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

A four-wheeled carriage, having a sheltered seat behind the body and separate from it, invented in the 17th century, at Berlin.

Barley, especially the hardy four-rowed kind. "Bear interchanges in local use, now with barley, now with bigg." New English Dict.

directed, dangers of the sea excepted. It is usual for the master to sign two, three, or four copies of the bill; one of which he keeps in possession, one is kept by the shipper, and one is sent to the consignee of the goods. -- Bill of mortality, an official statement of the number of deaths in a place or district w…

ng by two, as in common arithmetic by ten. Thus, 1 is one; 10 is two; 11 is three; 100 is four, etc. Davies & Peck. -- Binary compound (Chem.), a compound of two elements, or of an element and a compound performing the function of an element, or of two compounds performing the function of elements. -- Binary logarith…

The fourth power, or the square of the square. Thus 4x4=16, the square of 4, and 16x16=256, the biquadrate of 4.

Of or pertaining to the biquadrate, or fourth power. Biquadratic equation (Alg.), an equation of the fourth degree, or an equation in some term of which the unknown quantity is raised to the fourth power. -- Biquadratic root of a number, the square root of the square root of that number. Thus the square root of 81 is…

Leap year; every fourth year, in which a day is added to the month of February on account of the excess of the tropical year (365 d. 5 h. 48 m. 46 s.) above 365 days. But one day added every four years is equivalent to six hours each year, which is 11 m. 14 s. more than the excess of the real year. Hence, it is necessa…

bait; as, to give anything a hard bite. I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite. Walton.

A pestilence which ravaged Europe and Asia in the fourteenth century.

dark-colored timbers. The East Indian black wood is from the tree Dalbergia latifolia. Balfour.

The four large shell plates on the sides, and the five large ones of the middle, of the carapace of the sea turtle, which yield the best tortoise shell. De Colange.

One of the segments first formed by the division of the ovum. Balfour.

lock system on railways, a system by which the track is divided into sections of three or four miles, and trains are so run by the guidance of electric signals that no train enters a section or block before the preceding train has left it.

A system by which the track is divided into short sections, as of three or four miles, and trains are so run by the guidance of electric, or combined electric and pneumatic, signals that no train enters a section or block until the preceding train has left it, as in absolute blocking, or that a train may be allowed to…

y man; a rake. Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty Shak. It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. Thackeray.

as a night signal at sea, and in military operations. -- Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the English college of arms; -- so called from the color of his official robes. -- Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed the blue pill. McElrath. -- Blue mold, or mould, the blue fungus (As…

A four-wheeled truck, having a certain amount of play around a vertical axis, used to support in part a locomotive on a railway track.

A Scotch measure, formerly in use: for wheat and beans it contained four Winchester bushels; for oats, barley, and potatoes, six bushels. A boll of meal is 140 lbs. avoirdupois. Also, a measure for salt of two bushels. [Sometimes spelled bole.]

fing; padding. [Obs.] How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes.