BIER, b[=e]r, _n._ a carriage or frame of wood for bearing the dead to the grave. [A.S. _b['ae]r_; Ger. _bahre_, L. _fer-etrum_. From root of verb BEAR.]
BIESTINGS. Same as BEESTINGS.
BIFACIAL, b[=i]-f[=a]'shyal, _adj._ having two like faces or opposite surfaces. [L. _bi-_, twice, and FACIAL.]
BIFFINS, bif'inz, _n._ apples slowly dried in bakers' ovens and flattened into cakes--prepared in great quantities in Norfolk. [Said to be properly _beefins_, because like raw beef.]
BIFIDATE, bif'id-[=a]t, _adj._ (_bot._) cleft in two.--Also BIF'ID. [L.
_bifidus_--_bi-_, _bis_, twice, and _find[)e]re_, perf. _fidi_, to cleave or split.]
BIFLORATE, b[=i]-fl[=o]'r[=a]t, _adj._ bearing two flowers. [L. _bi-_, twice, and _flos_, _floris_, a flower.]
BIFOLD, b[=i]'f[=o]ld, _adj._ twofold: (_Shak._) of two kinds. [L. _bi-_, twice, and FOLD.]
BIFOLIATE, b[=i]-f[=o]'li-[=a]t, _adj._ having two leaves. [L. _bi-_, twice, and FOLIATE.]
BIFORM, b[=i]'form, _adj._ having two forms. [L. _bi-_, twice, and FORM.]
BIFURCATE, b[=i]-fur'k[=a]t, BIFURCATED, b[=i]-fur'k[=a]t-ed, _adj._ two-forked; having two prongs or branches.--_n._ BIFURC[=A]'TION, a forking or division into two branches. [L. _bifurcus_--_bi-_, _bis_, twice, _furca_, a fork.]
BIG, big, _adj._ large or great: pregnant: great in air, mien, or spirit: loud: pompous, esp. 'to talk big,' 'look big.'--_adjs._ BIG-BELL'IED, having a big belly; pregnant (_with_); BIG'GISH, rather big.--_ns._ BIG'NESS, bulk, size; BIG'WIG (_colloq._), a leading man, a person of some importance. [M. E. _big_; origin very obscure--Skeat suggests that it is _bilg_, the _l_ being dropped, and compares Ice. _belgja_, to puff out.]
BIG, big, _v.t._ (_Scot._) to build, to pile up.--_n._ BIG'GIN, anything built, a house. [Sc. _byggja_; A.S. _buian_.]
BIGAMY, big'am-i, _n._ the crime of having two wives or two husbands at once.--_n._ BIG'AMIST, one who has committed bigamy. [Fr.--L. _bi-_, _bis_, twice, and Gr. _gamos_, marriage.]
BIGG, big, _n._ a kind of barley. [Scand.; Ice. _bygg_, Dan. _byg_.]
BIGGIN, big'in, _n._ a child's cap or hood. [Fr. _beguin_, from the cap worn by the _Beguines_, a religious society of women in France.]
BIGHT, b[=i]t, _n._ a bend of the shore, or small bay: a bend or coil of a rope. [A.S. _byht_; cf. Dan. and Sw. _bugt_, Dut. _bocht_; from _b[=u]gan_, to bow.]
BIGNONIA, big-n[=o]'ni-a, _n._ a genus of tropical plants with trumpet-shaped flowers, named from the Abbe _Bignon_, Louis XIV.'s librarian.
BIGOT, big'ot, _n._ one blindly and obstinately devoted to a particular creed or party.--_adj._ BIG'OTED, having the qualities of a bigot.--_n._ BIG'OTRY, blind or excessive zeal, esp. in religious matters. [O. Fr.; of dub. origin; variously conn. with _Visigoth_, they being Arians, while the Franks were orthodox; with Sp. _bigote_, a moustache; with _Beguine_ (q.v.); and by Wace with a worthless legend that the Norman Rollo, in refusing to kiss the foot of Charles the Simple, said, 'Ne se, _bi got_.']
BIJOU, be-zh[=oo]', _n._ a trinket: a jewel: a little box:--_pl._ BIJOUX (be-zh[=oo]').--_n._ BIJOU'TRY, jewellery: small articles of virtu. [Fr.]
