely together; esp. one of the successive portions of a work printed in numbers.

Successor or vicar; -- a title of the successors of Mohammed both as temporal and spiritual rulers, now used by the sultans of Turkey, [Writting also calif.]

n which the lens and sensitized plate revolve so as to expose adjacent parts of the plate successively to the light, which reaches it through a narrow vertical slit; -- used in photographing broad landscapes. Abney.