Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

BORDAGE — BOUNCE

BORDAGE, n. [See Bordland.]

BORDEL, BORDELLO, n. [This is the Eng. brothel.] A brothel; a bawdy-house; a house devoted to prostitution.

BORDELLER, n. The keeper of a brothel.

BORDER, n. The outer edge of any thing; the extreme part or surrounding line; the confine or exterior limit of a country, or of any region or tract of land; the exterior part or edge of a garment, or of the corol of plants; the rim or brim of a vessel, but not often applied to vessels; the exterior part of a garden, and hence a bank raised at the side of a garden, for the cultivation of flowers, and a row of plants; in short, the outer part or edge of things too numerous to be specified.

BORDER, v.i. To confine; to touch at the edge, side or end; to be contiguous or adjacent; with on or upon; as, Connecticut on the north borders on or upon Massachusetts.

1. To approach near to.

Wit, which borders upon profaneness, deserves to be branded as folly.

BORDER, v.t. To make a border; to adorn with a border of ornaments; as, to border a garment or a garden.

1. To reach to; to touch at the edge or end; to confine upon; to be contiguous to.

Sheba and Raamah border the Persian gulf.

2. To confine within bounds; to limit. [Not used.]

BORDERED, pp. Adorned or furnished with a border.

BORDERER, n. One who dwells on a border, or at the extreme part or confines of a country, region or tract of land; one who dwells near to a place.

BORDERING, ppr. Lying adjacent to; forming a border.

BORD-HALFPENNY, n. Money paid for setting up boards or a stall in market.

BORD-LAND, n. [bord and land. See Board.]

In old law, the demain land which a lord kept in his hands for the maintenance of his bord, board, or table.

BORD-LODE, BOARD-LOAD, n. [bord and load.] The service required of a tenant to carry timber from the woods to the lord’s house; also, the quantity of provision paid by a bord-man for bord-land.

BORD-MAN, n. [bord and man.] A tenant of bord-land, who supplied his lord with provisions.

BORD-RAGING, n. An incursion upon the borders of a country.

BORD-SERVICE, n. [board and service.] The tenure by which bord-land was held, which was the payment of a certain quantity of provisions to the lord. In lieu of this, the tenant now pays six pence an acre.

BORDURE, n. In heraldry, a tract or compass of metal, color or fur, within the escutcheon, and around it.

BORE, v.t. [L. foro and perforo, to bore, to perforate; Gr. to pierce or transfix; also, to pass over, in which sense it coincides with ferry; L. veru, from thrusting or piercing, coincide in elements with this root.]

1. To perforate or penetrate a solid body and make a round hole by turning an auger, gimlet, or other instrument. Hence, to make hollow;; to form a round hole; as, to bore a cannon.

2. To eat out or make a hollow by gnawing or corroding, as a worm.

3. To penetrate or break through by turning or labor; as, to bore through a crowd.

BORE, v.i. To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that turns; as, this timber does not bore well or is hard to bore.

1. To pierce or enter by boring; as, an auger bores well.

2. To push forward toward a certain point.

Boring to the west.

3. With horsemen, a horse bores, when he carries his nose to the ground.

4. In a transitive or intransitive sense, to pierce the earth with scooping irons, which, when drawn out, bring with them samples of the different stratums, through which they pass. This is a method of discovering veins of ore and coal without opening a mine.

BORE, n. The hole made by boring. Hence, the cavity or hollow of a gun, cannon, pistol or other fire-arm; the caliber; whether formed by boring or not.

1. Any instrument for making holes by boring or turning, as an auger, gimlet or wimble.

BORE, n. A tide, swelling above another tide.

A sudden influx of the tide into a river or narrow strait.

BORE, pret. of bear. [See Bear.]

BORE-COLE, n. A species of Brassica or cabbage.

BOREAL, a. [L. borealis. See Boreas.] Northern; pertaining to the north or the north wind.

BOREAS, n. [L. boreas; Gr. the north wind.] The northern wind; a cold northerly wind.

BORED, pp. Perforated by an auger or other turning instrument; made hollow.

BOREE, n. A certain dance, or movement in common time, of four crotchets in a bar; always beginning in the last quaver or last crotchet of the measure.

