BEACH, noun 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.

BE'ACHED, adjective Exposed to the wares; washed by the tide and waves.

BE'ACHY, adjective Having a beach or beaches.

BE'ACON, noun 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.

BE'ACONAGE, noun Money paid for the maintenance of a beacon.

BEAD, noun

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.of beads, is a charge given by a priest to his parishioners, to repeat certain pater-nosters upon their beads for a departed soul.

BE'ADLE, noun

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.

BE'ADLESHIP, noun The office of a beadle.

BE'AGLE, noun [Gr. a pygmy.]

A small hound, or hunting dog. Beagles are of different sorts; as the southern beagle shorter and less, but thicker, than the deep-mouthed hound; the fleet northern, or cat beagle smaller, and of a finer shape than the southern. From these species united, is bred a third, still preferable; and a smaller sort is letter larger than the lap-dog.

BEAK, noun [Eng. peak, pike, etc. The sense is, a shoot, or a point, from thrusting; and this word is connected with a numerous family. See Class Bg.]

1. The bill, or nib of a bird, consisting of a horny substance, either straight or curving, and ending in a point.

2. A pointed piece of wood, fortified with brass, resembling a beak fastened to the end of ancient gallies; intended to pierce the vessels of an enemy. In modern ships, the beak-head is a name given to the forepart of a ship, whose forecastle is square, or oblong; a circumstance common to all ships of war, which have two or more tiers of guns.

BEAK or beak-head, that part of a ship, before the forecastle, which is fastened to the stem, and supported by the main knee.

3. In farriery, a little shoe, at the toe, about an inch long, turned up and fastened in upon the part of the hoof.

4. Any thing ending in a point, like a beak This in America is more generally pronounced peak.

BEAK, verb transitive Among cock fighters, to take hold with the beak

BE'AKED, adjective Having a beak; ending in a point, like a beak.

BE'AKER, noun A cup or glass.

BE'AKIRON, noun A bickern; an iron tool, ending in a point, used by blacksmiths.

BEAL, noun [See Boil] A pimple; a whelk; a small inflammatory tumor, a pustule.

BEAL verb intransitive To gather matter; to swell and come to a head, as a pimple.

BEAM, noun [We see by the Gothic, that the word belongs to Class Bg. It properly signifies the stock or stem of a tree; that is, the fixed, firm part.]

1. The largest, or a principal piece in a building, that lies across the walls, and serves to support the principal rafters.

2. Any large piece of timber, long in proportion to its thickness, and squared, or hewed for use.

3. The part of a balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended; sometimes used for the whole apparatus for weighing.

4. The part on the head of a stag, which bears the antlers, royals and tops.

5. The pole of a carriage, which runs between the horses.

6. A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving; and this name is given also to the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is wove.

7. The straight part or shank of an anchor.

8. In ships, a great main cross timber, which holds the sides of a ship from falling together. The beams support the decks and orlops. The main beam is next the mainmast.

9. The main piece of a plow, in which the plow-tails are fixed, and by which it is drawn.

10. beam compass, an instrument consisting of a square wooden or brass beam having sliding sockets, that carry steel or pencil points; used for describing large circles, and in large projections for drawing the furniture on wall-dials.

On the beam in navigation, signified any distance from the ship, on a line with the beams, or at right angles with the keel.

Before the beam is an arch of the horizon between a line that crosses the ship at right angles, or the line of the beam and that point of the compass which she steers.

BEAM ends. A vessel is said to be on her beam ends, when she inclines so much on one side that her beams approach a vertical position.

BEAM-feathers, in falconry, the long feathers of a hawk's wing.

BE'AMING, participle present tense Emitting rays of light or beams.

BE'AMING, noun Radiation; the emission or darting of light in rays.

1. The issuing of intellectual light; dawn; prophetic intimation; first indication.

BE'AMLESS, adjective Emitting no rays of light.

BE'AMY, adjective Emitting rays of light; radiant; shining.

1. Resembling a beam in size and weight; massy.

2. Having horns, or antlers.

BEAN, noun A name given to several kinds of pulse, or leguminous seeds, and the plants producing them. They belong to several genera, particularly Vicia, Phaseolus and Dolichos. The varieties most usually cultivated are, the horse bean the mazagan, the kidney bean the cranberry bean the lima bean the frost bean etc. The stalk is erect or climbing, and the fruit generally roundish, oval or flat, and of various colors.

Malacca-beans. Anacardia, the fruit of a tree growing in Malabar, and other parts of the Indies. This fruit is of a shining black color, of the shape of a heart flattened, about an inch long, terminating at one end in an obtuse point, and at the other, adhering to a wrinkles stalk. In contains, within two shells, a kernel of a sweetish taste; and betwixt the shells is lodged a thick acrid juice.

BEAR, verb transitive preterit tense bore; participle passive born, borne. [Latin fero, pario, porto. The primary sense is to throw out, to bring forth, or in general, to thrust or drive along. ]

1. To support; to sustain; as, to bear a weight or burden.

2. To carry; to convey; to support and remove from place to place; as, 'they bear him upon the shoulder; ', 'the eagle beareth them on her wings.'

3. To wear; to bear as a mark of authority or distinction; as, to bear a sword, a badge, a name; to bear arms in a coat.

4. To keep afloat; as, the water bears a ship.

5. To support or sustain without sinking or yielding; to endure; as, a man can bear severe pain or calamity; or to sustain with proportionate strength, and without injury; as, a man may bear stronger food or drink.

6. To entertain; to carry in the mind; as, to bear a great love for a friend; to bear inveterate hatred to gaming.

7. To suffer; to undergo; as, to bear punishment.

8. To suffer without resentment, or interference to prevent; to have patience; as, to bear neglect or indignities.

9. To admit or be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change; as, to give words the most favorable interpretation they will bear

10. To bring forth or produce, as the fruit of plants, or the young of animals; as, to bear apples; to bear children.

11. To give birth to, or be the native place of.

Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore.

12. To possess and use as power; to exercise; as, to bear sway.

13. To gain or win.

Some think to bear it by speaking a great word. [Not now used. The phrase now used is, to bear away.]

14. To carry on, or maintain; to have; as, to bear a part in conversation.

15. To show or exhibit; to relate; as, to bear testimony or witness. This seems to imply utterance, like the Latin fero, to relate or utter.

16. To sustain the effect, or be answerable for; as, to bear the blame.

17. To sustain, as expense; to supply the means of paying; as, to bear the charges, that is, to pay the expenses.

18. To be the object of.

Let me but bear your love, and I'll bear your cares.

19. To behave; to act in any character; as, 'hath he borne himself penitent?'

20. To remove, or to endure the effects of; and hence to give satisfaction for.

He shall bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:11. Hebrews 9:28.

To bear the infirmities of the weak, to bear one another's burdens, is to be charitable towards their faults, to sympathize with them, and to aid them in distress.

To bear off, is to restrain; to keep from approach; and in seamanship, to remove to a distance; to keep clear from rubbing against any thing; as, to bear off a blow; to bear off a boat; also, to carry away; as, to bear off stolen goods.

To bear down, is to impel or urge; to overthrow or crush by force; as, to bear down an enemy.

To bear down upon, to press to overtake; to make all sail to come up with.

To bear hard, is to press or urge.

Cesar doth bear me hard.

To bear on, is to press against; also to carry forward, to press, incite or animate.

Confidence hath borne thee on.

To bear through, is to conduct or manage; as, 'to bear through the consulship.' B.Jonson. Also, to maintain or support to the end; as, religion will bear us through the evils of life.

To bear out, is to maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last.

Company only can bear a man out in an ill thing.

To bear up, to support; to keep from falling.

Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings.

To bear up, to keep afloat.

To bear a body. A color is said to bear a body in painting, when it is capable of being ground so fine, and mixed so entirely with the oil, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same color. To bear date, is to have the mark of time when written or executed; as, a letter or bond bears date, Jan.6, 1811.

To bear a price, is to have a certain price. In common mercantile language, it often signifies or implies, to bear a good or high price.

To bear in hand, to amuse with false pretenses; to deceive.

I believe this phrase is obsolete, or never used in America.

To bear a hand, in seamanship, is to make haste, be quick.

BEAR, verb intransitive To suffer, as with pain.

But man is born to bear

This is unusual in prose; and though admissible, is rendered intransitive, merely by the omission of pain, or other word expressive of evil.

1. To be patient; to endure.

I cannot, cannot bear

2. To produce, as fruit; to be fruitful, in opposition to barrenness.

This age to blossom, and the next to bear

Here fruit must be understood.

3. To take effect; to succeed; as, to bring matters to bear

4. To act in any character.

Instruct me how I may bear like a true friar.

5. To be situated as to the point of compass, with respect to something else; as, the land bore E, nounE. from the ship.

6. To bear away, in navigation, is to change the course of a ship, when close hauled, or sailing with a side wind, and make her run before the wind. To bear up, is used in a like sense, from the act of bearing up the helm to the windward.

Hence, perhaps, in other cases, the expression may be used to denote tending or moving from.

7. To bear down, is to drive or tend to; to approach with a fair wind; as, the fleet bore down upon the enemy.

8. To bear in, is to run or tend towards; as, a ship bears in with the land; opposed to bear off, or keeping at a greater distance.

9. To bear up, is to tend or move towards; as, to bear up to one another; also, to be supported; to have fortitude; to be firm; not to sink; as, to bear up under afflictions.

10. To bear upon, or against, is to lean

upon or against; to act on as weight or force, in any direction, as a column upon its base, or the sides of two inclining objects against each other.

11. To bear against, to approach for attack or seizure; as, 'a lion bears against his prey.'

12. To bear upon, to act upon; as, the artillery bore upon the center; or to be pointed or situated so as to affect; as, to bring or plant guns so as to bear upon a fort, or a ship.

13. To bear with, to endure what is unpleasing; to be indulgent; to forbear to resent, oppose, or punish.

Reason would I should bear with you. Acts 18:14.

Shall not God avenge his elect, though he bear long with them? Luke 18:7.

BEARD, noun berd. [Latin barba.]

1. The hair that grows on the chin, lips and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of male adults; hence a mark of virility. A gray beard long beard and reverend beard are terms for old age.

2. beard is sometimes used for the face, and to do a thing to a man's beard is to do it in defiance, or to his face.

3. The awn or sharp prickles on the ears of corn. But more technically, parallel hairs or a tuft of stiff hairs terminating the leaves of plants, a species of pubescence. By some authors the name is given to the lower lip of a ringent corol.

4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow, or other instrument, bent backward from the end to prevent its being easily drawn out.

5. The beard or chuck of a horse, is that part which bears the curb of a bridle, underneath the lower mandible and above the chin.

6. The rays of a comet, emitted towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it.

7. The threads or hairs of an oyster, muscle or similar shell-fish, by which they fasten themselves to stones.

8. In insects, two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in gnats, moths and butterflies.

BEARD, verb transitive berd. To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard in contempt or anger.

1. To oppose to the face; to set at defiance.

I have been bearded by boys.

BEARD'ED, adjective berd'ed. Having a beard, as a man. Having parallel hairs or tufts of hair, as the leaves of plants.

1. Barbed or jagged, as an arrow.

BEARD'ED, participle passive berd'ed. Taken by the beard; opposed to the face.

BEARD'-GRASS, noun A plant, the Andropogon.

BEARD'ING, participle present tense berd'ing. Taking by the beard; opposing to the face.

BEARD'LESS, adjective berd'less. Without a beard; young; not having arrived to manhood. In botany, not having a tuft of hairs.

BEARD'LESSNESS, noun The state or quality of being destitute of beard.

BEARER, noun [See Bear.] One who bears, sustains, or carries; a carrier, especially of a corpse to the grave.

1. One who wears any thing, as a badge or sword.

2. A tree or plant that yields its fruit; as a good bearer

3. In architecture, a post or brick wall between the ends of a piece of timber, to support it. In general, any thing that supports another thing.

4. In heraldry, a figure in an achievement, placed by the side of a shield, and seeming to support it; generally the figure of a beast. The figure of a human creature for a like purpose is called a tenant.

BEARHERD, noun [bear and herd.] A man that tends bears.

BEARING, participle present tense Supporting; carrying; producing.

BEARING, noun Gesture; mien; behavior.

I know him by his bearing [Unusual.]

1. The situation of an object, with respect of another object, by which it is supposed to have a connection with it or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it.

But of this frame, the bearings and the ties.

2. In architecture, the space between the two fixed extremes of a piece of timber, or between one extreme and a supporter.

3. In navigation, the situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, etc. Also, an arch of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from sinical proportion.

4. In heraldry, bearings are the coats of arms or figures of armories, by which the nobility and gentry are distinguished from common persons.

BEARISH, adjective Partaking of the qualities of a bear.

BEARLIKE, adjective Resembling a bear.

BEARN, noun adjective A child. In Scotland, bairn.

BEARWARD, noun A keeper of bears.

BEAST, noun [Latin bestia. See Boisterous.]

1. Any four footed animal, which may be used for labor, food or sport; distinguished from fowls, insects, fishes and man; as beasts of burden, beasts of the chase, beasts of the forest. It is usually applied to large animals.

2. Opposed to man, it signifies any irrational animal, as in the phrase 'man and beast ' So wild beast

3. Figuratively, a brutal man; a person rude, coarse, filthy, or acting in a manner unworthy of a rational creature.

4. A game at cards. Hence to beast

BEASTISH, adjective Like a beast; brutal.

BE'ASTLIKE, adjective Like a beast; brutal.

BE'ASTLINESS, noun [from beastly.] Brutality; coarseness, vulgarity;

filthiness; a practice contrary to the rules of humanity.

BE'ASTLY, adjective Like a beast; brutal; coarse; filthy; contrary to the nature and dignity of man.

1. Having the form or nature of a beast.

BEAT, verb transitive preterit tense beat; participle passive beat beaten. [Latin batuo. See Abate.]

1. To strike repeatedly; to lay on repeated blows, with a stick, with the hand or fist, or with any instrument, and for any cause, just or unjust, or for punishment. Luke 12:45. Deuteronomy 25:3.

2. To strike an instrument of music; to play on, as a drum.

3. To break, bruise, comminute, or pulverize by beating or pounding, as pepper or spices. Exodus 30:36.

4. To extend by beating, as gold or other malleable substance; or to hammer into any form; to forge. Exodus 39:3.

5. To strike bushes, to shake by beating, or to make a noise to rouse game.

6. To thresh; to force out corn from the husk by blows.

7. To break, mix or agitate by beating; as, to beat an egg with any other thing.

8. To dash or strike, as water; to strike or brush, as wind.

9. To tread, as a path.

10. To overcome in a battle, contest or strife; to vanquish or conquer; as, one beats another at play.

Phrrhus beat the Carthaginians at sea.

11. To harass; to exercise severely; to overlabor; as, to beat the brains about logic.

To beat down, to break, destroy, throw down, by beating or battering, as a wall.

Also, to press down or lay flat, as by treading, by a current of water, by violent wind, etc.

Also, to lower the price by importunity or argument.

Also, to depress or crush; as, to bet down opposition.

Also, to sink or lessen the price or value.

Usury beats down the price of land.

To beat back, to compel to retire or return.

To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition of instruction.

To beat up, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to beat up an enemy's quarters.

To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation.

To beat off, to repel or drive back.

To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot.

To beat time, to measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot.

In the manerge, a horse beats the dust, when at each motion he does not take in ground enough with his fore legs; and at curvets, when he does them too precipitately, or too low. He beats upon a walk, when he walks too short.

To beat out, to extend by hammering. In popular use, to be beat out, is to be extremely fatigued; to have the strength exhausted by labor or exertion.

BEAT, verb intransitive To more with pulsation, as the pulse beats; or to throb, as the heart beats.

1. To dash with force, as a storm, flood, passion, etc.; as, the tempest beats against the house.

2. To knock at a door. Judges 19:22.

3. To fluctuate; to be in agitation.

To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways.

To beat upon, to act upon with violence.

Also, to speak frequently; to enforce by repetition.

To beat up for soldiers, is to go about to enlist men into the army.

In seamanship, to beat is to make progress against the direction of the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.

With hunters, a stag beats up and down, when he runs first one way and then another.

BEAT, noun A stroke; a striking; a blow, whether with the hand, or with a weapon.

1. A pulsation; as the beat of the pulse.

2. The rise or fall of the hand or foot, in regulating the divisions of time in music.

3. A transient grace-note in music, struck immediately before the note it is intended to ornament.

In the military art, the beat of drum, is a succession of strokes varied, in different ways, for particular purposes; as to regulate a march to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to direct an attack or retreat, etc.

