Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

BARTERER — BATH

BARTERER, n. One who trafficks by exchange of commodities.

BARTERING, ppr. Trafficking or trading by an exchange of commodities.

BARTERY, n. Exchange of commodities in trade. [Not used.]

BARTON, n. The demain lands of a manor; the manor itself; and sometimes the out-houses.

BARTRAM, n. [L. pyrethrum.] A plant; pellitory.

BARYSTRONTIANITE, n. [Gr. heavy and strontian.] A mineral, called also stromnite, from Stromness, in Orkney. It has been found in masses of a grayish white color internally, but externally of a yellowish white.

BARYTA, BARYTE, n. [Gr. heavy; weight.] Ponderous earth; so called from its great weight, it being the heaviest of the earths. Spec. grav. about 4. Recent discoveries have shown that baryte is an oxyd, the basis of which is a metallic substance called barium. It is generally found in combination with the sulphuric and carbonic acids, forming the sulphate and carbonate of baryte, the former of which is called heavy spar.

BARYTIC, a. Pertaining to baryte; formed of baryte, or containing it.

BARYTO-CALCITE, n. [baryte and calx. See Cals.]

A mixture of carbonate of lime with sulphate of baryte, of a dark or light gray color, of various forms.

BARYTONE, a. [Gr. heavy, and tone.] Pertaining to or noting a grave deep sound, or male voice.

BARYTONE, n. In music, a male voice, the compass of which partakes of the common base and the tenor, but which does not descend so low as the one, nor rise as high as the other.

2. In Greek Grammar, a verb which has no accent marked on the last syllable, the grave accent being understood.

BASAL, a. Pertaining to the base; constituting the base.

BASALT, n. bazalt’. [Pliny informs us that the Egyptians found in Ethiopia, a species of marble, called basaltes, of an iron color and hardness, whence it received its name. Nat. Hist. Lib. 36. Ca. 7. But according to Da Costa, that stone was not the same which now bears the name of basalt. Hist. of Fossils. p. 263. If named from its color, it may be allied to the Fr. basane, tawny. Lunier refers it to the Ethiopic basal, iron, a word I cannot find.]

A dark, grayish black mineral or stone, sometimes bluish or brownish black, and when withered, the surface is grayish or reddish brown. It is amorphous, columnar, tabular or globular. The columnar form is straight or curved, perpendicular or inclined, sometimes nearly horizontal; the diameter of the columns from three inches to three feet, sometimes with transverse semi-spherical joints, in which the convex part of one is inserted in the concavity of another. The forms of the columns generally are pentagonal, hexagonal, or octagonal. It is sometimes found also in rounded masses, either spherical, or compressed and lenticular. These rounded masses are sometimes composed of concentric layers, with a nucleus, and sometimes of prisms radiating from a center. It is heavy and hard. The pillars of the Giant’s causey in Ireland, composed of this stone and exposed to the roughest sea for ages, have their angles as perfect as those at a distance from the waves. The English miners call it cockle; the German, shorl, or shoerl. It is called by Kirwan, Figurate Trap, from its prismatic forms.

BASALTIC, a. Pertaining to basalt; formed of or containing basalt.

BASALTIFORM, a. In the form of basalt; columnar.

BASALTINE, n. Basaltic Hornblend; a variety of common hornblend, so called from its being often found in Basalt. It is also found in lavas and volcanic scoriae. It is generally in distinct crystals, and its color is a pure black, or slightly tinged with green. It is more foliated than the other varieties, and has been mistaken for mica.

2. A column of basalt.

BASANITE, n. [Gr. the trier. Plin. Lib. 36. Ca. 22. See Basalt.]

Lydian stone, or black jasper; a variety of siliceous or flinty slate. Its color is a grayish or bluish black, interspersed with veins of quartz. It is employed to test the purity of gold.

BASE, a.

1. Low in place. Obs.

2. Mean; vile; worthless; that is, low in value or estimation; used of things.

3. Of low station; of mean account; without rank, dignity or estimation among men; used of persons.

The base shall behave proudly against the honorable. Isaiah 3:5.

4. Of mean spirit; disingenuous; illiberal; low; without dignity of sentiment; as a base and abject multitude.

5. Of little comparative value; applied to metals, and perhaps to all metals, except gold and silver.

6. Deep; grave; applied to sounds; as the base sounds of a viol.

7. Of illegitimate birth; born out of wedlock.

8. Not held by honorable tenure. A base estate is an estate held by services not honorable, not in capite, or by villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant, a base tenant. So writers on the laws of England use the terms, a base fee, a base court.

