| Words | Parts of Speech | Meaning/Definition/Similar Words |
|---|---|---|
| babbitt metal | A soft white alloy of variable composition (as a nine parts of tin to one of copper, or of fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction. | |
| baccalaureate | noun | The degree of bachelor of arts. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges., A baccalaureate sermon., Pertaining to a bachelor of arts. |
| backwardation | noun | The seller’s postponement of delivery of stock or shares, with the consent of the buyer, upon payment of a premium to the latter; — also, the premium so paid. See Contango. |
| bacterioscopy | noun | The application of a knowledge of bacteria for their detection and identification, as in the examination of polluted water. |
| badger-legged | adjective | Having legs of unequal length, as the badger was thought to have. |
| balance wheel | A wheel which regulates the beats or pulses of a watch or chronometer, answering to the pendulum of a clock; — often called simply a balance., A ratchet-shaped scape wheel, which in some watches is acted upon by the axis of the balance wheel proper (in those watches called a balance)., A wheel which imparts regularity to the movements of any engine or machine; a fly wheel. | |
| balanoglossus | noun | A peculiar marine worm. See Enteropneusta, and Tornaria. |
| ballad monger | A seller or maker of ballads; a poetaster. | |
| balneotherapy | noun | The treatment of disease by baths. |
| balsamiferous | adjective | Producing balsam. |
| banding plane | A plane used for cutting out grooves and inlaying strings and bands in straight and circular work. | |
| barbarousness | noun | The quality or state of being barbarous; barbarity; barbarism. |
| barefacedness | noun | The quality of being barefaced; shamelessness; assurance; audaciousness. |
| barker’s mill | A machine, invented in the 17th century, worked by a form of reaction wheel. The water flows into a vertical tube and gushes from apertures in hollow horizontal arms, causing the machine to revolve on its axis. | |
| barking irons | Instruments used in taking off the bark of trees., A pair of pistols. | |
| basioccipital | adjective | Of or pertaining to the bone in the base of the cranium, frequently forming a part of the occipital in the adult, but usually distinct in the young., The basioccipital bone. |
| basipterygium | noun | A bar of cartilage at the base of the embryonic fins of some fishes. It develops into the metapterygium. |
| basipterygoid | adjective & noun | Applied to a protuberance of the base of the sphenoid bone. |
| basking shark | One of the largest species of sharks (Cetorhinus maximus), so called from its habit of basking in the sun; the liver shark, or bone shark. It inhabits the northern seas of Europe and America, and grows to a length of more than forty feet. It is a harmless species. | |
| basso-rilievo | noun | Alt. of Basso-relievo |
| basso-relievo | noun | Same as Bas-relief. |
| bathymetrical | adjective | Pertaining to bathymetry; relating to the measurement of depths, especially of depths in the sea. |
| battering-ram | noun | An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places., A blacksmith’s hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally. |
| beardlessness | noun | The state or quality of being destitute of beard. |
| bearing cloth | A cloth with which a child is covered when carried to be baptized. | |
| bear’s-breech | noun | See Acanthus, n., 1., The English cow parsnip (Heracleum sphondylium) |
| beatification | noun | The act of beatifying, or the state of being beatified; esp., in the R. C. Church, the act or process of ascertaining and declaring that a deceased person is one of “the blessed,” or has attained the second degree of sanctity, — usually a stage in the process of canonization. |
| beetle-browed | Having prominent, overhanging brows; hence, lowering or sullen. | |
| beetle-headed | adjective | Dull; stupid. |
| beggar’s lice | The prickly fruit or seed of certain plants (as some species of Echinospermum and Cynoglossum) which cling to the clothing of those who brush by them. | |
| beholdingness | noun | The state of being obliged or beholden. |
| belligerently | adverb | In a belligerent manner; hostilely. |
| belly-pinched | adjective | Pinched with hunger; starved. |
| bench warrant | A process issued by a presiding judge or by a court against a person guilty of some contempt, or indicted for some crime; — so called in distinction from a justice’s warrant. | |
| benedictional | noun | A book of benedictions. |
| beneficential | adjective | Relating to beneficence. |
| beneficiaries | plural | of Beneficiary |
| bermuda grass | A kind of grass (Cynodon Dactylon) esteemed for pasture in the Southern United States. It is a native of Southern Europe, but is now wide-spread in warm countries; — called also scutch grass, and in Bermuda, devil grass. | |
| bewitchedness | noun | The state of being bewitched. |
| bibble-babble | noun | Idle talk; babble. |
| bibliographer | noun | One who writes, or is versed in, bibliography. |
| bibliographic | adjective | Alt. of Bibliographical |
| bibliolatrist | noun | A worshiper of books; especially, a worshiper of the Bible; a believer in its verbal inspiration. |
| bibliological | adjective | Relating to bibliology. |
| bibliophilism | noun | Love of books. |
| bibliophilist | noun | A lover of books. |
| bibliotaphist | noun | One who hides away books, as in a tomb. |
| bibliothecary | noun | A librarian. |
| bignoniaceous | adjective | Of pertaining to, or resembling, the family of plants of which the trumpet flower is an example. |
| biostatistics | noun | Vital statistics. |
| bird’s-tongue | noun | The knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). |