The beat of a watch or clock, is the stroke made by the fangs or pallets of the spindle of the balance, or of the pads in a royal pendulum.

BEAT

BE'ATEN, participle passive Struck; dashed against; pressed or laid down; hammered; pounded; vanquished; make smooth by treading; worn by use; tracked.

BE'ATER, noun One who beats, or strikes; one whose occupation is to hammer metals.

1. An instrument for pounding, or comminuting substances.

BEATH, verb transitive To bathe. [Not in use.]

BEATIF'IC

BEATIF'ICAL, adjective [Latin beatus, blessed, from beo, to bless, and facio, to make. See Beatify.]

That has the power to bless or make happy, or the power to complete blissful enjoyment; used only of heavenly fruition after death; as beatific vision.

BEATIF'ICALLY, adverb In such a manner as to complete happiness.

BEATIFICA'TION, noun In the Romish church, an act of the Pope by which he declares a person beatifies or blessed after death. This is the first step towards canonization, or the raising of one to the dignity of a saint. No person can be beatified till 50 years after his death. All certificates or attestations of his virtues and miracles are examined by the congregation of rites, and this examination continues often for years; after which his Holiness decrees the beatification and the corpse and relics of the intended saint are exposed to the veneration of all good christians.

BEAT'IFY, verb transitive [Latin beatus, happy, from beo, to bless, and facio, to make.]

1. To make happy; to bless with the completion of celestial enjoyment.

2. In the Romish church, to declare, by a decree or public act, that a person is received into heaven, and is to be reverenced as blessed, though not canonized.

BE'ATING, participle present tense Laying on blows; striking; dashing against; conquering; pounding; sailing against the direction of the wind; etc.

BE'ATING, noun The act of striking or giving blows; punishment or chastisement by blows.

The beating of flax and hemp is an operation which renders them more soft and pliable. For this purpose, they are made into rolls and laid in a trough, where they are beat, till no roughness or hardness can be felt.

In book binding, beating is performed by laying the book in quires or sheets folded, on a block, and beating it with a heavy broad-faced hammer. On this operation the elegance of the binding and the easy opening of the book chiefly depend.

Beating the wind, was a practice in the ancient trial by combat. If one of the combatants did not appear on the field, the other was to beat the wind, by making flourishes with his weapons; by which he was entitled to the advantages of a conqueror.

Beatings, in music, the regular pulsative swellings of sound, produced in an organ by pipes of the same key, when not in unison, and their vibrations not simultaneous or coincident.

BEAT'ITUDE, noun [Latin beatitudo, from beatus, beo. See Beatify.]

1. Blessedness; felicity of the highest kind; consummate bliss; used of the joys of heaven.

2. The declaration of blessedness made by our Savior to particular virtues.

BEAU, noun bo. plural beaux, boze.[Latin bellus.]

A man of dress; a fine, gay man; one whose great care is to deck his person. In familiar language, a man who attends a lady.

BEAUISH, adjective bo'ish. Like a beau; foppish; fine.

BEAU'TEOUS, adjective bu'teous. [See Beauty.] Very fair; elegant in form; pleasing to the sight; beautiful; very handsome. It expresses a greater degree of beauty than handsome, and is chiefly used in poetry.

BEAU'TEOUSLY, adverb bu'teously. In a beauteous manner; in a manner pleasing to the sight; beautifully.

BEAU'TEOUSNESS, noun bu'teousness. The state or quality of being beauteous; beauty.

BEAU'TIFIER, noun bu'tifier. He or that which makes beautiful.

BEAU'TIFUL, adjective bu'tiful. [beauty and full.]

1. Elegant in form, fair, having the form that pleases the eye. It expresses more than handsome.

A beautiful woman is one of the most attractive objects in all nature's works.

A circle is more beautiful than a square; a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram.

2. Having the qualities which constitute beauty, or that which pleases the senses other than the sight; as a beautiful sound.

BEAU'TIFULLY, adverb bu'tifully. In a beautiful manner.

BEAU'TIFULNESS, noun bu'tifulness. Elegance of form; beauty; the quality of being beautiful.

BEAU'TIFY, verb transitive bu'tify. [beauty and Latin facio.]

To make or render beautiful; to adorn; to deck; to grace; to add beauty to; to embellish.

BEAU'TIFY, verb intransitive bu'tify. To become beautiful; to advance in beauty.

BEAU'TY, noun bu'ty.

1. An assemblage of graces, or an assemblage of properties in the form of the person or any other object, which pleases the eye. In the person, due proportion or symmetry of parts constitutes the most essential property to which we annex the term beauty In the face, the regularity and symmetry of the features, the color of the skin, the expression of the eye, are among the principal properties which constitute beauty But as it is hardly possible to define all the properties which constitute beauty we may observe in general, that beauty consists in whatever pleases the eye of the beholder, whether in the human body, in a tree, in a landscape, or in any other object.

Beauty is intrinsic, and perceived by the eye at first view, or relative, to perceive which the aid of the understanding and reflection is requisite. Thus, the beauty of a machine is not perceived, till we understand its uses, and adaptation to its purpose. This is called the beauty of utility. By any easy transition, the word beauty is used to express what is pleasing to the other senses, or to the understanding. Thus we say, the beauty of a thought, of a remark, of sound, etc.

So beauty armed with virtue, bows the soul

With a commanding, but a sweet control.

2. A particular grace, feature or ornament; any particular thing which is beautiful and pleasing; as the beauties of nature.

3. A particular excellence, or a part which surpasses in excellence that with which it is united; as the beauties of an author.

4. A beautiful person, In scripture, the chief dignity or ornament. 2 Samuel 1:19.

5. In the arts, symmetry of parts; harmony; justness of composition.

6. Joy and gladness. Isaiah 61:3. Order, prosperity, peace, holiness, Ezekiel 26:1.

BEAU'TY, verb transitive bu'ty. To adorn; to beautify or embellish. obsolete

BE'AVER, noun [Latin fiber.]

1. An amphibious quadruped, of the genus Castor. It has short ears, a blunt nose, small fore feet, large hind feet, with a flat ovate tail. It is remarkable for its ingenuity in construction its lodges or habitations, and from this animal is obtained the castor of the shops, which is taken from cods or bags in the groin. Its fur, which is mostly of a chestnut brown, is the material of the best hats.

2. The fur of the beaver and a hat made of the fur; also, a part of a helmet that covers the face.

BE'AVERED, adjective Covered with or wearing a beaver.

BEBLEE'D, verb intransitive [be and bleed.] To make bloody. obsolete

BEBLOOD'

BEBLOOD'Y, verb transitive [be and blood.] To make bloody. obsolete

BEBLOOD'Y, v.t. [be and blood.] To make bloody. Obs.

BEBLOT', verb transitive [be and blot.] To blot; to stain. obsolete

BEBLUB'BERED, adjective [be and blubber.] Foul or swelled with weeping.

BECABUN'GA, noun Brooklime speedwell; veronica becabunga; a plant common in ditches and shallow streams.

BECALM, verb transitive becam. [be calm. See Calm.]

1. To still; to make quiet; to appease; to stop, or repress motion in a body; used of the elements and of the passions; as, to becalm the ocean, or the mind. But calm is generally used.

2. To intercept the current of wind, so as to prevent motion; to keep from motion for want of wind; as, highlands becalm a ship.

BECALMED, participle passive becamed. Quieted; appeased.

1. adjective Hindered from motion or progress by a calm; as a ship becalmed

BECALMING, participle present tense becaming. Appeasing; keeping from motion or progress.

BECALMING, noun becaming. A calm at sea.

BECA'ME, preterit tense of become [See Become.]

BECAUSE, becauz' a compound word. [ See By and Cause.]

By cause, or by the cause; on this account; for the cause which is explained in the next proposition; for the reason next explained. Thus, I fled, because I was afraid, is to be thus resolved; I fled, by the cause, for the cause, which is mentioned in the next affirmation, viz. I was afraid. Hence, cause being a noun, because may be regularly followed by of.

The spirit is life, because of righteousness.

BECAUSE of these cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

BECH'ANCE, verb intransitive [be, by, and chance.] To befall; to happen to.

BECH'ARM, verb transitive [be and charm.] To charm; to captivate.

BE'CHIC, noun [Gr.a cough.] A medicine for relieving coughs, synonymous with pectoral, which is now the term mostly used.

BECK, noun A small brook. Gray. Heb. a brook or rivulet; in the sense of flowing, as tears, weeping. Genesis 32:22. It is obsolete in English, but is found in the names of towns situated near streams, as in Walbeck; but is more frequent in names on the continent, as in Griesbach.etc.

BECK, noun A nod of the head; a significant nod, intended to be understood by some person, especially as a sign of command.

BECK, verb intransitive To nod or make a sign with the head.

BECK, verb transitive To call by a nod; to intimate a command to; to notify by a motion of the head.

BECK'ED, participle passive Called or notified by a nod.

BECK'ET, noun A thing used in ships to confine loose ropes, tackles or spars; as a large hook, a rope, with an eye at one end, or a wooden bracket.

BECK'ING, participle present tense Nodding significantly; directing by a nod.

BECK'ON, verb transitive bek'n. [See Beck.]

To make a sign to another, by nodding, winking, or a motion of the hand or finger, etc., intended as a hint or intimation. Acts 19:33.

BECK'ON, verb transitive bek'n. To make a significant sign to.

BECK'ONED, participle passive Having a sign made to.

BECK'ONING, participle present tense Making a significant sign, as a hint.

BECLIP', verb transitive To embrace. [Not in use.]

BECLOUD', verb transitive [See Cloud.] To cloud; to obscure; to dim.

BECOME, verb intransitive becum'. preterit tense became, participle passive become

1. To pass from one state to another; to enter into some state or condition, by a change from another state or condition, or by assuming or receiving new properties or qualities, additional matter, or a new character; as, a cion becomes a tree.

The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of like and man became a living soul.

To the Jew, I became a Jew.

2. To become of, usually with what preceding; to be the fate of; to be the end of; to be the final or subsequent condition; as, what will become of our commerce? what will become of us?

In the present tense, it applies to place as well as condition. What has become of my friend? that is, where is he? as well as, what is his condition? Where is he become? used by Shakespeare and Spenser, is obsolete; but this is the sense in Saxon, where has he fallen?

BECOME, verb transitive In general, to suit or be suitable; to be congruous; to befit; to accord with, in character or circumstances; to be worthy of, decent or proper. It is used in the same sense applied to persons or things.

If I become not a cart as well as another man.

This use of the word however is less frequent, the verb usually expressing the suitableness of things, to persons or to other things; as, a robe becomes a prince.

It becomes not a cart as well as another man.

BECOM'ING, ppr., but used rarely or never except as an adjective. Fit; suitable; congruous; proper; graceful; belonging to the character, or adapted to circumstances; as, he speaks with becoming boldness; a dress is very becoming

Some writers formerly used of, after this word.

Such discourses as are becoming of them.

But this use is inelegant or improper.

BECOM'ING, adjective Ornament. obsolete

BECOM'INGLY, adverb After a becoming or proper manner.

BECOM'INGNESS, noun Fitness, congruity; propriety; decency; gracefulness arising from fitness.

BECRIP'PLE, verb transitive [See Cripple.] To make lame; to cripple [Little used.]

BECURL', verb transitive To curl. [Not used.]

BED, noun [The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.]

1. A place or an article of furniture to sleep and take rest on; in modern times, and among civilized men, a sack or tick filled with feathers or wool; but a bed may be made of straw or any other materials. The word bed includes often the bedstead.

2. Lodging; a convenient place for sleep.

3. Marriage; matrimonial connection.

George, the eldest son of his second bed

4. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.

5. The channel of a river, or that part in which the water usually flows.

6. Any hollow place, especially in the arts; a hollow place, in which any thing rests; as the bed of a mortar.

7. A layer; a stratum; an extended mass of any thing, whether upon the earth or within it; as a bed of sulphur; a bed of sand or clay.

8. Pain, torment. Revelation 2:22. The grave. Isaiah 57:7. The lawful use of wedlock. Hebrews 13:4.

The bed of the carriage of a gun is a thick plank which lies under the piece, being, as it were, the body of the carriage.

The bed of a mortar is a solid piece of oak, hollow in the middle, to receive the britch and half the trunnions.

In masonry, bed is a range of stones, and the joint of the bed is the mortar between two stones placed over each other.

BED of justice, in France, was a throne on which the king was seated when he went to parliament. Hence the phrase, to hold a bed of justice.

To make a bed is to put it in order after it has been used.

To bring to bed to deliver of a child, is rarely used. But in the passive form, to be brought to bed that is, to be delivered of a child, is common. It is often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son.

To put to bed in midwifery, is to deliver of a child.

Dining bed or discubitory bed among the ancients, a bed on which persons lay at meals. It was four or five feet high, and would hold three or four persons. Three of these beds were ranged by a square table, one side of the table being left open, and accessible to the waiters. Hence the Latin name for the table and the room, triclinium, or three beds.

From bed and board. In law, a separation of man and wife, without dissolving the bands of matrimony, is called a separation from bed and board, a mensa et thoro. In this case the wife has a suitable maintenance allotted to her out of the husband's estate, called alimony.

BED, verb transitive To place in a bed

1. To go to bed with. [Unusual.]

2. To make partaker of the bed

3. To plant and inclose or cover; to set or lay and inclose; as, to bed the roots of a plant in soft mold.

4. To lay in any hollow place, surrounded or inclosed; as to bed a stone.

5. To lay in a place of rest or security, covered, surrounded or inclosed; as a fish bedded in sand, or under a bank.

6. To lay in a stratum; to stratify; to lay in order or flat; as bedded clay, bedded hairs

BED, verb transitive To cohabit; to use the same bed

If he be married and bed with his wife.

BEDAB'BLE, verb transitive [be and dabble.] To wet; to sprinkle

Bedabbled with the dew.

BEDAB'BLED, participle passive Wet; sprinkled.

BEDAB'BLING, participle present tense Wetting; sprinkling.

BEDAFF', verb transitive To make a fool of. [Not in use.]

BEDAG'GLE, verb transitive [be and daggle.] To soil, as clothes, by drawing the ends in the mud, or spattering them with dirty water.

BEDAG'GLED, participle passive Soiled by reaching the mud in walking; bespattering.

BEDA'RE, verb transitive [be and dare.] To dare; to defy. [Not used.]

BEDARK', verb transitive [be and dark.] To darken. [Not used.]

BEDASH', verb transitive [be and dash.] To wet, by throwing water, or other liquor upon; to bespatter, with water or mud.

BEDASH'ED, participle passive Bespattered with water or other liquid.

BEDASH'ING, participle present tense Bespattering; dashing water upon, or other liquid.

BEDAUB', verb transitive [be and daub.] To daub over; to besmear with viscous, slimy matter; to soil with any thing thick and dirty.

BEDAUB'ED, participle passive Daubed over; besmeared.

BEDAUB'ING, participle present tense Daubing over; besmearing.

BEDAZ'ZLE, verb transitive [be and dazzle.] To confound the sight by too strong a light; to make dim by luster.

BEDAZ'ZLED, participle passive Having the sight confounded by too strong a light.

BEDAZ'ZLING, participle present tense Confounding or making dim by a too brilliant luster.

BED'CHAMBER, noun [bed and chamber.] An apartment or chamber intended or appropriated for a bed, or for sleep and repose.

BED'DED, participle passive Laid in a bed; inclosed as in a bed.

BED'DER

BED'DING, participle present tense Laying in a bed; inclosing as in a bed.

BED'DING, noun A bed and its furniture; a bed; the materials of a bed, whether for man or beast.

BED'DING, ppr. Laying in a bed; inclosing as in a bed.

BED'DING, n. A bed and its furniture; a bed; the materials of a bed, whether for man or beast.

BEDECK', verb transitive [be and deck.] To deck; to adorn; to grace.

BEDECK'ED, participle passive Adorned; ornamented.

BEDECK'ING, participle present tense Adorning; decking.

BE'DEHOUSE, noun Formerly, a hospital or alms house, where the poor prayed for their founders and benefactors.

BE'DEL, noun An officer in the universities of England. [A peculiar orthography of beadle.]

BE'DELRY, noun The extent of a bedel's office.

BEDET'TER, noun [from bed.] The nether stone of an oil mill.

BEDEW', verb transitive [be and dew.] To moisten, as with dew; to moisten in a gentle manner with any liquid; as, tears bedew her face.

BEDEW'ED, participle passive Moistened, as if with dew; gently moistened.