BIKE, b[=i]k, _n._ a nest of wasps, wild bees, &c.: a swarm of people.
[Scot.; ety. dub.]
BIKE. See BICYCLE.
BILABIATE, b[=i]-l[=a]'bi-[=a]t, _adj._ having two lips, as some corollas.
[L. _bi-_, twice, and LABIATE.]
BILANDER, b[=i]'land-[.e]r, _n._ a two-masted hoy, having her mainsail bent to the whole length of her yard, hanging fore and aft, and inclined to the horizontal at an angle of about 45.--Also BY'LANDER. [Dut. _bijlander_.]
BILATERAL, b[=i]-lat'[.e]r-al, _adj._ having two sides.--_adv._ BILAT'ERALLY. [L. _bi-_, twice, and LATERAL.]
BILBERRY, bil'ber-i, _n._ called also _Whortleberry_, a shrub and its berries, which are dark blue. [Cf. Dan. _bollebaer_; Scot. _blaeberry_; Ger.
_blaubeere_.]
BILBO, bil'b[=o], _n._ a rapier or sword:--_pl._ BILBOES (bil'b[=o]z), fetters. [From _Bilbao_, in Spain.]
BILE, b[=i]l, _n._ a thick bitter fluid secreted by the liver--yellow in man and carnivorous animals, green in vegetable feeders: (_fig._) ill-humour.--_n._ BILE'-DUCT, the duct which conveys the bile from the liver and the gall-bladder to the small intestine.--_adjs._ BIL'IARY, belonging to or conveying bile; BIL'IOUS, pertaining to or affected by bile.--_adv._ BIL'IOUSLY. [Fr.--L. _bilis_.]
BILGE, bilj, _n._ the bulging part of a cask: the broadest part of a ship's bottom.--_v.i._ to spring a leak by a fracture in the bilge, as a ship.--_ns._ BILGE'-PUMP; BILGE'-WAT'ER.--_adj._ BILG'Y, having the appearance and disagreeable smell of bilge-water. [Most prob. conn. with BULGE.]
BILHARZIA, bil'har-zi-a, _n._ a human parasitic flat worm in the fluke or Trematode order, with differentiated sexes. [From the helminthologist, Theodor _Bilharz_.]
BILINGUAL, b[=i]-ling'wal, _adj._ of or containing two tongues or languages.--Also BILIN'GUAR. [L. _bilinguis_--_bi-_, twice, _lingua_, tongue.]
BILITERAL, b[=i]-lit'[.e]r-al, _adj._ consisting of two letters. [L. _bi-_, twice, and _litera_, a letter.]
BILK, bilk, _v.t._ to elude; to cheat. [Perh. a dim. of BALK; at first a term in cribbage.]
[Illustration]
BILL, bil, _n._ a kind of concave battle-axe with a long wooden handle: a kind of hatchet with a long blade and wooden handle in the same line with it, often with a hooked point, used in cutting thorn hedges or in pruning.--_ns._ BILL'HOOK, a bill or hatchet having a hooked or curved point; BILL'MAN, a soldier armed with a bill. [A.S. _bil_; Ger. _bille_.]
BILL, bil, _n._ the beak of a bird, or anything like it, applied even to a sharp promontory, as Portland Bill: the point of the fluke of an anchor--hence BILL'-BOARD, _n._, used to protect the planking from being injured by the bill when the anchor is weighed.--_v.i._ to join bills as doves: to caress fondly.--_adj._ BILLED. [A.S. _bile_, most prob. the same word as the preceding.]