BASE, n. [L. basis; that which is set, the foundation or bottom.]

1. The bottom of any thing, considered as its support or the part of a thing on which it stands or rests; as the base of a column, the pedestal of a statue, the foundation of a house, etc.

In architecture, the base of a pillar properly is that part which is between the top of a pedestal and the bottom of the shaft; but when there is no pedestal, it is the part between the bottom of the column and the plinth. Usually it consists of certain spires or circles. The pedestal also has its base.

2. In fortification, the exterior side of the polygon, or that imaginary line which is drawn from the flanked angle of a bastion to the angle opposite to it.

3. In gunnery, the least sort of ordnance, the diameter of whose bore is 1 1/4 inch.

4. The part of any ornament which hangs down, as housings.

5. The broad part of any thing, as the bottom of a cone.

6. In old authors, stockings; armor for the legs.

7. The place from which racers or tilters start; the bottom of the field; the carcer or starting post.

8. The lowest or gravest part in music; improperly written bass.

9. A rustic play, called also bays, or prison bars.

10. In geometry, the lowest side of the perimeter of a figure. Any side of a triangle may be called its base, but this term most properly belongs to the side which is parallel to the horizon. In rectangled triangles, the base, properly, is the side opposite to the right angle. The base of a solid figure is that on which it stands. The base of a conic section is a right line in the hyperbola and parabola, arising from the common intersection of the secant plane and the base of the cone.

11. In chimistry, any body which is dissolved by another body, which it receives and fixes. Thus any alkaline, earthy or metallic substance, combining with an acid, forms a compound or neutral salt, of which it is the base. Such salts are called salts with alkaline, earthy or metallic bases.

12. Thorough base, in music, is the part performed with base viols or theorbos, while the voices sing and other instruments perform their parts, or during the intervals when the other parts stop. It is distinguished by figures over the notes.

Counter base is a second or double base, when there are several in the same concert.

BASE, v.t.

1. To embase; to reduce the value by the admixture of meaner metals. [Little used.]

2. To found; to lay the base or foundation.

To base and build the commonwealth of man.

BASE-BORN, a. [base and born.] Born out of wedlock.

2. Born of low parentage.

3. Vile; mean.

BASE-COURT, n. [See Court.]

The back yard, opposed to the chief court in front of a house; the farm yard.

BASED, pp. Reduced in value; founded.

BASELESS, a. Without a base; having no foundation, or support.

The baseless fabric of a vision.

The fame how poor that swells our baseless pride.

BASELY, adv. In a base manner; meanly; dishonorable.

2. Illegitimately; in bastardy.

BASEMENT, n. In architecture, the ground floor, on which the order or columns which decorate the principal story, are placed.

BASE-MINDED, a. Of a low spirit or mind; mean.

BASE-MINDEDNESS, n. Meanness of spirit.

BASENESS, n. Meanness; vileness; worthlessness.

2. Vileness of metal; the quality of being of little comparative value.

3. Bastardy; illegitimacy of birth.

4. Deepness of sound.

BASENET, n. A helmet.

BASE-STRING, n. The lowest note.

BASE-VIOL, n. [See Viol.] A musical instrument, used for playing the base or gravest part.

BASH, v.i. [Heb. bosh, to be cast down, or confounded. See Abash.]

To be ashamed; to be confounded with shame.

BASHAW, n. [This word is often written most absurdly pasha, both by the English and Americans. It should be written and pronounced pashaw.]

1. A title of honor in the Turkish dominions; appropriately, the title of the prime vizer, but given to viceroys or governors of provinces, and to generals and other men of distinction. The Turkish bashaws exercise an oppressive authority in their provinces. Hence,

2. A proud, tyrannical, overbearing man.

BASHFUL, a. [See Bash and Abash.]

1. Properly, having a downcast look; hence very modest.

2. Modest to excess; sheepish.

3. Exciting shame.

BASHFULLY, adv. Very modestly; in a timorous manner.

BASHFULNESS, n. Excessive or extreme modesty; a quality of mind often visible in external appearance, as in blushing, a downcast look, confusion, etc.

