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An American Dictionary of the English Language

Revised and enlarged (Goodrich & Porter)

Springfield, Mass. · G. & C. Merriam · 1865

Entries
95,912
Pages
1,538
Illustrations
2,133

Look up a word as the writers of the time used it.

  1. Bōl'lard, n.p. 148A large post set in the ground on either side of a dock, to which are lashed large blocks, through which are reeved the transporting hawser for docking and undocking ships.
  2. Bōl'yard Tim'berp. 148(Naut.) A timber, also called a knight-head, rising just within the stem in a ship, on either side of the bowsprit, to secure its end.
  3. Bōll'ing, n.p. 148A tree from which the branches have been cut; a pollard.
  4. Bōll'-worm, n.p. 148(Entom.) An insect that destroys the cotton boll or pod.
  5. Bōln, v. i.p. 148To swell; to puff. Holland.
  6. Bōln or Bōllen, a.p. 148Swollen; puffed out. “Thin, and boln out like a sail.” B. Jonson.
  7. Bo-lōgn'ȧ Sau'saġep. 148A large sausage made of bacon, veal, and pork-suet, chopped fine, and inclosed in a skin.
  8. Bo-lōgn'ā Stōne or Bo-lōgn'ian Stōnep. 148Radiated sulphate of barytes, found in roundish masses, composed of radiating fibers, first discovered near Bologna. It is phosphorescent when calcined.
  9. Bo-lōgn-ēse′ or Bo-lōgn′ian, a.p. 148(Geog.) Pertaining to Bologna; belonging to Bologna. Bolognese school (Paint.), a school of painting founded by Caracci, otherwise called the Lombard or Eclectic school, the object of which was to…
  10. Bo-lōgn-ēse', n.p. 148(Geog.) An inhabitant of Bologna.
  11. Bōl'ster, n.p. 148A long pillow or cushion, used to support the head of persons lying on a bed;—generally laid under the pillows. And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, This way the coverlets, another way…
  12. Bōl'ster, v. t.p. 149To support with a bolster. Sharp. 2. To support; to hold up; to maintain. “To bolster baseness.” Drayton.
  13. Bōl’ster, v. i.p. 149To lie together or on the same bolster. Mortal eyes do see them bolster. Shak.
  14. Bōl'stered, a.p. 149Supported; upheld; maintained. 2. Swelled out.
  15. Bōl'ster-er, n.p. 149A supporter.
  16. Bōl'ster-ing, n.p. 149A propping up or supporting.
  17. Bōlt, n.p. 149A pointed shaft or missile intended to be shot from a cross-bow or catapult; an arrow; a dart. “A fool’s bolt is soon shot.” Shak. 2. A strong pin, of iron or other material, used to fasten or hold…
  18. Bōlt, v. t.p. 149To fasten or secure with a bolt or pin, as a door, a plank, fetters, &c. Let tenfold iron bolt my door. Langhorn. 2. To fasten; to shackle; to restrain. Which shackles accident and bolts up change.…
  19. Bōlt, v. t.p. 149To sift or separate the coarser from the finer particles of, as bran from flour, by means of a bolter; to separate, assort, or purify by other means; as, to bolt meal. He now had bolted all the…
  20. Bōlt, v. i.p. 149To start forth like a bolt; hence, to spring or move abruptly; as, to bolt out of the room. This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, . . And oft out of a bush doth bolt. Drayton. 2. To strike or fall…
  21. Bōlt, adv.p. 149With sudden meeting or collision. “[He] came bolt up against the heavy dragoon.” Thackeray.
  22. Bōlt'-au'ger, n.p. 149A large auger used in ship-building.
  23. Bōlt'-cŭt'ter, n.p. 149A machine or tool for cutting the threads on bolts.
  24. Bōl'tel, n.p. 149See BOULT.
  25. Bōlt'er, n.p. 149One who bolts; a man who breaks away from his party; a horse which starts suddenly aside. 2. An instrument or machine for separating bran from flour, or the coarser part of meal from the finer. 3. A…
  26. Bōlt'-hĕad, n.p. 149(Chem.) A long, straight-necked, glass vessel for chemical distillations; — called also a matrass or receiver.
  27. Bōlt'ing, n.p. 149The act of fastening with a bolt or bolts; a sifting; discussion; a starting aside. 2. (Law.) Private arguing of cases for practice by the students and barristers, differing from mooting in being…
  28. Bōlt'ing-clōth, n.p. 149A linen or hair cloth of which bolters are made for sifting meal, flour, &c.
  29. Bōlt'ing-house, n.p. 149The house or place where any thing is bolted.
