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A weapon of infantry, in the 14th and 15th centuries. A common form of bill consisted of a broad, heavy, double-edged, hook-shaped blade, having a short pike at the back and another at the top, and attached to the end of a long staff. France had no infantry that dared to face the English bows end bills. Macaulay.…

A weevil or curculio of various species, as the corn weevil. See Curculio.

und, low-crowned felt hat; a wideawake. "The undignified billycocks and pantaloons of the West." B. H. Chamberlain.

A spiritual overseer, superintendent, or director. Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 1 Pet. ii. 25. It is a fact now generally recognized by theologians of all shades of opinion, that in the language of the New Testament the same officer in the church is cal…

Goutweed (Ægopodium podagraria).

nd in a native state, and as a constituent of some minerals. Specific gravity 9.8. Atomic weight 207.5. Symbol Bi.

A point taken by the receiver of odds in the game of tennis; also, an extra innings allowed to a weaker player in croquet.

A West Indian tree (Picræna excelsa) from the wood of which the bitter drug Jamaica quassia is obtained.

Occurring or appearing once every two weeks; fortnightly. -- n.

A black garment or dress; as, she wears black; pl. (Obs.)

The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the "black guard"; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army. [Obs.] A lousy slave, that . . . rode with the…

A Spanish anarchistic society, many of the members of which were imprisoned in 1883.

sion to the cell (the Black Hole) in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which 123 of the prisoners died before morning from lack of air. A discipline of unlimited autocracy, upheld by rods, and ferules, and the black hole. H.…

The old English or Gothic letter, in which the Early English manuscripts were written, and the first English books were printed. It was conspicuous for its blackness. See Type.

t a workman who has been discharged. See Black list, under Black, a. If you blacklist us, we will boycott you. John Swinton.

thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage. Sir W. Scott.

One of an old and well-known Mediterranean breed of domestic fowls with glossy black plumage, blue legs and feet, bright red comb and wattles, and white face. They are remarkable as egg layers.

arts of animals. See Measle, Cysticercus. -- Bladder wrack (Bot.), the common black rock weed of the seacoast (Fucus nodosus and F. vesiculosus) -- called also bladder tangle. See Wrack.

The principal rafters of a roof. Weale.

To censure; to express disapprobation of; to find fault with; to reproach. We have none to blame but ourselves. Tillotson.