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What frightens you thus? my good son! says

the priest;

You murder'd, are sorry, and have been confest. O father! my sorrow will scarce save my bacon; For 't was not that I murder'd, but that I was taken. Prior. BACULO'METRY. n. s. [from baculus, Lat. and μirgo.] The art of measuring distances by one or more staves. Dict. BAD. adj. [quaad, Dutch: compar.worse; superl. worst.]

1. Ill; not good: a general word used in regard to physical or moral faults, either of men or things.

Most men have politicks enough to make, through violence, the best scheme of government a bad one. Pope.

2. Vitious; corrupt.

Thou may'st repent,

And one bad act, with many deeds well done,

May'st cover.

Milton.

Thus will the latter, as the former, world Still tend from bad to worse.

Milton.

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And, for an earnest of greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. Shakspeare. BADGE. n. 5. [A word of uncertain etymology; derived by Junius from bode or bade, a messenger, and supposed to be corrupted from badage, the credential of a messenger; but taken by Skinner and Minsheau from bagghe, Dutch, a jewell, or bague, Fr. a ring. It seems to come from bajulo, to carry, Lat.]

A mark or cognizance worn to show the relation of the wearer to any person or thing.

But on his breast a bloody cross he bore, The dear resemblance of his dying lord; For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore. Spenser.

The outward splendour of his office, is the badge and token of that sacred character which he inwardly bears. Atterbury.

2. Atoken by which one is known. A savage tygress on her helmet lies; The famous badge Clarinda us'd to bear. Fairfax. 3. The mark or token of any thing.

There appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could not shew itself modest enough, without a badge of bitterness.

Shakspeare.

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. Shaksp. Let him not bear the badges of a wreck, Nor beg with a blue table on his back. Dryden. To BADGE. v. a. [from the noun.] To mark as with a badge.

Your royal father 's murder'd

-Oh, by whom?

"I hose of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:

Their hands and faces were all bad'd with blood, So were their daggs. Shakspeart. BADGER. 7. s. bedour, Fr. melis, Lat.] An animal that earths in the ground, used to be hurted.

That a brock, or badger, hath legs of one side shorter than the other, is received not only by theorists and unexperienced believers, but most who beheld them daily. Brown. BADGER-LEGGED. adj. [from badger and legged.] Having legs of an unequal length, as the badger is supposed to have.

His body crooked all over, big-bellied, badger-legged, and his complexion swarthy. L'Estr. BADGER. 1. s. [perhaps from the Latin

bajulus, acarrier; but by Junius derived from the badger, a creature who stows up his provision.] One that buys corn and victuals in one place, and carries it unto another. Corvell. BA'DLY. adv. [from bad.] In a bad manner; not well.

How goes the day with us? O tell me, Habert.

Badly, I fear. How fares your majesty? Shak. BA'DNESS. 7. s. [from bad.] Want of good qualities, either natural or moral; desert; depravity.

It was not your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a work by a reproveable badness in himself. Shak.

There is one convenience in this city, which makes some amends for the badness of the paveAddison on Italy.

ment.

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Etruria lost,

He brings to Turnus' aid his baffled host. Dryd When the mind has brought itself to close thinking, it may go on roundly. Every abstruse problem, every intricate question, will not baffie, Locke. discourage, or break it.

A foreign potentate trembles at a war with the English nation, ready to employ against him such revenues as shall baffle his designs upon their country. Addison. BA'FFLE. n. s. [from the verb.] A defeat. It is the skill of the disputant that keeps of a baffle. Settb.

The authors, having missed of their aims, are BAFFLER. n. s. [from baffle.] He that fain to retreat with frustration and a baffle. South. puts to confusion, or defeats.

Experience, that great boffer of speculation, assures us the thing is too possible, and brings, in all ages, matter of fact to confute our suppo sitions. Government of the Tongut. BAG. n. s. [belge, Saxon; from which perhaps, by dropping, as is usual, the harsh consonant, came bege, bage, bag.}

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Heaps of hair rings and cypher'd seals; Rich trifles, serious bagatelles. BAGGAGE. n. 5. {from bag; baggage, Fr.] 1 The furniture and utensils of an army. The army was an hundred and seventy thou sand footmen, and twelve thousand horsemen, beside the baggage. Judith. Riches are the bagge of virtue; they cannot be spared, nor left behind, but they hinder the

march.

