1. An obligation, but without condition, or forfeiture for non-payment. 2. A declaration in writing, that expresseth either the grief and the wrong that the complainant hath suffered by the party complained of, or else some fault that the party complained of hath committed against some law. This bill is sometimes offered to justices errants in the general assizes; but most to the lord chancellor. It containeth the fact complained of, the damages thereby suffered, and petition of process against the defendant for redress. Cowell. The fourth thing very maturely to be consulted by the jury, is what influence their finding the bill may have upon the kingdom. Swift. 8. A bill of mortality. An account of the numbers that have died in any district. Most who took in the weekly bills of mortality, made little other use of them, than to look at the foot, how the burials encreased or decreased. Graunt. So liv'd our sires, ere doctors learn'd to kill, And multiply'd with theirs the weekly bill. Dryd. 9. A bill of fare. An account of the season of provisions, or of the dishes at a feast. It may seem somewhat difficult to make out the bills of fare for some of the forementioned suppers.. Arbuthnot. 10. A bill of exchange. A note ordering the payment of a sum of money in one place, to some person assigned by the drawer or remitter, in consideration of the value paid to him in another place. The comfortable sentences are bills of exchange, upon the credit of which we lay our cares down, and receive provisions. Tayler. All that a bill of exchange can do, is to direct to whom money due, or taken up upon credit, in a foreign country, shall be paid. Locke. To BILL. v. n. [from bill, a beak.] To caress, as doves by joining bills; to be fond. Dryden. Doves, they say, will bill, after their pecking, and their murmuring. Ben Jonson. Still amorous, and fond, and billing, Like Philip and Mary on a shilling. Hudibras. They bill, they tread; Alcyone compress'd Seven days sits brooding on her floating nest. He that bears th' artillery of Jove, The strong pounc'd eagle, and the billing dove. Dryden. To BILL. v. a. [from bill, a writing.] To publish by an advertisement: a cant word. His masterpiece was a composition that he billed about under the name of a sovereign antidote. L'Estrange. BILLET. n. s. [billet, French.] 1. A small paper; a note., When he found this little billet, in which was only written Remember Cæsar, he was exceedClarendon. ingly confounded. 2. A ticket directing soldiers at what house to lodge. 3. Pope. Billet doux, or a soft billet; a loveletter. "T was then, Belinda! if report say true, Thy eyes first open'd on a billet-doux. 4. [bilot, Fr.] A small log of wood for the chimney. Let us then calculate, when the bulk of a fagot or billet is dilated and rarified to the degree of fire, how vast a place it must take up. Digby on Bodies. Their billet at the fire was found. Prior. To BILLET. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To direct a soldier by a ticket, or note, where he is to lodge. Retire thee; go where thou art billeted: Away, I say. 2. To quarter soldiers. Shakspeare. They remembered him of charging the kingRaleigh. dom, by billeting soldiers. The countics throughout the kingdom were so incensed, and their affections poisoned, that they refused to suffer the soldiers to be billeted Clarendon. upon them. BILLIARDS. n. s. without a singular. [billard, Fr. of which that language has no etymology; and therefore they probably derived from England both the play and the name, which is corrupted from balyards, yards or sticks with which a ball is driven along a table. Thus Spenser : Balyards much unfit, And shuttlecocks misseeming manly wit. Hubberd's Tale.] A game at which a ball is forced against another on a table. Shakspeare. Ben Jonson. Let it alone; let's to billiards. Even nose and cheek withal, Smooth as is the billiard ball. Some are forced to bound or fly upwards, almost like ivory balls meeting on a billiard table. Boyle. When the ball obeys the stroke of a billiard stick, it is not any action of the ball, but bare passion. Locke. BILLOW. n. s. [bilge, Germ. bolg, Dan. probably of the same original with bilig, Sax. a bladder.] A wave swoln, and hollow. From whence the river Dee, as silver cleen, His tumbling billows rolls with gentle rore. Spenser. Billows sink by degrees, even when the wind is down that first stirred them. Wolton. Chasing Nereus with his trident throws The billotus from the bottom. Denham. To BI'LLOW. v. n. [from the noun.] To swell, or roll, as a wave. The billowing snow, and violence of the show'r, That from the hills disperse their dreadful store, And o'er the vales collected ruin pour. Prior. BILLOWY. adj. [from billow.] Swelling; turgid; wavy. And whitening down the mossy-tinctur'd Proverbs. 