BEDEW'ER, noun That which bedews.

BEDEW'ING, participle present tense Moistening gently, as with dew; wetting.

BEDEW'Y, adjective Moist with dew. [Little used.]

BED'FELLOW, noun [bed and fellow.] One who lies in the same bed.

BEDI'GHT, verb transitive bedi'te. [be and dight.] To adorn; to dress; set off with ornaments. [Little used.]

BEDI'GHTED, participle passive Adorned; set off with ornaments.

BEDI'GHTING, participle present tense Adorning.

BEDIM', verb transitive [be and dim.] To make dim; to obscure or darken.

BEDIM'MED, participle passive Made dim; obscured.

BEDIM'MING, participle present tense Making dim; obscuring; darkening.

BEDIZ'EN, verb transitive bediz'n. [be and dizen.] To adorn; to deck; a low word.

BEDIZ'ENED, participle passive Bedecked; adorned.

BEDIZ'ENING, participle present tense Adorning.

BED'LAM, noun [Corrupted from Bethlehem, the name of a religious house in London, afterward converted into a hospital for lunatics.]

1. A mad house; a place appropriated for lunatics.]

2. A madman; a lunatic; one who lives in bedlam

3. A place of uproar.

BED'LAM, adjective Belonging to a mad house; fit for a mad house.

BED'LAMITE, noun An inhabitant of a madhouse, a madman.

BED'MAKER, noun [bed and maker.] One whose occupation is to make beds, as a college or university.

BED'MATE, noun [bed and mate.] A bedfellow.

BED'-MOLDING, [bed and molding.] In architecture, the members of a cornice, which are placed below the coronet, consisting of an ogee, a list, a large boultine, and another list under the coronet.

BEDO'TE, verb transitive [be and dote.] To make to dote. [Not in use.]

BED'POST, noun [bed and post.] The post of a bedstead.

BED'PRESSER, noun [bed and press.] A lazy fellow; one who loves his bed.

BEDRAG'GLE, verb transitive [be and draggle.] To soil, as garments which are suffered, in walking, to reach the dirt; to soil by drawing along on mud.

BEDRAG'GLED, participle passive Soiled by reaching the dirt, in walking.

BEDRAG'GLING, participle present tense Soiling by drawing along in dirt or mud.

BEDRENCH'verb intransitive [be and drench.] To drench; to soak; to saturate with moisture; applied to things which imbibe moisture.

BEDRENCH'ED, participle passive Drenched; soaked.

BEDRENCH'ING, participle present tense Soaked; drenching.

BED'RID

BED'RIDDEN, adjective [bed and ride.] Confined to the bed, by age or infirmity.

BED'RITE, noun [bed and rite.] The privilege of the marriage bed.

BED'ROOM, noun [bed and room.] A room or apartment intended or used for a bed; a lodging room.

1. Room in a bed. [Not in use.]

BEDROP' verb transitive [be and drop.] To sprinkle, as with drops.

BEDROP'PED, participle passive Sprinkled as with drops; speckled; variegated with spots.

BED'SIDE, noun The side of the bed.

BED'STAFF, noun [bed and staff.] A wooden pin anciently inserted on the sides of bedsteads, to keep the clothes from slipping on either side.

BED'STEAD, noun bed'sted. [bed and stead.] A frame for supporting a bed.

BED'STRAW, noun [bed and straw.] Straw laid under a bed to make it soft; also the name of a plant, a species of galium.

BED'SWERVER, noun [bed and swerve.] One that swerves from his bed; that is one who is false and unfaithful to the marriage vow.

BED'TIME, noun [bed and time.] The time to go to rest; the usual hour of going to bed.

BEDUCK', verb transitive [be and duck.] To duck; to put the head under water; to immerse.

BEDUST', verb transitive [be and dust.] To sprinkle, soil or cover with dust.

BED'WARD, adverb [bed and ward.] Toward bed.

BEDWARF', verb transitive [be and dwarf.] To make little; to stunt or hinder growth.

BED'WORK, noun [bed and work.] Work done in bed, without toil of the hands or with ease.

BEDY'E, verb transitive [be and dye.] To dye; to stain.

BEDY'ED, participle passive Dyed; stained.

BEE, noun An insect of the genus Apis. [See Apis.] The species are numerous, of which the honey-bee is the most interesting to man. It has been cultivated from the earliest periods, for its wax and honey. It lives in swarms or societies, of from 10, 000 to 50, 000 individuals. These swarms contain three classes of bees, the females or queen bees, the males or drones, and the neuters or working bees. Of the former, there is only one in each hive or swarm, whose sole office is to propagate the species. It is much larger than the other bees. The drones serve merely for impregnating the queen, after which they are destroyed by the neuters. These last are the laborers of the hive. They collect the honey, form the cells, and feed the other bees and the young. They are furnished with a proboscis by which they suck the honey from flowers, and a mouth by which they swallow it, and then convey it to the hive in their stomachs, where they disgorge it into the cells. The pollen of flowers settles on the hairs with which their body is covered, whence it is collected into pellets, by a brush on their second pair of legs, and deposited in a hollow in the third pair. It is called bee bread, and is the food of the larvae or young. The adult bees feed on honey. The wax was supposed to be formed from pollen by a digestive process, but it is now ascertained that it is formed from the honey by a similar process. The females and neuters have a barbed sting, attached to a bag of poison, which flows into the wound inflicted by the sting. When a hive is overstocked, a new colony is sent out under the direction of a queen bee This is called swarming.

BEECH, noun [Gr. payos; Latin fagus.] A tree arranged by Linne under the genus fagus, with the chestnut. The beech grows to a large size, with branches forming a beautiful head, with thick foliage. The bark is smooth and of a silvery cast. The mast or nuts are the food of swine, and of certain wild animals, and yield a good oil for lamps. When eaten by man, they are said to occasion giddiness and headache.

BEE'CHEN, adjective bee'chn. Consisting of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech; as a beechen vessel.

BEE'CHMAST, noun The fruit or nuts of the beech.

BEEF, noun [Latin bos, bovis; Gr.Bous.]

1. An animal of the bovine genus, whether ox, bull or cow; but used of those which are full grown or nearly so. In this, which is the original sense, the word has a plural, beeves.

2. The flesh of an ox, bull, or cow, when killed. In popular language, the word is often applied to the live animal; as, an ox is good beef; that is, is well fattened. In this sense, the word has no plural.

BEEF, adjective Consisting of the flesh of the ox, or bovine kind; as a beef-steak.

BEELD, noun Protection; refuge. [Not in use.]

BEEN, Part.perf. of be; pronounced bin. In old authors, it is also the present tense plural of be.

BEEN, noun A fretted stringed instrument of music of the guitar kind, having nineteen frets; used in India.

BEER, noun

1. A spirituous liquor made from any farinaceous grain; but generally from barley, which is first malted and ground, and its fermentable substance extracted by hot water. This extract or infusion is evaporated by boiling in caldrons, and hops or some other plant of an agreeable bitterness added. The liquor is then suffered to ferment in vats. beer is of different degrees of strength, and is denominated small beer ale, porter, brown stout, etc., according to its strength, or other peculiar qualities.

2. beer is a name given in America to fermenting liquors made of various other materials; and when a decoction of the roots of plants forms a part of the composition, it is called spring-beer, from the season in which it is made.

BEESTINGS, [See Biestings.]

BEET, noun [Latin beta.] A plant of the genus Beta. The species cultivated in gardens are the cicla and vulgaris, or white and red beet There are many varieties; some with long taper roots, and others with flat roots, like turnips. The root furnishes a large portion of sugar, which has been recently manufactured in France on a great scale.

BEE'TLE, n.

BEE'TLE, v.i. bee'tl. To jut; to be prominent; to hang or extend out; as, a cliff that beetles over its base.

BEE'TLING, participle present tense Jutting; being prominent; standing out from the main body.

BEEVES, noun plural of beef. Cattle; quadrupeds of the bovine genus, called in England, black cattle.

BEFALL', verb transitive preterit tense befell; part. befallen.

To happen to; to occur to; as, let me know the worst that can befall me. It usually denotes ill. It is generally transitive in form, but there seems to be an ellipsis of to, and to sometimes follows it.

BEFALL', verb intransitive To happen; to come to pass.

To befall of is not legitimate.

BEFALL'ING, ppr. Happening to; occurring to; coming to pass.

BEFELL', preterit tense of befall.

BEFIT', verb transitive [be and fit.] To suit; to be suitable to; to become.

That name best befits thee.

BEFIT'TING, participle present tense or adjective Suiting; becoming.

BEFOAM, verb transitive [be and foam.] To cover with foam. [Little used.]

BEFOOL', verb transitive [be and fool.] To fool; to infatuate; to delude or lead into error.

Men befool themselves.

BEFOOL'ED, participle passive Fooled; deceived; led into error.

BEFOOL'ING, participle present tense Fooling; making a fool of; deceiving; infatuating.

BEFO'RE, preposition [be and fore, that is by fore, near the fore part.]

1. In front; on the side with the face, at any distance; used of persons.

2. In presence of, with the idea of power, authority, respect.

Abraham bowed before the people of the land. Genesis 23:3.

Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord. Micah 6:1.

3. In sight of; as before the face.

4. In the presence of, noting cognizance of jurisdiction.

5. In the power of, noting the right or ability to choose or possess; free to the choice.

The world was all before them.

My land is before thee. Genesis 20:15.

6. In front of any object; as before the house; before the fire.

7. Preceding in time.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray. Psalms 119:30.

Before Abraham was, I am. John 8:58.

Here the preposition has a sentence following for an object.

8. In preference to.

And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. Gen 48.

Poverty is desirable before torments.

9. Superior; preceding in dignity.

He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. John Latin

10. Prior to; having prior right; preceding in order; as, the eldest son is before the younger in succession.

11. Previous to; in previous order; in order to.

Before this treatise can become of use, two points are necessary.

12. before the wind, is to move in the direction of the wind by its impulse.

BEFO'RE, adverb In time preceding.

You tell me what I knew before

1. In time preceding, to the present, or to this time; hitherto; as, tumults then arose which before were unknown.

2. Further onward in place, in progress, or in front.

Reaching forth to those things which are before Philippians 3:13.

3. In front; on the fore part.

The battle was before and behind. 2 Chronicles 13:13.

In some of the examples of the use of before which Johnson places under the adverb, the word is a preposition governing a sentence; as, 'Before the hills appeared.' This is the real construction, however overlooked or misunderstood.

BEFO'REHAND, adverb [before and hand.] In a state of anticipation or preoccupation; often followed by with; as, you are before hand with me.

1. Antecedently; by way of preparation or preliminary; aforetime. Math.13. 1 Timothy 5:24.

2. In a state of accumulation, so as that more has been received than expended. A man is beforehand In this use it is more properly an adjective.

3. At first; before any thing is done.

BEFOR'TUNE, verb transitive [be and fortune.] To happen to; to betide.

BEFOUL', verb transitive To make foul; to soil.

BEFRIEND, verb transitive befrend'. [be and friend.] To favor; to act as a friend to; to countenance, aid or benefit.

BEFRIEND'ED, participle passive Favored; countenanced.

BEFRIEND'ING, participle present tense Favoring; assisting as a friend; showing kindness to.

BEFRINGE, verb transitive befrinj'. [be and fringe.] To furnish with a fringe; to adorn as with fringe.

BEFRING'ED, participle passive Adorned as with a fringe.

BEG, noun In the Turkish dominions, a governor of a town or country; more particularly, the lord of a sangiac or banner. Every province is divided into seven sangiacs or banners, each of which qualifies a bey; and these are commanded by the governor of the province, called begler-beg or lord of all the beys. Each beg has the command of a certain number of spahis, or horse, denominated

timariots.

In Tunis, the beg or bey is the prince or king, answering to the dey of Algiers.

In Egypt, the begs are twelve generals who command the militia, or standing forces of the kingdom.

BEG, verb transitive

1. To ask earnestly; to beseech; to entreat or supplicate with humility. It implies more urgency than ask or petition.

Joseph begged the body of Jesus. Math.27.

2. To ask or supplicate in charity; as, we may yet be reduced to beg our bread.

3. To take for granted; to assume without proof; as, to beg the question in debate.

BEG, verb intransitive To ask alms or charity; to practice begging; to live by asking alms.

I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg Luke 16:3.

BEGET', verb transitive preterit tense begot, begat; participle passive begot, begotten.

1. To procreate, as a father or sire; to generate; as, to beget a son.

2. To produce, as an effect; to cause to exist; to generate; as, luxury begets vice.

BEGET'TER, noun One who begets or procreates; a father.

BEG'GABLE, adjective That may be begged.

BEG'GAR, noun [See Beg.] One that lives by asking alms, or makes it his business to beg for charity.

1. One who supplicates with humility; a petitioner; but in this sense rarely used, as the word has become a term of contempt.

2. One who assumes in argument what he does not prove.

BEG'GAR, verb transitive To reduce to beggary; to impoverish.

1. To deprive or make destitute; to exhaust; as, to beggar description.

BEG'GARED, participle passive Reduced to extreme poverty.

BEG'GARING, participle present tense Reducing to indigence or a state of beggary.

BEG'GARLINESS, noun The state of being beggarly; meanness; extreme poverty.

BEG'GARLY, adjective Mean; poor; in the condition of a beggar; extremely indigent.

BEG'GARLY, adverb Meanly; indigently; despicable.

BEG'GARY, noun A state of extreme indigence.

BEG'GED, participle passive Entreated; supplicated; asked in charity.

BEG'GING, participle present tense Asking alms; supplicating; assuming without proof.

BEG'GING, noun The act of soliciting alms; the practice of asking alms; as, he lives by begging

BEGHARDS'

BEGILT', adjective Gilded.

BEGIN', verb intransitive preterit tense began; participle passive begun. [Latin genero, gigno; Heb.to make ready, to adapt, prepare, establish.]

1. To have an original or first existence; to take rise; to commence.

As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began. Luke 1:1.

Judgment must begin at the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17.

From Nimrod first the savage race began.

And tears began to flow.

2. To do the first act; to enter upon something new; to take the first step; as, begin my muse.

BEGIN every day to repent.

When I begin I will also make an end. 1 Samuel 3:12.

BEGIN'verb intransitive To do the first act of any thing; to enter on; to commence.

Ye nymphs of Solyma, begin the song.

And this they begin to do. Genesis 11:6.

2. To trace from any thing, as the first ground; to lay the foundation.

The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God.

To begin with, to enter upon first; to use or employ first; as, to begin with the Latin Grammar; to begin business with a small capital.

BEGIN'NER, noun The person who begins; he that gives an original; the agent who is the cause; an author.

1. One who first enters upon any art, science or business; one who is in his rudiments; a young practitioner; often implying want of experience.

BEGIN'NING, participle present tense First entering upon; commencing; giving rise or original; taking rise or origin.

BEGIN'NING, noun The first cause; origin.

I am the beginning and the ending. Revelation 1:8.

1. That which is first; the first state; commencement; entrance into being.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1.

3. The rudiments, first ground or materials.

Mighty things from small beginnings grow

BEGIN'NINGLESS, adjective That hath no beginning. [A bad word and not used.]

BEGIRD, verb transitive begurd. preterit tense begirt, begirded; participle passive begirt. [be and gird.]

1. To bind with a band or girdle.

2. To surround; to inclose; to encompass.

BEGIRD the Almighty throne.

3. To besiege.

To begirt, used by B.Jonso, is a corrupt orthography.

BEGIRD'ED

BEGIRD'ING, participle present tense Binding with a girdle; surrounding; besieging.

BEGIRT, participle passive Bound with a girdle; surrounded; inclosed; besieged.

BEG'LERBEG, noun [See Beg.] The governor of a province in the Turkis empire, next in dignity to the grand vizier. Each has three ensigns or staves, trimmed with a horse tail, to distinguish him from a bashaw, who has two, and a beg, who has one. His province is called beglerbeglik.

BEGNAW', verb transitive benaw'. To bite or gnaw, to eat away; to corrode; to nibble.

BEGONE. Go away; depart. These two words have been improperly united. Be retains the sense of a verb, and gone, that of a participle.

BEGO'RED, adjective [be and gore.] Besmeared with gore.

BEGOT', BEGOT'TEN, participle passive of get. Procreated; generated.

BEGOT', BEGOT'TEN, participle passive of get. Procreated; generated.

BEGRA'VE, verb transitive To deposit in the grave; to bury. [Not used.]

BEGRE'ASE, verb transitive s as z. [be and grease.] To soil or daub with grease, or other oily matter.