BORER, n. One who bores; also an instrument to make holes with by turning.

1. Terebella, the piercer, a genus of sea worms, that pierce wood.

BORN, pp. of bear. baurn. Brought forth, as an animal. A very useful distinction is observed by good authors, who, in the sense of produced or brought forth, write this word born; but in the sense of carried, write it borne. This difference of orthography renders obvious the difference of pronunciation.

1. To be born, is to be produced or brought into life. “Man is born to trouble.” A man born a prince or a beggar. It is followed by of, before the mother or ancestors.

Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. Job 14:1.

2. To be born, or born again, is to be regenerated and renewed; to receive spiritual life. John 3:3-8.

BORNE, pp. of bear. Carried; conveyed; supported; defrayed.

BORNE, n. The more correct orthography of bourn, a limit or boundary. [See Bourn.]

BORON, n. The undecomposable base of boracic acid.

BOROUGH, n. bur’ro. [L. parcus, saving.] Originally, a fortified city or town; hence a hill, for hills were selected for places of defense. But in later times, the term city was substituted to denote an episcopal town, in which was the see of a bishop, and that of borough was retained for the rest. At present, the name is given appropriately to such towns and villages as send representatives or burgesses to Parliament. Some boroughs are incorporated, other are not.

BOROUGH, n. bur’ro. In Saxon times, a main pledge, or association of men, who were sureties or free pledges to the king for the good behavior of each other, and if any offense was committed in their district, they were bound to have the offender forthcoming. The association of ten men was called a tithing, or decenary; the presiding man was called the tithing man, or head-borough; or in some places, borsholder, borough’s elder. This society was called also friburg, free burg, frank pledge. Ten tithings formed a hundred, consisting of that number of sureties, and this denomination is still given to the districts, comprehended in the association. The term seems to have been used both for the society and for each surety. The word main, hand, which is attached to this society, or their mutual assurance, indicates that the agreement was ratified by shaking hands.

Some writers have suggested that the application of this word to towns sprung from these associations, and of course was posterior to them in time. But the word was used for a town or castle in other nations, and in Asia, doubtless long before the origin of the frank pledge.

In Connecticut, this word, borough, is used for a town or a part of a town, or a village, incorporated with certain privileges, distinct from those of other towns and of cities; as the Borough of Bridgeport.

In Scotland, a borough is a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the Sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction.

Boroughs are erected to be held of the sovereign, as is generally the case of royal boroughs; or of the superior of the lands included, as in the case of boroughs of regality and barony. Royal boroughs are generally erected for the advantage of trade.

Boroughs English, is a customary descent of lands and tenements to the youngest son, instead of the eldest; or if the owner leaves no son, to the youngest brother.

Borough English, is a customary descent of lands and tenements to the youngest son, instead of the eldest; or if the owner leaves no son, to the youngest brother.

Borough-head, the same as head-borough, the chief of a borough.

BOROUGH-HOLDER, n. A head-borough; a borsholder.

BOROUGH-MASTER, n. The mayor, governor or baliff of a borough.

BORRACHIO, n. The caoutchouc, India rubber, or elastic gum. [See Caoutchouc.]

BORRELISTS, n. In church history, a sect of Christians in Holland, so called from Borrel, their founder, who reject the use of the sacraments, public prayer and all external worship. They lead a very austere life.

BORROW, v.t.

1. To take from another by request and consent, with a view to use the thing taken for a time, and return it, or if the thing taken is to be consumed or transferred in the use, then to return an equivalent in kind; as, to borrow a book, a sum of money, or a loaf of bread. It is opposed to lend.

2. To take from another, for one’s own use; to copy or select from the writings of another author; as, to borrow a passage from a printed book; to borrow a title.

3. To take or adopt for one’s own use, sentiments, principles, doctrines and the like; as, to borrow instruction.

4. To take for use something that belongs to another; to assume, copy or imitate; as, to borrow a shape; to borrow the manners of another, or his style of writing.

BORROW, n. A borrowing; the act of borrowing. [Not used.]

But of your royal presence I’ll adventure.

The borrow of a week.