| birectangular | adjective | Containing or having two right angles; as, a birectangular spherical triangle. |
| bisa antelope | See Oryx. | |
| bishop sleeve | A wide sleeve, once worn by women. | |
| bishop’s-weed | noun | An umbelliferous plant of the genus Ammi., Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria). |
| bishop’s-wort | noun | Wood betony (Stachys betonica); also, the plant called fennel flower (Nigella Damascena), or devil-in-a-bush. |
| black-a-vised | adjective | Dark-visaged; swart. |
| blackguarding | present participle & vb. noun | of Blackguard |
| blackguardism | noun | The conduct or language of a blackguard; ruffianism. |
| black-hearted | adjective | Having a wicked, malignant disposition; morally bad. |
| black-mouthed | adjective | Using foul or scurrilous language; slanderous. |
| black pudding | A kind of sausage made of blood, suet, etc., thickened with meal. | |
| blamelessness | noun | The quality or state of being blameless; innocence. |
| blandiloquous | adjective | Alt. of Blandiloquious |
| blasphemously | adverb | In a blasphemous manner. |
| blastocarpous | adjective | Germinating inside the pericarp, as the mangrove. |
| blastogenesis | noun | Multiplication or increase by gemmation or budding. |
| bleareyedness | noun | The state of being blear-eyed. |
| bloodshedding | noun | Bloodshed. |
| blood-shotten | adjective | Bloodshot. |
| bloody-minded | adjective | Having a cruel, ferocious disposition; bloodthirsty. |
| bojanus organ | A glandular organ of bivalve mollusca, serving in part as a kidney. | |
| bona peritura | Perishable goods. | |
| booking clerk | A clerk who registers passengers, baggage, etc., for conveyance, as by railway or steamship, or who sells passage tickets at a booking office. | |
| boraginaceous | adjective | Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a family of plants (Boraginaceae) which includes the borage, heliotrope, beggar’s lice, and many pestiferous plants. |
| boroglyceride | noun | A compound of boric acid and glycerin, used as an antiseptic. |
| boroughholder | noun | A headborough; a borsholder. |
| boroughmaster | noun | The mayor, governor, or bailiff of a borough. |
| boroughmonger | noun | One who buys or sells the parliamentary seats of boroughs. |
| boustrophedon | noun | An ancient mode of writing, in alternate directions, one line from left to right, and the next from right to left (as fields are plowed), as in early Greek and Hittite. |
| bow-compasses | plural | of Bow-compass |
| brachioganoid | noun | One of the Brachioganoidei. |
| brachycephaly | noun | Alt. of Brachycephalism |
| brachygrapher | noun | A writer in short hand; a stenographer. |
| brachypterous | adjective | Having short wings. |
| branchiferous | adjective | Having gills; branchiate; as, branchiferous gastropods. |
| branchiostege | The branchiostegal membrane. See Illustration in Appendix. | |
| branchiostoma | noun | The lancelet. See Amphioxus. |
| branding iron | An iron to brand with. | |
| brassicaceous | adjective | Related to, or resembling, the cabbage, or plants of the Cabbage family. |
| brass-visaged | adjective | Impudent; bold. |
| brazen-browed | adjective | Shamelessly impudent. |
| breadthwinner | noun | The member of a family whose labor supplies the food of the family; one who works for his living. |
| break-circuit | noun | A key or other device for breaking an electrical circuit. |
| brequet chain | A watch-guard. | |
| breviloquence | noun | A brief and pertinent mode of speaking. |
| brevirostrate | adjective | Short-billed; having a short beak. |
| brilliantness | noun | Brilliancy; splendor; glitter. |
| broad-brimmed | adjective | Having a broad brim. |
| broken-backed | adjective | Having a broken back; as, a broken-backed chair., Hogged; so weakened in the frame as to droop at each end; — said of a ship. |
| broken-winded | adjective | Having short breath or disordered respiration, as a horse. |
| bromatologist | noun | One versed in the science of foods. |
| bromeliaceous | adjective | Pertaining to, or resembling, a family of endogenous and mostly epiphytic or saxicolous plants of which the genera Tillandsia and Billbergia are examples. The pineapple, though terrestrial, is also of this family. |
| brontotherium | noun | A genus of large extinct mammals from the miocene strata of western North America. They were allied to the rhinoceros, but the skull bears a pair of powerful horn cores in front of the orbits, and the fore feet were four-toed. See Illustration in Appendix. |
| brotherliness | noun | The state or quality of being brotherly. |
| brutalization | noun | The act or process of making brutal; state of being brutalized. |
| bubbling jock | The male wild turkey, the gobbler; — so called in allusion to its notes. | |
| buffle-headed | adjective | Having a large head, like a buffalo; dull; stupid; blundering. |
| bullen-bullen | noun | The lyre bird. |
| bullock’s-eye | noun | See Bull’s-eye, 3. |
| bumptiousness | noun | Conceitedness. |
| bureaucratist | noun | An advocate for , or supporter of, bureaucracy. |
| burghermaster | noun | See Burgomaster. |
| burglariously | adverb | With an intent to commit burglary; in the manner of a burglar. |
| burying place | The ground or place for burying the dead; burial place. | |
| butcherliness | noun | Butchery quality. |
| butter-scotch | noun | A kind of candy, mainly composed of sugar and butter. |
| butting joint | A joint between two pieces of timber or wood, at the end of one or both, and either at right angles or oblique to the grain, as the joints which the struts and braces form with the truss posts; — sometimes called abutting joint. | |
| by-dependence | noun | An appendage; that which depends on something else, or is distinct from the main dependence; an accessory. |