Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

BITTS — BLANDISHING

BITTS, n. plu. [from the same root as bite.] A frame of two strong pieces of timber fixed perpendicularly in the fore part of a ship, on which to fasten the cables, when she rides at anchor. There are also top-sail sheet bitts, paul-bitts, carrick-bitts, etc.

BITTS, v.t. To put round the bitts; as, to bitt the cable, in order to fasten it or to slacken it out gradually, which is called veering away.

BITUME, n. Bitumen, so written for the sake of the rhyme.

BITUMEN, n. [L.] This name is used to denote various inflammable substances, of a strong smell, and of different consistencies, which are found in the earth. There are several varieties, most of which evidently pass into each other, proceeding from Naphtha, the most fluid, to Petroleum, a viscid fluid, Maltha, more or less cohesive, elastic bitumen or mineral caoutchouc, and Asphalt, which is sometimes too hard to be scratched by the nail.

BITUMINATE, v.t. To impregnate with bitumen.

BITUMINATED, a. Impregnated with bitumen.

BITUMINIFEROUS, a. [bitumen and fero, to produce.]

Producing bitumen.

BITUMINIZE, v.t. To form into, or impregnate with bitumen.

BITUMINOUS, a. Having the qualities of bitumen; compounded with bitumen; containing bitumen. Limestone is of a lamellar structure, susceptible of polish, of a brown or black color, and when rubbed emitting an unpleasant smell. That of Dalmatia is so charged with bitumen, that it may be cut like soap.

BIVALVE, n. [L. bis, twice, and valve. L. valva]

An animal having two valves, or a shell consisting of two parts which open and shut. Also a pericarp in which the seed-case opens or splits into two parts.

BIVALVE, BIVALVULAR, BIVALVOUS, a. Having two shells or valves which open and shut, as the oyster and the seed cases of certain plants.

BIVAULTED, a. [L. bis, twice, and vault.] Having two vaults or arches.

BIVENTRAL, a. [L. bis and venter, belly.] Having two bellies; as a biventral muscle.

BIVIOUS, a. [L. bivius; bis and via, way.] Having two ways, or leading two ways.

BIVOUAC, n. [L. vigilo.] The guard or watch of a whole army, as in cases of great danger of surprise or attack.

BIVOUAC, v.t. To watch or be on guard, as a whole army.

[This word anglicized would be bewatch.]

BIXWORT, n. A plant.

BLAB, v.t.

1. To utter or tell in a thoughtless manner; to publish secrets or trifles without discretion. It implies, says Johnson, rather thoughtlessness than treachery, but may be used in either sense.

2. To tell, or utter; in a good sense.

BLAB, v.i. To tattle; to tell tales.

BLAB, n. A babbler; a telltale; one who betrays secrets, or tell things which ought to be kept secret.

BLABBER, n. A tattler; a tell-tale.

BLABBING, ppr. Telling indiscreetly what ought to be concealed; tattling.

BLACK, a.

1. Of the color of night; destitute of light; dark.

2. Darkened by clouds; as the heavens black with clouds.

3. Sullen; having a cloudy look or countenance.

4. Atrociously wicked; horrible; as a black deed or crime.

5. Dismal; mournful; calamitous.

Black and blue, the dark color of a bruise in the flesh, which is accompanied with a mixture of blue.

BLACK, n. That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth has a good black.

1. A negro; a person whose skin is black.

2. A black dress, or mourning; as, to be clothed in black.

BLACK, v.t. To make black; to blacken; to soil.

BLACK-ACT, n. [black and act.] The English statute 9. Geo. I. which makes it felony to appear armed in any park or warren, etc., or to hunt or steal deer, etc., with the face blacked or disguised.

BLACK-BALL, n. [black and ball.] A composition for blacking shoes.

BLACK-BALL, v.t. To reject or negative in choosing, by putting black balls into a ballot-box.

BLACK-BAR, n. [black and bar.] A plea obliging the plaintiff to assign the place of trespass.

BLACK-BERRY, n. The berry of the bramble or rubus; a popular name applied, in different places, to different species, or varieties of this fruit.

