Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
BATH-ROOM — BEADLESHIP
BATH-ROOM, n. An apartment for bathing.
BATHE, v.t.
1. To wash the body, or some part of it, by immersion, as in a bath; it often differs from ordinary washing in a longer application of water, to the body or to a particular part, as for the purpose of cleansing or stimulating the skin.
2. To wash or moisten, for the purpose of making soft and supple, or for cleansing, as a wound.
3. To moisten or suffuse with a liquid; as, to bathe in tears or blood.
BATHE, v.i. To be or lie in a bath; to be in water, or in other liquid, or to be immersed in a fluid, as in a bath; as, to bathe in fiery floods.
BATHED, pp. Washed as in a bath; moistened with a liquid; bedewed.
BATHER, n. One who bathes; one who immerses himself in water, or who applies a liquid to himself or to another.
BATHING, ppr. Washing by immersion, or by applying a liquid; moistening; fomenting.
BATHING, n. The act of bathing, or washing the body in water.
BATHING-TUB, n. A vessel for bathing, usually made either of wood or tin. In the Royal Library at Paris, I saw a bathing-tub of porphyry, of beautiful form and exquisite workmanship.
BATHOS, n. The art of sinking in poetry.
BATING, ppr. [from bate.] Abating; taking away; deducting; excepting.
Children have few ideas, bating some faint ideas of hunger and thirst.
BATINIST. [See Batenites.]
BATIST, n. A fine linen cloth made in Flanders and Picardy, of three different kinds or thicknesses.
BATLET, n. [from bat.] A small bat, or square piece of wood with a handle, for beating linen when taken out of the buck.
BATMAN, n. A weight used in Smyrna, of six okes, each of 400 drams; equal to 16 lbs. 6 oz. 15 dr. English.
BATOON, BATON, n. A staff or club; a marshal’s staff; a truncheon; a badge of military honors.
BATRACHITE, n. [Gr. a frog.] A fossil or stone in color resembling a frog.
BATRACHOMYOMACHY, n. [Gr. a frog, a mouse, and a battle.]
The battle between the frogs and mice; a burlesque poem ascribed to Homer.
BATRACIAN, a. [Gr. a frog.] Pertaining to frogs; an epithet designating an order of animals, including frogs, toads and similar animals.
BATRACIAN, n. An animal of the order above mentioned.
BATTABLE, a. Capable of cultivation. [Not in use.]
BATTAILANT, n. [See Battle.] A combatant. [Not used.]
BATTAILOUS, a. [See Battle.] Warlike; having the form or appearance of an army arrayed for battle;; marshaled, as for an attack.
BATTALIA, n. [See Battle.]
1. The order of battle; troops arrayed in their proper brigades, regiments, battalions, etc., for action.
2. The main body of any army in array, distinguished from the wings.
BATTALION, n. [See Battle.] A body of infantry, consisting of from 500 to 800 men; so called from being originally a body of men arrayed for battle. A battalion is generally a body of troops next below a regiment. Sometimes a battalion composed a regiment; more generally a regiment consists of two or more battalions. Shakespeare used the word for and army.
BATTALIONED, a. Formed into battalions.
BATTEL, n. [See Battle.] In law, wager of battle, a species of trial for the decision of causes between parties. This species of trial is of high antiquity, among the rude military people of Europe. It was introduced into England, by William, the Norman Conqueror, and used in three cases only; in the court martial, or court of chivalry or honor;; in appeals of felony; and in issues joined upon a writ of right. The contest was had before the judges, on a piece of ground inclosed, and the combatants were bound to fight till the stars appeared, unless the death of one party or victory sooner decided the contest. It is no longer is use.
BATTEL, v.i. To grow fat. [Not in use.] [See Batten.]
1. To stand indebted in the college books at Oxford, for provisions and drink, from the buttery. Hence a batteler answers to a sizer at Cambridge.
BATTEL, n. An account of the expenses of a student at Oxford.
BATTEL, a. [See Batten.] Fertile; fruitful. [Not used.]
BATTELER, BATTLER, n. A student at Oxford.
