Search the Dictionary

Attentive; heedful. [Archaic] Let thine ears be attent unto the prayer. 2 Chron. vi. 40.

A variety of the game of bridge in which the players, beginning with the dealer, bid for the privilege of naming the trump and playing with the dummy for that deal, there being heavy penalties for a player's failure to make good his bid. The score value of each trick more than six taken by the successful bidder is as f…

A game of cards in which the players bid for the privilege of determining or "pitching" the trump suit. R. F. Foster.

One who foretells events by omens; a soothsayer; a diviner; a prophet. Augur of ill, whose tongue was never found Without a priestly curse or boding sound. Dryden.

A salutation and prayer to the Virgin Mary, as mother of God; -- used in the Roman Catholic church. To number Ave Maries on his beads. Shak.

contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the church. Bacon. Till ardent prayer averts the public woe. Prior.

ecies of the same genus; -- so called from the city of Avignon, in France. It is used by dyers and painters for coloring yellow. Called also French berry.

Aside; off; in another direction. The axis of rotation is inclined away from the sun. Lockyer.

A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc. Hop back, Jack back, the cistern which receives the infusion of malt and hops from the copper. -- Wash back, a vat in which distillers ferment…

d by two persons on a "board" marked off into twenty-four spaces called "points". Each player has fifteen pieces, or "men", the movements of which from point to point are determined by throwing dice. Formerly called tables. Backgammon board , a board for playing backgammon, often made in the form of two rectangular tra…

In rounders, the player who stands immediately behind the striking base.

The seller's postponement of delivery of stock or shares, with the consent of the buyer, upon payment of a premium to the latter; -- also, the premium so paid. See Contango. Biddle.

r arches into or through which balls are to be driven by a rod held in the hand of the player.

In certain games, as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw. Bank credit, a credit by which a person who has give -- Bank of deposit, a bank which receives money for safe keeping. -- Bank of issue, a bank which issues its own notes payable to bearer.

The whole body of lawyers licensed in a court or district; the legal profession.

An itinerant theatrical player who plays in barns when a theatre is lacking; hence, an inferior actor, or one who plays in the country away from the larger cities. --Barn"storm`ing, n. [Theatrical Cant]

lled from the bases or bounds ( four in number) which designate the circuit which each player must endeavor to make after striking the ball.

loor, collectively. Basement membrane (Anat.), a delicate membrane composed of a single layer of flat cells, forming the substratum upon which, in many organs, the epithelioid cells are disposed.

r other flexible material, interwoven. "Rude baskets . . . woven of the flexile willow." Dyer.

A game, usually played indoors, in which two parties of players contest with each other to toss a large inflated ball into opposite goals resembling baskets.