Thinkest thou that they be coblers, tapsters, or such like base mechanicall people, that write these bills and scrolls which are found daily in thy prætor's chair, and not the noblest men and best citizens that do it? North. Plutarch, p. 820. The peeres and captaines of Israel are driven manicled through the Assyrian streets, and billeted to the severall places of their perpetuall servitude. Bp. Hall. Cont. The Utter Destruction of Israel. Seldome ever hath extremity of mischief seized, where easier afflictions have not been billeted before. Id. Cont. Haman Disrespected. Robin, you must know, is the best man in town for carrying a billet; the fellow has a thin body, swift step, demure Look, sufficient sense, and knows the town. Spectator, No. 498. Our countrymen could not forbear laughing when they heard a lover chanting out a billet-doux, and even the superscription of a letter set to a tune. Id. No. 29. As he never said-no-to any request in his life, he has given them a bill, drawn by a friend of his upon a merchant in the city, which I am to get changed. Goldsmith. The Goodnatur'd Man, Act iii. sc. 1. I write this, Eliza, at Mr. James's whilst he is dressing, and the dear girl, his wife. is writing beside me, to thee.-I got your melancholy bilet before we sat down to dinner. Sterne, Let. 84. Sw. Goth. Bulg-ia, to bulge, to belly out, to swell. BILLOW, v. BILLOW, n. BILLOWY. To swell or heave; usually applied to the swelling or heaving of the waves. The mariner amidde the swelling seas, Who seeth his barke with many a billowe beaten, Gascoigne. Chorus to Jocasta, Act ii. Within two dayes after, there arose another great storme, at the north-east, and we lay a trie, being driven far into the se, and had much ado to keepe our barke from sinking, the billove was so great.-Hacklugt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 334. O, doe but thinke You stand upon the riuage, and behold A citie on th' inconstant biliowes dauncing: Shakespeare. Hen. V. Chorus . But as a ship that vnder saile doth passe The beaten bark, her rudder lost, Her keel now ploughs the ooze, and soon His ey-lids; he beheld the Pleiades; The Beare, surram'd the Waine, that round doth moue About Orion; and keeps still aboue The billowie ocean.-Chapman. Homer. Odysses, b. v The billowing snow, and violence of the shower, Prior. Solomon, b. iii. When first the kingdom to thy virtues due Warton. On the Marriage of the King. .BIN. Skinner, and after him, Tooke, derive from the A. S. Pyndan, to enclose, to pen, or pin; to bin, differing merely in the application, from to pen or pin. Any thing that encloses, that confines; as a corn-bin, a wine-bin. Wel coude he kepe a garner and a binn Oft I've seen, There goes through the whole length of it a spacious walk Ev'n at her frown the boist'rous uproar cease, of the finest gravel, made to bind and unite so firmly, that And the mad pickers, tam'd to diligence, it seems one continued stone.-Tatler, No. 179. Cull from the bin the sprawling sprigs, and leaves The law, by which all creatures else are bound, That stain the sample, and its worth debase. Binds man the lord of all. Smart. The Hop Garden, b. ii. Id. Ib. O'er twice three pickers, and no more, extend Bis, Binus, two. Thor. I have 'em already, Somerton. Ford. Witch of Edmonton, Act iii. sc. 2. Pythagorus affirmeth, that of the two first principles, unity was God, and the soveraign good; which is the very nature of one, and is understanding it selfe: but the indefinite binary, is the devill and evill, about which is the multitude materiall, and the visible world.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 665. So that this matter was rightly called heaven: and the union of the passive and active principle in the creation of this material heaven is the second day's work, and the binarie denotes the nature thereof. More. The Philosophick Cabbala, c. 1. Goth. and A. S. Bindan: Dut. and Ger. Binden; Sw. Binda. See BOND. BIND, v. BIND, n. Bi'nder. BINDING. To tie, to fasten, to knit, to connect, to confine, to put into confinement, under constraint or obligation; to constrain, to oblige. Sir mercy, my life thou saue it me, R. Brunne, p. 167. & I persecuted this way vnto the deathe byndinge and deliuerynge into prison both men and women. Bible, 1551. Ib. Eroud hard holden Jon, and bounden him, and puttide him into prisoun.-Wiclif. Matt. c. 14. Now sith it may nat goodly be withstound Chaucer. Troilus, b. i. And vnto thys your fathers set their hādes & seales, binding them selues to compell the king to keepe thys contracte. Barnes. Workes, p. 89. The hunter seelynge both his eyen, and byndinge his [the lyon's] legges strongly together, fynally daunteth his fiercenesse, and maketh hym obediente to his ensygnes and tokens. Sir T. Elyot. The Governour, b. ii. c. 14. And likewyse they did calculate that whiche mighte transcende and be ouer the ioynters or byndinge togiders of the sayd bricques.-Nicolls. Thucydides, p. 76. Well Jessica goe in, Perhaps I will returne immediately; Shakespeare. Merchant of Venice, Act ii. sc. 5. Euen in those actions whereby an offence may bee occasioned (though not giuen) charity bindes us to cleare both our owne name, and the conscience of others. Bp. Hall. Cont. Altar of the Reubenites. For he knows, that we have no strength but what he gives us; and therefore, as he binds burdens upon our shoulders, so he gives us strength to bear them. Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 11. There grew by this a field of corne, high, ripe; where reapers wrought, And let thicke handfuls fall to earth; for which, some other brought Bands, and made sheaves. Three binders stood, and took the handfuls reapt From boyes that gatherd quickly up; and by them arme- There too he form'd the likeness of a field In frequent handfuls: there, they bound the sheaves. Cowper. Task, b. i. Where in the croft the russet hay-rick stands, Scott. Amæbean, Ecl. 2. BI-NO'MINOUS. Bis, Binus, two, and Nomen, a name. Having two names. Expect not I should reckon up their several names, because daily increasing, and many of them are binominous, as which, when they began to tire in sale, are quickned with a new name.-Fuller. Worthies. Norwich. BIN-O'CULAR. Bis, Binus, two, and Oculus, an eye. See OCULAR. Having two eyes. When applied to a telescope;-allowing or requiring the use of both eyes. So that as most animals are binocular, spiders for the most part octonocular, and some senocular; so flies, &c. are multocular, having as many eyes as there are perforations in their cornea.-Derham. Phys. Theol. b. viii. c. 3. note a. As in certain circumstances we invariably see one object appear double, so in others we as invariably see two objects unite into one; and, in appearance, lose their duplicity. This is evident in the appearance of the binocular telescope. Reid. Inquiry, c. 6. s. 13. From Bios, life, and ypaper, to grave, to write. A writer of the lives of BIOGRAPHER. individuals. } The character of the author, that industrious and exact antiquary and biographer, Mr. Anthony Wood, is well known to the learned world. Wood. Athene Oxon. Booksellers to the Reader. But in that he came so late thither as this author mentions, and stayed so long there as three years, which he afterwards mentions; and, as the biographical fry who follow have nibbled out of him;-they are all mistaken, for he will presently appear two years before that time amounts to, in the wars abroad.-Oldys. Life of Ralegh. His biographical writings teach philosophy, at once by precept and by example. His morals and his characters mutually explain and give force to each other. His sentiments of the duty of a biographer were peculiarly just and delicate.-Langhorne. Life of Plutarch. Those parallel circumstances and kindred images, to which we readily conform our minds, are, above all other writings, to be found in narratives of the lives of particular persons; and therefore, no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more delightful or more useful, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irresistible interest, or more widely diffuse instruction to every diversity of condition. Johnson. Rambler, No. 60. You cannot compare the history of the same events as delivered by any two historians, but you will meet with many circumstances which, though mentioned by one, are either wholly omitted, or differently related by the other; and this observation is peculiarly applicable to biographical writings. Watson. Apology for Christianity. BI-PARTITE. Į Bis, two, and Parliri, parBi'PARTED. {titus, to part. Shared, separated, divided, into two parts. By our by-parted crowne, of which The moyetie is mine, By God, to whome my soule must passe, And so in time may thine, I pray thee. Warner. Albion's England, b. iv. The divine fate is also bipartite; some theists supposing God, both to decree and to doe all things in us (evil as well as good) or by his immediate influence to determine all actions, and so make them alike necessary to us. Cudworth. Intellectual System, Pref. p. 1. BI-PED. Gr. AITOUS; Lat. Bipes. Bis, two, and pes, a foot in natural history as distinguished from quadruped. : Having two feet. By which the man, when heav'nly life was ceas'd, Byrom. An Epistle. BI-PENNATED. Bis, two, and Penni, a wing. Having two wings. For the keeping the body steady, and upright in flight, It generally holds true (if I mistake not) that all bipennated Insects have poises under the hinder parts of their wings, but such as have four wings or wings with elytra, none. Derham. Phys. Theol. b. viii. c. 4. BIRCH. A. S. Bire, Birce; Dut. Berke; BIRCHEN. Ger. Birke, which Wachter thinks is from the verb Brechen, splendere, to be bright; so called from the brilliant whiteness of the bark. Pliny (xvi. 18,) speaks of the mirabilis candor of the birch. It showeth wonderful white, says Holland. But how the fire was maked up on highte, As oke, fir, birch.-Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. 2921. An allegory is as much as to say as strauge speakyng or borrowed speach. As whe we say of a wanton child, this sheepe hath magottes in his tayle, he must be annoynted with byrchin salue, which speach I borow of the shepheardes. Tindall. Works, p. 166. The eugh, obedient to the benders will, As Cupid took his bow and bolt, Cupid and the Clown. Incertaine Auctors. It is in effect therefore the birth-day of the world; the beginning of a new, better, eternal life to men, (offered to all, and effectually bestowed on those, who will embrace it which we now do celebrate.-Barrow, vol. iii. Ser. 43. However it comes about, that now they celebrate Queen Elizabeth's birthnight, as that of their saint and patroness; yet then they were for doing the work of the Lord by arms Now as touching birdlime, it is made of the berries of Holland. Plinie, b. xvi. c. 4. Goodwin. A Christian's Growth, pt. ii. c. 3. Sweet fellow-prisoners, 'twas a cruel art, Of birds, how each, according to her kind, How oft your birds have undeserving bled, Or early-mounting lark !-Warton. Ode on Shooting. Piers Plouhman, p 169. ration. The birds that han left her song So glad, that they shew in singing Chaucer. The Rom. of the Rose. These louers know well inough, the vaineglorious mindes of many, which haue a great delight in their owne prayses wherewith they be caught like as the byrder beguyleth the byrdes, Vives. Instruct. of Christian Women, b. i. c. 14. The yonger sorte, come pyping on apace, Thei should haue lacked leisure to haue separate the oyntmentes and swete spices from the bodye, seeyng they cleaued as fast thereto as byrdelime.