BEGRI'ME, verb transitive [be and grime.] To soil with dirt deep-impressed, so that the natural hue cannot easily be recovered.

BEGRI'MED, participle passive Deeply soiled.

BEGRUDGE, verb transitive begrudj'. [See Grudge.] To grudge; to envy the possession of.

BEGUARDS', noun A religious order of St. Francis in Flanders, established at Antwerp in 1228, and so named from St. Begghe, their patroness. They at first employed themselves in making linen cloth, united in bonds of charity, without any rule; but in 1290, they embraced that of the third order of St. Francis. The name has been transferred to all the other religious of the convent of Antwerp.

BEGUI'LE, verb transitive begi'le. [be and guile.] To delude; to deceive; to impose on by artifice or craft.

The serpent beguiled me and I did eat Genesis 3:13.

1. To elude by craft.

When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage.

2. To elude any thing disagreeable by amusement, or other means; to pass pleasingly; to amuse; as, to beguile the tedious day with sleep.

BEGUI'LED, participle passive Deluded; imposed on; misled by craft; eluded by stratagem; passed pleasingly.

BEGUI'LER, noun He or that which beguiles or deceives.

BEGUI'LING, participle present tense Deluding; deceiving by craft; eluding by artifice, amusing.

BEGUIL'TY, verb transitive To render guilty. A barbarous word.]

BE'GUIN, noun The beguins are a congregation of nuns in Flanders, so called from their founder, or from their head dress. beguin in French, is a linen cap. From this order sprung the Beguinages in Flanders.

BEGUN', participle passive or begin. Commenced; originated.

BEHALF, noun behaf. [See Behoof.]

1. Favor; advantage; convenience, profit; support, defense, vindication. The advocate pleads in behalf of the prisoner. The patriot suffers in behalf of his country.

2. Part; side; noting substitution, or the act of taking the part of another; as, the agent appeared in behalf of his constituents, and entered a claim.

BEHAP'PEN, verb intransitive [be and happen.] To happen to.

BEHA'VE, verb transitive

1. To restrain; to govern; to subdue.

He did behave his anger e'er 'twas spent.

This sense is obsolete. Yet it often seems to be implied; for to behave one's self, is really, to govern one's self; to have in command.

2. To carry; to conduct; used with the reciprocal pronoun; as, he behaves himself manfully. But the tendency of modern usage is to omit the pronoun; as, he behaves well.

BEHA'VE, verb intransitive To act; to conduct; generally applied to manners, or to conduct in any particular business; and in a good or bad sense. He behaves well or will.

BEHA'VED, participle passive Conducted.

BEHA'VING, participle present tense Carrying; conducting.

BEHA'VIOR, noun behavyur. [See Behave.]

Manner of behaving, whether good or bad; conduct; manners; carriage of one's self, with respect to propriety, or morals; deportment. It expresses external appearance or action; sometimes in a particular character; more generally in the common duties of life; as, our future destiny depends on our behavior in this life. It may express correct or good manners, but I doubt whether it ever expresses the idea of elegance of manners, without another word to qualify it.

To be upon one's behavior is to be in a state of trial, in which something important depends on propriety of conduct. The modern phrase is, to be or to be put, upon one's good behavior

BEHEAD', verb transitive behed'. [be and head.]

To cut off the head; to sever the head from the body, with a cutting instrument; appropriately used of the execution of men for crimes.

BEHEAD'ED, participle passive behed'ed. Having the head cut off.

BEHEAD'ING, participle present tense behed'ing. Severing the head from the body.

BEHEAD'ING, noun behed'ing. The act of separating the head from the body by a cutting instrument; decollation.

BEHELD', preterit tense and participle passive of behold, which see.

BE'HEMOTH, noun [Heb. a beast or brute; from an Arabic vert, which signifies, to shut, to lie hid, to be dumb. In Eth.dumb.]

Authors are divided in opinion as to the animal intended in scripture by this name; some supposing it to be an ox, others, an elephant; and Bochart labors to prove it the hippopotamus, or river horse. The latter opinion is most probably. [See Hippopotamus.] The original word in Arabic signifies a brute of beast in general, especially a quadruped.

BE'HEN, BEN, OR BEK'EN, noun A plant. The white behen is a species of Cucubalus, called Swedish Lychnis, or gum sepungar. The empalement of its flower resembles net-work, and its leaves have somewhat of the flavor of pease.

BEHEST', noun Command; precept; mandate.[Antiquated, except in poetry.]

BEHI'GHT, verb transitive behite; preterit tense behot.

To promise; to entrust; to call, or name; to command; to adjudge; to address; to inform; to mean; to reckon. The orthography is corrupt; it should be behite.

BEHIND, preposition

1. At the back of another; as, to ride behind a horseman.

2. On the back part, at any distance; in the rear; as, to walk behind another.

3. Remaining; left after the departure of another, whether by removing to a distance, or by death; as, a man leaves his servant behind him, or his estate at his decease.

4. Left at a distance, in progress or improvement; as, one student is behind another in mathematics.

5. Inferior to another in dignity and excellence.

For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 2 Corinthians 11:5.

6. On the side opposite to that which fronts a person; on the other side; as behind a bed; behind a hill; behind a house, tree, or rock.

BEHIND the back, in scripture, signifies, out of notice, or regard; overlooked; disregarded.

They cast thy laws behind their backs. Nehemiah 9:26. Isaiah 38:17.

BEHIND, adverb [be and hind.] Out of sight; not produced, or exhibited to view; remaining; as, we know no what evidence is behind

1. Backwards; on the back-part; as, to look behind

2. Past in the progress of time.

3. Future, or remaining to be endured.

And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. Colossians 1:24.

4. Remaining after a payment; unpaid; as, there is a large sum behind

5. Remaining after the departure of; as, he departed and left us behind

BEHINDHAND, adjective [behind and hand.] In arrear; in an exhausted state; in a state in which rent or profit has been anticipated, and expenditures precede the receipt of funds to supply them. In popular use, a state of poverty, in which the means of living are not adequate to the end. Also, in a state of backwardness, in which a particular business has been delayed beyond the proper season for performing it; as, he is behindhand in his business.

BEHINDHAND with, is behind in progress; not upon equal terms in forwardness; as to be behindhand with the fashionable world.

This word is really an adjective, as it is applied to the person rather than to the verb; but like adrift, aloft, ashamed, and several other words, never precedes the noun. Shakespeare's 'behindhand slackness.' therefore, according to present usage, is not a legitimate phrase.

BEHO'LD, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive beheld' [Latin observo, from servo, to keep.]

1. To fix the eyes upon; to see with attention; to observe with care.

Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.

2. In a less intensive sense, to look upon; to see.

When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Numbers 21:1.

BEHO'LD, verb intransitive To look; to direct the eyes to an object.

And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, a lamb, as it had been slain. Revelation 5:5.

1. To fix the attention upon an object; to attend; to direct or fix the mind.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:8 word is much used in this manner for exciting attention, or admiration. It is in the imperative mode, expressing command, or exhortation; and by no means a mere exclamation.

BEHO'LDEN, participle passive or adjective beholdn. [The participle of behold, to keep, guard, or bind. See Behold.]

Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted.

Little are we beholden to your love.

BEHO'LDER, noun One who beholds; a spectator; one who looks upon, or sees.

BEHO'LDING, participle present tense Fixing the eyes upon; looking on; seeing.

1. Fixing the attention; regarding with attention.

2. Obligation. [Not used.]

3. Obliged. Bacon on Love. A mistaken use of the word for beholden.

BEHO'LDINGNESS, noun The state of being obliged.

[An error, and not in use.]

BEHON'EY, verb transitive To sweeten with honey.

BEHOOF', noun

1. Radically, need, necessity; whence, by an easy analogy, the word came to signify that which supplies want. Hence, in present usage.

2. That which is advantageous; advantage; profit; benefit.

No mean recompense it brings to your behoof

BEHOOV'ABLE, adjective Needful; profitable.

BEHOOVE, verb transitive behoof'. To be necessary for; to be fit for; to be meet for, with respect to necessity, duty, or convenience.

And thus it behooved Christ to suffer. Luke 24:1.

It may perhaps be used intransitively; as, let him behave as it behooveth; but I believe such use is rare.

BEHOOVEFUL, adjective behoov'ful. Needful; useful; profitable; advantageous.

BEHOOVEFULLY, adverb behoov'fully. Usefully, profitably.

BEHOT', preterit tense of behight.

BEHOVE, and its derivatives. [See Behoove.]

BEHOWL', verb intransitive [be and howl.] To howl at. [Not used.]

BE'ING, participle present tense [See Be.] Existing in a certain state.

Man, being in honor, abideth not. Psalms 49:12.

BE'ING, noun Existence; as, God is the author of our being

In God we live, and move, and have our being Acts 17:28.

1. A particular state or condition. [This is hardly a different sense.]

2. A person existing; applied to the human race.

3. An immaterial, intelligent existence, or spirit.

Superior beings, when of late they saw.

A mortal man unfold all nature's law--

4. An animal; any living creature.

Animals are such beings, as are endowed with sensation and spontaneous motion.

BEJA'DE, verb transitive [be and jade.] To tire. [Not used.]

BEJA'PE, verb transitive To laugh at; to deceive. [Not used.]

BE'HEN, BEN, OR BEK'EN, noun A plant. The white behen is a species of Cucubalus, called Swedish Lychnis, or gum sepungar. The empalement of its flower resembles net-work, and its leaves have somewhat of the flavor of pease.

The behen of the shops, or white behen, is spatling poppy. Red behen is sea lavender.

BEKISS', verb transitive [be and kiss.] To kiss or salute. [Not in use.]

BEKNA'VE, verb transitive [be and knave.] To call knave. [Not used.]

BEKNO'W, verb transitive [be and know.] To acknowledge. [Not used.]

BELA'BOR, verb transitive [perhaps from be and labor; but in Russ. bulava is a club.] To beat soundly; to thump.

Ajax belabors there a harmless ox.

BELA'CE, verb transitive [be and lace.] To fasten, as with a lace or cord.

1. To beat; to whip.

BELA'CED, adjective Adorned with lace.

BEL'AMOUR, noun A gallant; a consort. [Not used.]

BEL'AMY, noun A good friend; an intimate. [Not used.]

BELA'TE, verb transitive [be and late.] To retard or make too late. [Not used.]

BELA'TED, adjective [be and lated.] Benighted; abroad late at night.

1. Too late for the hour appointed or intended; later than the proper time.

BELA'TEDNESS, noun A being too late.

BELA'VE, verb transitive [be and lave.] To wash. [Not used.]

BELAW'GIVE, verb transitive To give a law to. [Barbarous and not used.]

BELA'Y, verb transitive [This word is composed of be and lay, to lay to, lay by, or close. See Beleaguer.]

1. To block up, or obstruct.

2. To place in ambush.

3. To adorn, surround, or cover.

4. In seamanship, to fasten, or make fast, by winding a rope round a cleat, kevil, or belaying-pin. It is chiefly applied to the running rigging.

BELA'YED, pp. Obstructed; ambushed; made fast.

BELA'YING, ppr. Blocking up; laying an ambush; making fast.

BELCH, verb transitive [Eng. bulge, bilge, bulk.]

1. To throw or eject wind from the stomach with violence.

2. To eject violently from a deep hollow place, as, a volcano belches flames and lava.

BELCH, noun The act of throwing out from the stomach, or from a hollow place; eructation.

1. A cant name for malt liquor.

BELCH'ED, participle passive Ejected from the stomach, or from a hollow place.

BELCH'ING, participle present tense Ejecting from the stomach or any deep hollow place.

BELCH'ING, noun Eructation.

BEL'DAM, noun

1. An old woman.

Spenser seems to have used the word in its true sense for good dame.

2. A hag.

BELE'AGUER, verb transitive belee'ger. To besiege; to block up; to surround with an army, so as to preclude escape.

BELE'AGUERED, participle passive Besieged.

BELE'AGUERER, noun One who besieges.

BELE'AGURING, participle present tense Besieging; blocking up.

BELE'AVE, verb transitive [be and leave.] To leave. [Not used.]

BELEE', verb transitive [be and lee.] To place on the lee, or in a position unfavorable to the wind. [Not used.]

BELEM'NITE, noun [Gr.a dart, or arrow, from the root of pello, to throw.]

Arrow-head, or finger stone; vulgarly called thunder-bolt, or thunder stone. A genus of fossil shells, common in chalk and limestone. These shells consist of an interior cone, divided into partitions connected by a syphon, as in the nautilus, and surrounded by a number of concentric layers, made up of fibers radiating from the axis. These layers are somewhat transparent, and when burnt, rubbed or scraped, give the odor of rasped horn. The species are now extinct.

BELEP'ER, verb transitive To infect with leprosy. [Not used.]

BEL'FRY, noun [Latin belfredus.]

1. Among military writers of the middle age, a tower erected by besiegers to overlook the place besieged, in which sentinels were placed to watch the avenues, and to prevent surprise from parties of the enemy, or to give notice of fires, by ringing a bell.

2. That part of a steeple, or other building, in which a bell is hung, and more particularly, the timer work which sustains it.

BELGARD', noun A soft look or glance. [Not used.]

BEL'GIAN, adjective [See Belgic.] Belonging to Belgica, or the Netherlands.

BEL'GIAN, noun A native of Belgica, or the Low Countries.

BEL'GIC, adjective [Latin belgicus, from Belgae, the inhabitants of the Netherlands and the country bordering on the Rhine, from that river to the Seine and the ocean. The name may have been given to them from their bulk or large stature; Eng.bulge; ]

Pertaining to the Belgae, who, in Caesar's time, possessed the country between the Rhine, the Seine and the ocean. They were of Teutonic origin, and anterior to Caesar's invasion of Gaul and Britain, colonies of them had established themselves in the southern part of Britain. The country was called from its inhabitants Belgica, not Belgium, which was the town of Beauvais. See Cluv.Germ. Ant.2.2.

Belgic is now applied to the Netherlands, called also Flanders, or that part of the Low Countries which formerly belonged to the house of Austria.

BE'LIAL, noun As a noun, unprofitableness; wickedness. As an adjective, worthless; wicked. In a collective sense, wicked men.

BELI'BEL, verb transitive [be and libel.] To libel or traduce. [Not used.]

BELI'E, verb transitive [be and lie. See Lie.]

1. To give the lie to; to show to be false; to charge with falsehood; as, the heart belies the tongue. It is rarely used of declarations; but of appearances and facts which show that declarations, or certain appearances and pretences are false and hypocritical. Hence.

2. To counterfeit; to mimic; to feign resemblance.

With dust, with horse's hoofs, that beat the ground, ]

And martial brass, belie the thunder's sound.

3. To give a false representation.

Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts.

4. To tell lies concerning; to calumniate by false reports.

Thou dost belie him, Percy.

5. To fill with lies.

Slander doth belie all corners of the world. [Not legitimate]

BELI'ED, pp. Falsely represented either by word or obvious evidence and indication; counterfeited; mimicked.

BELIE'F, noun

1. A persuasion of the truth, or an assent of mind to the truth of a declaration, proposition or alleged fact, on the ground of evidence, distinct from personal knowledge; as the belief of the gospel; belief of a witness. belief may also by founded on internal impressions, or arguments and reasons furnished by our own minds; as the belief of our senses; a train of reasoning may result in belief belief is opposed to knowledge and science.

2. In theology, faith, or a firm persuasion of the truths of religion.

No man can attain [to] belief by the bare contemplation of heaven and earth.

3. Religion; the body of tenets held by the professors of faith.

In the heat of persecution, to which christian belief was subject, upon its first promulgation.

4. In some cases, the word is used for persuasion or opinion, when the evidence is not so clear as to leave no doubt; but the shades of strength in opinion can hardly be defined, or exemplified. Hence the use of qualifying words; as a firm, full or strong belief

5. The thing believed; the object of belief

Superstitious prophecies are the belief of fools.

6. A creed; a form or summary of articles of faith. In this sense, we generally use Creed.

BELIE'VABALE, adjective That may be believed; credible.

BELIE'VE, verb transitive To credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of something upon the declaration of another, or upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by other circumstances, than personal knowledge. When we believe upon the authority of another, we always put confidence in his veracity.

When we believe upon the authority of reasoning, arguments, or a concurrence of facts and circumstances, we rest our conclusions upon their strength or probability, their agreement with our own experience, etc.