2. Vicious or rustic shame.

BASHLESS, a. Shameless; unblushing.

BASIL, n. s as z. The slope or angle of a tool or instrument as of a chisel or plane; usually of 12 degrees, but for hard wood, 18 degrees.

BASIL, v.t. To grind or form the edge of a tool to an angle.

BASIL, n. s as z.

1. A plant of the genus Ocymum, of which there are many species, all natives of warm climates. They are fragrant aromatic plants, and one species, the sweet basil, is much used in cookery, especially in France.

BASIL, n. The skin of a sheep tanned; written also basan.

BASIL-WEED, n. Wild basil, a plant of the genus Clinopodium.

BASILAR, BASILARY, a. s as z. [See Basilic.]

Chief; an anatomical term applied to several bones, and to an artery of the brain.

Basilian monks, monks of the order of St. Basil, who founded the order in Pontus. The order still exists, but has less power and celebrity than formerly.

BASILIC, n. s as z. [L. basilica; Gr. a king.]

Anciently, a public hall or court of judicature, where princes and magistrates sat to administer justice. It was a large hall, with aisles, porticoes, tribunes, and tribunals. The bankers also had a part allotted for their residence. These edifices, at first, were the palaces of princes, afterwards courts of justice, and finally converted into churches. Hence basilic now signifies a church, chapel, cathedral, or royal palace.

BASILIC, n. [See Basil.] The middle vein of the arm, or the interior branch of the axillary vein, so called by way of eminence.

BASILIC, BASILICAL, a. Belonging to the middle vein of the arm.

2. Noting a particular nut, the walnut, basilica nux.

BASILICAL, a. s as z. In the manner of a public edifice or cathedral.

BASILICON, n. s as z. [Gr. royal.]

An ointment. This name is given to several compositions in ancient medical writers. At present it is confined to three officinal ointments, distinguished into black, yellow and green basilicon.

BASILISK, n. s as z. [L. basiliscus.]

1. A fabulous serpent, called a cockatrice, and said to be produced from a cock’s egg brooded by a serpent. The ancients alledged that its hissing would drive away all other serpents, and that its breath and even its look was fatal. Some writers suppose that a real serpent exists under this name.

2. In military affairs, a large piece of ordnance, so called from its supposed resemblance to the serpent of that name, or from its size. This cannon carried a ball of 200 pounds weight, but is not now used. Modern writers give this name to cannon of a smaller size, which the Dutch make 15 feet long, and the French 10, carrying a 48 pound ball.

BASIN, n. basn.

1. A hollow vessel or dish, to hold water for washing, and for various other uses.

2. In hydraulics, any reservoir of water.

3. That which resembles a basin in containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a hollow place for liquids, or an inclosed part of water, forming a broad space within a strait or narrow entrance; a little bay.

4. Among glass grinders, a concave piece of metal by which convex glasses are formed.

5. Among hatters, a large shell or case, usually of iron, placed over a furnace, in which the hat is molded into due shape.

6. In anatomy, a round cavity between the anterior ventricles of the brain.

7. The scale of a balance, when hollow and round.

8. In Jewish antiquities, the laver of the tabernacle.

BASIS, n. plu. bases. [L. and Gr.; the same as base, which see.]

1. The foundation of any thing; that on which a thing stands or lies; the bottom or foot of the thing itself, or that on which it rests. See a full explanation under Base.

2. The ground work or first principle; that which supports.

3. Foundation; support.

The basis of public credit is good faith.

The basis of all excellence is truth.

4. Basis, in chimistry. See Base. No. 12.

BASK, v.i. [The origin of this word is not obvious.]

To lie in warmth; to be exposed to genial heat; to be at ease and thriving under benign influences; as, to bask in the blaze of day; to bask in the sunshine of royal favor. The word includes the idea of some continuance of exposure.

BASK, v.t. To warm by continued exposure to heat; to warm with genial heat.

BASKED, pp. Exposed to warmth, or genial heat.

BASKET, n.

1. A domestic vessel made of twigs, rushes, splinters or other flexible things interwoven. The forms and sizes of baskets are very various, as well as the uses to which they are applied; as corn-baskets, clothes-baskets, fruit-baskets, and work-baskets.

2. The contents of a basket; as much as a basket will contain; as, a basket of medlars is two bushels. But in general, this quantity is indefinite.

