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stine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (as absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent). Spenser.

nconvenient, offensive, painful, unfavorable, or defective, either physically or morally; evil; vicious; wicked; -- the opposite of good; as a bad man; bad conduct; bad habits; bad soil; bad health; bad crop; bad news.

a portion of food and drink for refreshment of one's self or one's beasts, on a journey. Evil news rides post, while good news baits. Milton. My lord's coach conveyed me to Bury, and thence baiting aEvelyn.

To compare in relative force, importance, value, etc.; to estimate. Balance the good and evil of things. L'Estrange.

Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury. [Now chiefly poetic]

To curse; to invoke evil upon. Sir W. Scott.

if by a bar; to hinder; to obstruct; to prevent; to prohibit; as, to bar the entrance of evil; distance bars our intercourse; the statute bars my right; the right is barred by time; a release bars the plaintiff's recovery; -- sometimes with up. He barely looked the idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dunge…

has become impossible. Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay. Dryden. The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts. I. Taylor

d on bean flowers. -- Bean goose (Zoöl.), a species of goose (Anser segetum). -- Bean weevil (Zoöl.), a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American species in Bruchus fabæ. -- Florida bean (Bot.), the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, and…

The title of a heathen deity to whom the Jews ascribed the sovereignty of the evil spirits; hence, the Devil or a devil. See Baal.

An evil spirit; a wicked and unprincipled person; the personification of evil. What concord hath Christ with Belia 2 Cor. vi. 15. A son (or man) of Belial, a worthless, wicked, or thoroughly depraved person. 1 Sam. ii. 12.

To be deserved by. [Obs.] More evils belong us than happen to us. B. Jonson.

, but is now wide-spread in warm countries; -- called also scutch grass, and in Bermuda, devil grass.

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

of Besee. [Obs.] Chaucer. Evil biseye, ill looking. [Obs.]

betony (Stachys betonica); also, the plant called fennel flower (Nigella Damascena), or devil-in-a-bush.

Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant. It is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. Jer. ii. 19.

To revile or abuse in scurrilous language. Southey.

To speak of, or address, with impious irreverence; to revile impiously (anything sacred); as, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. So Dagon shall be magnified, and God, Besides whom is no god, compared with idols, Disglorified, blasphemed, and had in scorn. Milton. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and aven…

impiously irreverent words or signs addressed to, or used in reference to, God; speaking evil of God; also, the act of claiming the attributes or prerogatives of deity.