2. To expect or hope with confidence; to trust.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalms 27:13.

BELIE'VE, verb intransitive To have a firm persuasion of any thing. In some cases, to have full persuasion, approaching to certainty; in others, more doubt is implied. It is often followed by in or on, especially in the scriptures. To believe in, is to hold as the object of faith. 'Ye believe in God, believe also in me.' John 14:1. To believe on, is to trust, to place full confidence in, to rest upon with faith. 'To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' John 1:7. Johnson. But there is no ground for much distinction.

In theology, to believe sometimes expresses a mere assent of the understanding to the truths of the gospel; as in the case of Simon. Acts 8:37. In others, the word implies, with this assent of the mind, a yielding of the will and affections, accompanied with a humble reliance on Christ for salvation. John 1:12. John 3:15.

In popular use and familiar discourse, to believe often expresses an opinion in a vague manner, without a very exact estimate of evidence, noting a mere preponderance of opinion, and is nearly equivalent to think or suppose.

BELIE'VED, participle passive Credited; assented to, as true.

BELIE'VER, noun One who believes; one who gives credit to other evidence than that of personal knowledge.

1. In theology, one who gives credit to the truth of the scriptures, as a revelation from God. In a more restricted sense, a professor of christianity; one who receives the gospel, as unfolding the true way of salvation, and Christ, as his Savior.

In the primitive church, those who had been instructed in the truths of the gospel and baptized, were called believers; in distinction from the catechumens, who were under instruction , as preparatory to baptism and admission to church privileges.

BELIE'VING, participle present tense Giving credit to testimony or to other evidence than personal knowledge.

BELIE'VINGLY, adverb In a believing manner.

BELI'KE, adverb [be and like.] Probably; likely; perhaps. [Nearly antiquated.]

BELI'KELY, adverb Probably. [Not used.]

BELI'VE, adverb [See Live.] Speedily; quickly.

BELL, noun

1. A vessel or hollow body, used for making sounds. Its constituent parts are a barrel or hollow body, enlarged or expanded at one end, an ear or cannon by which it is hung to a beam, and a clapper on the inside. It is formed of a composition of metals. Bells are of high antiquity. The blue tunic of the Jewish High Priest was adorned with golden bells; and the kings of Persia are said to have the hem of their robe adorned with them in like manner. Among the Greeks, those who went the nightly rounds in camps or garrisons, used to ring a bell at each sentinel-box, to see that the soldier on duty was awake. Bells were also put on the necks of criminals, to warn persons to move out of the way of so ill an omen, as the sight of a criminal or his executioner; also on the necks of beasts and birds, and in houses. In churches and other public buildings, bells are now used to notify the time of meeting of any congregation or other assembly.

In private houses, bells are used to call servants, either hung and moved by a wire, or as hand-bells. Small bells are also used in electrical experiments.

2. A hollow body of metal, perforated, and containing a solid ball, to give sounds when shaken; used on animals, as on horses or hawks.

3. Any thing in form of a bell as the cup or calix of a flower.

To bear the bell is to be the first or leader, in allusion to the bell-wether of a flock, or the leading horse of a team or drove, that wears bells on his collar.

To shake the bells, a phrase of Shakespeare, signifies to move, give notice or alarm.

BELL, verb intransitive To grow in the form of bells, as buds or flowers.

BELL'-FASHIONED, adjective Having the form of a bell

BEL'LADONNA, noun A plant, a species of Atropa, or deadly nightshade.

BEL'LATRIX, noun [Latin] A ruddy, glittering star of the second magnitude, in the left shoulder of Orion; so named from its imagined influence in exciting war.

BELLE, noun bel. [Latin bellus.] A young lady. In popular use, a lady of superior beauty and much admired.

BELL'ED, adjective Hung with bells.

BELLIG'ERENT, adjective [Latin belliger, warlike; belligero, to wage war; from bellum, war, and gero, to wage; part. gerens, gerentis, waging. Gr. war.]

Waging war; carrying on war; as a belligerent nation.

BELLIG'ERENT, noun A nation, power or state carrying on war.

BELLIG'EROUS, adjective The same as belligerent. [Not used.]

BELL'ING, noun The noise of a roe in rutting time; a huntsman's term.

1. Growing or forming like a bell; growing full and ripe; used of hops; from bell.

BELLIP'OTENT, adjective [Latin bellum, war, and potens, powerful, bellipotens.]

Powerful or mighty in war. [Little used.]

BELLIQUE, adjective bellee'k. War-like. [Not used.]

BELL'LIBONE, noun A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness. [Not in use.]

BEL'LON, noun A disease, attended with languor and intolerable griping of the bowels, common in places where lead ore is smelted.

BELLO'NA, noun [from Latin bellum, war.] The goddess of war.

BEL'LOW, verb intransitive [Latin balo.]

1. To make a hollow, loud noise, as a bull; to make a loud outcry; to roar. In contempt, to vociferate or clamor.

2. To roar, as the sea in a tempest, or as the wind when violent; to make a loud, hollow, continued sound.

BEL'LOW, noun A loud outcry; roar.

BEL'LOWING, participle present tense Making a loud hollow sound, as a bull, or as the roaring of billows.

BEL'LOWING, noun A loud hollow sound or roar.

BEL'LOWS, noun sing.and plural [Latin bulga] An instrument, utensil or machine for blowing fire, either in private dwellings or in forges, furnaces and shops. It is so formed as by being dilated and contracted, to inhale air by a lateral orifice which is opened and closed with a valve, and to propel it through a tube upon the fire.

BEL'LUINE, adjective [Latin belluinus, brom bellua, a beast.] Beastly; pertaining to or like a beast; brutal. [Little used.]

BEL'LY, noun

1. That part of the human body which extends from the breast to the thighs, containing the bowels. It is called also the abdomen or lower belly to distinguish it from the head and breast, which are sometimes called bellies, from their cavity.

2. The part of a beast, corresponding to the human belly

3. The womb. Jeremiah 1:5.

4. The receptacle of food; that which requires food, in opposition to the back.

Whose god is their belly Philippians 3:19.

5. The part of any thing which resembles the human belly in protuberance or cavity, as of a harp or a bottle.

6. Any hollow inclosed place; as the belly of hell, in Jonah.

7. In scripture, belly is used for the heart. Proverbs 18:8. 20.30.John 7:38. Carnal lusts, sensual pleasure. Romans 16:18. Philippians 3:19:19. The whole man. Titus 1:12.

BEL'LY, verb transitive To fill; to swell out.

BEL'LY, verb intransitive To swell and become protuberant, like the belly; as bellying goblets; bellying canvas.

1. To strut.

BEL'LYFUL, noun [belly and full.] As much as fills the belly, or satisfies the appetite. In familiar and ludicrous language, a great abundance; more than enough.

BEL'LYING, participle present tense Enlarging capacity; swelling out, like the belly.

BELOCK', verb transitive To lock or fasten as with a lock.

BEL'OMANCY, noun [Gr.an arrow, and divination.]

A kind of divination, practiced by the ancient Scythians, Babylonians, and other nations, and by the Arabians. A number of arrows, being marked, were put into a bag or quiver, and drawn out at random; and the marks or words on the arrow drawn determined what was to happen. See Ezekiel 21:21.

BELO'NE, noun [Gr. a needle.] The gar, garfish, or sea-needle, a species of Esox. It grows to the length of two or three feet, with long pointed jaws, the edges of which are armed with small teeth.

BELONG', verb intransitive

1. To be the property of; as, a field belongs to Richard Roe; Jamaica belongs to G.Britain.

2. To be the concern or proper business of; to appertain; as, it belongs to John Doe to prove his title.

3. To be appendant to.

He went into a desert place belonging to Bethsaida. Luke 9:1.

4. To be a part of, or connected with, though detached in place; as, a beam or rafter belongs to such a frame, or to such a place in the building.

5. To have relation to.

And David said, to whom belongest thou? 1.Sam.30.

6. To be the quality or attribute of.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. Daniel 9:9.

7. To be suitable for.

Strong meat belongeth to them of full age. Hebrews 5:14.

8. To relate to, or be referred to.

He careth for things that belong to the Lord. l Cor.7.

9. To have a legal residence, settlement, or inhabitancy, whether by birth or operation of law, so as to be entitled to maintenance by the parish or town.

Bastards also are settled in the parishes to which the mothers belong Hence,

10. To be the native of; to have original residence.

There is no other country in the world to which the Gipeys could belong

11. In common language, to have a settled residence; to be domiciliated.

BELONG'ING, participle present tense Pertaining; appertaining; being the property of; being a quality of; being the concern of; being appendant to; being a native of, or having a legal or permanent settlement in.

BELONG'ING, noun A quality. [Not in use..]

BELOV'ED, participle present tense [be and loved, from love. Belove, as a verb, is not used.]

Loved; greatly loved; dear to the heart.

BELOW, preposition [be and low] Under in place; beneath; not so high; as, below the moon; below the knee.

1. Inferior in rank, excellence or dignity.

2. Unworthy of; unbefitting.

BELOW, adverb In a lower place, with respect to any object; as, the heavens above and the earth below

1. On the earth, as opposed to the heavens.

The fairest child of Jove below

2. In hell, or the region of the dead; as the realms below

3. In a court of inferior jurisdiction; as, at the trial below

BELOWT', verb transitive [See Lowt.] To treat with contemptuous language. [Not in use.]

BEL'SWAGGER, noun A lewd man.

BELT, noun [Latin balteus.]

1. A girdle; a band, usually of leather, in which a sword or other weapon is hung.

2. A narrow passage, or strait between the isle of Zealand and that of Funen at the entrance of the Baltic, usually called the Great belt The Lesser belt is the passage between the isle of Funen, and the coast of Jutland.

3. A bandage or band used by surgeons for various purposes.

4. In astronomy, certain girdles or rings, which surround the planet Jupiter, are called belts.

5. A disease among sheep, cured by cutting off the tail, laying the sore bare, then casting mold on it, and applying tar and goose grease.

BELT, verb transitive To encircle.

BELU'GA, noun A fish of the cetaceous order, and genus Delphinus, from 12 to 18 feet in length. The tail is divided into two lobes, lying horizontally, and there is no dorsal fin. In swimming, this fish bends its tail under its body like a lobster, and thrusts itself along with the rapidity of an arrow. This fish is found in the arctic seas and rivers, and is caught for its oil and its skin.

BEL'VIDERE, noun [Latin bellus, fine and video, to see.]

1. A plant, a species of chenopodium, goosefoot or wild orach, called scoparia or annual mock cypress. It is of a beautiful pyramidical form, and much esteemed in China, as a salad, and for other uses.

2. In Italian architecture, a pavilion on the top of an edifice; an artificial eminence in a garden.

BELYE. [See Belie.]

BE'MA, noun A chancel. [Not in use.]

1. In ancient Greece, a state or kind of pulpit, on which speakers stood when addressing an assembly.

BEMAD'verb intransitive [be and mad.] to make mad. [Not in use.]

BEMAN'GLE, verb transitive [be and mangle.] To mangle; to tear asunder. [Little used.]

BEM'ASK, verb transitive [be and mask.] To mask; to conceal.

BEMA'ZE, verb transitive To bewilder. [See Maze.] [Little used.]

BEME'TE, verb transitive [be and mete.] To measure. [Not in use.]

BEMIN'GLE, verb transitive [be and mingle.] To mingle; to mix. [Little used.]

BEMI'RE, verb transitive [be and mire.] To drag or incumber in the mire; to soil by passing through mud or dirty places.

BEMIST', verb transitive [be and mist.] To cover or involve in mist. [Not used.]

BEMOAN, verb transitive [be and moan.] To lament; to bewail; to express sorrow for; as, to bemoan the loss of a son.

BEMOANABLE, adjective That may be lamented. [Not used.]

BEMOANED, participle passive Lamented; bewailed.

BEMOANER, noun One who laments.

BEMOANING, participle present tense Lamenting; bewailing.

BEMOCK', verb transitive [be and mock.] To treat with mockery. [Little used.]

BEMOCK', verb intransitive To laugh at.

BEMOIL', verb transitive [be and moil.] To bedraggle; to bemire; to soil or incumber with mire and dirt. [Not in use.]

BEMOL, noun In music, a half note.

BEMON'STER, verb transitive [be and monster.] To make monstrous. [Not in use.]

BEMOURN, verb transitive To weep or mourn over. [Little used.]

BEMU'SED, adjective [be and muse.] Overcome with musing; dreaming; a word of contempt.

BEN or BEN'-NUT, noun A purgative fruit or nut, the largest of which resembles a filbert, yielding an oil used in pharmacy.

BENCH, noun

1. A long seat, usually of board or plank, differing from a stool in its greater length.

2. The seat where judges sit in court; the seat of justice. Hence,

3. The persons who sit as judges; the court.

Free bench in England, the estate in copy hold lands, which the wife, being espoused a virgin, has for her dower, after the decease of her husband. This is various in different manors, according to their respective customs.

King's bench in England, a court in which the king formerly sat in person, and which accompanied his household. The court consists of the Lord Chief Justice, and three other justices, who have jurisdiction over all matters of a criminal or public nature. It has a crown side and a plea side; the former determining criminal, the latter, civil causes.

BENCH, verb transitive To furnish with benches.

1. To seat on a bench

2. verb intransitive To sit on a seat of justice.

BENCH'ER, noun In England, the benchers in the inns of court, are the senior members of the society who have the government of it. They have been readers, and being admitted to please within the bar, are called inner barristers. They annually elect a treasurer.

1. The alderman of a corporation.

2. A judge.

BEND, [Latin pando, pandare, to bend in; pando, pandere, to open; pandus, bent, crooked]

1. To strain, or to crook by straining; as, to bend a bow.

2. To crook; to make crooked; to curve; to inflect; as, to bend the arm.

3. To direct to a certain point; as, to bend our steps or course to a particular place.

4. To exert; to apply closely; to exercise laboriously; to intend or stretch; as, to bend the mind to study.

5. To prepare or put in order for use; to stretch or strain.

He hath bent his bow and made it ready. Psalms 7:1.

6. To incline; to be determined; that is, to stretch towards, or cause to tend; as, to be bent on mischief.

7. To subdue; to cause to yield; to make submissive; as, to bend a man to our will.

8. In seamanship, to fasten, as one rope to another or to an anchor; to fasten, as a sail to its yard or stay; to fasten, as a cable to the ring of an anchor.

9. To bend the brow, is to knit the brow; to scowl; to frown.

BEND, verb intransitive To be crooked; to crook, or be curving.

1. To incline; to lean or turn; as, a road bends to the west.

2. To jut over; as a bending cliff.

3. To resolve, or determine.[See Bent on.]

4. To bow or be submissive. Isaiah 60:1.

BEND, noun A curve; a crook; a turn in a road or river; flexure; incurvation.

1. In marine language, that part of a rope which is fastened to another or to an anchor. [See To bend No.8.]

2. Bends of a ship, are the thickest and strongest planks in her sides, more generally called wales. They are reckoned from the water, first, second or third bend They have the beams, knees, and foot hooks bolted to them, and are the chief strength of the ship's sides.

3. In heraldry, one of the nine honorable ordinaries, containing a third part of the field, when charged, and a fifth, when plain. It is made by two lines drawn across from the dexter chief, to the sinister base point. It sometimes is indented, ingrained, etc.

BEND, noun A band. [Not in use.]

BEND'ABLE, adjective That may be bent or incurvated.

BEND'ED

BEND'ER, noun The person who bends, or makes crooked; also, an instrument for bending other things.

BEND'ER, n. The person who bends, or makes crooked; also, an instrument for bending other things.

BEND'ING, participle present tense Incurvating; forming into a curve; stooping subduing; turning as a road or river; inclining; leaning; applying closely, as the mind; fastening.

BEND'LET, noun In heraldry, a little bend, which occupies a sixth part of a shield.

BEND'-WITH, noun A plant.

BEND'Y, noun In heraldry, the field divided into four, six or more parts, diagonally, and varying in metal and color.

BENE, noun ben'y. The popular name of the sesamum orientale, called in the West Indies vangloe, an African plant.

BENE'APED, adjective [be and neap.] Among seamen, a ship is beneaped when the water does not flow high enough to float her from a dock or over a bar.

BENE'ATH, preposition

1. Under; lower in place, with something directly over or on, as to place a cushion beneath one; often with the sense of pressure or oppression, as to sink beneath a burden, in a literal sense.

2. Under, in a figurative sense; bearing heavy impositions, as taxes, or oppressive government.

Our country sinks beneath the yoke.

3. Lower in rank, dignity or excellence; as, brutes are beneath man; ; man is beneath angels, in the seale of beings.

4. Unworthy of; unbecoming; not equal to; as, he will do nothing beneath his station or character.

BENE'ATH, adverb In a lower place; as, the earth from beneath will be barren.