In military affairs, baskets of earth sometimes are used on the parapet of a trench, between which the soldiers fire. They serve for defense against small shot.

BASKET, v.t. To put in a basket.

BASKET-FISH, n. A species of sea-star, or star-fish, of the genus Asterias, and otherwise called the Magellanic star-fish. It has five rays issuing from an angular body, and dividing into innumerable branches. These when extended form a circle of three feet diameter. [See Asterias.]

BASKET-HILT, n. [See Hilt.] A hilt which covers the hand, and defends it from injury, as of a sword.

BASKET-HILTED, a. Having a hilt of basket-work.

BASKET-SALT, n. Salt made from salt-springs, which is purer, whiter and finer, than common brine salt.

BASKET-WOMAN, n. A woman who carries a basket, to and from market.

BASKING, ppr. Exposing or lying exposed to the continued action of heat or genial warmth.

BASKING-SHARK, n. The sun-fish of the Irish; a species of squalus or shark. This fish is from three to twelve yards in length, or even longer. The upper jaw is much longer than the lower one; the tail is large and the upper part much longer than the lower; the skin is rough, of a deep leaden color on the back, and white on the belly. The fish weighs more than a thousand pounds, and affords a great quantity of oil, which is used for lamps, and to cure bruises, burns, and rheumatic complaints. It is viviparous, and frequents the northern seas. [See Squalus.]

BASQUISH, a. baskish. Pertaining to the people or language of Biscay.

BASS, n. [It has no plural.] The name of several species of fish. In England, this name is given to a species of perch, called by some the sea-wolf, from its voracity, and resembling, in a degree, the trout in shape, but having a larger head. It weighs about fifteen pounds. In the northern states of America, this name is given to a striped fish which grows to the weight of 25 or 30 pounds, and which enters the rivers; the perca ocellata. A species of striped fish, of a darker color, with a large head, is called sea-bass, as it is never found in fresh water. This fish grows to two or three pounds weight. Both species are well tasted, but the proper bass is a very white and delicious food.

BASS, n. The linden, lime or tiel tree; called also bass-wood. [See Bast.]

2. [pron. bas.] A mat to kneel on in churches.

BASS, n. In music, the base; the deepest or gravest part of a tune. This word is thus written in imitation of the Italian basso, which is the Eng. base, low; yet with the pronunciation of base and plural bases, a gross error that ought to be corrected; as the word used in pronunciation is the English word base.

BASS, v.t. To sound in a deep tone.

BASS-RELIEF, n. In English, base-relief. [See Lift and Relief.]

Sculpture, whose figures do not stand out far from the ground or plane on which they are formed. When figures do not protuberate so as to exhibit the entire body, they are said to be done in relief; and when they are low, flat or little raised from the plane, the work is said to be in low relief. When the figures are so raised as to be well distinguished, they are said to be bold, strong, or high, alto relievo. [See Relief.]

BASS-VIOL, n. [See Base-viol]

BASSA [See Bashaw.]

BASSET, n. A game at cards, said to have been invented at Venice, by a nobleman, who was banished for the invention. The game being introduced into France by the Venetian embassador, Justiniani, in 1674, it was prohibited by severe edicts.

BASSET, v.i. [See Basil.] Among coal diggers, to incline upwards. Thus a vein of coal bassets, when it takes a direction towards the surface of the earth. This is called cropping, and is opposed to dipping.

BASSETING, ppr. Having a direction upwards.

BASSETING, n. The upward direction of a vein in a coal mine.

BASSO-CONCERTANTE, in music, is the base of the little chorus, or that which plays throughout the whole piece.

BASSO-CONTINUO, thorough base, which see under base.

BASSO-REPIENO, is the base of the grand chorus, which plays only occasionally, or in particular parts.

BASSO-RELIEVO. [See Bass-relief.]

BASSO-VIOLINO, is the base of the base-viol.

BASSOCK, n. The same as bass, a mat.

BASSOON, n. A musical wind instrument, blown with a reed, and furnished with eleven holes, which are stopped, as in other large flutes. Its compass comprehends three octaves. Its diameter at bottom is nine inches, and for convenience of carriage it is divided into two parts; whence it is called also a fagot. It serves for the base in a concert of hautboys, flutes, etc.

BASSOONIST, n. A performer on the bassoon.