Bacon. They were probably always in readiness, and carried among the baggage of the army. Addison on Italy. 2 The goods that are to be carried away, as bag and baggage. Dolabella designed, when his affairs grew desperate in Egypt, to pack up bag and baggage, and sail for Italy. Arbuthnot.

3. A worthless woman: in French bagaste: so called, because such women follow camps.

A spark of indignation did rise in her, not to suffer such a baggage to win away any thing of hers. Sidney. When this bargage meets with a man who has vanity to credit relations, she turns him to acSpectator.

count.

BAGNIO. n. s. [bagno, Ital. a bath.] A house for bathing, sweating, and other'wise cleansing the body.

I have known two instances of malignant fevers produced by the hot air of a bagnio, Arbuth. B'AGPIPE, n. s. [from bag and pipe; the wind being received in a bag.] A musical instrument, consisting of a leathern bag, which blows up like a foot-ball,' by means of a port-vent or little tube fixed to it, and stopped by a valve; and three pipes or flutes, the first called the great pipe or drone, and the second the little one, which pass the wind out only at the bottom; the third has a reed, and is played on by compressing the bag under the arm, when full; and opening or stopping the holes, which are eight, with the fingers. The bagpipe takes in the compass of three Chambers. No banners but shirts, with some bad bagpipes instead of drum and fife. Sidney. He heard a bagpipe, and saw a general animated with the sound. Addison's Freeholder.

octaves.

BAGPIPER. n. s. [from bagpipe.] One that plays on a bagpipe.

Some that will evermore peep thro' their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper. Shaksp. BAGUETTE. n. s. [Fr. a term of architecture.] A little round moulding, less than an astragal; sometimes carved and enriched.

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To BAIGNE. v. a. [bagner, Fr.] drench; to soak. Out of use. The women forslow not to baignethem, unless they plead their heels, with a worse perfume BAIL. n. 3. [Of this word the etymolothan Jugurth found in the dungeon. Carero. gists give many derivations; it seems to come from the French bailler, to put into the hand; to deliver up, as a man delivers himself up in surety.]

Bail is the freeing or setting at liberty one arrested or imprisoned upon action either civil or criminal, under security taken for his appearance. There is both common and special bail; common bail is in actions of small prejudice, or slight proof, called common, because any sureties in that case are taken: whereas upon causes of greater weight, or apparent speciality, special bail or surety must be taken. There is a dif ference between bail and mainprise; for he that is mainprised is at large until the day of his ap pearance: but where a man is bailed, he is always accounted by the law to be in their ward and custody for the time: and they may, if they will, keep him in ward or in prison at that time, or otherwise at their will. Corvell.

Worry'd with debts, and past all hopes of bail, Th' unpity'd wretch lies rotting in a jail. Rose, And brib'd with presents; or, when presents fail,

They send their prostituted wives for bail. Dryd. To BAIL. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To give bail for another.

Let me be their bail;

They shall be ready at your highness' will,
To answer their suspicion-
Thou shalt not bail them.

2. To admit to bail.

Shak. Tit. And,

When they had bailed the twelve bishops who were in the Tower, the house of commons, in

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Clarendon.

great indignation, caused them immediately to be recommitted to the Tower. BA'ILABLE. adj. [from bail.]

That may be set at liberty by bail or sureties. BAILIFF. n. s. [a word of doubtful etymology in itself, but borrowed by us from baillie, Fr.]

1. A subordinate officer.

Lausanne is under the canton of Berne, governed by a bailiff sent every three years from the senate of Berne. Addison.

2. An officer whose business it is to execute arrests.

It many times happeneth, that, by the undersheriffs and their bailiffs, the owner hath incurred the forfeiture, before he cometh to the knowledge of the process that runneth against him. Bacon. A bailiff, by mistake, seized you for a debtor, and kept you the whole evening in a spunging house. Swift.

Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind. Pope. 3. An under steward of a manor. BA'ILIWICK. n. s. [of baillie, Fr. and pic, Sax.] The place of the jurisdiction of a bailiff within his hundred, or the lord's franchise. It is that liberty which is exempted from the sheriff of the county, over which the lord of the liberty appointeth a bailiff. Corvell. A proper officer is to walk up and down his bailiwicks.

