Search the Dictionary

he name given to several aromatic herbs of the Mint family, but chiefly to the common or sweet basil (Ocymum basilicum), and the bush basil, or lesser basil (O. minimum), the leaves of which are used in cookery. The name is also given to several kinds of mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Basil thyme, a name given to the fr…

A sweet Spanish wine like muscadel in flavor. Brown bastard is your only drink. Shak.

An aboriginal American name for the sweet potato (Ipomæa batatas).

A gall produced on rosebushes, esp. on the sweetbrier or eglantine, by a puncture from the ovipositor of a gallfly (Rhodites rosæ). It was once supposed to have medicinal properties.

as distinguished from a thing without life; as, a human being; spiritual beings. What a sweet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.

A sweet or loving look. [Obs.] Spenser.

of azure beset with drops of gold. Spectator. The garden is so beset with all manner of sweet shrubs that it perfumes the air. Evelyn.

tracted as a white crystalline substance; -- called also lycine and oxyneurine. It has a sweetish taste.

See Sweet gum.

A confection made of flour, sugar, marmalade, and eggs; a sweet biscuit.

A kind of unraised bread, of many varieties, plain, sweet, or fancy, formed into flat cakes, and bakes hard; as, ship biscuit. According to military practice, the bread or biscuit of the Romans was twice prepared in the oven. Gibbon.

A sweet and juicy variety of European grape, of a dark purplish black color, much grown under glass in northern latitudes.

To put forth or have a blade. As sweet a plant, as fair a flower, is faded As ever in the Muses' garden bladed. P. Fletcher.

lass, sea moss, cornstarch, or other gelatinous or starchy substance, with mild, usually sweetened and flavored, and shaped in a mold.

getable fiber. P. Cyc. -- Bog moss. (Bot.) Same as Sphagnum. -- Bog myrtle (Bot.), the sweet gale. -- Bog ore. (Min.) (a) An ore of iron found in boggy or swampy land; a variety of brown iron ore, or limonite. (b) Bog manganese, the hydrated peroxide of manganese. -- Bog rush (Bot.), any rush growing in bogs; saw g…

, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.] How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes.

n in reaping, mowing, etc.; a turn; a round. In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out. Milton. The prince . . . has taken me in his train, so that I am in no danger of starving for this bout. Goldsmith.

aused by the parting of any solid body; a crack or breach; a flaw. Stain or brack in her sweet reputation. J. Fletcher.

sh, or salt in a moderate degree, as water in saline soil. Springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be. Byron.

ocky Mountains. It is usually oval in form, and abounds in farinaceous matter, affording sweet and palatable food.