BLACK-BIRD, n. [black and bird.] In England, the merula, a species of turdus, a singing bird with a fine note, but very loud. In America, this name is given to different birds, as to the gracula quiscula, or crow black-bird, and to the oriolus phaeniceus, or red winged black-bird.

BLACK-BOOK, n. [black and book.] The Black Book of the Exchequer in England, is a book said to have been composed in 1175, by Gervais of Tilbury. It contains a description of the Court of Exchequer, its officers, their ranks and privileges, wages, perquisites and jurisdiction, with the revenues of the crown, in money, grain and cattle.

1. Any book which treats of necromancy.

2. A book compiled by order of the visitors of monasteries, under Henry VIII., containing a detailed account of the enormities practiced in religious houses, to blacken them and to hasten their dissolution.

BLACK-BROWED, a. [black and brow.] Having black eye-brows; gloomy; dismal; threatening; as a black-browed gust.

BLACK-BRYONY, n. [black and bryony.] A plant, the Tamus.

BLACK-CAP, n. [black and cap.] A bird, the Motacilla atricapilla, or mock-nightingale; so called from its black crown. It is common in Europe.

1. In cookery, an apple roasted till black, to be served up in a dish of boiled custard.

BLACK-CATTLE, n. [black and cattle.] Cattle of the bovine genus, as bulls, oxen and cows. [English.]

BLACK-CHALK, n. A mineral of a bluish black color, of a slaty texture, and soiling the fingers when handled; a variety of argillaceous slate.

BLACK-COCK, n. [black and cock.] A fowl, called also black-grous and black-game, the Tetrao tetrix of Linne.

BLACK-EAGLE, n. [black and eagle.] In Scotland, a name given to the Falco fulvus, the white tailed eagle of Edwards.

BLACK-EARTH, n. Mold; earth of a dark color.

BLACKED, pp. Made black; soiled.

BLACKEN, v.t.

1. To make black.

The importation of slaves that has blackened half America.

2. To make dark; to darken; to cloud.

3. To soil.

4. To sully reputation; to make infamous; as, vice blackens the character.

BLACKEN, v.i. To grow black, or dark.

BLACKENER, n. He that blackens.

BLACK-EYED, a. Having black eyes.

BLACK-FACED, a. Having a black face.

BLACK-FISH, n. [black and fish.] A fish in the Orontes, about twenty inches long, in shape resembling the sheat-fish. Its eyes are placed near the corners of its mouth on the edge of the lower jaw.

1. In the U. States, a fish caught on the rocky shores of New England.

BLACK-FOREST, n. [black and forest.] A forest in Germany, in Swabia; a part of the ancient Hercynian forest.

BLACK-FRIAR, n. Black-friars is a name given to the Dominican Order, called also Predicants and preaching friars; in France, Jacobins.

BLACK-GUARD, n. [said to be of black and guard; but is it not a corruption of black-ard, black-king?]

A vulgar term applied to a mean fellow, who uses abusive, scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse.

BLACKING, ppr. Making black.

BLACKING, n. A substance used for blacking shoes, variously made; any factitious matter for making things black.

BLACKISH, a. Somewhat black; moderately black or dark.

BLACK-JACK, A name given by miners to blend, a mineral called also false galena, and blend. It is an ore of zink, in combination with iron and sulphur, sulfuret of zink.

1. A leathern cup of old times.

BLACK-LEAD, n. A mineral of a dark steel-gray color, and of a scaly texture, composed of carbon, with a small portion of iron. This name, black-lead, is improper, as it contains no lead. It is called plumbago, and technically graphite, as it is used for pencils.

BLACK-LEGS, n. In some parts of England, a disease among calves and sheep. It is a sort of jelly which settles in the legs and sometimes in the neck.

BLACKLY, adv. Darkly; atrociously.

BLACK-MAIL, n. A certain rate of money, corn, cattle or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England, to certain men, who were allied to robbers, to be by them protected from pillage.

1. Black rent, or rents paid in corn or flesh.

BLACK-MONDAY, n. Easter Monday, in 34. Ed. III., which was misty, obscure, and so cold that men died on horseback.