BATTEMENT, n. A beating; striking;; impulse. [Not in use.]
BATTEN, v.t. bat’n. [See Fat.]
1. To fatten; to make fat; to make plump by plenteous feeding.
2. To fertilize or enrich land.
BATTEN, v.i. To grow or become fat; to live in luxury, or to grow fat in ease and luxury.
The pampered monarch battening in ease.
BATTEN, n. A piece of board or scantling, of a few inches in breadth, used in making doors and windows. It is not as broad as a panel.
BATTEN, v.t. To form with battens.
BATTER, v.t. [L. batuo, to beat. See Beat.]
1. To beat with successive blows; to beat with violence, so as to bruise, shake, or demolish;, as, to batter a wall.
2. To wear or impair with beating; as a battered pavement; a battered jade.
3. To attack with a battering ram.
4. To attack with heavy artillery, for the purpose of making a breach in a wall or rampart.
BATTER, v.i. To swell, bulge or stand out, as a timber or side of a wall from its foundation.
BATTER, n. [from beat or batter.] A mixture of several ingredients, as flour, eggs, salt, etc., beaten together with some liquor, used in cookery.
BATTERED, pp. Beaten; bruised, broken, impaired by beating or wearing.
BATTERER, n. One who batters or beats.
BATTERING, ppr. Beating; dashing against; bruising or demolishing by beating.
BATTERING-RAM, n. In antiquity, a military engine used to beat down the walls of besieged places. It was a large beam, with a head of iron somewhat resembling the head of a ram, whence its name. It was suspended by ropes in the middle to a beam which was supported by posts, and balanced so as to swing backwards and forwards, and was impelled by men against the wall. It was sometimes mounted on wheels.
BATTERY, n. [See Beat.]
1. The act of battering, or beating.
2. The instrument of battering.
3. In the military art, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and others employed about them, from the enemy’s shot, with the guns employed. Thus, to erect a battery, is to form the parapet and mount the guns. The term is applied also to a number of guns ranged in order for battering, and to mortars used for a like purpose.
Cross batteries are two batteries which play athwart each other, forming an angle upon the object battered.
Battery d’enfilade, is one which scours or sweeps the whole line or length.
Battery en echarpe, is that which plays obliquely.
Battery de revers, is that which plays upon the enemy’s back.
Camerade battery, is when several guns play at the same time upon one place.
4. In law, the unlawful beating of another. The least violence or the touching of another in anger is a battery.
5. In electrical apparatus and experiments, a number of coated jars placed in such a manner, that they may be charged at the same time, and discharged in the same manner. This is called an electrical battery.
6. Galvanic battery, a pile or series of plates of copper and zink, or of any substances suspectable of galvanic action.
BATTING, n. The management of a bat play.
BATTISH, a. [from bat, an animal.] Resembling a bat; as a battish humor.
BATTLE, n. [See Beat.] Owen supposes the Welsh batel, to be from tel, tight, stretched, compact, and the word primarily to have expressed the drawing of the bow. This is probably an error. The first battles of men were with clubs, or some weapons used in beating, striking. Hence the club of Hercules. And although the moderns use different weapons, still a battle is some mode of beating or striking.
1. A fight, or encounter between enemies, or opposing armies; an engagement. It is usually applied to armies or large bodies of men; but in popular language, the word is applied to an encounter between small bodies, between individuals, or inferior animals. It is also more generally applied to the encounters of land forces than of ships; the encounters of the latter being called engagements. But battle is applicable to any combat of enemies.
2. A body of forces, or division of an army.
The main body, as distinct from the van and rear.
To give battle, is to attack an enemy; to join battle, is properly to meet the attack; but perhaps this distinction is not always observed.
A pitched battle is one in which the armies are previously drawn up in form, with a regular disposition of the forces.
To turn the battle to the gate, is to fight valiantly, and drive the enemy, who hath entered the city, back to the gate. Isaiah 28:6.
BATTLE, v.i. To join in battle; to contend in fight; sometimes with it; as, to battle it.
BATTLE, v.t. To cover with armed force.