-Udal. John, c. 20. Another parte followynge the flighte of byrdes (for the Frenchmen are above all other nations cunninge in bird spellinge,) with muche slaughter of the barbarous nations pearsed vnto the coste of Sclavonie, and reasted in Pannonie.-Goldyng. Justine, p. 108. No tree, whose branches did not brauely spring; Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 6. Jul. 'Tis almost morning, I would haue thee gone, And yet no further then a wanton's bird, That lets it hop a little from his hand, Like a poore prisoner in his twisted gyues, Shakespeare. Romeo & Juliet, Act ii. sc. 2. I do inuite you to morrow morning to my house to breakfast after we'll a birding together, I haue a fine hawke for the bush-Id. Merry Wives, Act iii. sc. 3. O that this young fellow, Massinger. The Guardian, Act iii. sc. 1. And Jhesus passinge, saygh a man blynd fro his birthe; And whanne a covenable day was fallen Eroude in his But when a cōuenient day was come: Herode on his birth-day made a supper to ye lordes, captains & chief estates of Galile.-Bible, 1551. Ib. On of the gretest adversitees of this world, is whan a free man by kinde, or of birthe, is constreined by poverte to eten the almesse of his enemie.-Chaucer. The Tale of Melibeus. And Jacob sayd: sel me thys daye thy byrthright. And Esau answered: lo I am at the poynt to dye, and what profite shall this byrthright do me: and Jacob sayd: swere to me then this daye. And he swore to hi, and solde his byrthright vnto Jacob.-Bible, 1551. Genesis, c. 25. Though we were exempted from the common condition of our birth, yet he would not deliver himselfe from those ordinary rites, that implied the weaknesse, and blemishes of humanity.-Bp. Hall. Cont. The Purification. And so those od dayes the Egyptians do call at this present, the dayes of the Epact, celebrating and solemnizing them as the birth-dayes of their gods. Holland. Plutarch, p. 1051. Macd. Let vs rather Shakespeare. Macbeth, Act iv. sc. 3. But howsoever it was, he [Polymnis] descended from No ominous star did at thy birthtide shine, But why your wonder should I vainly raise ? Fawkes. Argon. of Apollonius, b. iii. An eminent person of later times, was reproached by ons of better birth, though of meaner parts, for having formerly been a carrier. His answer, for his temper and excellent judgement in it, is not to be forgotten, which was, "that if he who reproached him had once been a carrier, he would have been a carrier still."-Tatler, No. 294. Useful discoveries are sometimes indeed the effect of superior genius, but more frequently they are the birth of time and of accidents.-Reid. Inquiry, c. 1. s. 8. Those barb'rous ages past, succeeded next Cowper. Task, b. L The protection of the liberty of Britain is a duty which they owe to themselves, who enjoy it; to their ancestors, who transmitted it down; and to their posterity who will claim at their hands this, the best birthright, and noblest inheritance of mankind.-Blackstone. Comment. b. iv. c. 33, BIS-CUIT. Bis, and Coquere, Coctum, twice baked. The article of food, so called, is not uncommonly more than twice baked. The Turke doth not amend his galeis, nor rigge out mo then fiftie. In Greece there is no biscoct in making, no preparacon of vitales, or other thing. Lodge. Illustrat. of British History, vol. i. p. 169. Besides this, these ioly gallauntes lefte behynd theim for haste, all their tentes, xiiii. greate gonnes and xl. barrelles of pouder, ecc. pipes of wyne, cc. pipes of bisket and floure, cc. frayles of figges and resones, and v. c. barrelles of her. rings.-Hall. Hen. VI. an. 4. In this march a pair of shoos vvas sold for thirty shillings, and a bisket cake for ten shillings; so great was our want both of cloathing and victuals. Sir F. Drake. West Indian Voyage, p. 57. Mr. Boreel told me, that the curious merchant used no other art, than the stowing of his bisket, weli baked, in casks exactly calked.-Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 108. The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gun-powder. Burke. Reflect. on the French Revolution BI-SECT. Bis, twice; and Secare, Sec BISECTIONS. Stum, to cut: To cut into two. Any assigned arch or angle may be bisected by plain com mon Geometry.-Barrow. Math. Lect. 15. BPSHOP, n. This word, upon the intro. duction of Christianity, found its way into all the European languages. A. S. Bisceop Dut. Bischop; Ger. Bischof: Sw. Biskop; Fr. Evesque; BI'SHOPRICK. It. Vescovo; Sp. Obispo, from the Gr. ErioкOTOs, from Eri, and ΣKOT-EL, to look into. A bishop is literallyAn over-looker, an over-seer. Milk, in Yorkshire, is said to be bishoped, when it is burnt.. " Formerly, in days of superstition, whenever a Bishop passed through a town or village, all the inhabitants ran out in order to receive his blessing; this frequently caused the milk on the fire to be left till burnt to the vessel, and gave origin to the above allusion." (Grose, Prov. Gloss) Tindale seems to point to a more specious origin of this expression, in the rancour of the reformers, which ascribed every ill that might betide them to the popish bishops. To bishop-to perform the church ceremony of confirmation. See the example from Sir Thomas More. For that lond that bitwene Homber, & the water of Te- The bishop of Canterbirie in comon alle o liche, Schewed if in ilk schire, alle his bisshop riche. R. Brunne, p. 301. And by cam a man of a mayde. and metropolitanus, And baptisede an busshoppede. whit the blode of us herte Alle that wilnede other wolde.-Piers Plouhman, p. 300. Were the bisshop blessid eth worth bothe h' eyen. Hus sele sholde nogt be sent. in deceet of the puple. Id. p. 4. Therfore hooly britheren, and parteneris of heuenli clepyng, biholde ghe apostle and the bischop of oure confessioun, Jesu which is trewe to him that made him, as also moises in al the hous of hym.