3. To fasten to any thing; to fix by circumvolution. Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, which thou didst let us down by. Joshua. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law, as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Proverbs. 4. To fasten together. Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles, to burn them. Matthew. 5. To cover a wound with dressings and bandages: with up. When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds. Luke. Having filled up the bared cranium with our dressings, we bound up the wound. Wiseman. 6. To oblige by stipulation, or oath. If a man vow a vow, or swear an oath, to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. Numbers. Swear by the solemn oath that binds the gods. Pope. 7. To oblige by duty or law; to compel; to constrain. Though I am bound to every act of duty, I am not bound to that all slaves are free to. Shakspeare. Duties expressly required in the plain language of Scripture, ought to bind our consciences more than those that are but dubiously inferred. Watts. 8. To oblige by kindness. 9. To confine; to hinder: with in, if the restraint be local; with up, if it relate to thought or act. Now I'm cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in To saucy doubts and fears. Shakspeare. You will sooner, by imagination, bind a bird from singing, than from eating or flying. Bacon. Though passion be the most obvious and general, yet it is not the only cause that binds up the understanding, and confines it, for the time, to one object, from which it will not be taken off. Locke. In such a dismal place, Where joy ne'er enters, which the sun ne'er cheers, Bound in with darkness, overspread with damps. Dryden. 10. To hinder the flux of the bowels; to make costive. Rhubarb hath manifestly in it parts of contrary operations; parts that purge, and parts that bind the body. Bacon. The whey of milk doth loose, the milk doth bind. Herbert. 2. To make costive. 3. To be obligatory. Those canons, or imperial constitutions, which have not been received here, do not bind. Halt. The promises and bargains for truck, between a Swiss and an Indian, in the woods of America, are binding to them, though they are perfectly. in a state of nature, in reference to one another. Locke. BIND. n. s. A species of hop. The two best sorts are the white and the grey bind; the latter is a large square hop, and more hardy. Mortimer. BINDER. n. s. [from To bind.] 1. A man whose trade it is to bind books. 2. A man that binds sheaves. Three binders stood, and took the handfuls reapt, From boys that gathered quickly up. Chapman. A man, with a binder, may reap an acre of wheat in a day, if it stand well. Mortimer. 3. A fillet; a shred cut to bind with. A double cloth, of such length and breadth as might serve to encompass the fractured member, I cut from each end to the middle, into three binders. Wiseman. BINDING. n. s. [from bind.] A bandage. This beloved young woman began to take off the binding of his eyes. Tatier. BINDWEED. n. s. [convolvulus, Lat.] A plant. Bindweed is the larger and the smaller; the first sort flowers in September, and the last in June and July. Mortimer. B'NOCLE. n. s. [from binus and oculus.] A kind of dioptrick telescope, fitted so with two tubes joining together in one, as that a distant object may be seen with both eyes together. Harris. BINOCULAR. adj. [from binus and oculus.] Having two eyes. Most animals are binocular, spiders for the most part octonocular, and some senocular. Derbam. BINO'MIAL Root. [In algebra.] A root composed of only two parts, connected with the signs plus or minus. Harris. BINO'MINOUS. adj. [from binus and nomen, Lat.] Having two names. BIOGRAPHER. n. s. [B and yep.] A writer of lives; a relater not of the hi story of nations, but of the actions of particular persons. Our