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To support; to maintain; to second or strengthen by aid or influence; as, to back a friend. "Parliament would be backed by the people." Macaulay. Have still found it necessary to back and fortify their laws with rewards and punishments. South. The mate backed the captain manfully. Blackw. Mag.

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

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

Full of deadly or pernicious influence; destructive. "Baleful enemies." Shak. Four infernal rivers that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams. Milton.

The crime of a judge who is influenced by bribery in pronouncing judgment. Wharton.

ylindrical tube. -- Barrel of a boiler, the cylindrical part of a boiler, containing the flues. -- Barrel of the ear (Anat.), the tympanum, or tympanic cavity. -- Barrel organ, an instrument for producing music by the action of a revolving cylinder. -- Barrel vault. See under Vault.

A thermal cymoscope which operates by increased resistance when subjected to the influence of electric waves. The original form consisted of an extremely fine platinum wire loop attached to terminals and inclosed in a small glass or silver bulb. In a later variety, called the liquid barretter, wire is replace by a colu…

To take effect; to have influence or force; as, to bring matters to bear.

pect to another, such situation being supposed to have a connection with the object, or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it; hence, relation; connection. But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, The strong connections, nice dependencies. Pope.

disorder and confusion, as if by the agency of evil spirits; to bring under diabolical influence; to torment. Bedeviled and used worse than St. Bartholomew. Sterne.

manifesting kindness, gentleness, favor, etc.; mild; kindly; salutary; wholesome. Kind influences and benign aspects. South.

ry that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are the only motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and jural conceptions.

indifferent; bent inclination. Strong love is a bias upon the thoughts. South. Morality influences men's lives, and gives a bias to all their actions. Locke.

To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind; as, attraction binds the planets to the sun; frost binds the earth, or the streams. He bindeth the floods from overflowing. Job xxviii. 11. Whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years. Luke xiii. 16.

To influence by blarney; to wheedle with smooth talk; to make or accomplish by blarney. "Blarneyed the landlord." Irving. Had blarneyed his way from Long Island. S. G. Goodrich.

her; to stop or check the growth of, and prevent from fruit-bearing, by some pernicious influence; to blight; to shrivel. Seven thin ears, and blasted with the east wind. Gen. xii. 6.

ing the whole or a part to wither, whether occasioned by insects, fungi, or atmospheric influences.

The cleaning of the flues of a boiler from scale, etc., by a blast of steam.

A binding force or influence; a cause of union; a uniting tie; as, the bonds of fellowship. A people with whom I have no tie but the common bond of mankind. Burke.

Money given in payment for votes or political influence; bribe money; swag. [Polit. slang, U. S.]