-Wiclif. Ebrewis, c. 3. And it is writen in the book of Salmys, the abitacioun of hemu be maad desert, and be there noon that dwelle in it, and anothir take his bishopricke.-Wiclif. Dedis, c. 1. It is wrytten in the boke of Psalmes: hys habytacion be Joyde, and noman be dwellynge therein; and hys byshop"ycke let another take.-Bible, 1551. Ib. That they call confirmacion, ye people call bishopping. They thinke that if the bishop butter ye childe in the forhed, that then it is safe.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 378. When a thing spedeth not well, we borow speach and say, the bishop hath blessed it, because that nothing spedeth well that they medle with all. If the porage be burned to, or the meate ouer rosted, we say, the bishop hath put his foote in the potte, or the bishop hath played the cooke, because the bishops burn who they lust, and whosoever displeaseth them.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 166. Now doeth he rente his clothes, prophecying hereby, how it shall cum to passe, that the true bishop raignynge the caruall and figuratiue biskophode shal be cleane abolished, and set aside.-Udal. Mark, c. 14. BI-SU'LCOUS. Bis and Sulcus; Gr. 'Oλkos, tractus, from 'Eλkey, to draw. Applied in natural history to Cloven footed animals. Others there are which make good the paucity of their breed with the length and duration of their dayes, whereof there want not examples in animals uniparcus; first, in bisules or cloven hooft, as camels and beeves, whereof there is above a million annually slain in England. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 6. BITCH. Of uncertain etymology; applied to the female of the dog, and other animals; and also, opprobriously, to a woman. He would set down in writing, and openly pronounce, that neither bitches loved their whelpes, nor mares their foles, hens their chickens, and other foules their little birds in respect of any reward, but freely, and by instinct of nature.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 180. From below By your true names of Stygian bitches you BITE, v. BITE, n. BITER. BITING, n. BI'TINGLY. BIT, v. BIT, n. BI'TLESS. To pinch, to squeeze, to gripe, to crush; to pierce, to penetrate, to wound, to pain as a bite, or any thing which biteth;-literally and metaphorically. A bit; a small piece; so much bit or bitten: as a bit of bread; a bit of a bridle. To bit-to put the bit in the mouth, to cause to bite, gripe, or hold fast. A Bite, (see the quotations from Swift and the Spectator,) applied met. from the simpleness, silliness, eagerness, with which fish bite or catch the bait, to that unsuspecting credulity which seizes and swallows whatever is imposed upon it. In the person of a bishop there be three distinct faculties: Milton. Animad. upon Rem. Defence. Shortly after all the bishops which had been depriued in the time of King Edward the sixt, were restored to their bishoprickes, and the other which were placed in King Edward's times remooued.-Stowe. Queene Mary, an. 1553. So Cymon, since his sire indulg'd his will, BIS-SEXTILE. Bis and Sextilis, from Sex, six; so called because the sixth of the calends of March was repeated; occurred twice. Now, when it was observed by this reckoning, that the sunne had performed his revolution sooner than the year turned about, which before was wont to prevent the course of the sunne, this error was reformed, and after every fourth yeare expired, came about the bissextile aforesaid, and made all streight.-Holland. Plinie, b. xviii. c. 25. The inconvenience attending the form of the year above mentioned was in a great measure remedied by the Romans in the time of Julius Cæsar, who added one day every fourth year, which (from the place of its insertion, viz. after the sixth of the calends of March,) was called bissextile, or leap year.-Priestley. On History, vol. i. Lect. 14. BI'SSON. Bisson or Beesen, i. e. Blind. A word still in use in some parts of the north of England. Steevens; Bizend, Beezen, or Bison, blind, (Grose.) In A. S. Bisen, cæcus, blind. Thys manne was not purblynde, or a lyttle appayred, and decayed in syght, but as bysome as was possible to be. Udal. Marke, c. 8. What harme can your beesome (sc. beesen) Conspectuities gleane out of his charracter, if I be knowne well enough too. Shakespeare. Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 1. 1 Play. But who, O who, had seen the mobled Queen, Run bare foot vp and downe, Threatning the flame With bisson rheume. Id. Hamlet, Act ii. sc. 2. They [the Brocks, &c.] will draw in their breath so hard, that their skin being stretched and puffed up withall, they will avoid the biting of the hound's tooth, and checke the woanding of the hunter; so as neither the one nor the other can take hold of them.-Holland. Plinie, b. viii. c. 38. Of whose doore, her faire Chapman. Homer. Odysses, b. xxi. Of sorrow, I have varied, tumbl'd in dust, and hid; Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xxiv. Shakespeare. As You Like It, Act ii. sc. ". A scoff and a jeer is many times more provoking than a blow; and nothing will sooner kindle the coals of contention than a biting taunt.-Hopkins. Works, p. 184. Massylians, that without saddles ride, May. Lucan, b. iv. You may easily imagine to yourself what appearance I made, who am pretty tall, ride well, and was very well dressed, at the head of a whole county, with m isick before me, a feather in my hat, and my horse well bitted. Spectator, No. 113. in a plain sensible matter, wherein 'tis as hard for them to be deceived as in any thing in the world: for two things can hardly be imagined more different, than a little bit of wafer and the whole body of a man.-Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 11. If this doctrine be true, then all men's senses are deceived All is owing to the mercenary low humour of the times we live in, who, groveling in the baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and over-reaching one another, scorn the glorious ways by which our ancestors grew rich, when they pursued, together with their private advantages, the honour and interest of their native country and of their posterity.-Humourist, vol. ii. p. 41. I'll teach you a way to outwit Mrs. Johnson: it is a newfashioned way of being witty, and they call it a bite. You must ask a bantering question, or tell some damned lye in a serious manner, and then she will answer or speak as if If ye bite and deuoure one another: take hede lest ye be you were in earnest; then, cry you, Madam, there's a bite! consumed one of another.-Bible, 1551. Ib. Right as a serpent hideth under floures Til he may see his time for to bite. Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,826. What thing is than this power that may not done away the bitings of businesse, ne eschew the pricks of dread. Id. Boecius, b. iii. Understandest thou not, that I am a philosopher. That other man answered again bytingly and said: I had wel vnderstand it, if thou hadst holden thy tongue stil.-Id. Ib. Spite draue me into Boreas raigne, Where hory frostes the frutes do bite, When hilles were spred and euery plaine With stormy winters mantle white. Surrey. The Constant Louer Lamenteth. And the Lord sayd vnto Moses: make the a serpent and hang it vp for a sygne, and let as many as are bitten, loke vpon it and they shall liue.-Bible, 1551. Num. c. 21. Whiche message he dissimulated as litle to regarde as the bytyng of a flee, as thoughe the Englishmen in the battaile, whiche he knewe to be at hande, could do no enterprice (as it happened indeed) either necessary to be feared, or worthy to be remembered.-Hall. Hen. VII. an. 3. Swift. To a Friend of Mrs. Johnson, 1703. A biter is one who tells you a thing you have no reason to disbelieve in itself; and perhaps has given you, before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it; and if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that he has deceived you.-Spectator, No. 504. Their field of vision is too contracted to take in the whole of any but minute objects; they view all nature bit by bit; now the proboscis, now the antennæ, now the pinnæ ofa flea-Goldsmith. Citizen of the World, Let. 88. When he was yet scarcely seven years old, being at dinner with the queen his mother, intending to give a bit of bread to a great dog he was fond of, this hungry animal snapt too greedily at the morsel, and bit his hand in a terrible manner.-Id. The Bee, No. 2. All plants, of ev'ry leaf, that can endure BITTER, adj. BITTER, N. BITTERFULL. BITTERLY. A. S. Ger. Dut. and Sw. Biter; A. S. Biterian, from Bitan, to bite. Applied particularly to the taste. Biting, piercing, penetrating, as any thing which bites; and thus, painful, well mouthed.-Gascoigne. Advert. of the Author. spurre, or with a wand, all is one if hee prove readie and hurtful, inflicting pain or distress, of mind or body: For whether the braue gennet be broken with the bille, or with the snaffle, whether he be brought in awe with a Here hath beene wt mee a poore woman weepyng, and waylyng, and crying out, howe you haue vndone her, her poore husband, and her miserable children, for all they haue not one bitte of bread, towardes their foode, neither is she able to labour.-Barnes. Workes, p. 208. The pointed steele arriuing rudely theare, Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 11. The oration thus framed to bite and to please the soldiers mindes, and the moderate seuerity vsed withall (for onely on two iustice was done) were gratefully accepted. Savile. Tacitus. Historie, p. 49. BITTERNESS. calamity, wretchedness. And Petre bithoughte on the word of Jhesus, that he had Reide, bifore the cock crow, thries thou schalt denye me, and he ghede out and wept bittirly.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 26. And Peter remembered the woordes of Jesu, whyche sayd vnto hym: before ye cocke crowe yu shalte denye me thryse: and went out at the dores and wept bytterlye. Bible, 1551. Ib. The mouth of whiche is full of cursyng and bytternesse, the feet of hem swifte to schede blood.-Wielif. Kom. c. 3. Whose mouthes are full of curssynge and bytterness, their fete are swifte to sheede bloude.-Biote, 1551. 16. Alone here I stand, full sorie and full sad, Chaucer. Lam. of M. Mag. Whitgift. Defence, p. 20. But wise words taught in numbers for to runne, Ne may with storming showers be washt away, Spenser. The Ruines of Time. He that greedily puts his hand to a delicious table, shall weep bitterly when he suffers the convulsions and violence by the divided interests of such contrary juices. Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 16. One draught of the river that makes glad the city of God above, can sweeten all the bitterness of the world. Bates. The Great Duty of Resignation, Direct. 1. All men are agreed to call vinegar sour, honey sweet, and aloes bitter; and as they are all agreed in finding these qualities in those objects, they do not in the least differ concerning their effects with regard to pleasure and pain. They all concur in calling sweetness pleasant, and sourness and bitterness unpleasant. Burke. Sublime and Beautiful. On Tasle. My sweets And she that sweetens all my billers too, That errs not, and find raptures still renew'd, Is free to all men-universal prize.