Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter B - Page 49

Biweekly (n.) A publication issued every two weeks.

Biwreye (v. t.) To bewray; to reveal.

Bizantine () See Byzantine.

Bizarre (a.) Odd in manner or appearance; fantastic; whimsical; extravagant; grotesque.

Bizet (n.) The upper faceted portion of a brilliant-cut diamond, which projects from the setting and occupies the zone between the girdle and the table. See Brilliant, n.

Blabbed (imp. & p. p.) of Blab

Blabbing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Blab

Blab (v.) To utter or tell unnecessarily, or in a thoughtless manner; to publish (secrets or trifles) without reserve or discretion.

Blab (v. i.) To talk thoughtlessly or without discretion; to tattle; to tell tales.

Blab (n.) One who blabs; a babbler; a telltale.

Blabber (n.) A tattler; a telltale.

Black (a.) Destitute of light, or incapable of reflecting it; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest or a very dark color, the opposite of white; characterized by such a color; as, black cloth; black hair or eyes.

Black (a.) In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds.

Black (a.) Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible.

Black (a.) Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen; foreboding; as, to regard one with black looks.

Black (adv.) Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously; so as to produce blackness.

Black (n.) That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth has a good black.

Black (n.) A black pigment or dye.

Black (n.) A negro; a person whose skin is of a black color, or shaded with black; esp. a member or descendant of certain African races.

Black (n.) A black garment or dress; as, she wears black

Black (n.) Mourning garments of a black color; funereal drapery.

Black (n.) The part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black.

Black (n.) A stain; a spot; a smooch.

Blacked (imp. & p. p.) of Black

Blacking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Black

Black (a.) To make black; to blacken; to soil; to sully.

Black (a.) To make black and shining, as boots or a stove, by applying blacking and then polishing with a brush.

Blackamoor (n.) A negro or negress.

Black art () The art practiced by conjurers and witches; necromancy; conjuration; magic.

Black-a-vised (a.) Dark-visaged; swart.

Blackball (n.) A composition for blacking shoes, boots, etc.; also, one for taking impressions of engraved work.

Blackball (n.) A ball of black color, esp. one used as a negative in voting; -- in this sense usually two words.

Blackballed (imp. & p. p.) of Blackball

Blackballing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Blackball

Blackball (v. t.) To vote against, by putting a black ball into a ballot box; to reject or exclude, as by voting against with black balls; to ostracize.

Blackball (v. t.) To blacken (leather, shoes, etc.) with blacking.

Blackband (n.) An earthy carbonate of iron containing considerable carbonaceous matter; -- valuable as an iron ore.

Black bass () An edible, fresh-water fish of the United States, of the genus Micropterus. the small-mouthed kind is M. dolomiei; the large-mouthed is M. salmoides.

Black bass () The sea bass. See Blackfish, 3.

Blackberry (n.) The fruit of several species of bramble (Rubus); also, the plant itself. Rubus fruticosus is the blackberry of England; R. villosus and R. Canadensis are the high blackberry and low blackberry of the United States. There are also other kinds.

Blackbird (n.) In England, a species of thrush (Turdus merula), a singing bird with a fin note; the merle. In America the name is given to several birds, as the Quiscalus versicolor, or crow blackbird; the Agelaeus phoeniceus, or red-winged blackbird; the cowbird; the rusty grackle, etc. See Redwing.

Blackboard (n.) A broad board painted black, or any black surface on which writing, drawing, or the working of mathematical problems can be done with chalk or crayons. It is much used in schools.

Black book () One of several books of a political character, published at different times and for different purposes; -- so called either from the color of the binding, or from the character of the contents.

Black book () A book compiled in the twelfth century, containing a description of the court of exchequer of England, an official statement of the revenues of the crown, etc.

Black book () A book containing details of the enormities practiced in the English monasteries and religious houses, compiled by order of their visitors under Henry VIII., to hasten their dissolution.

Black book () A book of admiralty law, of the highest authority, compiled in the reign of Edw. III.

Black book () A book kept for the purpose of registering the names of persons liable to censure or punishment, as in the English universities, or the English armies.

Black book () Any book which treats of necromancy.