Spenser.

There issued writs to the sheriffs, to return the names of the several land-owners in their several bailiwicks.

Hale.

To BAIT. v. a. [batan, Saxon; baitzen, German.]

1. To put meat upon a hook, in some place, to tempt fish, or other animals. Oh cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, With saints dost bait thy hook! most dangerous Is that temptation that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue.

Shakspeare.

Let's be revenged on him; let 's appoint him a meeting, give him a show of comfort in his suit, and lead him on with a sure baited delay, till he hath pawned his horses to mine host of the garter. Shaksp. Merry Wives of Windsor.

Many sorts of fishes feed upon insects, as is well known to anglers, who bait their hooks with them. Ray. How are the sex improv'd in am'rous arts!" What new-found snares they bait for human hearts! Gay. 2. To give meat to one's self, or horses, on the road.

What so strong, But, wanting rest, will also want of might? The sun, that measures heaven all day long, At night doth bait his steeds the ocean waves among. Spenser.

To BAIT. v. a. [from battre, Fr. to beat.] 1. To attack with violence.

Who seeming sorely chaffed at his band, As chained bear, whom cruel dogs do bait, With idle force did fain them to withstand. Fairy Queen.

I will not yield

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But our desires tyrannical extortion Doth force us there to set our chief delightfulness, Where but a baiting place is all our portion.

Sidney.

As one who on his journey baits at noon, Tho' bent on speed: so here th' archangel paus'd. Milton.

In all our journey from London to his house, we did not so much as bait at a whig inn. Addison. To BAIT. v. n. [as a hawk:] To clap the wings; to make an offer of flying; to flutter.

All plum'd like estridges, that with the wind Baited like eagles having lately bath'd; Glitttering in golden coats like images. Sbaks. Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks With thy black mantle; till strange love grown bold,

Thinks true love acted simple modesty. Shaks.
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come, and know her keeper's call;
That is, to watch her as we watch these kites,
That bait and beat, and will not be obedient.
Shakspeare.

BAIT. n. 5. [from the verb.]
1. Meat set to allure fish, or other ani-
mals, to a snare.

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The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, And greedily devour the treacherous bait. Sbak. A temptation; an enticement; allure

ment.

And that same glorious beauty's idle boast Is but a bait such wretches to beguile. Spenser. Taketh therewith the souls of men, as with the baits. Hooker.

Sweet words, I grant, baits and allurements

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Her head was bare,

But for her native ornament of hair, Which in a simple knot was tied above: Sweet negligence ! unheeded bait of love! Dryd. Grant that others could with equal glory Look down on pleasures, and the baits of sense. Addison. 3. A refreshment on a journey. BAIZE. n. s. A kind of coarse open cloth stuff, having a long nap; sometimes frized on one side, and sometimes not frized. This stuff is without wale, being wrought on a loom with two treddles, like flannel. Chambers. To BAKE. v. a. part. pass. baked or baken. [bæcan, Sax. becken, Germ. supposed by Wachter to come from bec, which, in the Phrygian language, signified bread.] 1. To heat any thing in a close place; generally in an oven.

He will take thereof, and warm himself; yea he kindleth it, and baketh bread. Isaiab.

The difference of prices of bread proceeded from their delicacy in bread, and perhaps something in their manner of baking. Arbuthnot.

2. To harden in the fire.

The work of the fire is a kind of baking; and whatsoever the fire baketh, time doth in some degree dissolve.

3. To harden with heat.

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oven.

There be some houses wherein sweetmeats will relent, and baked meats will mould, more Bacon. than others.

BAKEHOUSE. n. s. [from bake and house.]
A place for baking bread.

I have marked a willingness in the Italian ar-
tizans, to distribute the kitchen, pantry, and
Wotton.
bakehouse, under ground.
BA'KEN. The participle from To bake.
There was a cake baken on the coals, and a
Kings.
cruse of water, at his head.
BA'KER. N.S. [from To bake.] He whose
trade is to bake.

South.

In life and health, every man must proceed upon trust, there being no knowing the intention of the cook or baker. BA'LANCE. n. s. [balance, Fr. bilanx, Lat.]