-Cowper. Task, b. iil. BITTERN. Dut. Butoor; Fr. Butor; Sp. BITTOUR. Bitor; It. Bittore. Bos taurus, or Boatus taurinus, from the noise it makes, when its head is immersed in the mire. "In the territory about Arelate, there is a bird called Taurus, because it loweth like a bull or cow, for otherwise a small bird it is," (Plin. x. 42.) And as a bitore bumbleth in the mire, Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Tale, v. 6544. Then to the water's brink she laid her head, And as a bittour bumps within a reed, "To thee alone, O Lake," she said, "I tell, (And as thy queen, command thee to conceal :) Beneath his locks the king my husband wears A goodly royal pair of asses ears."-Dryden. Ib. She buylded Babilon and enclosed it with a wall of bricke enterlayed with sand and bytumen, which is a kynd of slimye mortar, yssuing out of the ground, in diuers places of that countrye.-Goldyng. Justine, p. 2. Mix with these Idean pitch, quick sulphur, silver's spume, Where is Marcus Scaurus Theater, the bituminated walls of Babylon? And how little rests of the Pyramids of Egypt. Fellham, pt. i. Resolve 46. 2 Sail. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked A worse knob remains to be plained, how they [the trees] are preserved sound so many ages, seeing moisture is the mother of corruption, and such the ground wherein they are found: except any will say there is clammy bituminous substance about them, which fenceth them from being corrupted. Fuller. Worthies. Anglesey. The fabric seem'd a wood of rising green, BIVALVED. BIVALVULAR. Bis, twice, and Valvæ, perhaps Volva, so called, because they fold inwards, (Vossius.) Applied in Natural History; as the examples sufficiently explain. Bivalvular, or bivalve husk, is one that opens or gapes the whole length, like a door that opens in two parts. Miller. Gardener's Dictionary. Crabs, either of this kind, or allied to them, the antients believed to have been the consentaneous inmates of the pinnæ, and other bivalves.—Pennant. British Zoology. followe the minde and ordering of her sonne: and being myndfull of her owne wise and discrete sobrenesse, dyd as yet make no blabbyng out abroade of any thing. Udal. Luke, c 2. Whan the tounge lyeth still, if the mynde be not occupyed well, it were less euil saue for worldleye rebuke, to blabber on trifles somewhat sottishlye, than whyie they seeme sage, in kepyng silence, secretely paraduenture the meane whyle to fantasye wyth themself, fylthy sinful deuises. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 75. Apel. (alone.) I fear me, Apelles, that thine eyes have blabbed that which thy tongue durst not. Lyly. Alexander & Campaspe, Act. v. sc. 2. Such be his chance that to his love doth wrong; Unworthy he to have so worthy place, That cannot hold his peace and blabbing tongue; Light ioyes float on his lips, but rightly grace Sinckes deepe, and th' heart's low center doth imbrace. Spenser. Brittain's Ida, c. 6 To have reveal'd Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend, Milton. Samson Agonistes. Loth to betray a husband and a prince, Dryden. Wife of Bath's Tale. Tell us, you dead; will none of you, in pity Dut. & Ger. Black. Lye says, the A. S. Blac, blac, bleck, is niger, bleak; that Blac-ian, is pallere, nigrescere, and albescere, to be pale, to grow or to become black; and also to grow or become white. That Blac-an, is PALLIDUM colorem inducere; nigrescere, denigrare, to bleach; to put on a pale colour, to grow or become black, to blacken; to bleach. And that Blic-an, ablic-an, is, dealbare, fulgere, corruscare; (Blice, candidatus,) to whiten or be white, to shine, to glitter. Bleak and bleach, are used by our elder writers in correspondence with pale; and they seem to be applied when, by some withering, blighting (blicht-ing), agency (e. g. of weather), a chill and sterile paleness is pro With respect to the figure of shells, Aristotle has divided Goldsmith. Animated Nature, vol. iv. The muscle and the oyster appear to have but few distinctions, except in their shape and the power of motion in the former. Other bivalved shell fish, such as the cockle, the scallop, and the razor-shell, have differences equally minute. Id. Ib. BI-VIOUS. Bis, twice, and via, a path or way. Having two paths or ways. In bivious theorems, and Janus-faced doctrines, let virtuous considerations state the determination. Brown. Christian Morals, vol. ii. p. 3. BLAB, v. Junius refers to babbling; in BLAB, n. Dut. Labberen (be-labberen); BLABBER, V. Ger. Blapperen; perhaps from BLABBING, n. Labben. S. Lap-ian, to lap or lip (differing indeed in the application). And thus we approach Skinner's explanation: Labis quicquid occurrit effutire,- To pour forth from the lips whatever occurs to us; to tell all that we know; to prate or talk That a bittor maketh that mugient noyse, or as we term it thoughtlessly, carelessly, without reserve or dis bumping, by putting its bill into a reed as most beleive, or as Bellonius and Aldrovandus conceive, by putting the same in water or mud, and after a while retaining the ayr by suddenly excluding it again, is not so easily made out. Browne. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 27. Along thy glades, a solitary guest, BITUME. BITU'MED. BITUMEN. Goldsmith. Deserted Village. Lat. Bitumen; Gr. ПTvs, πιθος, πιθυς, from πιειν, premere, premendo, affigere, (Lennep,) to press, to fix, by BITUMINOUS. pressure. See the example from Goldyng. The cominon noun is Bitumen; May uses Bitume. BITUMINATED. crimination. I could almoste A thousand olde stories thee aledge Chaucer. Troilus, b. iii. Thus the bishoppe wound hym self fro the duke when he had moste nede of his ayde, for if he had taried still ye duke had not made so many blabbes of his counsaill, nor put so muche confidens in the Welshmen, nor yet so temerariously set forwarde without knowledge of his frendes as he dyd, whiche thinges were his sodaine ouerthrowe as they that knew it dyd reporte.