Grubstreet biographers watch for the death of a great man, like so many undertakers, Addison. on purpose to make a penny of him. BIOGRAPHY. n. s. [B. and ypɑpw.] In writing the lives of men, which is called biography, some authors place every thing in the precise order of time when it occurred. Watts. BrOVAC. n. s. [Fr. from wey wach, BI'HOVAC. a double guard, German.] BIVOUAC. A guard at night performed by the whole army; which either at a siege, or lying before an enemy, every evening draws out from its tents or huts, and continues all night in arms. Not in Trevoux. Harris. use. BIPAROUS. adj. [from binus and pario, Lat.] Bringing forth two at a birth. BIPARTITE. adj. [from binus and pario, Lat.] Having two correspondent parts; divided into two. BIPARTITION.n.s. [from bipartite.] The act of dividing into two; or of making two correspondent parts. BIPED. n. s. [bipes, Lat.] An animal with two feet. No serpent, or fishes oviparous, have any stones at all; neither biped nor quadruped oviBrown. parous have any exteriourly. BIPEDAL. adj. [bipedalis, Lat.] Two feet in length; or having two feet. BIPE NNATED. adj. [from binus and penna, Lat. Having two wings. All bipennated insects have poises joined to Derham. the body. BIPE TALOUS. adj. [of bis, Lat. and πεταλον.] Consisting of two flower Dict. leaves. BIQUADRATE. n. s. [In algebra.] BIQUADRATICK. The fourth power, arising from the multiplication of a square number or quantity by itself. BIRCH. n. s. [biɲc, Sax. betula, Lat.] A tree. Harris. The leaves are like those of the poplar; the shoots are very slender and weak; the katkins are produced at remote distances from the fruits, on the same tree; the fruit becomes a little squa mose cone; the seeds are winged, and the tree Miller. casts its outer rind every year. BIRCHEN. adj. [from birch.] Made of birch. His beaver'd brow a birchen garland bears. Pope. BIRD. n. s. [bird, or brid, a chick, Sax.] A general term for the feathered kind; a fowl. In common talk, fowl is used for the larger, and bird for the smaller kind of feathered animals. The poor wren, Sh' had all the regal makings of a queen ; Milton. Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain, And birds of air, and monsters of the main. Dryden. There are some birds that are inhabitants of the water, whose blood is cold as fishes, and their flesh is so like in taste, that the scrupulous Locke. are allowed them on fish days. To BIRD. v. n. [from the noun.] catch birds. Το I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house, to breakfast; after, we'll a birding toge Shakspeare: ther. BIRDBOLT.' n. s. [from bird and bolt, or arrow.] An arrow broad at the end, to be shot at birds. To be generous and of free disposition, is to take those things for birdbolts that you deem Shakspeare. cannon bullets. BIRDCAGE. n. s. [from bird and cage.] An inclosure with interstitial spaces, made of wire or wicker, in which birds are kept. Birdcages taught him the pulley, and tops the Arbuthnot and Pope. centrifugal force. BIRDCATCHER. n. s. [from bird and catch.] One that makes it his employment to take birds. his net. A poor lark entered into a miserable expostu lation with a birdcatcher, that had taken her in L'Estrange BIRDER. n. s. [from bird.] A birdcatcher. BIRDING-PIECE. n. s. [from bird and piece.] A fowling-piece; a gun to shoot birds with. I'll creep up into the chimney.There they always use to discharge their birding-pieces; Shakspeare. creep into the kiln-hole. B'RDLIME. n. s. [from bird and lime.] A glutinous substance, which is spread upon twigs, by which the birds that light upon them are entangled. Birdlime is made of the bark of holly: they A more tenacious mass of clammy juice. Dryden. Heav'n's birdlime wraps me round, and glues my wings. The woodpecker, and other birds of this kind, because they prey upon flies which they catch with their tongue, have a couple of bags filled with a viscous humour, as if it were a natural birdlime, or liquid glue. Grew. BIRDMAN. n. s. [from bird and man.] A birdcatcher; a fowler. As a fowler was bending his net, a blackbird asked him what he was doing: why, says he, I am laying the foundations of a city; and so the L'Estrange. birdman drew out of sight. BIRDS-CHERRY.n.s.