BLACK-MONKS, n. A denomination given to the Benedictines.

BLACK-MOOR, n. [black and moor.] A negro; a black man.

BLACK-MOUTHED, a. Using foul or scurrilous language.

BLACKNESS, n. The quality of being black; black color; darkness; atrociousness or enormity in wickedness.

BLACK-PUDDING, n. A kind of food made of blood and grain.

BLACK-ROD, n. [black and rod.] In England, the usher belonging to the order of the garter; so called from the black rod which he carries. He is of the king’s chamber and usher of Parliament.

BLACK-ROW GRAINS, n. A species of iron stone or ore, found in the mines about Dudley in Staffordshire, England.

BLACKSEA, n. [black and sea.] The Euxine Sea, on the eastern border of Europe.

BLACK-SHEEP, n. [black and sheep.] In oriental history, the ensign or standard of a race of Turkmans in Armenia and Mesopotamia.

BLACKSMITH, n. [black and smith.] A smith who works in iron, and makes iron utensils; more properly, an iron-smith.

Black’-strakes, in a ship, are a range of planks immediately above the wales in a ship’s side, covered with tar and lamp-black.

BLACK-TAIL, n. [black and tail.] A fish, a kind of perch, called also a ruff or pope.

BLACK-THORN, n. [black and thorn.] A species of prunus, called also sloe. It grows ten or twelve feet high, very branchy, and armed with sharp, strong spines, and bearing small, round, black cherries. It is much cultivated for hedges.

BLACK-TIN, n. [black and tin.] Tin ore, when dressed, stamped and washed ready for melting. It is the ore comminuted by beating into a black power, like fine sand.

BLACK-VISAGED, a. Having a dark visage or appearance.

BLACK-WADD, n. [black and wadd.] An ore of manganese, found in Derbyshire, England, and used as a drying ingredient in paints. It is remarkable for taking fire, when mixed with linseed oil in a certain proportion.

BLACK-WORK, n. [black and work.] Iron wrought by black-smiths; so called in distinction from that wrought by white-smiths.

BLAD-APPLE, n. In botany, the cactus or a species of it.

BLADDER, n. [Eng. a blade; L. latus.]

1. A thin membranous bag in animals, which serves as the receptacle of some secreted fluid, as the urinary bladder, the gall bladder, etc. By way of eminence, the word, in common language, denotes the urinary bladder, either within the animal, or when taken out and inflated with air.

2. Any vesicle, blister or pustule, especially if filled with air, or a thin, watery liquor.

3. In botany, a distended membranaceous pericarp.

BLADDERED, a. Swelled like a bladder.

BLADDER-NUT, n. [bladder and nut.] A genus of plants, with the generic name of Staphyloea. They have three capsules, inflated and joined by a longitudinal suture.

1. The African bladder nut is the Royena.

2. The laurel-leaved bladder-nut is a species of Ilex, holm or holly.

BLADDER-SENNA, BASTARD-SENNA, a genus of plants, called in botany Colutea.

The jointed-podded bladder-senna is the Coronilla.

BLADDERY, a. Resembling a bladder; containing bladders.

BLADE, n. [Gr. broad.]

1. The stalk or spire of a plant, particularly of grass and corn; but applicable to the stalk of any herbaceous plant, whether green or dry.

2. A leaf. In this sense much used in the Southern States of N. America, for the leaves of maize, which are used as fodder.

3. The cutting part of an instrument, as the blade of a knife, or sword, so named from its length or breadth. Usually, it is made of iron or steel, but may be of any other metal, cast or wrought to an edge or point. Also, the broad part of an oar.

4. The blade of the shoulder, shoulder-blade, or blade-bone, is the scapula, or scapular bone. It is the broad upper bone of the shoulder, so called from its resemblance to a blade or leaf.

5. A brisk man; a bold, forward man; a rake.

BLADE, v.t. To furnish with a blade.

BLADE-BONE, n. The scapula, or upper bone in the shoulder.

BLADED, pp. Having a blade or blades. It may be used of blade in the sense of a leaf, a spire, or the cutting part of an instrument.