BILL, bil, _n._ an account of money: a draft of a proposed law: a written engagement to pay a sum of money at a fixed date: a placard or advertisement: any written statement of particulars: in the criminal law of England, the formal name of a written accusation of serious crime preferred before a grand-jury.--_n._ BILL'-BOOK, a book used in commerce in which an entry is made of all bills accepted and received.--_n.pl._ BILL'-BROK'ERS, persons who, being skilled in the money-market, the state of mercantile and personal credit, and the rates of exchange, engage, either on their own account or that of their employers, in the purchase and sale of foreign and inland bills of exchange and promissory notes: the business of BILL'-DISCOUNT'ERS, or discount-brokers, again, consists in discounting or advancing the amount of bills of exchange and notes which have some time to run before they come due, on the faith of the credit of the parties to the bill.--_n._ BILL'-CHAM'BER, a department of the Court of Session in Scotland which deals with summary business--so called because formerly both summonses and diligence or execution were for the most part commenced by a writ called a bill; BILL'-STICK'ER, one who sticks or posts up bills or placards.--BILL OF ADVENTURE, a writing by a merchant stating that goods shipped by him, and in his name, are the property of another, whose adventure or chance the transaction is--the shipping merchant, on the other hand, undertaking to account to the adventurer for the produce; BILL OF COMPLAINT, the name given in the English Court of Chancery, prior to the Judicature Act of 1873, to the formal statement of the facts and prayer for relief submitted by a plaintiff to the court; BILL OF COSTS, an account stating in detail the charges and disbursements of an attorney or solicitor in the conduct of his client's business; BILL OF EXCEPTIONS, a statement of objections, by way of appeal, against the decision of a judge who is trying a case with a jury in the Court of Session; BILL OF EXCHANGE, a document purporting to be an instrument of pecuniary obligation for value received, and which is employed for the purpose of settling a debt in a manner convenient to the parties concerned; BILL OF FARE, in a hotel, the list of dishes or articles of food; BILL OF HEALTH, an official certificate of the state of health on board ship before sailing; BILL OF LADING, a paper signed by the master of a ship, by which he makes himself responsible for the safe delivery of the goods specified therein; BILL OF MORTALITY, an official account of the births and deaths occurring in a certain district within a given time; BILL OF SALE, in English law, a formal deed assigning personal property, the usual mode of transferring ships, and valuable as mercantile securities over stock-in-trade, furniture, &c.; BILL OF SIGHT, an entry of imported goods of which the merchant does not know the quantity or the quality; BILL OF STORE, a license from the customs authorities to reimport British goods formerly exported; BILL OF VICTUALLING, a list of necessary stores shipped from the bonded warehouse, or for drawback on board vessels proceeding on oversea voyages. [Through Low L. _billa_, from L. _bulla_, anything round, a knob, a seal appended to a charter, hence a document bearing a seal, &c. See BULL, an edict.]
BILLET, bil'et, _n._ a little note or paper: a ticket assigning quarters to soldiers.--_v.t._ to quarter or lodge, as soldiers. [Fr.; dim. of BILL.]
[Illustration]
BILLET, bil'et, _n._ a small log of wood used as fuel: (_archit._) an ornament in Norman architecture resembling billets of wood.--_n._ BILL'ET-HEAD, a billet or round piece of wood fixed in the bow or stern of a whale-boat, round which the harpoon-line is turned when the whale is struck. [Fr. _billette_--_bille_, the young stock of a tree, prob. of Celt.
orig., perh. allied to BOLE, the trunk of a tree.]
BILLET-DOUX, bil-e-d[=oo]', _n._ a sweet note: a love-letter. [Fr.
_billet_, a letter, _doux_, sweet.]
BILLIARDS, bil'yardz, _n._ a game played with a cue or mace and balls on a table having pockets at the sides and corners.--_adj._ BILL'IARD.--_n._ BILL'IARD-MARK'ER, a person who marks the points made by the players. [Fr.
_billard_--_bille_, a ball.]
BILLINGSGATE, bil'ingz-g[=a]t, _n._ foul and abusive language like that once familiar to the ear at _Billingsgate_ (the great fish-market of London).
BILLION, bil'yun, _n._ a million or thousand thousand of millions (1,000,000,000,000); or, according to the French method of numeration, one thousand millions (1,000,000,000). [L. _bi-_, twice, and MILLION.]
BILLON, bil'on, _n._ base metal: esp. an alloy of silver with copper, tin, or the like. [Fr., from same root as BILLET.]
BILLOW, bil'[=o], _n._ a great wave of the sea swelled by the wind: (_poet._) a wave, the sea.--_v.i._ to roll in large waves.--_adjs._ BILL'OWED, BILL'OWY. [Scand.; Ice. _bylgja_; Sw. _bolja_, Dan. _bolge_, a wave. See BILGE, BULGE.]
BILLY, BILLIE, bil'i, _n._ a comrade, a companion-in-arms: an Australian bushman's boiling-pan or tea-pot:--_pl._ BILL'IES.--_n._ BILL'Y-GOAT, a he-goat. [Prob. from _Bill_, a familiar abbrev. of William.]