Search the Dictionary

Having a keen appetite or desire; eager; longing. "Athirst for battle." Cowper.

losophic movement of the 18th century characterized by a lively questioning of authority, keen interest in matters of politics and general culture, and an emphasis on empirical method in science. It received its impetus from the unsystematic but vigorous skepticism of Pierre Bayle, the physical doctrines of Newton, and…

Automatic stability; also, inherent stability. An aëroplane is inherently stable if it keeps in steady poise by virtue of its shape and proportions alone; it is automatically stable if it keeps in steady poise by means of self-operative mechanism.

A house, inclosure, large cage, or other place, for keeping birds confined; a bird house. Lincolnshire may be termed the aviary of England. Fuller.

To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor no to meet; to shun; to abstain from; as, to avoid the company of gamesters. What need a man forestall his date of grief. And run to meet what he would most avoid Milton. He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility. Macaulay.…

The act of avoiding or shunning; keeping clear of. "The avoidance of pain." Beattie.

To treat like a young child; to keep dependent; to humor; to fondle. Young.

One who keeps a baby farm.

The business of keeping a baby farm.

The keel and keelson of a ship.

In cricket, the longstop; also, the wicket keeper.

To keep back; to hinder. [Obs.]

Custody; keeping. [Obs.] Silly Faunus now within their bail. Spenser.

iginally, a person put in charge of something especially, a chief officer, magistrate, or keeper, as of a county, town, hundred, or castle; one to whom power Abbott. Lausanne is under the canton of Berne, governed by a bailiff sent every three years from the senate. Addison.

alance knife, a carving or table knife the handle of which overbalances the blade, and so keeps it from contact with the table. -- Balance of power. (Politics), such an adjustment of power among sovereign states that no one state is in a position to interfere with the independence of the others; international equilibr…

lescent] By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the Evelyn. Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. Bp. Hall. Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. Drayton.

To keep steady; to steady, morally. 'T is charity must ballast the heart. Hammond.

A mastiff or other large and fierce dog, usually kept chained or tied up. The keeper entered leading his bandog, a large bloodhound, tied in a leam, or band, from which he takes his name. Sir W. Scott.

bank a fire, To bank up a fire, to cover the coals or embers with ashes or cinders, thus keeping the fire low but alive.

who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for traffic in money, bills of exchange, etc.