1. Below, as opposed to heaven, or to any superior region; as, in heaven above, or in earth beneath

BEN'EDICT, adjective [Latin benedictus.] Having mild and salubrious qualities. [ Not in use.]

BENEDIC'TINE, adjective Pertaining to the order or monks of St. Benedict, or St. Benet.

BENEDIC'TINES, noun An order of monks, who profess to follow the rules of St. Benedict; an order of great celebrity. They wear a loose black gown, with large wide sleeves, and a cowl on the head, ending in a point. In the canon law, they are called black

friars.

BENEDIC'TION, noun [Latin benedictio, from bene, well, and dictio, speaking. See Boon and Diction.]

1. The act of blessing; a giving praise to God or rendering thanks for his favors; a blessing pronounced; hence grace before and after meals.

2. Blessing, prayer, or kind wishes, uttered in favor of any person or thing; a solemn or affectionate invocation of happiness; thanks; expression of gratitude.

3. The advantage conferred by blessing.

4. The form of instituting an abbot, answering to the consecration of a bishop.

5. The external ceremony performed by a priest in the office of matrimony is called the nuptial benediction

6. In the Romish Church, an ecclesiastical ceremony by which a thing is rendered sacred or venerable.

BENEFAC'TION, noun [Latin benefacio, of bene, well, and facio, to make or do.]

1. The act of conferring a benefit.

More generally,

2. A benefit conferred, especially a charitable donation.

BENEFAC'TOR, noun He who confers a benefit, especially one who makes charitable contributions either for public institutions or for private use.

BENEFAC'TRESS, noun A female who confers a benefit.

BEN'EFICE, noun [Latin beneficium.]

1. Literally, a benefit, advantage or kindness. But in present usage, en ecclesiastical living; a church endowed with a revenue, for the maintenance of divine service, or the revenue itself. All church preferments are called benefices, except bishoprics, which are called dignities. But ordinarily, the term dignity is applied to bishoprics, deaneries, arch-deaconries, and prebendaries; and benefice to parsonages, vicarages, and donatives.

2. In the middle ages, benefice was used for a fee, or an estate in lands, granted at first for like only, and held ex mero beneficio of the donor. The estate afterwards becoming hereditary, took the appellation of feud, and benefice became appropriated to church livings.

BEN'EFICED, adjective Possessed of a benefice or church preferment.

BEN'EFICELESS, adjective Having no benefice. [Not used.]

BENEF'ICENCE, noun [Latin beneficentia, from the participle of benefacio.] The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity.

BENEF'ICENT, adjective Doing good; performing acts of kindness and charity. It differs from benign, as the act from the disposition; beneficence being benignity or kindness exerted in action.

BENEF'ICENTLY, adverb In a beneficent manner.

BENEFI'CIAL, adjective Advantageous; conferring benefits; useful; profitable; helpful; contributing to a valuable end; followed by to; as, industry is beneficial to the body, as well as to the property.

1. Receiving or entitled to have or receive advantage, use or benefit; as the beneficial owner of an estate.

BENEFI'CIALLY, adverb Advantageously; profitably; helpfully.

BENEFI'CIALNESS, noun Usefulness; profitableness.

BENEFI'CIARY, adjective [Latin beneficiarius. See Benefaction.]

Holding some office or valuable possession, in subordination to another; having a dependent and secondary possession.

BENEFI'CIARY, noun One who holds a benefice. A beneficiary is not the proprietor of the revenues of his church; but he has the administration of them, without being accountable to any person. The word was used, in the middle ages, for a feudatory, or vassal.

1. One who receives any thing as a gift, or is maintained by charity.

BENEFI'CIENCY, noun Kindness or favor bestowed.

BENEFI'CIENT, adjective Doing good.

BEN'EFIT, noun [Primarily from Latin beneficium, or benefactum.]

1. An act of kindness; a favor conferred.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalms 103:2.

2. Advantage; profit; a word of extensive use, and expressing whatever contributes to promote prosperity and personal happiness, or add value to property.

Men have no right to what is not for their benefit

3. In law, benefit of clergy. [See Clergy.]

BEN'EFIT, verb transitive To do good to; to advantage; to advance in health, or prosperity; applied either to persons or things; as, exercise benefits health; trade benefits a nation.

BEN'EFIT, verb intransitive To gain advantage; to make improvement; as, he has benefited by good advice; that is, he has been benefited.

BEN'EFITED, participle passive Profited; having received benefit.

BEN'EFITING, participle present tense Doing good to; profiting; gaining advantage.

BENE'ME, verb transitive To name. [Not in use.]

1. To promise; to give. [Not in use.]

BENEMP'NE, verb transitive To name. [Not in use.]

BENEPLAC'ITURE, noun [Latin beneplacitum, bene, well, and placitum, from placeo, to please.]

Will; choice. [Not in use.]

BENET', verb transitive [be and net.] To catch in a net; to ensnare. [Not used.]

BENEV'OLENCE, noun [Latin benevolentia, of bene, well and volo, to will or wish. See Will.]

1. The disposition to do good; good will; kindness; charitableness; the love, of mankind, accompanied with a desire to promote their happiness.

The benevolence of God is one of his moral attributes; that attribute which delights in the happiness of intelligent beings. 'God is love.' 1 John 4:1.

2. An act of kindness; good done; charity given.

3. A species of contribution or tax illegally exacted by arbitrary kings of England.

BENEV'OLENT, adjective [Latin benevolens, of bene and volo.]

Having a disposition to do good; possessing love to mankind, and a desire to promote their prosperity and happiness; kind.

BENEV'OLENTLY, adverb In a kind manner; with good will.

BENGAL', noun A thin stuff made of silk and hair, for women's apparel, so called from bengal in the E.Indies.

BENGALEE', noun The language or dialect spoken in Bengal.

BENGALE'SE, noun sing. and plural A native or the natives of Bengal. As.Res.7.171.

BENI'GHT, verb transitive [be and night.] To involve in darkness; to shroud with the shades of night.

The clouds benight the sky.

1. To overtake with night; as a benighted traveler.

2. To involve in moral darkness, or ignorance; to debar from intellectual light; as benighted nations, or heathen.

BENI'GHTED, participle passive Involved in darkness, physical or moral; overtaken by the night.

BENI'GN, adjective beni'ne. [Latin benignus, from the same root, as bonus, bene, ancient Latin benus, Eng. boon.]

1. Kind; of a kind disposition; gracious; favorable.

Our Creator, bounteous and benign

2. Generous; liberal; as a benign benefactor.

3. Favorable; having a salutary influence; as the benign aspect of the seasons.

The benign light of revelation.

4. Wholesome; not pernicious; as a benign medicine.

5. Favorable; not malignant; as a benign disease.

BENIG'NANT, adjective Kind; gracious; favorable.

BENIG'NITY, noun Goodness of disposition or heart; kindness of nature; graciousness.

1. Actual goodness; beneficence.

2. Salubrity; wholesome quality; or that which tends to promote health.

BENI'GNLY, adverb beni'nely. Favorably; ; kindly; graciously.

BEN'ISON, noun s as z. Blessing; benediction. [Nearly antiquated.]

BEN'JAMIN, noun A tree, the Laurus Benzoin, a native of America, called also spicebush. It grows to the height of 15 or 20 feet, with a very branchy head.

1. A gum or resin, or rather a balsam. [See Benzoin.]

BEN'NET, noun The herb bennet or avens, known in botany by the generic term Geum.

BEN'NET FISH, noun A fish of two feet in length, caught in the African seas, having scales of a deep purple, streaked with gold.

BENT, participle passive of bend. Incurvated; inflected; inclined; prone to or having a fixed propensity; determined.

Bent on, having a fixed inclination; resolved or determined on.

BENT, noun The state of being curving, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity.

1. Declivity; as the bent of a hill. [Unusual.]

2. Inclination; disposition; a leaning or bias of mind; propensity; as the bent of the mind or will; the bent of a people towards an object. This may be natural or artificial, occasional or habitual, with indefinite degrees of strength.

3. Flexion; tendency; particular direction; as the bents and turns of a subject.

4. Application of the mind; a bending of the mind in study or investigation.

BENT

BENT'-GRASS, noun A kind of grass, called in botany, Agrostis, of several species.

BENT, participle passive Strained; incurvated; made crooked; inclined; subdued.

BENUM', corruptly BENUMB', verb transitive

1. To make torpid; to deprive of sensation; as, a hand or foot benummed by cold.

2. To stupify; to render inactive; as, to benum the senses.

BENUM'MED, participle passive Rendered torpid; deprived of sensation; stupified.

BENUM'MING, participle present tense Depriving of sensation; stupifying.

BEN'ZOATE, noun [See Benzoin.] A salt formed by the union of the benzoic acid with any salifiable base.

BENZO'IC, adjective Pertaining to benzoin.

Benzoic acid, or flowers of Benzoin, is a peculiar vegetable acid, obtained from Benzoin and other balsams, by sublimation or decoction. It is a fine light white matter in small needles; its taste pungent and bitterish, its odor slightly aromatic.

BENZOIN'

BEN'JAMIN, noun Gum benjamin; a concrete resinous juice flowing from the Styrax benzoin a tree of Sumatra, etc. It is properly a balsam, as it yields benzoic acid. It flows from incisions made in the stem or branches. It is solid and brittle, sometimes in yellowish white tears joined together by a brown substance, and sometimes of a uniform brown substance like resin. It has little taste, but its smell, especially when rubbed or heated, is extremely fragrant and agreeable. It is chiefly used in cosmetics and perfumes.

BEPA'INT, verb transitive [be and paint.] To paint; to cover with paint. [Little used.]

BEPA'LE, verb transitive [be and pale.] To make pale. [Not in use.]

BEPINCH', verb transitive [be and pinch.] To mark with pinches.

BEPINCH'ED

BEPINCHT' , participle passive Marked with pinches.

BEPOW'DER, verb transitive [be and powder.] To powder; to sprinkle or cover with powder.

BEPRA'ISE, verb transitive [be and praise.] To praise greatly or extravagantly.

BEPUR'PLE, verb transitive [be and purple.] To tinge or dye with a purple color.

BEQUE'ATH, verb transitive [Eng.quoth.] To give or leave by will; to devise some species of property by testament; as, to bequeath an estate or a legacy.

BEQUE'ATHED, participle passive Given or left by will.

BEQUE'ATHING, participle present tense Giving or devising by testament.

BEQUE'ATHMENT, noun The act of bequeathing; a bequest.

BEQUEST', noun Something left by will; a legacy.

BERA'IN, verb transitive To rain upon. [Not in use.]

BERA'TE, verb transitive [be and rate.] To chide vehemently; to scold.

BERAT'TLE, verb transitive [be and rattle.] To fill with rattling sounds or noise.

BERA'Y, verb transitive To make foul; to soil. [Not in use.]

BER'BERRY, noun [Latin berberis.] [See Barberry.]

BERE, noun The name of a species of barley in Scotland.

BERE'AVE, verb transitive preterit tense bereaved, bereft: participle passive bereaved, bereft.

1. To deprive; to strip; to make destitute; with of before the thing taken away.

Me have ye bereaved of my children. Genesis 42:36.

It is sometimes used without of, and is particularly applied to express the loss of friends by death.

2. To take away from.

BERE'AVED, participle passive Deprived; stripped and left destitute.

BERE'AVEMENT, noun Deprivation, particularly by the loss of a friend by death.

BERE'AVING, participle present tense Stripping bare; depriving.

BEREFT', participle passive of bereave. Deprived; made destitute.

BERENGA'RIANISM, noun The opinions or doctrines of Berengarius, archdeacon of St.Mary at Anjou, and of his followers, who deny the reality of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

BERG, noun A borough; a town that sends burgesses to Parliament; a castle. [See Burg.]

BERG'AMOT, noun

1. A species of pear.

2. A species of citron, at first casually produced by an Italian, who grafted a citron on the stock of a bergamot pear tree. The fruit has a fine taste and smell, and its essential oil is in high esteem as a perfume. This oil is extracted from

the yellow rind of the fruit. Hence,

3. An essence or perfume from the citron thus produced.

4. A species of snuff perfumed with bergamot

5. A coarse tapestry, manufactured with flocks of wool, silk, cotton, hemp and ox or goat's hair, said to have been invented at Bergamo in Italy.

BERG'ANDER, noun [berg, a cliff] A burrow duck; a duck that breeds in holes under cliffs.

BER'GERET, noun A song. [Not used.]

BERG'MANITE, noun [from Bergman, the mineralogist.]

A mineral classed with scapolite, in the family of felspath. It occurs massive, with gray and red quartz in Norway. Its colors are greenish and grayish white.

BERG'MASTER, noun The bailiff or chief officer among the Derbyshire miners.

BERG'MOTE, noun A court held on a hill in Derbyshire, in England, for deciding controversies between the miners.

BERHY'ME, verb transitive [be and rhyme.] To mention in rhyme or verse; used in contempt.

BER'LIN, noun A vehicle of the chariot kind, supposed to have this name from berlin the chief city of Prussia, where it was first made, or from the Italian berlina, a sort of state or pillory, and a coach.

BERLUC'CIO, noun A small bird, somewhat like the yellow hammer, but less and more slender.

BERME, noun In fortification, a space of ground of three, four or five feet in width, left between the rampart and the moat or foss, designed to receive the ruins of the rampart, and prevent the earth from filling the foss. Sometimes, it is palisaded, and in Holland, it is generally planted with quick-set hedge.

BER'NACLE, [See Barnacle.]

BER'NARDINE, adjective Pertaining to St. Bernard, and the monks of the order.

BER'NARDINS, noun An order of monks, founded by Robert, abbot of Moleme, and reformed by St. Bernard. The order originated about the beginning of the 12th century. They wear a white robe, with a black scapulary; and when they officiate, they are clothed with a large white gown, with great sleeves, and a hood of the same color.

BEROB', verb transitive [be and rob.] To rob. [Not in use.]

BER'OE, noun A marine animal of an oval or spherical form, nearly an inch in diameter, and divided into longitudinal ribs, like a melon.

BER'RIED, adjective Furnished with berries.

BER'RY, noun

1. A succulent or pulpy fruit, containing naked seeds. Or in more technical language, a succulent pulpy pericarp, or seed vessel, without valves, containing several seeds, which are naked, that is, which have no covering but the pulp and rind. It is commonly round or oval. This botanical definition includes the orange and other like fruits. But in popular language, berry extends only to the smaller fruits, as strawberry, gooseberry, etc., containing seeds or granules.

2. A mound. [for barrow.]

BER'RY, verb intransitive To bear or produce berries.

BERT [Eng.bright.] [See bright.]

BERTH, noun [from the root of bear.]

1. A station in which a ship rides at anchor, comprehending the space in which she ranges. In more familiar usage, the word signifies any situation or place, where a vessel lies or can lie, whether at anchor or at a wharf.

2. A room or apartment in a ship, where a number of officers or men mess and reside.

3. The box or place for sleeping at the sides of a cabin; the place for a hammoc, or a repository for chests, etc.

To berth in seamen's language, is to allot to each man a place for his hammoc.

BER'TRAM, noun [Latin pyrethrum, said to be from fire, from its acrid quality.]

Bastard pellitory, a plant.

BER'YL, noun [Latin beryllus; Eng.brilliant.]

A mineral, considered by Cleaveland as a subspecies of Emerald. Its prevailing color is green of various shades, but always pale. Its crystals are usually longer and larger than those of the precious emerald, and its structure more distinctly foliated. It is harder than the apatite, with which it has been confounded; harder and less heavy than the pycnite. The best beryls are found in Brazil, in Siberia and Ceylon, and in Dauria, on the frontiers of China. They are found in many parts of the United States.

BER'YLLINE, adjective Like a beryl; of a light or bluish green.

BESA'INT, verb transitive [be and saint.] To make a saint. [Not in use.]

BESA'YLE, noun A great grandfather.

If the abatement happened on the death of one's grandfather or grandmother, a writ of ayle lieth; if on the death of the great grandfather, then a writ of besayle; but if it mounts one degree higher, to the tresayle, or grandfather's grandfather, etc., the writ is called a writ of cosinage, or de consanguineo.

BESCAT'TER, verb transitive [be and scatter.] To scatter over. [Not used.]

BESCORN', verb transitive [be and scorn.] To treat with scorn; to mock at. [Not used.]

BESCRATCH', verb transitive [be and scratch.] To scratch; to tear with the nails. [Not in use.]

BESCRAWL', verb transitive [be and scrawl.] To scrawl; to scribble over.