BORROWED, pp. Taken by consent of another, to be returned or its equivalent in kind; copies; assumed.

BORROWER, n. One who borrows; opposed to lender. [See the verb.]

1. One who takes what belongs to another to use as one’s own.

BORROWING, ppr. Taking by consent to use and return, or to return its equivalent; taking what belongs to another to use as one’s own; copying; assuming; imitating.

BORROWING, n. The act of borrowing. [See the verb.]

BORSHOLDER, n. [A contraction of burh’s ealdor, borough’s elder, the elder or chief of a borough.]

The head or chief of a tithing or burg of ten men;; the head-borough.

BOS, n. [L.] In zoology, the technical name of a genus of quadrupeds. The characters are, the horns are hollow within and turned outward in the form of crescents; there are eight fore teeth in the under jaw, but none in the upper; there are no dog teeth. The species are, the Taurus or common ox, the Urus, aurochs or bison of Europe, the Bison or buffalo of North America, the Bubalus or proper buffalo of the Eastern continent, the Caffer or Cape buffalo, the Grunniens or yak of Thibet, and the Moschatus or musk ox of Arctic America.

BOSCAGE, n. [Eng. bush.]

1. Wood; under-wood; perhaps, sometimes, lands covered with underwood; also, a thicket.

2. In old laws, food or sustenance for cattle, which is yielded by bushes and trees.

3. With painters, a landscape, representing thickets of wood.

BOSCHAS, n. The common wild duck, or mallard, belonging to the genus Anas.

BOSH, n. Outline; figure.

BOSKET, BOSQUET, BUSKET, n. In gardening, a grove, a compartment formed by branches of trees, regularly or irregularly disposed, according to fancy.

BOSKY, a. [See Boscage.] Woody; covered with thickets.

BOSOM, n. s as z.

1. The breast of a human being and the parts adjacent.

2. The folds or covering of clothes about the breast.

Put thy hand in thy bosom. Exodus 4:6, 7.

3. Embrace, as with the arms; inclosure; compass; often implying friendship or affection; as, to live in the bosom of a church.

4. The breast, as inclosing the heart; or the interior of the breast, considered as the seat of the passions.

Anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9.

Their soul was poured into their mother’s bosom. Lamentations 2:12.

5. The breast, or its interior, considered as a close place, the receptacle of secrets.

If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom. Job 31:33.

6. Any inclosed place; the interior; as the bosom of the earth or of the deep.

7. The tender affections; kindness; favor; as the son of his bosom; the wife of thy bosom.

He shall carry the lambs in his bosom. Isaiah 40:11.

8. The arms, or embrace of the arms. Psalm 129:7.

9. Inclination; desire. [Not used.]

Bosom, in composition, implies intimacy, affection and confidence; as a bosom-friend, an intimate or confidential friend; bosom-lover, bosom-interest, bosom-secret, etc. In such phrases, bosom may be considered as an attribute equivalent to intimate, confidential, dear.

BOSOM, v.t. To inclose in the bosom; to keep with care.

Bosom up my counsel.

1. To conceal; to hide from view.

To happy convents bosom’d deep in vines.

BOSOMED, pp. Inclosed in the breast; concealed.

BOSON, n. A boatswain; a popular, but corrupt pronunciation.

The merry bosom.

BOSPORIAN, a. [from Bosporus.] Pertaining to a bosporus, a strait or narrow sea between two seas, or a sea and a lake.

The Alans forced the Bosporian kings to pay them tribute, and exterminated the Taurians.

BOSPORUS, n. [Gr. an ox, and a passage.]

A narrow sea or a strait, between two seas or between a sea and a lake, so called, it is supposed, as being an ox-passage, a strait over which an ox may swim. So our northern ancestors called a strait, a sound, that is, a swim. The term Bosporus has been particularly applied to the strait between the Propontis and the Euxine, called the Thracian Bosporus; and to the strait of Caffa, called the Cimmerian Bosporus, which connects the Palus Maeotis or sea of Azof, with the Euxine.

BOSS, n.

