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A form or mode of syllogism of which the first proposition is a universal affirmative, and the other two are particular negative.

A light helmet, at first open, but later made with a visor. [Written also basinet, bassinet, basnet.]

e under Altern. -- Attic base. (Arch.) See under Attic. -- Base course. (Arch.) (a) The first or lower course of a foundation wall, made of large stones of a mass of concrete; -- called also foundation course. (b) The architectural member forming the transition between the basement and the wall above. -- Base hit (B…

Of, relating to, or resembling, a basilica; basilical. There can be no doubt that the first churches in Constantinople were in the basilican form. Milman.

The ground work the first or fundamental principle; that which supports. The basis of public credit is good faith. A. Hamilton.

pl. The whole parapet, consisting of alternate solids and open spaces. At first purely a military feature, afterwards copied on a smaller scale with decorative features, as for churches.

t the bush, to approach a subject circuitously. -- To beat up and down (Hunting), to run first one way and then another; -- said of a stag. -- To beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to get helpers or participators in an enterprise.

A sign made without words; a beck. "At the first beckon." Bolingbroke.

Radiations first observed by the French physicist Henri Becquerel, in working with uranium and its compounds. They consist of a mixture of alpha, beta, and gamma rays.

A biennial plant of the genus Beta, which produces an edible root the first year and seed the second year.

A beef; a beef creature. They would knock down the first beeve they met with. W. Irving.

To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence. Vast chain of being! which from God began. Pope.

encement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Gen. i. 1.

octrine; creed. In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief was subject upon its first promulgation. Hooker. Ultimate belief, a first principle incapable of proof; an intuitive truth; an intuition. Sir W. Hamilton.

The first day of May (Old Style). The quarter-days anciently in Scotland were Hallowmas, Candlemas, Beltane, and Lammas. New English Dict.

The song of Zacharias at the birth of John the Baptist (Luke i. 68); -- so named from the first word of the Latin version.

; to stupefy; as, a hand or foot benumbed by cold. The creeping death benumbed her senses first. Dryden.

A bright star of the first magnitude, near one shoulder of Orion. [Written also Betelgeux and Betelgeuse.]

To show or to indicate; -- said of what is not obvious at first, or would otherwise be concealed. All the names in the country betray great antiquity. Bryant.

engage or promise in order to marriage; to affiance; -- used esp. of a woman. He, in the first flower of my freshest age, Betrothed me unto the only heir. Spenser. Ay, and we are betrothed. Shak.