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oil engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke, tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to that in which it should travel; also, an explosion in the exhaust passages of such ah engine.

n the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.

Backhanded; indirect; oblique. [R.]

Indirect; awkward; insincere; sarcastic; as, a backhanded compliment.

State of being backhanded; the using of backhanded or indirect methods.

unchanged position when the leveling instrument has been taken to a new position; a sight directed backwards to a station previously occupied. Cf. Foresight, n., 3.

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

Directed to the back or rear; as, backward glances.

In a contrary or reverse manner, way, or direction; contrarily; as, to read backwards. We might have . . . beat them backward home. Shak.

An overseer or under steward of an estate, who directs husbandry operations, collects rents, etc. [Eng.]

To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

t joint, a joint in which a ball moves within a socket, so as to admit of motion in every direction within certain limits. -- Ball bearings, a mechanical device for lessening the friction of axle bearings by means of small loose metal balls. -- Ball cartridge, a cartridge containing a ball, as distinguished from a bl…

forming one or more of such functions, or the stockholders (or their representatives, the directors), acting in their corporate capacity.

An aneroid barometer for use with accompanying graphic diagrams and printed directions designed to aid mariners to interpret the indications of the barometer so as to determine the existence of a violent storm at a distance of several hundred miles.

ening through a barrier. -- Barrier reef, a form of coral reef which runs in the general direction of the shore, and incloses a lagoon channel more or less extensive. -- To fight at barriers, to fight with a barrier between, as a martial exercise. [Obs.]

The upward direction of a vein in a mine; the emergence of a stratum at the surface.

Furring done with small pieces nailed directly upon the wall.

t is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are directly represented in the male line. Quart. Rev.

in an arc of the horizon between a line that crosses the ship at right angles, or in the direction of her beams, and that point of the compass toward which her stern is directed. -- Beam center (Mach.), the fulcrum or pin on which the working beam of an engine vibrates. -- Beam compass, an instrument consisting of a…

To manage, wield, or direct. "Thus must thou thy body bear." Shak. Hence: To behave; to conduct. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison Shak.