BAST, n. A rope or cord, made of the bark of the lime tree, bass-wood or linden; or the bark made into ropes and mats.

BASTARD, n. A natural child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or spurious child. By the civil and canon laws, a bastard becomes a legitimate child, by the intermarriage of the parents, at any future time. But by the laws of this country, as by those of England, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage.

Bastard eigne’, or bastard elder, in law, is when a man has a bastard son, and afterward marries the mother, and has a legitimate son, called mulier puisne, or younger.

BASTARD, n. A kind of sweet wine. [Not in use.]

BASTARD, a. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate.

2. Spurious;; not genuine; false; supposititious; adulterate. In this sense, it is applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not genuine; as a bastard hope, bastard honors.

In military affairs, bastard is applied to pieces of artillery which are of an unusual make or proportion, whether longer or shorter, as the double culverin extraordinary, half or quarter culverin extraordinary.

Bastard-Flower-fence, a plant, a species of Adenanthera.

Bastard-hemp, a plant, a species of Datisca, false hemp.

Bastard-Rocket, dyers-weed, or wild woad, a species of Reseda.

Bastard-Star of Bethlehem, a plant, a species of Albuca.

Bastard-Scarlet, a red color dyed with balemadder.

BASTARD, v.t. To make or determine to be a bastard.

BASTARDISM, n. The state of a bastard.

BASTARDIZE, v.t.

1. To make or prove to be a bastard; to convict of being a bastard; to declare legally, or decide a person to be illegitimate.

The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock.

2. To beget a bastard.

BASTARDLY, adv. In the manner of a bastard; spuriously.

BASTARDS, an appellation given to a faction or troop of bandits, who ravaged Guienne in France in the 14th century; supposed to have been headed by the illegitimate sons of noblemen, who were excluded from the rights of inheritance.

BASTARDY, n. A state of being a bastard, or begotten and born out of lawful wedlock, which condition disables the person from inheriting an estate.

BASTARNIC, a. Pertaining to the Basternae, ancient inhabitants of the Carpathian mountains.

Bastarnic Alps, the Carpathian mountains, between Poland, Hungary and Transvlvania; so called from the ancient inhabitants, the Bastarnoe.

BASTE, v.t.

1. To beat with a stick.

2. To drip butter or fat upon meat, as it turns upon the spit, in roasting; to moisten with fat or other liquid.

BASTE, v.t. To sew with long stitches; to sew slightly.

BASTED, pp. Beat with a stick; moistened with fat or other matter in roasting; sewed together with long stitches, or slightly.

BASTILE, n. An old castle in Paris, built between 1369 and 1383, used as a state prison, and converted to the purpose of confining men for life, who happened to incur the resentment or jealousy of the French monarchs. It was demolished by the enraged populace in 1789.

BASTINADE, BASTINADO, n. [See Baste.] A sound beating with a stick or cudgel; the blows given with a stick or staff. This name is given to a punishment in use among the Turks, of beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

BASTINADE, BASTINADO, v.t. To beat with a stick or cudgel.

BASTING, ppr. Beating with a stick; moistening with dripping; sewing together with long stitches.

BASTING, n. A beating with a stick; a moistening with dripping; a sewing together slightly with long stitches.

BASTION, n. bas’chun. A huge mass of earth, usually faced with sods, sometimes with brick, or stones, standing out from a rampart, of which it is a principal part; formerly called a bulwark. Bastions are solid or hollow. A flat bastion is made in the middle of the curtain, when it is too long to be defended by the bastions in its extremes. A cut bastion has its point cut off and instead of it a re-entering angle, or an angle inwards, with two points outward. A composed bastion has two sides of the interior polygon unequal, which makes the gorges unequal. A demibastion is composed of one face only, which makes the gorges unequal. A demibastion is composed of one face only, with one flank and a demigorge. A double bastion is one raised on the plane of another.

BASTO, n. The ace of clubs at quadrille.

BASTON, BATOON, n. In architecture, a round molding in the base of a column; called also a tore, [torus.]

BAT, n.

1. A heavy stick or club; a piece of wood with one end thicker or broader than the other.

2. Bat or bate, a small copper coin of Germany, with a small mixture of silver, worth four crutzers. Also a coin of Switzerland, worth five livres.

3. A term given by miners to shale or bituminous shale.

BAT, v.i. To manage a bat, or play with one.

