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A kind of banjo, with a short neck, tuned a fourth higher than the common banjo; -- popularly so called.

Having short, stiff hairs, often barbed at the point. Gray.

To make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs; -- said of some animals, but especially of dogs.

A short sword or dagger, worn in the fifteenth century. [Written also baslard.] Fairholt.

A part of a lady's dress, resembling a jacket with a short skirt; -- probably so called because this fashion of dress came from the Basques.

A small kind of hound with a long body and short legs, used as an earth dog.

A short bat for beating clothes in washing them; -- called also batler, batling staff, batting staff. Shak.

The fool's club. [Obs.] "A fool's bauble was a short stick with a head ornamented with an ass's ears fantastically carved upon it." Nares.

A short rein looped over the check hook or the hames to keep the horse's head up; -- called in the United States a checkrein.

The shortest line from one place to another, like that of a bee to its hive when loaded with honey; an air line. "A bee line for the brig." Kane.

The short prayer which closes public worship; as, to give the benediction.

applicable to the case; under the most favorable circumstances; as, life is at best very short. -- For best, finally. [Obs.] "Those constitutions . . . are now established for best, and not to be mended." Milton. -- To get the best of, to gain an advantage over, whether fairly or unfairly. -- To make the best of. (…

In a short time; soon; speedily; forth with. He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes. Shak.

A short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open. [Written also bettee.] The powerful betty, or the artful picklock. Arbuthnot.

h hook-shaped point, and fitted with a handle; -- used in pruning, etc.; a billhook. When short, called a hand bill, when long, a hedge bill.

A small paper; a note; a short letter. "I got your melancholy billet." Sterne.

A thick, heavy knife with a hooked point, used in pruning hedges, etc. When it has a short handle, it is sometimes called a hand bill; when the handle is long, a hedge bill or scimiter.

A combination of two short rectangular glass prisms cemented together at their diagonal faces so as to form a cube; -- called also optical cube. It is used in one form of photometer.

A papilionaceous plant, the Ornithopus, having a curved, cylindrical pod tipped with a short, clawlike point. Bird's-foot trefoil. (Bot.) (a) A genus of plants (Lotus) with clawlike pods. L. corniculatas, with yellow flowers, is very common in Great Britain.

A short blunt arrow for killing birds without piercing them. Hence: Anything which smites without penetrating. Shak.