1. A stud or knob; a protuberant ornament, of silver, ivory, or other material, used on bridles, harness, etc.

2. A protuberant part; a prominence; as the boss of a buckler.

3. A round or swelling body of any kind; as a boss of wood.

4. A water-conduit, in form of a tun-bellied figure.

BOSSAGE, n.

1. A stone in a building which has a projecture, and is laid rough, to be afterwards carved into moldings, capitals, coats of arms, etc.

2. Rustic work, consisting of stones which advance beyond the naked or level of the building, by reason of indentures or channels left in the joinings; chiefly in the corners of edifices, and called rustic quoins. The cavities are sometimes round, sometimes beveled or in a diamond form, sometimes inclosed with a cavetto, and sometimes with a listel.

BOSSED, pp. Studded; ornamented with bosses.

BOSSIVE, a. Crooked; deformed.

BOSSY, a. Containing a boss; ornamented with bosses.

His head reclining on his bossy shield.

BOSTRY-CHITE, n. A gem in the form of a lock of hair.

BOSVEL, n. A plant, a species of crowfoot.

BOT. [See Bots.]

BOTANIC, BOTANICAL, a. [See Botany.] Pertaining to botany; relating to plants in general; also, containing plants, as a botanic garden.

BOTANICALLY, adv. According to the system of botany.

BOTANIST, n. One skilled in botany; one versed in the knowledge of plants or vegetables, their structure, and generic and specific differences.

The botanist is he who can affix similar names to similar vegetables, and different names to different ones, so as to be intelligible to every one.

BOTANIZE, v.i. To seek for plants; to investigate the vegetable kingdom; to study plants.

He could not obtain permission to botanize upon mount Sabber.

BOTANOLOGY, n. [Gr. a plant, and discourse.] A discourse upon plants.

BOTANOMANCY, n. An ancient species of divination by means of plants, especially sage and fig leaves. Persons wrote their names and questions on leaves, which they exposed to the wind, and as many of the letters as remained in their places were taken up, and being joined together, contained an answer to the question.

BOTANY, n. [Gr. a plant.] That branch of natural history which treats of vegetables; a science which treats of the different plants, and of the distinguishing marks by which each individual species may be known from every other.

Or, botany is the science of the structure, functions, properties, habits and arrangement of plants, and of the technical characters by which they are distinguished.

BOTARGO, n. A relishing sort of food, made of the roes of the mullet, much used on the coast of the Mediterranean, as an incentive to drink.

BOTCH, n. [Eng. patch.]

1. A swelling on the skin; a large ulcerous affection.

Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss.

2. A patch, or the part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner; ill-finished work in mending.

3. That which resembles a botch; a part added clumsily; adventitious or ill-applied words.

If those words are not notorious botches, I am deceived.

BOTCH, v.t. To mend or patch with a needle or awl, in a clumsy manner, as a garment; to mend or repair awkwardly, as a system of government.

1. To put together unsuitable, or unskillfully; to make use of unsuitable pieces.

For treason botched in rhyme will be thy bane.

2. To mark with botches.

Young Hylas botched with stains.

BOTOCHED, pp. Patched clumsily; mended unskillfully; marked with botches.

BOTCHER, n. A clumsy workman at mending of old clothes, whether a tailor or cobbler.

BOTCHY, a. Marked with botches; full of botches.

BOTE, n. [The old orthography of boot, but retained in law, in composition.]

1. In law, compensation; amends; satisfaction; as manbote, a compensation for a man slain. Also, payment of any kind.

2. A privilege or allowance of necessaries, used in composition as equivalent to the French estovers, supplies, necessaries; as house-bote, a sufficiency of wood to repair a house or for fuel, sometimes called fire-bote; so plow-bote, cart-bote, wood for making or repairing instruments of husbandry; hay-bote or hedge-bote, wood for hedges or fences, etc. These were privileges enjoyed by tenants under the feudal system.

BOTELESS, a. In vain. [See Bootless.]

BOTETTO, n. A small thick fish of Mexico, about eight inches long, with a flat belly, and convex back. When taken out of the water it swells, and if kicked, will burst. Its liver is deadly poison.

BOTH, a. Two, considered as distinct from others or by themselves; the one and the other.

This word is often placed before the nouns with which it is connected.

