Select a letter for some words
Babble
To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds; as a child .
Bacciferous
Producing berries.
Backstaff
An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.
Baddish
Somewhat bad; inferior.
Balancereef
The last reef in a fore-and-aft sail, taken to steady the ship.
Banal
Commonplace; trivial; hackneyed; trite.
Bandy
To contend, as at some game in which each strives to drive the ball his own way.
Barometrically
By means of a barometer, or according to barometric observations.
Barouchet
A kind of light barouche.
Bathybius
A name given by to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol. He supposed that it was free living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.
Batrachia
The order of amphibians which includes the frogs and toads; the Anura. Sometimes the word is used in a wider sense as equivalent to Amphibia.
battleground
a region where a battle is fought; same as .
Bearable
Capable of being borne or endured; tolerable.
Becripple
To make a cripple of; to cripple; to lame.
Begirdle
To surround as with a girdle.
behaviorism
an approach to psychology that emphasizes observable measurable behavior.
Belecture
To vex with lectures; to lecture frequently.
Believer
One who believes; one who is persuaded of the truth or reality of some doctrine, person, or thing.
Benzene
A volatile, very inflammable liquid, , contained in the naphtha produced by the destructive distillation of coal, from which it is separated by fractional distillation. The name is sometimes applied also to the impure commercial product or , and also, but rarely, to a similar mixed product of petroleum.
Besort
Befitting associates or attendants.
Bestiary
A treatise on beasts; esp., one of the moralizing or allegorical beast tales written in the Middle Ages.
Betoken
To signify by some visible object; to show by signs or tokens.
Betoss
To put in violent motion; to agitate; to disturb; to toss.
Beweep
To weep over; to deplore; to bedew with tears.
Bidding
Command; order; a proclamation or notifying.
Biennial
Something which takes place or appears once in two years; esp. a biennial examination.
Bilingual
Containing, or consisting of, two languages; expressed in two languages; .
Billy club
see , 1.
Bind
To tie; to confine by any ligature.
Binder
One who binds; ; one whose trade is to bind; .
Bipeltate
Having a shell or covering like a double shield.
Bisector
One who, or that which, bisects; esp. a straight line which bisects an angle.
Bistre
See .
Bitch
to complain in a whining or grumbling manner; to gripe.
Black
Destitute of light, or incapable of reflecting it; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest or a very dark color, the opposite of ; characterized by such a color; .
Black salts
Crude potash.
Blatancy
Blatant quality.
Blather
To talk foolishly, or nonsensically, or concerning matters of no consequence.
Bleachery
A place or an establishment where bleaching is done.
Blear-eyed
Having sore eyes; having the eyes dim with rheum; dim-sighted.
Bloodshedder
One who sheds blood; a manslayer; a murderer.
Blowgun
A tube, as of cane or reed, sometimes twelve feet long, through which an arrow (sometimes poisoned) or other projectile may be impelled by the force of the breath. It is a weapon much used by certain Indians of America and the West Indies; -- called also , and . See .
Bluing
The act of rendering blue; .
Blushful
Full of blushes.
bollocks
to make a mess of.
Bolstered
Supported; upheld.
Boneset
A medicinal plant, the thoroughwort (). Its properties are diaphoretic and tonic.
Bookman
A studious man; a scholar.
Booky
Bookish.
boozed-up
drunk; intoxicated.
Borough
In England, an incorporated town that is not a city; also, a town that sends members to parliament; in Scotland, a body corporate, consisting of the inhabitants of a certain district, erected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Boud
A weevil; a worm that breeds in malt, biscuit, etc.
Bow
To play (music) with a bow.
Bowls
See , a ball, a game.
Bowman
The man who rows the foremost oar in a boat; the bow oar.
Boyle's law
See under .
Brahmoism
The religious system of Brahmo-somaj.
braille
to transcribe in Braille.
Brangler
A quarrelsome person.
Breasting
The curved channel in which a breast wheel turns. It is closely adapted to the curve of the wheel through about a quarter of its circumference, and prevents the escape of the water until it has spent its force upon the wheel. See .
Breather
One who breathes.
Breech action
The breech mechanism in breech-loading small arms and certain special guns, as automatic and machine guns; -- used frequently in referring to the method by which the movable barrels of breech-loading shotguns are locked, unlocked, or rotated to loading position.
Bregma
The point of junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures of the skull.
Breton
Of or relating to Brittany, or Bretagne, in France.
Brezilin
See .
Bridge
A structure, usually of wood, stone, brick, or iron, erected over a river or other water course, or over a chasm, railroad, etc., to make a passageway from one bank to the other.
Brigose
Contentious; quarrelsome.
Broaden
To grow broad; to become broader or wider.
bronchiolitis
inflammation of the membranes lining the bronchioles.
Bullfrog
A very large species of frog (), found in North America; -- so named from its loud bellowing in spring.
Burghbrech
The offense of violating the pledge given by every inhabitant of a tithing to keep the peace; breach of the peace.
Burschenschaft
In Germany, any of various associations of university students formed (the original one at Jena in 1815) to support liberal ideas, or the organization formed by the affiliation of the local bodies. The organization was suppressed by the government in 1819, but was secretly revived, and is now openly maintained as a social organization, the restrictive laws having been repealed prior to 1849.
Butt joint
A joint in which the edges or ends of the pieces united come squarely together instead of overlapping. See 1st , 8.