BATTLE-ARRAY, n. [battle and array.] Array or order of battle; the disposition of forces preparatory to a battle.
BATTLE-AX, BATTLE-AXE, n. An ax anciently used as a weapon of war. It has been used till of late years by the highlanders in Scotland; and is still used by the city guards in Edinburg, in quelling mobs, etc.
BATTLE-DOOR, n. bat’tl-dore. An instrument of play, with a handle and a flat board or palm, used to strike a ball or shuttle-cock; a racket.
1. A child’s horn book. [Not in use in U.S.]
BATTLEMENT, n. [This is said to have been bastillement, from bastille, a fortification.]
A wall raised on a building with openings or embrasures, or the embrasure itself.
BATTLEMENTED, a. Secured by battlements.
BATTLING, n. Conflict.
BATTOLOGIST, n. [See Battology.] One that repeats the same thing in speaking or writing. [Little used.]
BATTOLOGIZE, v.t. To repeat needlessly the same thing. [Little used.]
BATTOLOGY, n. [Gr. from Barros, a garrulous person, and discourse.]
A needless repetition of woods in speaking.
BATTON, n. [from bat.] In commerce, pieces of wood or deal for flooring, or other purposes.
BATTORY, n. Among the Hans-Towns, a factory or magazine which the merchants have in foreign countries.
BATTULATE, v.t. To interdict commerce. [A word used by the Levant company.]
BATTULATION, n. A prohibition of commerce.
BATTY, a. [from bat, an animal.] Belonging to a bat.
BATZ, n. A small copper coin with a mixture of silver, current in some parts of Germany and Switzerland.
BAUBEE, n. In Scotland the North of England, a half penny.
BAUGE, n. A drugget manufactured in Burgundy, with thread spun thick, and of coarse wool.
BAULK [See Balk.]
BAVAROY, n. A king of cloke or surtout.
BAVIN, n. A stick like those bound up in faggots; a piece of waste wood. In war, brush, faggots.
BAWBLE, n. [According to Spelman, baubella are gems or jewels.]
A trifling piece of finery; a gew-gaw; that which is gay or showy without real value.
BAWBLING, a. Trifling; contemptible.
BAWCOCK, n. A fine fellow.
BAWD, n. [Gr., a procurer or procuress.]
A procurer or procuress. A person who keeps a house of prostitution, and conducts criminal intrigues. [Usually applied to females.]
BAWD, v.i. To procure; to provide women for lewd purposes.
1. To foul or dirty. [Not in use.]
BAWD-BORN, a. Descended from a bawd.
BAWDILY, adv. Obscenely; lewdly.
BAWDINESS, n. Obscenity; lewdness.
BAWDRICK, n. [See Baldrick.] A belt.
BAWDRY, n. [See Bawd.] The abominable practice of procuring women for the gratification of lust.
1. Obscenity; filthy, unchaste language.
BAWDY, a. Obscene; filthy, unchaste; applied to language.
BAWDY-HOUSE, a. A house of lewdness and prostitution.
BAWL, v.i. [L. balo, to bleat; Heb. the blast of a trumpet; to weep, to wail. These all coincide in elements with L. pello, appello, Eng. peal, and the primary sense is the same.]
1. To cry out with a loud full sound; to hoot; to cry with vehemence, as in calling, or in pain or exultation.
2. To cry loud, as a child from pain or vexation.
BAWL, v.t. To proclaim by outcry, as a common crier.
BAWLED, pp. Proclaimed by outcry.
BAWLER, n. One who bawls.
BAWLING, ppr. Crying aloud.
BAWLING, n. The act of crying with a loud sound.
BAWN, n. An inclosure with mud or stone walls for keeping cattle; a fortification. [Not used.]
BAWREL, n. A kind of hawk.
BAWSIN, n. A badger.
BAXTERIAN, a. Pertaining to Baxter, a celebrated English divine; as the Baxterian scheme.
BAY, a. [L. badius. Blass Bd.] Red, or reddish, inclining to a chestnut color; applied to the color of horses. The shades of this color are called light bay, dark bay, dappled bay, gilded bay, chestnut bay. In popular language, in England, all bay horses are called brown.