He understands how to manage both public and private concerns.

It is often used as a substitute for nouns.

And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. Genesis 21:27.

Both often represents two members of a sentence.

He will not bear the loss of his rank, because he can bear the loss of his estate; but he will bear both, because he is prepared for both.

Both often pertains to adjectives or attributes, and in this case generally precedes them in construction; as, he endeavored to render commerce both disadvantageous and infamous.

BOTHER, the vulgar pronunciation of pother. [See Pother.]

BOTHNIC, BOTHNIAN, a. Pertaining to Bothnia, a province of Sweden, and to a gulf of the Baltic sea, which is so called from the province, which it penetrates. Pinkerton uses Bothnic, as a noun for the gulf, and Barlow uses Bothnian, in the same manner.

BOTOTOE, n. A bird of the parrot kind, of a fine blue color, found in the Philippine isles.

BOTRYOID, BOTRYOIDAL, a. [Gr. a bunch of grapes, and form.]

Having the form of a bunch of grapes; like grapes; as a mineral presenting an aggregation of small gloves.

BOTRYOLITE, n. [Gr. supra, and stone.]

Literally, grape-stone. This mineral occurs in mammilliary or botryoidal concretions, in a bed of magnetic iron in gneiss, near Arendal in Norway. Its colors are pearl-gray, grayish or reddish white, and pale rose-red, and form concentric stripes.

Botryolite is a variety of siliceous borate of lime. It is found near the Passaic falls in New Jersey.

BOTS, n. Generally used in the plural.

A species of small worms found in the intestines of horses. They are the larvas of a species of OEstrus or gad-fly, which deposits its eggs on the tips of the hairs, generally of the fore-legs and mane, whence they are taken into the mouth and swallowed. This word is also applied to the larvas of other species of OEstrus, found under the hides of oxen, in the nostrils of sheep, etc.

BOTTLE, n.

1. A hollow vessel of glass, wood, leather or other material, with a narrow mouth, for holding and carrying liquors. The oriental nations use skins or leather for the conveyance of liquors; and of this kind are the bottles mentioned in scripture. “Put new wine into bottles.” In Europe and America, glass is used for liquors of all kinds; and farmers use small cags or hollow vessels of wood. The small kinds of glass bottles are called vials or phials.

2. The contents of a bottle; as much as a bottle contains; but from the size of bottles used for wine, porter and cyder, a bottle is nearly a quart; as a bottle of wine or a porter.

3. A quantity of hay in a bundle; a bundle of hay.

BOTTLE, v.t. To put into bottles; as, to bottle wine or porter. This includes the stopping of the bottles with corks.

BOTTLE-ALE, n. Bottled ale.

BOTTLE-COMPANION, BOTTLE-FRIEND, n. A friend or companion in drinking.

BOTTLED, pp. Put into bottles; inclosed in bottles.

1. Having a protuberant belly.

BOTTLE-FLOWER, n. A plant, the cyanus, or blue bottle, a species of Centaurea.

BOTTLE-SCREW, n. A screw to draw corks out of bottles.

BOTTLING, ppr. Putting into bottles.

BOTTLING, n. The act of putting into bottles and corking.

BOTTOM, n.

1. The lowest part of any thing; as the bottom of a well, vat or ship; the bottom of a hill.

2. The ground under any body of water; as the bottom of the sea, of a river or lake.

3. The foundation or ground work of any thing, as of an edifice, or of any system or moral subject; the base, or that which supports any superstructure.

4. A low ground; a dale; a valley; applied in the U. States to the flat lands adjoining rivers, etc. It is so used in some parts of England.

5. The deepest part; that which is most remote from the view; as, let us examine this subject to the bottom.

6. Bound; limit.

There is no bottom in my voluptuousness.

7. The utmost extent or depth of cavity, or of intellect, whether deep or shallow.

I do see the bottom of justice Shallow.

8. The foundation, considered as the cause, spring or origin; the first moving cause; as, a foreign prince is at the bottom of the confederacy.

9. A ship or vessel. Goods imported in foreign bottoms pay a higher duty, than those imported in our own. Hence, a state of hazard, chance or risk; but in this sense it is used chiefly or solely in the singular. We say, venture not too much in one bottom; that is, do not hazard too much at a single risk.