Black-browed (a.) Having black eyebrows. Hence: Gloomy; dismal; threatening; forbidding.

Blackburnian warbler () A beautiful warbler of the United States (Dendroica Blackburniae). The male is strongly marked with orange, yellow, and black on the head and neck, and has an orange-yellow breast.

Blackcap (n.) A small European song bird (Sylvia atricapilla), with a black crown; the mock nightingale.

Blackcap (n.) An American titmouse (Parus atricapillus); the chickadee.

Blackcap (n.) An apple roasted till black, to be served in a dish of boiled custard.

Blackcap (n.) The black raspberry.

Blackcoat (n.) A clergyman; -- familiarly so called, as a soldier is sometimes called a redcoat or a bluecoat.

Blackcock (n.) The male of the European black grouse (Tetrao tetrix, Linn.); -- so called by sportsmen. The female is called gray hen. See Heath grouse.

Black death () A pestilence which ravaged Europe and Asia in the fourteenth century.

Blackened (imp. & p. p.) of Blacken

Blackening (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Blacken

Blacken (v. t.) To make or render black.

Blacken (v. t.) To make dark; to darken; to cloud.

Blacken (v. t.) To defame; to sully, as reputation; to make infamous; as, vice blackens the character.

Blacken (v. i.) To grow black or dark.

Blackener (n.) One who blackens.

Black-eyed (a.) Having black eyes.

Black-faced (a.) Having a black, dark, or gloomy face or aspect.

Blackfeet (n. pl.) A tribe of North American Indians formerly inhabiting the country from the upper Missouri River to the Saskatchewan, but now much reduced in numbers.

Blackfin (n.) See Bluefin.

Blackfish (n.) A small kind of whale, of the genus Globicephalus, of several species. The most common is G. melas. Also sometimes applied to other whales of larger size.

Blackfish (n.) The tautog of New England (Tautoga).

Blackfish (n.) The black sea bass (Centropristis atrarius) of the Atlantic coast. It is excellent food fish; -- locally called also black Harry.

Blackfish (n.) A fish of southern Europe (Centrolophus pompilus) of the Mackerel family.

Blackfish (n.) The female salmon in the spawning season.

Blackfoot (a.) Of or pertaining to the Blackfeet; as, a Blackfoot Indian.

Blackfoot (n.) A Blackfoot Indian.

Black friar () A friar of the Dominican order; -- called also predicant and preaching friar; in France, Jacobin. Also, sometimes, a Benedictine.

Blackguard (n.) The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the "black guard"; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army.

Blackguard (n.) The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively.

Blackguard (n.) A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough.

Blackguard (n.) A vagrant; a bootblack; a gamin.

Blackguarded (imp. & p. p.) of Blackguard

Blackguarding (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Blackguard

Blackguard (v. t.) To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.

Blackguard (a.) Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, blackguard language.

Blackguardism (n.) The conduct or language of a blackguard; ruffianism.

Blackguardly (adv. & a.) In the manner of or resembling a blackguard; abusive; scurrilous; ruffianly.

Blackhead (n.) The scaup duck.

Blackheart (n.) A heart-shaped cherry with a very dark-colored skin.

Black-hearted (a.) Having a wicked, malignant disposition; morally bad.

Black hole () A dungeon or dark cell in a prison; a military lock-up or guardroom; -- now commonly with allusion to the cell (the Black Hole) in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which 123 of the prisoners died before morning from lack of air.

Blacking (n.) Any preparation for making things black; esp. one for giving a black luster to boots and shoes, or to stoves.

Blacking (n.) The act or process of making black.

Blackish (a.) Somewhat black.

Black-jack (n.) A name given by English miners to sphalerite, or zinc blende; -- called also false galena. See Blende.

Black-jack (n.) Caramel or burnt sugar, used to color wines, spirits, ground coffee, etc.

Black-jack (n.) A large leather vessel for beer, etc.

Black-jack (n.) The Quercus nigra, or barren oak.

Black-jack (n.) The ensign of a pirate.

Black lead () Plumbago; graphite. It leaves a blackish mark somewhat like lead. See Graphite.

Blacklead (v. t.) To coat or to polish with black lead.

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