BAY, n.
1. An arm of the sea, extending into the land, not of any definite form, but smaller than a gulf, and larger than a creek. The name, however, is not used with much precision, and is often applied to large tracts of water, around which the land forms a curve, as Hudson’s Bay. Nor is the name restricted to tracts of water with a narrow entrance, but used for any recess or inlet between capes of head lands, as the bay of Biscay.
2. A pond-head, or a pond formed by a dam, for the purpose of driving mill-wheels. [I believe not used in U.S.]
3. In a barn, a place between the floor and the end of the building, or a low inclosed place, for depositing hay.
In England, says Johnson, if a barn consists of a floor and two heads, where they lay corn, they call it a barn of two bays. These bays are from 14 to 20 feet long, and floors from 10 to 12 feet broad, and usually 20 feet long, which is the breadth of the barn.
4. In ships of war, that part on each side between decks which lies between the bitts.
5. Any kind of opening in walls.
BAY, n. [Gr. a branch of the palm tree.]
1. The laurel tree, Hence,
2. Bays, in the plural, an honorary garland or crown, bestowed as a prize for victory or excellence, anciently made or consisting of branches of the laurel.
The patriot’s honors, and the poet’s bays.
3. In some parts of the U. States, a tract of land covered with bay trees.
BAY, n. A state of expectation, watching or looking for; as, to keep a man at bay. So a stag at bay is when he turns his head against the dogs. Whence abeyance, in law, or a state of expectancy.
BAY, v.i.
1. To bark, as a dog at his game.
2. To encompass, or inclose, from bay. We now use embay.
BAY, v.t. To bark at; to follow with barking.
BAY-SALT, is salt which crystallizes or receives its consistence from the heat of the sun or action of the air. It forms in pits or basins, and from this circumstance receives its denomination. It appears first in a slight incrustation upon the surface of the water in which salt is dissolved. This crust thickens and hardens, till the crystallization is perfected, which takes place, in eight, ten or fifteen days.
BAY-WINDOW, n. A window jutting out from the wall, as in shops.
BAY-YARN, n. A denomination sometimes used promiscuously with woolen yard.
BAYARD, n. [bay and ard, kind.]
1. A bay horse.
2. An unmannerly beholder.
BAYARDLY, a. Blind; stupid.
BAYED, a. Having bays, as a building.
BAYONET, n. A short pointed instrument of iron or broad dagger, formerly with a handle fitted to the bore of a gun, where it was inserted for use, after the soldier had fired; but now made with an iron handle and ring which go over the muzzle of the piece, so that the soldier fires with his bayonet fixed.
BAYONET, v.t. To stab with a bayonet.
1. To compel or drive by the bayonet.
BAYS, BAYZE. [See Baize.]
BAZAR, n. Among the Turks and Persians, an exchange, market-place, or place where goods are exposed to sale. Some bazars are open, others are covered with lofty ceilings or domes, pierced to give light. The bazar at Tauris will contain 30,000 men.
BAZAT, BAZA, n. A long, fine spun cotton from Jerusalem, whence it is called Jerusalem cotton.
BDELLIUM, n. [Bochard and Parkhurst translate it, pearl. Genesis 2:12. But it is doubtful whether the bdellium of the scriptures is that now used.]
A gummy resinous juice, produced by a tree in the East Indies, of which we have no satisfactory account. It is brought from the E. Indies and from Arabia, in pieces of different sizes and figures, externally of a dark reddish brown, internally, clear and not unlike to glue. To the taste, it is slightly bitterish and pungent; its odor is agreeable. In the mouth, it becomes soft and sticks to the teeth; on a red hot iron, it readily catches flame and burns with a crackling noise. It is used as a perfume and a medicine, being a weak deobstruent.
BE, v.i. substantive, ppr. being; pp. been. [The sense is to stand, remain or be fixed; hence to continue. This verb is defective, and its defects are supplied by verbs from other roots, as, is, was, were, which have no radical connection with be. The case is the same with the substantive verb in most languages.]
1. To be fixed; to exist; to have a real state or existence, for a longer or shorter time.
Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5.
