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les o'er his base into the sea. Shak. Each beetling rampart, and each tower sublime. Wordsworth.

Prior or preceding in dignity, order, rank, right, or worth; rather than. He that cometh after me is preferred before me. John i. 15. The eldest son is before the younger in succession. Johnson.

eet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.

n of evil. What concord hath Christ with Belia 2 Cor. vi. 15. A son (or man) of Belial, a worthless, wicked, or thoroughly depraved person. 1 Sam. ii. 12.

J. H. Newman. (b) To believe that the character, abilities, and purposes of a person are worthy of entire confidence; -- especially that his promises are wholly trustworthy. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." John xiv. 1. (c) To believe that the qualities or effects of an action o…

Unworthy of; unbefitting; beneath. They beheld, with a just loathing and disdain, . . . how below all history the persons and their actions were. Milton. Who thinks no fact below his regard. Hallam.

ck robe belted round the waist. C. Reade. They belt him round with hearts undaunted. Wordsworth.

A prayer; boon. [Archaic] What is good for a bootless bene Wordsworth.

than; as, brutes are beneath man; man is beneath angels in the scale of beings. Hence: Unworthy of; unbecoming. He will do nothing that is beneath his high station. Atterbury.

ll, best, etc.) for (one) to do or to have. Hence: To be fit, suitable, or proper for, or worthy of; to become; to befit. A duty well beseeming the preachers. Clarendon. What form of speech or behavior beseemeth us, in our prayers to God Hocker.

A worthless fellow; a bezonian. [Obs.]

improve or ameliorate; to increase the good qualities of. Love betters what is best. Wordsworth. He thought to better his circumstances. Thackeray.

A person who tricks a creditor; an untrustworthy, tricky person. Marryat.

The bell, or boom, of the bittern The bittern's hollow bill was heard. Wordsworth.

nd Southwestern States, a small silver coin (as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12 1/2 cents; also, the sum of 12 1/2 cents. Bit my bit, piecemeal. Pope.

Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, blackguard language.

nsure, or punishment; esp. to put in a list of persons stigmatized as insolvent or untrustworthy, -- as tradesmen and employers do for mutual protection; as, to blacklist a workman who has been discharged. See Black list, under Black, a. If you blacklist us, we will boycott you. John Swinton.

Deserving of censure; faulty; culpable; reprehensible; censurable; blameworthy. -- Blam"a*ble*ness, n. -- Blam"a*bly (, adv.

A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence. Nares.

nstrument; strictly, the sound produces at one breath. One blast upon his bugle horn Were worth a thousand men. Sir W. Scott. The blast of triumph o'er thy grave. Bryant.