Search the Dictionary

The armpit, or the cavity beneath the junction of the arm and shoulder.

One who proffers some illusory advantage or benefit. Also used as an adj.: Barmecidal. "A Barmecide feast." Dickens.

An almshouse for poor people who pray daily for their benefactors.

A neighborly gathering of people who engage in united labor for the benefit of an individual or family; as, a quilting bee; a husking bee; a raising bee. [U. S.] The cellar . . . was dug by a bee in a single day. S. G. Goodrich.

To act as a friend to; to favor; to aid, benefit, or countenance. By the darkness befriended. Longfellow.

Advantage; favor; stead; benefit; interest; profit; support; defense; vindication. In behalf of his mistress's beauty. Sir P. Sidney. Against whom he had contracted some prejudice in behalf of his nation. Clarendon. In behalf of, in the interest of. -- On behalf of, on account of; on the part of.

Advantage; profit; benefit; interest; use. No mean recompense it brings To your behoof. Milton.

spiritual beings. What a sweet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.

me." John xiv. 1. (c) To believe that the qualities or effects of an action or state are beneficial: as, to believe in sea bathing, or in abstinence from alcoholic beverages. -- To believe on, to accept implicitly as an object of religious trust or obedience; to have faith in.

Under, or lower in place; beneath not so high; as, below the moon; below the knee. Shak.

Blessing; beatitude; benediction. Shak. More precious than the benison of friends. Talfourd.

A bespeaking. Among actors, a benefit (when a particular play is bespoken.) "The night of her bespeak." Dickens.

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.

The prayer for the souls of benefactors, said before the sermon.

onsisting of a slender knife, either straight or curved, generally used by introducing it beneath the part to be divided, and cutting towards the surface.

der; -- called also predicant and preaching friar; in France, Jacobin. Also, sometimes, a Benedictine.

A Benedictine monk.

To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. Luke ix. 16.

laration of divine favor, or an invocation imploring divine favor on some or something; a benediction; a wish of happiness pronounces. This is the blessing, where with Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel. Deut. xxxiii. 1.

, as of flowers; to give promise, as by or with flowers. A better country blooms to view, Beneath a brighter sky. Logan.