BAT, n. [I have not found this word in any European language, except in English.]

A race of quadrupeds, technically called Vespertilio, of the order primates, in Linne’s system. The fore feet have the toes connected by a membrane, expanded into a kind of wings, by means of which the animals fly. The species are numerous. Of these, the vampire or Ternate bat inhabits Africa and the Oriental Isles. These animals fly in flocks from isle to isle, obscuring the sun by their numbers. Their wings when extended measure five or six feet. They live on fruits; but are said sometimes to draw blood from persons when asleep. The bats of the northern latitudes are small; they are viviparous and suckle their young. Their skin resembles that of a mouse. They enter houses in pleasant summer evenings, feed upon moths, flies, flesh, and oily substances, and are torpid during the winter.

BATFOWLER, n. One who practices, or is pleased with bat-fowling.

BATFOWLING, n. A mode of catching birds at night, by holding 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.

BATABLE, a. [See Bate and Debate.] Disputable. The land between England and Scotland, which, when the kingdoms were distinct, was a subject of contention, was called batable ground.

BATATAS, n. A species of tick or mite, found on the potatoes of Surinam. Also the Peruvian name of the sweet potatoe.

BATAVIAN, a. [from Batavi, the people who inhabited the isle.]

Pertaining to the isle of Betaw in Holland, between the Rhine and the Waal. But more generally, the word denotes what appertains to Holland in general.

BATAVIAN, n. A native of Betaw, or of the Low Countries.

BATCH, n. [from bake.]

1. The quantity of bread baked at one time; a baking of bread.

2. Any quantity of a thing made at once, or so united as to have like qualities.

BATE, n. [It is probably from the root of beat. See Debate.]

Strife; contention; retained in make-bate.

BATE, v.t. [The literal sense is, to beat, strike, thrust; to force down. See Beat.]

To lessen by retrenching, deducting or reducing; as, to bate the wages of the laborer; to bate good cheer. [We now use abate.]

BATE, v.i. To grow or become less; to remit or retrench a part; with of.

Abate thy speed and I will bate of mine.

Spenser uses bate in the sense of sinking, driving in, penetrating; a sense regularly deducible from that of beat, to thrust.

Yet there the steel staid not, but inly bate.

Deep in the flesh, and open’d wide a red flood gate.

BATE-BREEDING, a. Breeding strife. [Not used.]

BATEFUL, a. Contentious; given to strife; exciting contention.

BATELESS, a. Not to be abated.

BATEMENT, n. Abatement; deduction; diminution. [Bate, with its derivatives, is, I believe, little used, or wholly obsolete in the United States.]

BATEAU, n. batto’. [L. batillum.] A light boat, long in proportion to its breadth, and wider in the middle than at the ends.

BATENITES, BATENISTS, BATENIANS, n. A sect of apostates from Mohammedism, who professed the abominable practices of the Ismaelians and Kirmatians. The word signified esoteric, or persons of inward light. [See Assassins.]

BATFUL, a. [See Batten.] Rich, fertile, as land. [Not in use.]

BATH, n.

1. A place for bathing; a convenient vat or receptacle of water for persons to plunge or wash their bodies in. Baths are warm or tepid, hot or cold, more generally called warm and cold. They are also natural or artificial. Natural baths are those which consist of spring water, either hot or cold, which is often impregnated with iron, and called chalybeate, or with sulphur, carbonic acid, and other mineral qualities. These waters are often very efficacious in scorbutic, bilious, dyspeptic and other complaints.

2. A place in which heat is applied to a body immersed in some substance. Thus,

A dry bath is made of hot sand, ashes, salt, or other matter, for the purpose of applying heat to a body immersed in them.

A vapor bath is formed by filling an apartment with hot steam or vapor, in which the body sweats copiously, as in Russia; or the term is used for the application of hot steam to a diseased part of the body.

A metalline bath is water impregnated with iron or other metallic substance, and applied to a diseased part.

In chimistry, a wet bath is formed by hot water in which is placed a vessel containing the matter which requires a softer heat than the naked fire.

In medicine, the animal bath is made by wrapping the part affected in a warm skin just taken from an animal.

3. A house for bathing. In some eastern countries, baths are very magnificent edifices.

4. A Hebrew measure containing the tenth of a homer, or seven gallons and four pints, as a measure for liquids; and three pecks and three pints, as a dry measure.