-Hall. Rich. III. an. 2. But the mother agayne on her part forasmuche as she perceyued and founde a certayne power of the goddeheade to glitter and shewe furthe in hym, was well contente to to apply bleak, to a chill, and sterile blackness, effected by a similar withering and blighting agency; when verdure or fruitfulness are withered away, blight-ed (or blicht-ed); where these genial appearances of nature are lacking; and hence it admits of conjecture that Blac-an and Blic-an owe their origin to some northern word still preserved in the Dut. Leycken, and Eng. Lack, to lessen, to decrease, to wane or be wanting, to fade, to decay; to wither, or waste away. The common prefix Be, would form Beleyck-en, bleyck-en, to bleach; Bleyck, bleached or bleaked, pale: and by a mere difference of vowel, Blac, black, bleaked or blacked, dark; the application of black and bleach being to appearances differing in colour, though bringe op the same or similar causes. See BLEACH, BLEAK, BLANCH, BLANK, BLENCH, BLINK. To blacken (met.) is to darken, obscure, overcloud, (sc.) the fairness of a character or reputation; to pollute, or soil, or sully its purity, its integrity. Black is applied to that which has the dismalness, the gloominess, the forbiddingness of darkness; to that which is dark, dismal, gloomy, forbidding, fearful, dreadful. a Blackguard." In all great houses, but particularly in the royal residences, there were number of mean and dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wood-yard, sculleries, &c.; of these the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, the peopic in derision, gave the name of blackguards." (B. Jonson's Works, by Gifford, ii. 169, note 3.) And than I curse also the night; Makest all the worldes light deface.-Gower. Con. A. b.iv. Then yf the soore be waxed blackish, and is not growea abrode in the skinne, let the preast make him clene for it is but a skirfe.-Bible, 1551. Lev. c. 13. The man of Indie that we speke of cã by no lerning know ye course of the sonne whereby he should pcyue the cause of his blaknes, but if it be by astronomy, which cōning who can lerne that nothing will beliue that semeth to hym selfe impossible.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 126. They haue their teeth blacked both men and women, for they say a dogge hath his teeth white, therefore they will blacke theirs.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. p. 262. The Bramas which be of the kings countrey (for the king is a Brama) haue their legs or bellies, or some part of their body, as they thinke good themselues, made black with certaine things which they haue: they vse to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kinde of anile or blacking, which doth continue alwayes.-Id. Ib. The Romans understanding of his [Tullus] death, shewed no other honour or malice, saving that they granted the ladies their request they made: that they might mourn ten moneths for him, and that was the full time they used to wear blacks for the death of their fathers, brethren, or Husbands, according to Numa Pompilius order. North. Plutarch, p. 201. Shrunk nearer earth, all blacken'd now and brown, In mask of weeping clouds appears the moon. Drummond. The Shadow of the Judgment. Beyond the river Ganges, in that quarter and climate which lyeth southward, the people are caught with the sunne, and begin to be blackish: but yet not all out so sunburnt and black indeed as the Moores and Ethiopians. Holland. Plinie, b. vi. c. 19. Lastly stood warre in glittering arms yclad, Donne. Lamentations of Jeremy, c. 4. v. 8. And there was a Grecian woman, who having brought forth a black infant, and being troubled therefore, and judicially accused for adultery, as if she had been conceived by a black-moor; shee pleaded and was found to be her selfe descended from an Aethiopian, in the fourth degree removed. Holland. Plutarch, p. 457. Which I had no sooner done, but one o'the blackguard had his hand in my vestry, and was groping me as nimbly as the Christmas cut-purse.-B. Jonson. Masque. Love Restored. A vile encomium doubly ridicules: Pope. Imitation of Horace, Epist. 1. I have lately got the ingenious authors of blacking for shooes, powder for colouring the hair, &c. to be your constant customers.-Spectator, No. 461. The object, spread too far, or rais'd too high, Too little, it eludes the dazzled sight, Prior. Solomon, b. i. Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite, You dare not be so troublesome To pinch the slatterns black and blue, For leaving you their work to do.-Hudibras, pt. iii. c. 1. There a deeper darkness prevailed than in the blackest night; which, however, was in some degree dissipated by torches and other lights of various kinds. Melmoth. Pliny, b. vi. Let. 16. To this system of literary monopoly was joined an unremitting industry to blacken and discredit in every way, and by every means, all those who did not hold to their faction. Burke. On the French Revolution. Blackness is but a partial darkness; and therefore it derives some of its powers from being mixed and surrounded with coloured bodies. Id. On the Sublime and Beautiful, s. 17. VOL. I. BLADDER, v. Į A. S. Blædr; Ger. Blatter; BLA'DDER, n. Dut. Bladder; Sw. Bladra: from the A. S. Bled, flatus; the past part. of the A. S. Blaw-an, to blow. That which is blowed or blown, puffed or inflated; tumid. For every mortal mannes power n' is Chaucer. The Second Nonnes Tale, v. 97,051. Turberville. Epitaph on Maister Tufton. Only a garland of rose-buds did play About her locks, and in her hand she bore A hollow globe of glass, that long before She full of emptiness had bladdered, And all the world therein depictured: Whose colours, like the rainbow, ever vanished. G. Fletcher. Christ's Triumph on Earth. If you see him [a Dutchman] fat, he hath been rooting in a