To be, contents his natural desire.
2. To be made to be; to become.
And they twain shall be one flesh. Matthew 19:5; Jeremiah 32:38.
3. To remain. Let the garment be as it was made.
4. To be present in a place. Where was I at the time? When will you be at my house?
5. To have a particular manner of being or happening; as, how is this affair? how was it? what were the circumstances?
This verb is used as an auxiliary in forming the tenses of other verbs, and particularly in giving them the passive form; as, he has been disturbed. It forms, with the infinitive, a particular future tense, which often expresses duty, necessity or purpose; as, government is to be supported; we are to pay our just debts.
Let be is to omit, or leave untouched; to let alone.
Let be, said he, my prey.
BE, a prefix, as in because, before, beset, bedeck, is the same word as by. It is common to the English, Saxon, Gothic, German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish languages. It occurs probably in the Russian, but is written po, as it is in possideo and a few other words in the Latin. It denotes nearness, closeness, about, or, at, from some root signifying to pass or to press. [See By.]
That this word is the Shemitic, used as a prefix, is certain, not only from its general applications, which may be seen by comparing the uses of the word, in the Heb. for instance, with those in the Saxon; but from its use in particular phrases, particularly in its use before the name of the Supreme being in swearing.
BEACH, n. The shore of the sea, or of a lake, which is washed by the tide and waves; the strand. It may be sometimes used for the shore of large rivers.
BEACHED, a. Exposed to the wares; washed by the tide and waves.
BEACHY, a. Having a beach or beaches.
BEACON, n. beekn.
1. A signal erected on a long pole, upon an eminence, consisting of a pitch barrel, or some combustible matter, to be fired at night, or to cause a smoke by day, to notify the approach of an enemy.
2. A light-house; a house erected on a point on land, or other place on the sea-coast, with lamps which burn at night, to direct navigators, and preserve vessels from running upon rocks, sand banks, or the shore. In general, a beacon may be any light or mark intended for direction and security against danger.
3. Figuratively, that which gives notice of danger.
BEACONAGE, n. Money paid for the maintenance of a beacon.
BEAD, n.
1. A little perforated ball, to be strung on a thread, and worn about the neck, for ornament. A string of beads is called a necklace. Beads are made of gold, pearl, amber, steel, garnet, coral, diamond, crystal, pastes, glasses, etc. The Romanists use strings of beads in rehearsing their prayers. Hence the phrase, to tell beads, and to be at one’s beads, is to be at prayer.
2. Any small globular body; hence the glass globules, used in traffic with savages, and sold in strings, are called beads; also a bubble on spirit.
3. In architecture, a round molding, commonly made upon the edge of a piece of stuff, in the Corinthian and Roman orders, cut or carved in short embossments, like beads in necklaces. A string of beads, is a charge given by a priest to his parishioners, to repeat certain pater-nosters upon their beads for a departed soul.
BEAD-MAKER, n. One who makes beads. In French, paternostrier is one who makes, strings, and sells beads. In Paris are three companies of paternostriers; one that works in glass or crystal; one, in wood and horn; a third, in amber, coral, etc.
BEAD-PROOF, a. Spirit is bead-proof, when, after being shaken, a crown of bubbles will stand, for some time after, on the surface, manifesting a certain standard of strength.
BEAD-ROLL, n. Among Catholics, a list or catalogue of persons, for the rest of whose souls, they are to repeat a certain number of prayers, which they count by their beads.
BEAD-TREE, n. The azederach, a species of Melia, a native of the Indies, growing about 20 feet high, adorned with large pinnated or winged leaves, and clusters of pentapetalous flowers.
BEADS-MAN, n. A man employed in praying, generally in praying for another.
BEADS-WOMAN, n. A praying woman; a woman who resides in an alms-house.
BEADLE, n.
1. A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites persons to appear and answer; called also an apparitor or summoner.
2. An officer in a university, whose chief business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public procession; or as in America before the president, trustees, faculty and students of a college, in a procession, at public commencements.
3. A parish officer, whose business is to punish petty offenders.