[padus Theophrasti.] A plant. BIRDSEYE. n. s. [adonis, Lat.] A plant. BIRDSFOOT. n. s. [ornithopodium, Lat.] 2. The day of the year in which any one Dict A plant. BIRDSNEST. n. s. An herb. BIRDSTARES. n. s. [aracus:] A plant. BIRDSTONGUE. n. s. An herb. BIRGANDER. n. s. [chenalopex.] A fowl of the goose kind. Dict. Dict. BIRT. n. s. A fish, the same with the turbot; which see. BIRTH. n. s. [beorð, Sax.] But thou art fair; and at thy birth, dear boy, Most virtuous virgin, born of heavenly birth. All truth I shall relate: nor first can I Myself to be of Grecian birth deny. Denbam. 3. Rank which is inherited by descent. He doth object, I am too great of birth. Shaks. Be just in all you say, and all you do; Whatever be your birth, you 're sure to be A peer of the first magnitude to me. Dryden. 4.The condition or circumstances in which any man is born. High in his chariot then Halesus came, A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name. Dryd. 5. Thing born; production: used of vegetables, as well as animals. The people fear me; for they do observe Unfather'd heirs, and loathly births of nature. Shakspeare. That poets are far rather births than kings, Your noblest father prov'd. Ben Jonson, Who of themselves Abhor to join; and, by imprudence mix'd, Produce before, to grace the earth. His eldest birth Waller. 7. The seamen call a due or proper di- Exhaling first from darkness, they beheld, was born, annually observed. "T is what the day deserves, which gave me breath. Dryden. Your country dames, Whose cloaths returning birthday claims. Prior BIRTHDOM. n. s. [This is erroneously, I think, printed in Shakspeare, birthdoom. It is derived from birth and dom (see DOM), as kingdom, dukedom.] Privilege of birth. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men Bestride our downfaln birthdom. -Shakspears. BIRTHNIGHT.n.s. [from birth and night.] 1. The night on which any one is born. Th' angelick song in Bethlehem field, On thy birthnight, that sung the Saviour born. Paradise Regained. 2. The night annually kept in memory of any one's birth. A youth more glittʼring than a birthright beau. Pope. BIRTHPLACE.n.s. [from birth and place.] Place where any one is born. My birthplace hate I, and my love's upon This enemy's town. Shakspeare. A degree of stupidity beyond even what we have been charged with, upon the score of our birthplace and climate. Swift. BIRTHRIGHT. n. s. [from birth and right] The rights and privileges to which a man is born; the right of the first-born. Thy blood and virtue Thou hast been found I lov'd her first; I cannot quit the claim, While no baseness in this breast I find, I have not lost the birthright of my mind. Dryd To say that liberty and property are the birthright of the English nation, but that, if a prince invades them by illegal methods, we must upon no pretence resist, is to confound governments. Addison BIRTHSTRANGLED. adj. [from birth and strangle.] Strangled or suffocated in being born. Finger of birthstrangled babe, Ditch deliver'd by a drab. Shakspeare. BIRTHWORT. n. s. [from birth and wort; I suppose, from a quality of hastening delivery: aristolochia, Lat.] A plant. BI'SCOTÍN. n. s. [French.] A confec tion made of flower, sugar, marmalade, eggs, &c. BI'SCUIT. n. s. [from bis, twice, Lat. and cuit, baked, Fr.] 1. A kind of hard dry bread, made to be carried to sea: it is baked for long voyages four times. The biscuit also in the ships, especially in the Spanish gallies, was grown hoary and unwholeKnolles's History. Milton. some. Many have been cured of dropsies by abstinence from drinks, eating dry biscuit, which creates no thirst, and strong frictions four or five times a-day. Arbuthnot on Diet. 2. A composition of fine flower, almonds, and sugar, made by the confectioners. To BISE CT. v. a. [from binus, and seco to cut, Lat.] To divide into two parts. The rational horizon bisecteth the globe into two equal parts. Brown's Vulgar Errours. BISECTION. n. s. [from the verb.] A geometrical term, signifying the division of any quantity into two equal parts. BI'SHOP. n. s. [From episcopus, Lat. the Saxons formed bircop, which was afterward softened into bishop.] One of the head order of the clergy. A bishop is an overseer, or superintendant, of Their zealous superstition thinks, or pretends, they cannot do God a greater service, than to destroy the primitive, apostolical, and anciently universal government of the