BESCREE'N, verb transitive [be and screen.] To cover with a screen; to shelter; to conceal.

BESCREE'NED, participle passive Covered; sheltered; concealed.

BESCRIB'BLE, verb transitive To scribble over.

BESCUM'BER, verb transitive [from cumber.] To encumber. [Not legitimate nor used.]

BESEE', verb intransitive [be and see.] To look; to mind. [Not in use.]

BESEE'CH, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive besought.

To entreat; to supplicate; to implore; to ask or pray with urgency; followed by a person; as, 'I Paul beseech you by the meekness of Christ, ', 2 Corinthians 10:1; or by a thing; as, I beseech your patience.

BESEE'CHER, noun One who beseeches.

BESEE'CHING, participle present tense Entreating.

BESEE'K, verb transitive to beseech. [Not used.]

BESEE'M, verb transitive [be and seem.] To become; to be fit for, or worthy of; to be decent for.

What form of speech or behavior beseemeth us, in our prayers to god?

BESEE'MING, participle present tense or adjective Becoming; fit; worthy of.

BESEE'MING, noun Comeliness.

BESEE'MLY, adjective Becoming; fit; suitable.

BESEE'N, adjective Adapted; adjusted. [Not used.]

BESET', verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive beset

1. To surround; to inclose; to hem in; to besiege; as, we are beset with enemies; a city is beset with troops. Hence,

2. To press on all sides, so as to perplex; to entangle, so as to render escape difficult or impossible.

Adam sore beset replied.

3. To waylay.

4. To fall upon.

BESET'TING, participle present tense Surrounding; besieging; waylaying.

BESET'TING, adjective Habitually attending, or pressing; as a besetting sin.

BESHI'NE, verb transitive To shine upon. [Not used.]

BESHREW', verb transitive [be and shrew.] To wish a curse to; to execrate.

1. To happen ill to. [Not in use.]

BESHUT', verb transitive To shut up. [Not used.]

BESI'DE, preposition [be and side, by the side.]

1. At the side of a person or thing; near; as, sit down beside me, or beside the stream.

2. Over and above; distinct from.

Beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed. Luke 16:26.

3. On one side; out of the regular course or order; not according to, but not contrary.

It is beside my present business to enlarge upon this speculation.

4. Out of; in a state deviating from; as, to put one beside his patience. Hence,

5. With the reciprocal pronoun, beside one's self is out of the wits or senses; out of the order of reason, or of rational beings.

Paul, thou are beside thyself. Acts 26:24.

BESID'ERY, noun A species of pear.

BESI'DES, preposition Over and above; separate or distinct from.

And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine. Genesis 26:1.

Note. This word, though radically the same as beside, and a corruption of it, ought not to be confounded with it, for it is never used in the senses explained under beside, except in the second.

BESI'DE

BESI'DES, adverb Moreover; more than that; over and above; distinct from; not included in the number, or in what has been mentioned.

Besides, you know not what is the fate of your friend.

The men said to Lot, hast thou here any besides:Ben.19.

To all beside, as much an empty shade.

An Eugene living, as a Caesar dead.

These sentences may be considered as elliptical.

BESIE'GE, verb transitive [be and siege.]

1. To lay siege to; to beleaguer; to beset, or surround with armed forces, for the purpose of compelling to surrender, either by famine or by violent attacks; as, to besiege a castle or city.

2. To beset; to throng round.

BESIE'GED, participle passive Surrounded or beset with hostile troops.

BESIE'GER, noun One who lays siege, or is employed in a siege.

BESIE'GING, , participle present tense Laying siege; surrounding with armed forces.

BESIE'GING, adjective Surrounding in a hostile manner; employed in a siege; as a besieging army.

BESIT', verb transitive [be and sit.] To suit; to become. [Not used.]

BESLA'VE, verb transitive To subjugate; to enslave. [Not used.]

BESLI'ME, verb transitive To daub with slime; ; to soil. [Not used.]

BESLUB'BER, verb transitive [be and slubber, slabber.] To soil or smear with spittle, or any thing running from the mouth or nose. [Vulgar.]

BESME'AR, verb transitive [be and smear.] To bedaub; to overspread with any viscous, glutinous matter, or with any soft substance that adheres. Hence, to foul; to soil.

BESME'ARED, participle passive Bedaubed; overspread with any thing soft, viscous, or adhesive; soiled.

BESME'ARER, noun One that besmears.

BESME'ARING, participle present tense Bedaubing; soiling.

BESMIRCH', verb transitive [be and smirch.] To soil; to foul; to discolor. [Little used.]

BESMO'KE, verb transitive [be and smoke.] To foul with smoke; to harden or dry in smoke. [Little used.]

BESMO'KED, participle passive Fouled or soiled with smoke; dried in smoke.

BESMUT', verb transitive [be and smut.] To blacken with smut; to foul with soot.

BESMUT'TED, participle passive Blackened with smut or soot.

BESNOW, verb transitive [be and snow.] To scatter like snow. [Little used.]

BESNOWED, adjective or participle passive [be and snow.] Covered or sprinkled with snow, or with white blossoms.

BESNUFF', verb transitive To befoul with snuff.

BESNUFF'ED, participle passive Foul with snuff.

BE'SOM, noun s as z. A broom; a brush of twigs for sweeping.

I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah 14:23.

BE'SOM, verb transitive To sweep, as with a besom

Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain.

BESORT', verb transitive [be and sort.] To suit; to fit; to become.

BESORT', noun Company; attendance; train.

BESOT'TED, participle passive Made sottish or stupid. besotted on, infatuated with foolish affection.

BESOT'TEDLY, adverb In a foolish manner.

BESOT'TEDNESS, noun Stupidity; arrant folly; infatuation.

BESOT'TING, participle present tense Infatuating; making sottish or foolish.

BESOUGHT', besaut'. participle passive of beseech. Entreated; implored; sought by entreaty.

BESPAN'GLE, verb transitive [be and spangle.] To adorn with spangles; to dot or sprinkle with something brilliant; as, the heavens bespangled with stars.

BESPAN'GLED, participle passive Adorned with spangles or something shining.

BESPAN'GLING, participle present tense Adorning with spangles or glittering objects.

BESPAT'TER, verb transitive [be and spatter.] To soil by spattering; to sprinkle with water, or with dirt and water.

1. To asperse with calumny or reproach.

BESPAT'TERED, participle passive Spattered over; soiled with dirt and water; aspersed; calumniated.

BESPAT'TERING, participle present tense Spattering with water; soiling with dirt and water; aspersing.

BESPAWL', verb transitive [be and spawl.] To soil or make foul with spittle.

BESPEA'AK, verb transitive preterit tense bespoke; participle passive bespoke, bespoken. [be and speak.]

1. To speak for beforehand; to order or engage against a future time; as, to bespeak a seat in a public coach.

My lade is bespoke.

2. To forebode; to foretell.

They started fears, and bespoke dangers, to scare the allies.

3. To speak to; to address. This sense is mostly poetical.

He thus the queen bespoke.

4. To betoken; to show; to indicate by external marks or appearances; as, his manners bespeak him a gentleman.

BESPE'AKER, noun One who bespeaks.

BESPE'AKING, participle present tense Speaking for or ordering beforehand; foreboding; addressing; showing; indicating.

BESPE'AKING, noun A previous speaking or discourse, by way of apology, or to engage favor.

BESPECK'LE, verb transitive [be and speckle.] To mark with speckles or spots.

BESPI'CE, verb transitive [be and spice.] To season with spices.

BESPIRIT'

BESPIT', verb transitive preterit tense bespit; participle passive bespit, bespitten. [be and spit.] To daub or soil with spittle.

BESPIT', v.t. pret. bespit; pp. bespit, bespitten. [be and spit.] To daub or soil with spittle.

BESPO'KE, preterit tense and participle passive of bespeak.

BESPOT', verb transitive [be and spot.] To mark with spots.

BESPOT'TED, participle passive Marked with spots.

BESPOT'TING, participle present tense Marking with spots.

BESPREAD', verb transitive bespred'. preterit tense and participle passive bespread [be and spread.] To spread over; to cover over; as, to bespread with flowers.

BESPRINGK'LE, verb transitive [be and sprinkle.] To sprinkle over; to scatter over; as, to besprinkle with dust.

BESPRINK'LED, participle passive Sprinkled over.

BESPRINK'LER, noun One that sprinkles over.

BESPRINK'LING, participle present tense Sprinkling over.

BESPURT', verb transitive To spurt out, or over; to throw out in a stream or streams. [Not used.]

BEST, adjective superlative. [Eng.but; ] Literally, most advanced, Hence,

1. Most good; having good qualities in the highest degree; applied indifferently to physical or moral subjects; as, the best man; the best road; the best cloth; the best abilities. This, like most, and other attributes, is often used without its noun, when the noun is obvious; as, men are all sinners; the best of them fail in the performance of duty.

2. Most advanced; most accurate; as the best scholar.

3. Most correct or complete; as the best view of a landscape, or of a subject.

4. The best This phrase is elliptical, and may be variously interpreted; as, the utmost power; the strongest endeavor; the most, the highest perfection; as, let a man do his best; let him do a thing to the best of his power.

5. At best in the best manner, in the utmost degree or extent, applicable to the case; as, life is at best very short.

To make the best of, to carry to its greatest perfection; to improve to the utmost; as, to make the best of a sum of money, or a piece of land. Also, to permit the least possible inconvenience; as, to make the best of ill fortune or a bad bargain.

The best of the way. We had made the best of our way to the city; that is, the most, the greatest part of the distance. [This is the primary sense of the word.]

BEST, adverb In the highest degree; beyond all other; as, to love one best; to like this best; to please best

1. To the advantage; with the most ease; as, 'which instrument can you best use?'

2. With most profit or success; as, money is best employed in manufactures; this medicine will answer best in the present case.

3. Most intimately or particularly; most correctly; as, what is expedient is best known to himself.

BESTA'IN, verb transitive [be and stain.] To mark with stains; to discolor, either the whole surface of a thing, or in spots.

BESTEAD', verb transitive bested' preterit tense and participle passive bested. [be and stead.] To profit.

How little you bestead

1. To accommodate.

They shall pass through it, hardly bestead Isaiah 8:21.

That is, distressed; perplexed.

2. To dispose.

BES'TIAL, adjective [from beast.]

1. Belonging to a beast, or to the class of beasts.

2. Having the qualities of a beast; brutal; below the dignity of reason or humanity; carnal; as a bestial appetite.

BESTIAL'ITY, noun The quality of beasts; the state or manners of man which resemble those of brutes.

1. Unnatural connection with a beast.

BES'TIALIZE, verb transitive To make like a beast.

BES'TIALLY, adverb Brutally; in a manner below humanity.

BESTICK', verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive bestuck. [be and stick.]

To stick over, as with sharp points; to mark, by infixing points or spots here and there.

Truth shall retire, bestuck with slanderous darts.

BESTIR', verb transitive bestur' [be and stir.] To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; usually with the reciprocal pronoun; as, rise and bestir yourselves.

BESTIR'RED, participle passive Roused into vigorous action; quickened in action.

BESTIR'RING, ppr. Moving briskly; putting into vigorous action.

BEST'NESS, noun The state of being best. [Not used.]

BESTOR, verb transitive [be and stow, a place. See Stow. Literally, to set or place.]

1. To give; to confer; to impart; with the sense of gratuity, and followed by on or upon.

Consecrate yourselves to the Lord, that he may bestow on you a blessing. Exodus 32:1.

Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. 1 Corinthians 13:3.

This word should never be followed by to.

2. To give in marriage; to dispose of.

I could have bestowed her upon a fine gentleman.

3. To apply; to place for the purpose of exertion, or use; as, to bestow our whole force upon an object.

4. To lay out, or dispose of; to give in payment for; as, to bestow money for what we desire. Deuteronomy 14:26.

5. To lay up in store; to deposit for safe keeping; to stow; to place.

I have no room where to bestow my fruits. Luke 12:1.

BESTORM', verb intransitive [be and storm.] To storm; to rage. [Not used.]

BESTOWAL, noun A conferring; disposal. [Little used.

BESTOWED, participle present tense Given gratuitously; conferred; laid out; applied; deposited for safe-keeping.

BESTOWER, noun One who bestows; a giver; a disposer.

BESTOWING, participle present tense Conferring gratuitously; laying out; applying; depositing in store.

BESTOWMENT, noun The act of giving gratuitously; a conferring.

God the father had committed the bestowment of the blessings purchased, to his son.

If we consider this bestowment of gifts in this view.

Whatever may be the secret counsel of his will respecting his own bestowment of saving grace.

1. That which is conferred, or given; donation.

They strengthened his hands by their liberal bestowments on him and his family.

The free and munificent bestowment of the Sovereign Judge.

BESTRAD'DLE, verb transitive To bestride. [See Straddle.]

BESTRAUGHT', adjective Distracted; mad. [Not used.]

BESTREW', verb transitive preterit tense bestrewed; participle passive bestrewed, bestrown. [be and strew.] To scatter over; to besprinkle; to strow.

BESTREW'ED, participle passive of bestrew.

BESTRI'DE, verb transitive preterit tense bestrid; participle passive bestrid, bestridden. [be and stride.]

1. To stride over; to stand or sit with any thing between the legs, or with the legs extended across; as, to bestride the world, like a colossus; to bestride a horse.

2. To step over; as, to bestride a threshold.

Bestriding sometimes includes riding, or defending, as Johnson remarks; but the particular purposes to the act, which depend on the circumstances of the case, can hardly be reduced to definition.

BESTRI'DING, participle present tense Extending the legs over any thing, so as to include it between them.

BESTROWN, participle passive of bestrew. Sprinkle over.

BESTUCK', participle passive of bestick. Pierced in various places with sharp points.

BESTUD', verb transitive [be and stud.] To set with studs; to adorn with bosses; as, to bestud with stars.

BESTUD'DED, pp. Adorned with studs.

BESTUD'DING, participle present tense Setting with studs; adorning as with bosses.

BESWIKE, verb transitive beswik'. To allure. [Not used.]

BET, noun A wager; that which is laid, staked or pledges in a contest, to be won, either by the victorious party himself, or by another person, in consequence of his victory. At a race, a man lays a bet on his own horse, or on the horse of another man.

BET, verb transitive To lay a bet; to lay a wager; to stake or pledge something upon the event of a context.

BET, the old participle of beat, is obsolete or vulgar.

BETA'KE, verb transitive preterit tense betook; participle passive betaken. [be and take.]

1. To take to; to have recourse to; to apply; to resort; with the reciprocal pronoun; as, to betake ourselves to arms, or to action. It generally implies a motion towards an object, as to betake ourselves to a shade grove; or an application of the mind or faculties, corresponding with such motion, as to betake ourselves to study or to vice.

2. Formerly, to take or seize.

BETA'KEN, part of betake.

BETA'KING, participle present tense Having recourse to; applying; resorting.

BETAUGHT', preterit tense of betake. [Not used.]

BETEE'M, verb transitive [be and teem.] To bring forth; to produce; to shed; to bestow. [Not used.]

BE'TEL

BETHINK', verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive bethought. [be and think.]

To call to mind; to recall or bring to recollection, reflection, or consideration; generally followed by a reciprocal pronoun, with of before the subject of thought.

I have bethought myself of another fault.

BETHINK', verb intransitive To have in recollection; to consider.

BETHINK', v.t. pret. and pp.bethought. [be and think.]

To call to mind; to recall or bring to recollection, reflection, or consideration; generally followed by a reciprocal pronoun, with of before the subject of thought.

BETHINK', v.i. To have in recollection; to consider.

BETH'LEHEM, noun [Heb. the house of food or bread.]

1. A town or village in Judea, about six miles south-east of Jerusalem; famous for its being the place of Christ's nativity.

2. A hospital for lunatics; corrupted into bedlam.

BETH'LEMITE, noun An inhabitant of Bethlehem; a lunatic.

1. In church history, the Bethlemites were a sort of Monks, introduced into England in the year 1257, who were habited like the Dominicans, except that they wore a star with five rays, in memory of the comet or star which appeared over Bethlehem at the nativity of our Savior. There is an order of Bethlemites also in Peru.

BETHOUGHT', bethaut; , preterit tense and participle passive of bethink.

BETHRALL', verb transitive [be and thrall.] To enslave; to reduce to bondage; to bring into subjection. [Little used.]

BETHUMP', verb transitive [be and thump.] To beat soundly. [Little used.]

BETI'DE, verb transitive preterit tense betid, or betided; participle passive betid. [be and tide.]