10. A ball of thread.

11. The bottom of a lane or alley, is the lowest end. This phrase supposed a declivity; but it is often used for the most remote part, when there is very little declivity.

12. The bottom of beer, or other liquor, is the grounds or dregs.

13. In the language of jockeys, stamina, native strength; as a horse of good bottom.

BOTTOM, v.t. To found or build upon; to fix upon as a support; followed by on; as, sound reasoning is bottomed on just premises.

1. To furnish with a seat or bottom; as, to bottom a chair.

2. To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread.

BOTTOM, v.i. To rest upon, as its ultimate support.

Find on what foundation a proposition bottoms.

BOTTOMED, pp. Furnished with a bottom; having a bottom.

This word is often used in composition, as a flat-bottomed boat, in which case the compound becomes an adjective.

BOTTOMING, ppr. Founding; building upon; furnishing with a bottom.

BOTTOMLESS, a. Without a bottom; applied to water, caverns etc., it signified fathomless, whose bottom cannot be found by sounding; as a bottomless abyss or ocean.

BOTTOMRY, n. [from bottom.] The act of borrowing money, and pledging the keel or bottom of the ship, that is, the ship itself, as security for the repayment of the money. The contract of bottomry is in the nature of a mortgage; the owner of a ship borrowing money to enable him to carry on a voyage, and pledging the ship as security for the money. If the ship is lost, the lender loses the money; but if the ship arrives safe, he is to receive the money lent, with the interest or premium stipulated, although it may exceed the legal rate of interest. The tackle of the ship also is answerable for the debt, as well as the person of the borrower. When a loan is made upon the goods shipped, the borrower is said to take up money at respondentia, as he is bound personally to answer the contract.

BOTTONY, n. [from the same root as bud, button.]

In heraldry, a cross bottony terminates at each end in three buds, knots or buttons, resembling in some measure the three-leaved grass.

BOUCHET, n. A sort of pear.

BOUD, n. An insect that breeds in malt or other grain; called also a weevil.

BOUGE, v.i. booj. To swell out. [Little used.]

BOUGE, n. Provisions. [Not in use.]

BOUGH, n. bou. The branch of a tree; applied to a branch of size, not to a small shoot.

BOUGHT, bast, pret. and pp. of buy. [See Buy.]

BOUGHT, n. bawt.

1. A twist; a link; a knot; a flexure, or bend.

2. The part of a sling that contains the stone.

BOUGHHTY, a. baw’ty. Bending.

BOUGIE, n. boogee’.

In Surgery, a long slender instrument, that is introduced through the urethra into the bladder, to remove obstructions. It is usually made of slips of waxed linen, coiled into a slightly conical form by rolling them on any hard smooth surface. It is also made of catgut, elastic gum and metal; but those of waved linen are generally preferred.

BOUILLON, n. Broth; soup.

BOULDER-WALL, n. [rather bowlder-wall. See Bowlder.]

A wall built of round flints or pebbles laid in a strong mortar, used where the sea has a beach cast up, or where there is a plenty of flints.

BOULET, n. [from the root of ball, or bowl.]

In the manege, a horse is so called, when the fetlock or pastern joint bends forward, and out of its natural position.

BOULT, an incorrect orthography. [See Bolt.]

BOULTIN, n. [from the root of bolt.]

In architecture, a molding, the convexity of which is just one fourth of a circle, being a member just below the plinth in the Tuscan and Doric capital.

BOUNCE, v.i.

1. To leap or spring; to fly or rush out suddenly.

Out bounced the mastiff.

2. To spring or leap against any thing, so as to rebound; to beat or thump by a spring.

Against his bosom bounced his heaving heart.

3. To beat hard, or thump, so as to make a sudden noise.

Another bounced as hard as he could knock.

4. To boast or bully; used in familiar speech.

5. To be bold or strong.

BOUNCE, n. A heavy blow, thrust or thump with a large solid body.

The bounce burst open the door.

1. A loud heavy sound, as by an explosion.

2. A boast; a threat; in low language.

3. A fish; a species of squalus or shark.