  30. Bōlt'ing-hŭtch, n.p. 149A tub or receptacle into which any thing is bolted. For as a miller in his bolting-hutch, Drives out the pure meal nearly as he can, And in his sifter leaves the coarser bran. Browne.
  31. Bōlt'ing-mill, n.p. 149A machine or engine for sifting meal, flour, &c.
  32. Bōlt'ing-tŭb, n.p. 149A tub to sift any thing in; a bolting-hatch.
  33. Bōl'ton-ite, n.p. 149(Min.) A granular mineral of a grayish or yellowish color, found in Bolton, Massachusetts; chiefly composed of silica and magnesia. It has been referred to the species chrysolite. Dana.
  34. Bōlt'-rōpe, n.p. 149(Naut.) A rope to which the edges of sails are sewed to strengthen them.
  35. Bōlt'sprīt, n.p. 149(Naut.) See BOWSPRIT.
  36. Bōlt'-up-right', a.p. 149Perfectly upright; perpendicular. The statue, erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt-upright. Spectator.
  37. Bō'lus, n.p. 149(Med.) A rounded mass of any thing; a large pill. 2. A variety of bole. Dunglison.
  38. Bōm, n.p. 149(Zoöl.) A large serpent found in America, so called from the sound uttered by it. Buchanan.
  39. Bōmb, n.p. 149A great noise; a hollow sound. [Obs.] A pillar of iron . . . which if you had struck, would make . . . a great bomb in the chamber beneath. Bacon. 2. (Mil.) A hollow ball or shell of cast iron filled…
  40. Bŏmb, v. t.p. 149To attack with bombs; to bombard. [Obs.] Villeroy . . . marches on secure, To bomb the monks, and scare the ladies. Prior.
  41. Bōmb, v. i.p. 149To sound. [Obs.] What overcharged piece of melancholy Is this, breaks in between my wishes thus, With bombing sighs? B. Jonson.
  42. Bôm'bard, n.p. 149(Gun.) A piece of heavy ordnance used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. [Obs.] They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air…
  43. Bŏm-bärd', v. t.p. 149To attack with bombs. Next, she means to bombard Naples. Burke.
  44. Bŏm'bar-dīer', n.p. 149(Mil.) A person employed in throwing bombs or shells; in more general use, an artillery-man. [Rare.]
  45. Bôm/bar-diēr'-bee/tle, n.p. 149(Entom.) A kind of beetle, the Brachinus crepitans, which, when disturbed, makes an explosive discharge with a sort of smoke or vapor, which is acrid and of a pungent odor; hence the name. The name…
  46. Bôm'bard-măn, n.p. 149One who carried liquor or beer in a can or bombard. They . . . made room for a bombard-man that brought bouge for a country lady. L. Jonson.
  47. Bŏm-bärd'ment, n.p. 149An attack with bombs; the act of throwing bombs into a town, fort, or ship.
  48. Bŏm-bär'do or Bŏm-bär'don, n.p. 149A musical instrument of the wind kind, much like the bassoon, and used as a bass to the hautboy. [Also written bombard.] Moore.
  49. Bŏm'băst, n.p. 149Originally, cotton. [Obs.] “A candle with a wick of bombast.” Lupton. 2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.] Doublets, stuffed with four…
  50. Bŏm'băst, a.p. 149High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning. [He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley.
  51. Bôm-bäst’, v. t.p. 149To swell or fill out. [Obs.] Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed. Drayton.
  52. Bŏm-băst'ic, a.p. 149Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated. “A theatrical, bombastic, windy phraseology.” Burke.
  53. Bôm-băst'ic-al-ly, adv.p. 149With inflation of style.
  54. Bôm'bas-try, n.p. 149Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian. Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all. Swift.
  55. Böm'bāte, n.p. 149(Chem.) A salt formed by the combination of bombic acid with a base.
  56. Bōm'bax, n.p. 149(Bot.) A genus of trees, the capsules of which yield a short, fibrous substance resembling silk or cotton.
  57. Bôm'ba-zēt' or Bôm'ba-zētte, n.p. 149A sort of thin woolen cloth.
  58. Bōm'-ba-zīne' or Bōm'-ba-sīne', n.p. 149A twilled fabric, of which the warp is silk, and the weft worsted; formerly black, for mourning garments, but now made of various colors. [Sometimes spelt bombasin.] Tomlinson.
  59. Bomb'-chēst, n.p. 149(Mil.) A chest filled with bombs, or only with gunpowder, placed under ground, to make destruction by its explosion.
  60. Böm'bic, a.p. 149Pertaining to, or obtained from, the silk-worm.