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To flap the wings; to flutter as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey. "Kites that bait and beat." Shak.

A wheel which imparts regularity to the movements of any engine or machine; a fly wheel.

Evil; an evil, pernicious influence; something causing great injury. [Now chiefly poetic]

A covered building used chiefly for storing grain, hay, and other productions of a farm. In the United States a part of the barn is often used for stables. Barn owl (Zoöl.), an owl of Europe and America (Aluco flammeus, or Strix flammea), which frequents barns and other buildings. -- Barn swallow (Zoöl.), the common A…

The name given to several aromatic herbs of the Mint family, but chiefly to the common or sweet basil (Ocymum basilicum), and the bush basil, or lesser basil (O. minimum), the leaves of which are used in cookery. The name is also given to several kinds of mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Basil thyme, a name given to the f…

One of the Cheiroptera, an order of flying mammals, in which the wings are formed by a membrane stretched between the elongated fingers, legs, and tail. The common bats are small and insectivorous. See Cheiroptera and Vampire. Bat tick (Zoöl.), a wingless, dipterous insect of the genus Nycteribia, parasitic on bats.…

n to several species of fishes: (a) The Malthe vespertilio of the Atlantic coast. (b) The flying gurnard of the Atlantic (Cephalacanthus spinarella). (c) The California batfish or sting ray (Myliobatis Californicus.)

olding a torch or other light, and beating the bush or perch where they roost. The birds, flying to the light, are caught with nets or otherwise.

cluding the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns. Barbette battery. See Barbette. -- Battery d'enfilade, or Enfilading battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work. -- Battery en écharpe, one that…

A small European flycatcher (Muscicapa gricola), so called because it often nests on a beam in a building.

A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs.

The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of the human face, chiefly of male adults.

at he fainted, and wisbed in himself to die. Jonah iv. 8. Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers. Bacon.

Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woolen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats. Beaver rat (Zoöl.), an aquatic ratlike quadruped of Tasmania (Hydromys chrysogaster). -- Beaver skin, the furry skin of the beaver. -- Bank beaver. See under 1st Bank.

A South American bird of the flycatcher family. (Tityra inquisetor).

sebushes, esp. on the sweetbrier or eglantine, by a puncture from the ovipositor of a gallfly (Rhodites rosæ). It was once supposed to have medicinal properties.

rasitic in beehives. -- Bee bird (Zoöl.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird. -- Bee flower (Bot.), an orchidaceous plant of the genus Ophrys (O. apifera), whose flowers have some resemblance to bees, flies, and other insects. -- Bee fly (Zoöl.), a two winged fly of…

A brown, bitter substance found in some of the cells of honeycomb. It is made chiefly from the pollen of flowers, which is collected by bees as food for their young.

One given to drinking alcoholic beverages too freely; a tippler; -- chiefly used in composition; as, winebibber.

Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2). That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. Shak. The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).