To happen; to befall; to come to; used of good or evil.

What will betide the few?

BETI'DE, verb intransitive To come to pass; to happen.

What news else betideth here?

Shakespeare has used it with of. What would betide of thee? but this is unusual or improper.

BETI'ME

BETI'MES, adverb [be and time, that is, by the time.]

1. Seasonably; in good season or time; before it is late.

To measure life learn thou betimes.

2. Soon; in a short time.

He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes.

BE'TLE, noun A species of pepper, the leaves of which are chewed by the inhabitants of the East Indies. It is a creeping or climbing plant like the ivy, the leaves somewhat resembling those of the citron. It is planted by a tree, or supported by props. In India, betel is taken after meals; during a visit, it is offered to friends when they meet, and when they separate; in short, nothing is to be done without betel. To correct the bitterness of the leaves, a little areca is wrapped in them with the chinam, a kind of burnt lime made of shells.

BETO'KEN, verb transitive beto'kn. [be and token.]

1. To signify by some visible object; to show by signs.

A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow

Betokening peace from God.

2. To foreshow by present signs; to indicate something future by that which is seen or known; as, a dark cloud often betokens a storm.

BETO'KENED, participle passive Foreshown; previously indicated.

BETO'KENING, participle present tense Indicating by previous signs.

BET'ONY, noun [Latin betonica.] A genus of plants of several species. The purple or wood betony grows in woods and shady places, and is deemed useful as a mild corroborant.

BETOOK', preterit tense of betake.

BETO'RN, adjective Torn in pieces.

BETOSS', verb transitive [be and toss.] To toss; to agitate; to disturb; to put in violent motion.

BETRAP', verb transitive [from trap.] To entrap; to ensnare. [Not used.]

BETRA'Y, verb transitive [Latin traho.]

1. To deliver into the hands of an enemy by treachery or fraud, in violation of trust; as, an officer betrayed the city.

The son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. Matthew 17:22.

2. To violate by fraud, or unfaithfulness; as, to betray a trust.

If the people of America ever betray their trust, their guilt will merit even greater punishment than other nations have suffered, and the indignation of heaven.

3. To violate confidence by disclosing a secret, or that which was intrusted; to expose; followed by the person, or the thing; as, my friend betrayed me, or betrayed the secret.

4. To disclose, or permit to appear, what is intended to be kept secret, or what prudence would conceal.

Be swift to hear, but cautions of your tongue, lest you betray your ignorance.

Hence,

5. To mislead or expose to inconvenience not foreseen; as, great confidence betrays a man into errors.

6. To show; to discover; to indicate what is not obvious at first view, or would otherwise be concealed.

Nor, after length of years, a stone betray

The place where once the very ruins lay.

This river betrays its original in its name.

All the names in the country betray great antiquity.

7. To fail, or deceive.

But when I rise, I shall find my legs betraying me.

BETRA'YED, participle passive Delivered up in breach of trust; violated by unfaithfulness; exposed by breach of confidence; disclosed contrary to expectation or intention; made known; discoverd.

BETRA'YER, noun One who betrays; a traitor.

BETRA'YING, participle present tense Delivering up treacherously; violating confidence; disclosing contrary to intention; exposing; discovering.

BETRIM', verb transitive [be and trim.] To deck; to dress; to adorn; to grace; to embellish; to beautify; to decorate.

BETRIM'MED, participle passive Adorned; decorated.

BETRIM'MING, ppr. Decking; adorning; embellishing.

BETROTH', verb transitive [be and troth, truth, faith. See Truth, and Troth.]

1. To contract to any one, in order to a future marriage; to promise or pledge one to be the future spouse of another; to affiance; used of either sex. 'The father betroths his daughter.'

2. To contract with one for a future spouse; to espouse; as, a man betroths a lady.

3. To nominate to a bishopric, in order to consecration.

BETROTH'ED, participle passive Contracted for future marriage.

BETROTH'ING, participle present tense Contracting to any one, in order to a future marriage, as the father or guardian; contracting with one for a future wife, as the intended husband; espousing.

BETROTH'MENT, noun A mutual promise or contract between two parties, for a future marriage between the persons betrothed; espousals.

BETRUST', verb transitive [be and trust.] To entrust; to commit to another in confidence of fidelity; to confide. This is less used than entrust.

BETRUST'ED, participle passive Entrusted; confided; committed in trust.

BETRUST'ING, participle present tense Entrusting; committing in trust.

BETRUST'MENT, noun The act of entrusting; the thing entrusted.

BET'SO, noun The smallest Venetian coin.

BET'TER, a comparative of bet. See Best.]

1. Having good qualities in a greater degree than another; applied to physical, acquired or moral qualities; as a better soil, a better man, a better physician, a better house, a better air, a better harvest.

2. More advantageous.

Were it not better for us to return to Egypt:Exodus 14:12.

3. More acceptable.

To obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15:22.

4. More safe.

It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Psalms 118:8.

5. Improved in health; less affected with disease; as, the patient is better

6. To be better off, to be in a better condition. Beddoes, Hygeia. This is a very common phrase; but ought not off, to be of? It is not elegant.

7. To have the better is to have the advantage or superiority, followed by of before him or that over which the advantage is enjoyed; as, the English had the better of the Spaniards.

8. To get or gain the better is to obtain the advantage, superiority or victory; as, to get the better of an enemy.

9. For the better is for the advantage or improvement.

BET'TER, adverb In a more excellent manner; with more skill and wisdom, virtue, advantage or success; as, to perform work better; to plan a scheme better; land better cultivated; laws better executed; government better administered.

1. More correctly, or fully; as, to understand a subject better than another.

2. With superior excellence; as, to write or speak better than another.

3. With more affection; in a higher degree; as, to love one better than another.

It is not easy to specify and exemplify the various applications of better In general, it implies what is more excellent, advantageous, useful, or virtuous, than something else.

BET'TER, verb transitive

1. To improve; to meliorate; to increase the good qualities of; as, manure betters land; discipline may better the morals.

2. To surpass; to exceed.

The works of nature do always aim at that which cannot be bettered.

Qu.is not the sense, made better:

3. To advance; to support; to give advantage to; as, to better a party; to better a cause.

BET'TER, noun A superior; one who has a claim to precedence on account of his rank, age, or office; as, give place to your betters. It is generally or always used in the plural.

BET'TERED, participle passive Improved; meliorated; made better.

BET'TERING, participle present tense Making better; improving.

BET'TOR, noun [from bet.] One who bets or lays a wager.

BET'TY, noun [Supposed to be a cant word from the name of a maid; but qu. is it not from the root of beat or Latin peto?]

An instrument to break open doors.

BETUM'BLED, adjective [be and tumble.] Rolled about; tumbled; disordered.

BETWEE'N, preposition

1. In the intermediate space, without regard to distance; as, New York is between Boston and Philadelphia; the Delaware river runs between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

2. From one another; passing from one to another, noting exchange of actions or intercourse; as, things go well between the parties.

3. Belonging to two or more, in common or partnership; as, two friends have but one soul between them; twenty proprietors own a tract of land between them. We observe that between is not restricted to two.

4. Having mutual relation to two or more; as, discords exist between the families.

5. Noting difference, or discrimination of one from another; as, to distinguish between right and wrong.

BETWIXT', preposition

1. Between; in the space that separates two persons or things; as, betwixt two oaks.

2. Passing between; from one to another, noting intercourse. [See Between.]

BEV'EL, noun

Among masons, carpenters, joiners, etc., an instrument, or kind of square, one leg of which is frequently crooked, according to the sweep of an arch or vault. It is movable on a point or center, and so may be set to any angle. An angle that is not square is called a bevel angle, whether obtuse or acute.

1. A curve or inclination of a surface from a right line; as, the proper bevel of a piece of timber.

BEV'EL, adjective Crooked; awry; oblique.

BEV'EL, verb transitive To cut a bevel angle.

BEV'EL, verb intransitive To curve; to incline towards a point, or from a direct line.

BEV'ELED, participle passive Formed to a bevel angle.

BEV'ELING, participle present tense Forming to a bevel angle.

BEV'ELING, adjective Curving; bending from a right line.

BEV'ELING, noun A hewing of timber with a proper and regular curve, according to a mold laid on one side of its surface.

1. The curve or bevel of timber.

BEV'ELMENT, noun In mineralogy, bevelment supposes the removal of two contiguous segments from the edges, angles or terminal faces of the predominant form, thereby producing two new faces, inclined to each other at a certain angle and forming an edge.

BEV'ER, noun A collation or small repast between meals. [Not used.]

BEV'ER, verb intransitive To take a small repast between meals.

BEV'ERAGE, noun [Latin bibo; ] Drink; liquor for drinking. It is generally used of a mixed liquor. Nectar is called the beverage of the gods.

In the middle ages, beverage beveragium, or biberagium was money for drink given to an artificer of other person over and above his hire or wages. The practice has existed, to a certain extent, in American, within my memory, and I know not but it still exists in some parts of this country. A person who had a new garment, was called onto pay beverage that is, to treat with liquor. Hence,

1. A treat on wearing a new suit of clothes, or on receiving a suit from the tailor; also a treat on first coming into prison; a garnish.

In England, water-cider, a mixture of cider and water, made by putting water into pumice before it is pressed.

BEV'ILE, noun [See Bevel.] In heraldry, a thing broken or opening, like a carpenter's bevel.

BEV'Y, noun [I know not the origin or affinities of this word. The etymologies I have seen are not worth notice.]

A flock of birds; hence, a company; an assembly or collection of persons; usually applied to females.

BEWA'IL, verb transitive [be and wail.] To bemoan; to lament; to express sorrow for. It expresses deep sorrow; as, to bewail the loss of a child.

The true penitent bewails his ingratitude to God.

BEWA'IL, verb intransitive To express grief.

BEWA'ILABLE, adjective That may be lamented.

BEWA'ILED, participle passive Lamented; bemoaned.

BEWAILER, noun One who laments.

BEWA'ILING, participle present tense Lamenting; bemoaning; expressing grief for.

BEWA'ILING, noun Lamentation.

BEWA'KE, verb transitive [be and wake.] To keep awake. [Not used.]

BEWA'RE, verb intransitive

1. Literally, to restrain or guard one's self from. Hence, to regard with caution; to restrain one's self from anything that may be dangerous, injurious or improper; to avoid; to take care; followed by of before the thing that is to be avoided.

Beware of all, but more beware of man.

Beware of false prophets; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees; beware of the concision.

2. To have a special regard to.

Behold, I send an angel before thee--beware of him, and obey his voice. Exodus 23:21.

[This is unusual and hardly legitimate.]

This word though here admitted as a verb, from the Saxon, is rarely used as a verb in fact; or if a verb, is now never used except in the imperative mode It is a compound of be and the Old Eng. ware, now wary. Be wary of danger. Hence it cannot be used with did, like a regular verb, nor with be, in any of its inflections, he is beware; for this would be to use the substantive verb twice before ware and wary, is and be. Ben Jonson however has used the word in the third person. He bewares to act. But it has no past tense or participle, and therefore, if admitted as a verb, it is defective, and used only in the imperative mode, or after an auxiliary.

We must beware of excess.

BEWEE'P, verb transitive [be and weep.] To weep over; to bedew with tears. [Little used.]

BEWEE'P, verb intransitive To make lamentation. [Little used.]

BEWEPT', participle passive Wept over; bedewed with tears. [Little used.]

BEWET', verb transitive [be and wet.] To wet; to moisten. [Not used.]

BEWIL'DER, verb transitive To lead into perplexity or confusion; to lose in pathless places; to confound for want of a plain road; to perplex with mazes; or in general, to perplex.

Lost and bewildered in the fruitless search.

BEWIL'DERED, participle passive Lost in mazes; perplexed with disorder, confusion, or intricacy.

BEWIL'DERING, participle present tense Losing in a pathless place; perplexing with confusion or intricacy.

BEWIN'TER, verb transitive To make like winter. [Not used.]

BEWITCH', verb transitive [be and witch.] To fascinate; to gain an ascendancy over by charms or incantation; an operation which was formerly supposed to injure the person bewitched, so that he lost his flesh, or behaved in a strange unaccountable manner; ignorant people being inclined to ascribe to evil spirits what they could not account for.

Look, how I am bewitched; behold, mine arm

Is like a blasted sapling withered up.

1. To charm; to fascinate; to please to such a degree as to take away the power of resistance.

The charms of poetry our souls bewitch

2. To deceive and mislead by juggling tricks or imposter. Acts 8:9.

BEWITCH'ED, participle passive Fascinated; charmed.

BEWITCH'ER, noun One that bewitches or fascinates.

BEWITCH'ERY, noun Fascination; charm; ; resistless power of anything that pleases.

BEWITCH'FUL, adjective Alluring; fascinating.

BEWITCH'ING, participle present tense Fascinating; charming.

BEWITCH'ING, adjective That has power to bewitch or fascinate; that has power to control by the arts of pleasing.

BEWITCH'INGLY, adverb In a fascinating manner.

BEWITCH'MENT, noun Fascination; power of charming.

BEWON'DERED, adjective [be and wonder.] Amazed. [Not used.]

BEWRAP', verb transitive berap'. [be and wrap.] To wrap up.

BEWRA'Y, verb transitive beray. To disclose perfidiously; to betray; to show or make visible.

Thy speech bewrayeth thee. Matthew 26:73.

[This word is nearly antiquated.]

BEWRA'YED, participle passive Disclosed; indicated; betrayed; exposed to view.

BEWRA'YER, noun A divulger of secrets; a discoverer.

BEWRA'YING, participle present tense Disclosing; making known or visible.

BEWRECK', verb transitive bereck'. [be and wreck.] To ruin; to destroy. [Not used.]

BEWROUGHT', adjective beraut' [be and work.] Worked. [Not used.]

BEY, noun In the Turkish dominions, a governor of a town or particular district of country; also, in some places, a prince; the same as the Arabic Beg. [See Beg.]

BEYOND', preposition

1. On the further side of; on the side most distant, at any indefinite distance from that side; as beyond a river, or the sea, either a mile beyond or a hundred miles beyond the river.

2. Before; at a place not yet reached.

A thing beyond us, even before our death.

3. Past; out of reach of; further than any given limit; further than the extent of any thing else; as, beyond our power; beyond comprehension; beyond dispute; beyond our care.

4. Above; in a degree exceeding or surpassing; proceeding to a greater degree, as in dignity, excellence, or quality of any kind; as, one man is great or good beyond another.

To go beyond is a phrase which expresses an excess in some action or scheme; to exceed in ingenuity, in research, or in anything else; hence, in a bad sense, to deceive or circumvent.

Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.

BEYOND', adverb At a distance; yonder.

BEZ'AN, noun A cotton cloth from Bengal, white or striped.

BEZ'ANT, noun A gold coin of Byzantium. [See Byzant.]

BEZANT'LER, noun [from antler.] The branch of a deer's horn, next above the brow antler.

BEZ'EL, noun The upper part of the collet of a ring, which encompasses and fastens the stone.

BE'ZOAR, noun

1. An antidote; a general name for certain animal substances supposed to be efficacious in preventing the fatal effects of poison. bezoar is a calcarious concretion found in the stomach of certain ruminant animals, composed of concentric coats surrounding each other, with a little cavity in the middle, containing a bit of wood, straw, hair, or the like substance. There are two sorts; the oriental, from Persia and the East Indies, of a shining dark green or olive color, with a smooth surface; and the occidental, from the Spanish West Indies, which has a rough surface, is less green much heavier, more brittle, and of a looser texture. The oriental is generally less than a walnut; the occidental is larger, and sometimes as large as a goose egg.

The oriental bezoars are generally of a resinous composition and combustible.

2. In a more general sense, any substance formed, stratum upon stratum, in the stomach or intestines of animals.

This name is also given to the biliary calculi of certain animals.

Fossil-bezoar is a figured stone, formed, like the animal bezoar with several coats round some extraneous body, which serves as a nucleus; found chiefly in Sicily, in sand and clay pits. It is of a purple color, and of the size of a walnut. It seems to be of the nature of bole armenian, and is called Sicilian earth.

Bezoar-mineral. This preparation is an oxyd of antimony, produced by distilling the nitrous acid several times to dryness from the sublimated muriate of antimony.

BEZOAR'DIC, adjective Pertaining to or compounded of bezoar.

BEZOAR'DIC, noun A medicine compounded with bezoar.

BEZ'OLA, noun A fish of the truttaceous kind, of a dusky blue color, nearly of the size of a herring.

BEZ'ZLE, verb transitive To waste in riot. [Not used.] [See Embezzle.]