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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

3,097 words match “BAC”

now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.

BACKSTAIRS; BACKSTAIR a.

Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; as if finding access by the back stairs. A backstairs influence. Burke. Female caprice and backstairs influence. Trevelyan.

BACKSTAY n. 2 definitions

A rope or stay extending from the masthead to the side of a ship, slanting a little aft, to assist the shrouds in supporting the mast. [ Often used in the plural.]

A backer. [Obs.]

BACKSTITCH n. 2 definitions

A stitch made by setting the needle back of the end of the last stitch, and bringing it out in front of the end.

BACKSTOP n. 3 definitions

In baseball, a fence, prop. at least 90 feet behind the home base, to stop the balls that pass the catcher; also, the catcher himself.

A female baker. [Obs.]

BACKSWORD n. 2 definitions

A sword with one sharp edge.

BACKWARD a. 8 definitions

Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.

BACKWARD; BACKWARDS adv. 7 definitions

With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward.

BACKWARDATION n.

The seller's postponement of delivery of stock or shares, with the consent of the buyer, upon payment of a premium to the latter; -- also, the premium so paid. See Contango. Biddle.

BACKWARDLY adv. 2 definitions

Perversely; ill.[Obs.] And does he think so backwardly of me Shak.

BACKWARDNESS n.

The state of being backward.

To clean the oil from (wood) after combing.

BACKWATER n. 3 definitions

Water turned back in its course by an obstruction, an opposing current , or the flow of the tide, as in a sewer or river channel, or across a river bar.

The forests or partly cleared grounds on the frontiers.

BACKWOODSMAN n.

A men living in the forest in or beyond the new settlements, especially on the western frontiers of the older portions of the United States. Fisher Ames.

A disease of hawks. See Filanders. Wright.

The back and sides of a pig salted and smoked; formerly, the flesh of a pig salted or fresh. Bacon beetle (Zoöl.), a beetle (Dermestes lardarius) which, especially in the larval state, feeds upon bacon, woolens, furs, etc. See Dermestes. -- To save one's bacon, to save one's self or property from harm or less. [Colloq…

Of or pertaining to Lord Bacon, or to his system of philosophy. Baconian method, the inductive method. See Induction.