1. In mineralogy, composed of long and narrow plates, like the blade of a knife.

BLADE-SMITH, n. A sword cutler.

BLAIN, n. A pustule; a botch; a blister. In farriery, a bladder growing on the root of the tongue, against the wind pipe, which swells so as to stop the breath.

BLAMABLE, a. [See Blame.] Faulty; culpable; reprehensible; deserving of censure.

BLAMABLENESS, n. Culpableness; fault; the state of being worthy of censure.

BLAMABLY, adv. Culpably; in a manner deserving of censure.

BLAME, v.t. [The Greeks have the root of this word, to blaspheme.]

1. To censure; to express disapprobation of; to find fault with; opposed to praise or commend, and applicable most properly to persons, but applied also to things.

I withstood him, because he was to be blamed. Galatians 2:11.

I must blame your conduct; or I must blame you for neglecting business. Legitimately, it cannot be followed by of.

2. To bring reproach upon; to blemish; to injure. [See Blemish.]

She had blamed her noble blood.

BLAME, n. Censure; reprehension; imputation of a fault; disapprobation; an expression of disapprobation for something deemed to be wrong.

Let me bear the blame forever. Genesis 43:9.

1. Fault; crime; sin; that which is deserving of censure or disapprobation.

That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 1:4.

2. Hurt; injury.

And glancing down his shield, from blame him fairly blest.

The sense of this word, as used by Spenser, proves that it is a derivative from the root of blemish.

To blame, in the phrase, he is to blame, signifies blamable, to be blamed.

Blame is not strictly a charge or accusation of a fault; but it implies an opinion in the censuring party, that the person censured is faulty. Blame is the act or expression of disapprobation for what is supposed to be wrong.

BLAMED, pp. Censured; disapproved.

BLAMEFUL, a. Faulty; meriting blame; reprehensible.

BLAMELESS, a. Without fault; innocent; guiltless; not meriting censure.

A bishop then must be blameless. 1 Timothy 3:2.

Sometimes followed by of.

We will be blameless of this thine oath. Joshua 2:17.

BLAMELESSLY, adv. Innocently; without fault or crime.

BLAMELESSNESS, n. Innocence; a state of being not worthy of censure.

BLAMER, n. One who blames, finds fault or censures.

BLAMEWORTHINESS, n. The quality of deserving censure.

BLAMEWORTHY, a. [blame and worthy.] Deserving blame; censurable; culpable; reprehensible.

BLAMING, ppr. Censuring; finding fault.

BLANCARD, n. A kind of linen cloth, manufactured in Normandy, so called because the thread is half blanched before it is woven.

BLANCH, v.t.

1. To whiten; to take out the color, and make white; to obliterate.

2. To slur; to balk; to pass over; that is to avoid; to make empty.

3. To strip or peel; as, to blanch almonds.

BLANCH, v.i. To evade; to shift; to speak softly.

Rather, to fail or withhold; to be reserved; to remain blank, or empty.

Books will speak plain, when counselors blanch.

BLANCHED, pp. Whitened.

BLANCHER, n. One who whitens; also, one who anneals, and cleanses money.

BLANCHIMETER, n. [blanch, and Gr. measure.]

An instrument for measuring the bleaching power of oxymuriate [chloride] of lime, and potash.

BLANCHING, ppr. Whitening. In coinage, the operation of giving brightness to pieces of silver, by heating them on a peel, and afterwards boiling them successively in two pans of copper, with aqua fortis, common salt, and tartar of Montpelier; then draining off the water in a sieve; sand and fresh water are then thrown over them, and when dry, they are rubbed with a towel.

The covering of iron plates with a thin coat of tin is also called blanching.

Blanch-fern, or blank farm, in ancient law, a white farm, was one, where the rent was paid in silver, not in cattle.

Blanch-holding, in law, a tenure by which the tenant is bound to pay only an elusory yearly duty to his superior, as an acknowledgment to his right.

BLANC-MANGER, pron. blomonge. In cookery, a preparation of dissolved isinglass, milk, sugar, cinnamon, etc., boiled into a thick consistence, and garnished for the table with blanched almonds.