church by bishops. K. Charles. In case a bishop should commit treason and felony, and forfeit his estate, with his life, the Lands of his bishoprick remain still in the church. South. On the word bishop, in French evêque, I would observe, that there is no natural connexion between the sacred office and the letters or sound; for eveque, and bishop, signify the same office, though there is not one letter alike in them. Watts' Logick. BI'SHOP. n. s. A cant word for a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar. Fine oranges,, Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup, They'll make a sweet bishop, when gentlefolks sup. Swift. To BI'SHOP. v. a. [from the noun.] To confirm; to admit solemnly into the church. They are prophane, imperfect, oh! too bad, Except confirm'd and bishoped by thee. Donne. BISHOPRICK. n. s. [bircoprice, Saxon.] The diocese of a bishop; the district over which the jurisdiction of a bishop extends. It will be fit, that, by the king's supreme power in causes ecclesiastical, they be subordi nate under some bishop, and bishoprick, of this realm. Bacon's Advice to Villiers. A virtuous woman should reject marriage, as a good man does a bishoprick; but I would advise neither to persist in refusing. Spectator. Those pastors had episcopal ordination, possessed preferments in the church, and were sometimes promoted to bishopricks themselves. Swift. BI'SHOPSWEED. n. s. [ammi, Lat.] A plant. BISK. n. s. [bisque, Fr.] Soup; broth made by boiling several sorts of flesh. A prince, who in a forest rides astray, And, weary, to some cottage finds the way, Talks of no pyramids, or fowls, or bisks of fish, But hungry sups his cream serv'd up in earthen dish. stance, of a metalline nature, found at Misnia; supposed to be a recrementitious matter thrown off in the formation of tin. Some esteem it a metal sui generis; though it usually contains some silver. There is an artificial bismuth made, for the shops, of tin. Quincy. BISSEXTILE. n. s. [from bis and sextilis, Lat.] Leap-year; the year in which the day, arising from six odd hours in each year, is intercalated. The year of the sun consisteth of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours, wanting eleven minutes; which six hours omitted, will, in time, deprave the compute: and this was the occasion of bissextile, or leap year. Brown. Towards the latter end of February is the bissextile or intercalar day; called bissextile, because the sixth of the calends of March is twice repeated. Holder on Time. BI'SSON. adj. [derived by Skinner from by and sin.] Blind. But who, oh! who hath seen the mobled queen Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames With bisson rheum? Shakspeare's Hamlet. What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character? Shakspeare's Coriolanus. BISTRE. n. s. [French] A colour made of chimney soot boiled, and then diluted with water; used by painters in Trevoux. washing their designs. Bi'sTORT. n. s. [bistorta, Lat.] A plant, called also snakeaweed; which see. BI'STOURY. n. s. [bistouri, Fr.] A surgeon's instrument, used in making incisions, of which there are three sorts; the blade of the first turns like that of a lancet; but the straight bistoury has the blade fixed in the handle; the crooked bistourg is shaped like a half moon, having the edge on the inside. Chambers. BISU'LCOUS. adj. [bisulcus, Lat.] Cio venfooted. For the swine, although multiparous, yet being bisulcous, and only clovenfooted, are farrowed with open eyes, as other bisulcous animals. Brown's Vulgar Errours. BIT. u. s. [bitol, Saxon.] Signifies the whole machine of all the iron appurtenances of a bridle, as the bit-mouth, the branches, the curb, the sevel holes, the tranchefil, and the cross chains; but sometimes it is used to signify only the bit-mouth in particular. Farrier's Dict. They light from their horses, pulling off their bit, that they might something refresh their mouths upon the grass. Sidney. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, The needful bits and curbs of headstrong steeds. Shakspeare. He hath the bit between his teeth, and away he runs. Still Unus'd to the restraint BIT. n. s. [from bite.] King. Br'SKET. See BISCUIT. BI'SMUTH. n. s. The same as marcasite; a hard, white, brittle, mineral sub 1. As much meat as is put into the mouth |