1. One of the six simple powers in mechanicks, used principally for determining the difference of weight in heavy bodies. Chambers. It is of several forms.

2. A pair of scales.

A balance of power, either without or within a state, is best conceived by considering what the nature of a balance is. It supposes three things; first, the part which is held, together with the hand that holds it; and then the two scales, with whatever is weighed therein. Swift. For when on ground the burden balance lies, The empty part is lifted up the higher.

Sir J. Davies, 3. A metaphorical balance, or the mind employed in comparing one thing with another.

I have in equal balance justly weigh'd What wrong our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer:

Griefs heavier than our offences. Shakspeare. 4. The act of comparing two things, as by the balance.

Comfort arises not from others being miserable, but from this inference upon the balance, that L'Estrange. we suffer only the lot of nature. Upon a fair balance of the advantages on either side, it will appear, that the rules of the gospel are more powerful means of conviction than such Atterbury. message. 5. The overplus of weight; that quantity by which, of two things weighed together, one exceeds the other.

Care being taken, that the exportation exceed in value the importation; and then the balance of trade must of necessity be returned in coin or Bacon's Advice to Villiers. bullion.

6. That which is wanting to make two parts of an account even; as, he stated

the account with his correspondent,

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and paid the balance.

7. Equipoise; as, balance of power.
the second sense.

See

Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling
train;

Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain;
These, mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind.
Pope.

8. The beating part of a watch.

It is but supposing that all watches, whilst the balance beats, think; and it is sufficiently proved, Locke. that my watch thought all last night. 9. [In astronomy.] One of the twelve signs of the zodiack, commonly called Libra.

Or wilt thou warm our summers with thy rays, And seated near the balance poise the days? Dryden, To BALANCE. v. a. [balancer, Fr.] 1. To weigh in a balance, either real or figurative; to compare by the balance. If men would but balance the good and the evil of things, they would not venture soul and L'Estrange. body for dirty interest. 2. To regulate the weight in a balance; to keep in a state of just proportion.

Heav'n that hath plac'd this island to give law, To balance Europe, and her states to awe. Waller. 3. To counterpoise; to weigh equal to; to be equipollent; to counteract.

The attraction of the glass is balanced, and rendered ineffectual, by the contrary attraction Newtor. of the liquor.

4. To regulate an account, by stating it on both sides.

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Judging is balancing an account, and deterLocke. mining on which side the odds lie.

5. To pay that which is wanting to make
the two parts of an account equal.
Give him leave

To balance the account of Blenheim's day. Prior.
Though I am very well satisfied, that it is
not in my power to balance accounts with my
Maker, I ain resolved, however, to turn all my
endeavours that way.
Addison's Spectator.
To BALANCE. v. n. To hesitate; to
fluctuate between equal motives, as a
balance plays when charged with equal
weights.

Were the satisfaction of lust, and the joys of heaven, offered to any one's present possession, he would not balance, or err, in the determina Locke. tion of his choice. Since there is nothing that can offend, I see not why you should balance a moment about printing it. Atterbury to Pope. BALANCER. n. s. [from balance.] The person that weighs any thing. BA'LASS Ruby. n. s. [balas, Fr. supposed to be an Indian term.] A kind of ruby.

Balass ruby is of a crimson colour, with a cast of purple, and seems best to answer the description of the ancients.

Woodward on Fossils.

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To BALBU'CINATE. v.n. [from balbu
To BALBU'TIATE. S tio, Latin.]
Dict
stammer in speaking.
BALCONY. n. s. [balcon, Fr. balcone,
Ital.] A frame of iron, wood, or stone,
before the window of a room.

Then pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion,
Began to make balconies, terraces,

Till she had weaken'd all by alteration. Herbert,

When dirty waters from balconies drop, And dextrous damsels twirl the sprinkling mop. Gay.

BALD. adj. [bal, Welsh.]

1. Wanting hair; despoiled of hair by time or sickness.

Neither shall men make themselves bald for them. Jeremiah. I find it remarked by Marchetti, that the cause of baldness in men is the dryness of the brain, and its shrinking from the skull; he having observed, that in bald persons, under the bald part, there was a vacuity between the skull and the brain. Ray He should imitate Cæsar, who, because his head was bald, covered that defect with laurels, Addison.