cabbage-ground, and that bladdered him. Feltham. Character of the Low Countries. What are they when they stand upon the highest pinacle of worldly dignities, but bladders swelled up with the breath of popular rout, nothings set a-strut. Hopkins. Works, p. 32. Stumbling from thought to thought, falls headlong down Into doubt's boundless sea, where, like to drown, Books bear him up a while, and make him try To swim with bladders of philosophy. Rochester. Sat, against Mankind. They affect greatness in all they write, but it is a bladdered greatness, like that of the vain man whom Seneca describes ; an ill habit of body, full of humours, and swelled with dropsy. Dryden. Discourse on Epick Poetry. Thus sportive boys, around some bason's brim, Behold the pipe-drawn bladders circling swim. BLADE. BLA'DING. BLA'DED. BLA'DY. Churchill. The Rosciad. "Blad, folium, frons. Blat, (says Becanus) is so called from Plat; C It is probably from A. S. Blad; past part. of the v. Blaw-an, to blow; to bud, to sprout: applied to Leaves of grass, to broad cutting leaves; to a weapon, to a bone, of similar shape. See BLADE, infra. If it be grene, like to leke blades, thyn or blak it is to be fuged yll.-Sir T. Elyot. Castel of Health, p. 52. Because it had not earthe ynoughe vnderneath it to geue it moystre to the full rypenesse, anon after it was shot foorth aboue-ground, it dryed vp and withered away as soone as any feruent heate of the sunne came to it, and so euen in the first bladying it perished.-Udal. Luke, c. 8. That euen fro the schulder-blade Amis and Amiloun. Weber, vol. ii. For it is a kinde of grasse with a stalke, as big as a great wheaten reed, which hath a blade, issuing from the top of it, on which, though the cattle feed, yet it groweth every day higher, untill the top be too high for an oxe to reach. Sir F. Drake Revived, p. 55. As sweet a plant, as fair a flower is faded As ever in the Muses garden bladed. P. Fletcher. Eliza, an Elegy. Lys. Helen, to you our mindes we will vnfold, To morrow night, when Phabe doth behold Her siluer visage, in the watry glasse, Decking with liquid pearle the bladed grasse, (A time that louers flights doth still conceale) Through Athen's gates haue we deuis'd to steale. Shakespeare. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. sc. 1. Besides, what is she else, but a foul woosy marsh, And that she calls her grass, eo blady is, and harsh, As cuts the cattel's mouths, constrain'd thereon to feed. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 25. Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine; And from the bladed field the fearful hare Limps, awkward. Thomson. Summer. Dr. Swift somewhere says, that he who could make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, was a greater benefactor to the human race than all the politicians that ever existed.-Burke. On Mr. Fox's East India Bill. Say, is the Persian carpet, than the field's Or meadow's mantle gay, more richly wov'n; Than bladed grass, perfum'd with dew-dropt flow'rs? 185 BLADE, v. Junius thinks that Chaucer, BLADE, n. when he wrote platte for blade (sc.) of a sword (Squieres Tale, v. 176) intimated his opinion of the origin of the word. Plat, Mr. Tyrwhitt says, is the Fr. plat, flat; and this Caseneuve deduces from the Gr. #λaros, enlarged, expanded. Skinner prefers the A. S. Blad, folium, because it (the blade of a sword, lamina ensis) lata est instar folii. Blade is applied (met.) toAny one who pretends to the sharpness, brightness of a sword blade. Ay by his belt he bare a long pavade, Chaucer. The Reves Tale, v. 3928. Surrey. Virgile. Enæis, b. iv. Thus speaking, in the midst thereof she left, and there withal With brest on piercing sword her ladies saw where she did fall: The blade in fomy bloud, and hands abroad with sprawling As when an arming sword of proofe is made, Mir. for Mag. Newton to the Reader. Pylemen's shoulder, in the blayd. Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b.v. And brandish'd blade rush on him, break his glass, Oct. 21, 1671. Leaving Euston. I lodged this night at New-market, where I found the jolly blades raceing, dancing, feasting, and revelling, more resembling a luxurious and abandon'd rout, than a Christian court. Evelyn. Memoirs, vol. 1. Cecyll, on the other side, play'd a smooth edge upon Ralegh throughout the trial; his blade seemed ever anointed with the balsam of compliment or apology, whereby he gave as deep and fatal as the other.-Öldys. Life of Ralegh. So fares it with those merry blades, They tread on stars, and talk with gods.-Prior. A Simile. Succeeded to his father's gold. Flush'd with his wealth, the thoughtless blade, And triumph in the deed.—Cambridge. Scribleriad, b. il BLAIN. A. S. Blegene; Dut. Bleyne. Junius and Skinner say, perhaps from the A. S. Blawan, to blow. The latter adds, a blain, is— A distention, tumor, or inflation of the skin. For yf his fynger dooe but ake of an hoate blaine, a greate manye mennes mouthes blowyng out his prayse, wyll scantly doe him among them all, half so muche ease, as to haue one boie blow vpon his finger. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1224. And there brake oute soores with blaines both in mã & beest, so that the sorcerers coulde not stande before Moses, for there were blotches vpon the enchaunters and vpon al the Egipcians.-Bible, 1551. Exod. c. 9. Itches, blaines, Sowe all th' Athenian bosomes, and their crop Shakespeare. Timon of Athens, Act iv. sc. 1. Dut. Blamen; Fr. Blasmer; It. Biasimare. Skinner and Junius coincide with Menage, that these words are, through the Bar. Lat. Blasphemare, from the Gr. Βλασφημείν, παρα το βαλλειν BLA'MELESSLY. την φήμην. Βαλλειν, i. e. petere, impetere; and onμn, fama ; BLA'MEFULL. BLA'MELESS. BLA'MELESSNESS. BLA'MER. BLA'MING. To attack, or assail, the BB |