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In America (and formerly in England), a promissory note of a bank payable to the bearer on demand, and used as currency; a bank note.

Formerly, a promissory note made by a banker, or banking company, payable to a specified person at a fixed date; a bank bill. See Bank bill, 2. [Obs.]

shot, a double headed shot, consisting of a bar, with a ball or half ball at each end; -- formerly used for destroying the masts or rigging in naval combat. -- Bar sinister (Her.), a term popularly but erroneously used for baton, a mark of illegitimacy. See Baton. -- Bar tracery (Arch.), ornamental stonework resembli…

Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.

Formerly, any small sailing vessel, as a pinnace, fishing smack, etc.; also, a rowing boat; a barge. Now applied poetically to a sailing vessel or boat of any kind. Byron.

isky. Barley bird (Zoöl.), the siskin. -- Barley sugar, sugar boiled till it is brittle (formerly with a decoction of barley) and candied. -- Barley water, a decoction of barley, used in medicine, as a nutritive and demulcent.

Formerly , a measure of length, equal to the average length of a grain of barley; the third part of an inch. John Barleycorn, a humorous personification of barley as the source of malt liquor or whisky.

Formerly, a local judge among miners; now, an officer of the barmote. [Eng.]

on of beef, two sirloins not cut asunder at the backbone. -- Barons of the Cinque Ports, formerly members of the House of Commons, elected by the seven Cinque Ports, two for each port. -- Baron of the exchequer, the judges of the Court of Exchequer, one of the three ancient courts of England, now abolished.…

A kind of cap formerly worn by soldiers; -- called also barret cap. Also, the flat cap worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics.

villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant, a base tenant. Base fee, formerly, an estate held at the will of the lord; now, a qualified fee. See note under Fee, n., 4. -- Base metal. See under Metal.

A performer on the bassoon. Busby.

"The Bastille", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

An officer bearing a painted staff, who formerly was in attendance upon the king's court to take into custody persons committed by the court. Mozley & W.

African people of the Bantu stock, divided into many tribes, subject to the English. They formerly practiced cannibalism, but have now adopted many European customs.

A student at Oxford who is supplied with provisions from the buttery; formerly, one who paid for nothing but what he called for, answering nearly to a sizar at Cambridge. Wright.

A kind of broadax formerly used as an offensive weapon.

A small copper coin, with a mixture of silver, formerly current in some parts of Germany and Switzerland. It was worth about four cents.

Among distillers, a certain degree of strength in alcoholic liquor, as formerly ascertained by the floating or sinking of glass globules of different specific gravities thrown into it; now ascertained by more accurate meters.

Barley; the six-rowed barley or the four-rowed barley, commonly the former (Hord. vulgare). [Obs. except in North of Eng. and Scot.]