2. Without natural covering.

Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,

And high top bald with dry antiquity. Shaksp. 3. Without the usual covering.

He is set at the upper end o' th' table; but they stand bald before him. Shakspeare. 4. Unadorned; inelegant.

Hobbes, in the preface to his own bald transla tion, begins the praise of Homer when he should have ended it. Dryden's Fables, Preface.

And that, though labour'd, line must bald appear,

That brings ungrateful musick to the ear.

Creech. 5. Mean; naked; without dignity; without value; bare.

What should the people do with these bald tribunes?

On whom depending, their obedience fails To th' greater bench. Shakspeare. 6. Bald was used by the northern nations, to signify the same as audax, bold; and is still in use. So Baldwin, and by inversion Winbald, is bold conqueror; Ethelbald, nobly bold; Eadbald, happily bold; which are of the same import as Thraseas, Thrasymachus, and ThrasyGibson. bulus, &c. BALDACHIN. n. s. [baldachino, Ital.] A piece of architecture, in form of a canopy, supported with columns, and serving as a covering to an altar. It properly signifies a rich silk, Du Gange, and was a canopy carried over the host. Builder's Dict. BALDERDASH. n. s. [probably of bald, Sax. bold, and dash, to mingle.] Any thing jumbled together without judgement; rude mixture; a confused dis

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1. A girdle. By some Dictionaries it is explained a bracelet; but I have not found it in that sense.

Athwart his breast a baldrick brave he ware, That shin'd, like twinkling stars, with stones most precious rare. Fairy Queen. A radiant baldrick, o'er his shoulders tied, Sustain'd the sword that glitter'd at his side. Pope. 2. The zodiack.'

That like the twins of Jove they seem'd in fight,

Which deck the baldrick of the heavens bright.

BALE. n. s. [balle, Fr.]

Spenser

A bundle or

parcel of goods packed up for carriage. One hired an ass, in the dog-days, to carry certain bales of goods to such a town. L'Estrange. It is part of the bales in which bohea tea was brought over from China. Woodward.

BALE. n. s. [bæl, Sax. bale, Dan. bal, boi, Icelandish.] Misery; calamity.

She look'd about, and, seeing one in mail Armed to point, sought back to turn again; For light she hated as the deadly bale. Fairy Q To BALE. v. a. A word used by the sailors, who bid bale out the water; that is, lave it out, by way of distinction from pumping. Skinner. I believe from bail. ler, Fr. to deliver from hand to hand. To BALE. v. n. [emballer, Fr. imballure, Ital.] To make up into a bale. BA'LEFUL. adj. [from bale.]

1. Full of misery; full of grief; sorrow. ful; sad; woeful.

Ah,luckless babe! born under cruel star, And in dead parents baleful ashes bred. Fairy Q But when I feel the bitter baleful smart, Which her fair eyes unwares do work in me, I think that I a new Pandora see. Spenser.

Round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay,
Mix'd with obdurate pride and stedfast hate. Milt.
2. Full of mischief; destructive.

But when he saw his threat'ning was but vain,
He turn'd about, and search'd his baleful books
again.
Fairy Queen

Boiling choler chokes
By sight of these, our baleful enemies. Shaksp,
Unseen, unfelt, the fiery serpent skims
Betwixt her linen and her naked limbs,
His baleful breath inspiring as he glides. Dryden.
Happy lerne, whose most wholesome air
Poisons envenom'd spiders, and forbids
The baleful toad and vipers from her shore.
Philips
BA'LEFULLY. adv. [from baleful.] Sor-
rowfully; mischievously.

BALK. n. s. [balk, Dut. and Germ.] A

great beam, such as is used in building; a rafter over an out-house or barn. BALK. n. s. [derived by Skinner from valicare, Ital. to pass over.] A ridge of land left unploughed between the furrows, or at the end of the field. To BALK. v. a. [See the noun.]

1. To disappoint; to frustrate; to elude. Another thing in the grammar schools I see no use of, unless it be to balk young lads in learning languages. Locke.

Every one has a desire to keep up the vigour of his faculties, and not to balk his understanding by what is too hard for it.

Locke.

But one may balk this good intent, And take things otherwise than meant. Prier.

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