n. [ OF. bastard, bastart, F. b&unr_;tard, prob. fr. OF. bast, F. b&unr_;t, a packsaddle used as a bed by the muleteers (fr. LL. bastum) + -ard. OF. fils de bast son of the packsaddle; as the muleteers were accustomed to use their saddles for beds in the inns. See Cervantes, “Don Quixote, ” chap. 16; and cf. G. bankert, fr. bank bench. ] 1. A “natural” child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child; one born of an illicit union. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ By the civil and canon laws, and by the laws of many of the United States, a bastard becomes a legitimate child by the intermarriage of the parents at any subsequent time. But by those of England, and of some states of the United States, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage. Kent. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Sugar Refining) (a) An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from the sirups that have already had several boilings. (b) A large size of mold, in which sugar is drained. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A sweet Spanish wine like muscatel in flavor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Brown bastard is your only drink. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A writing paper of a particular size. See Paper. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so. [ 1913 Webster ]

That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices. Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Of an unusual or irregular make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Print.) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bastard ashlar (Arch.), stones for ashlar work, roughly squared at the quarry. --
Bastard file, a file intermediate between the coarsest and the second cut. --
Bastard type (Print.), type having the face of a larger or a smaller size than the body; e. g., a nonpareil face on a brevier body. --
Bastard wing (Zool.), three to five quill feathers on a small joint corresponding to the thumb in some mammalia; the alula. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To bastardize. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An act that debases or corrupts. [ chiefly Brit. ]
Syn. -- bastardization. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. Same as bastardize. [ chiefly Brit. ] [ PJC ]

n. The state of being a bastard; bastardy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An act that debases or corrupts.
Syn. -- bastardisation. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bastardized (&unr_;); p. pr. & vb. n. Bastardizing. ] 1. To make or prove to be a bastard; to stigmatize as a bastard; to declare or decide legally to be illegitimate. [ 1913 Webster ]

The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To beget out of wedlock. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. to change something (for example, art forms) so that its value declines; to debase.
Syn. -- bastardise. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. (Arts) deriving from more than one source or style. impure (vs. pure) --- (combined with extraneous elements) [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Bastardlike; baseborn; spurious; corrupt. [ Obs. ] -- adv. In the manner of a bastard; spuriously. [ Obs. ] Shak. Donne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The state of being a bastard; illegitimacy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The procreation of a bastard child. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] 1. A cofferdam. Brande & C. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mil.) A wall built across the ditch of a fortification, with a sluice gate to regulate the height of water in the ditch on both sides of the wall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. & Prov. F. bistarde, F. outarde, from L. avis tarda, lit., slow bird. Plin. 10, 22; “proximæ iis sunt, quas Hispania aves tardas appellat, Græcia 'wti`das.” ] (Zool.) A bird of the genus Otis. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The great or bearded bustard (Otis tarda) is the largest game bird in Europe. It inhabits the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, and was formerly common in Great Britain. The little bustard (Otis tetrax) inhabits eastern Europe and Morocco. Many other species are known in Asia and Africa. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prob. fr. OF. coste rib, side, F. côte, and meaning orig., a ribbed apple, from the ribs or angles on its sides. See Coast. ] 1. An apple, large and round like the head. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some [ apples ] consist more of air than water . . . ; others more of water than wind, as your costards and pomewaters. Muffett. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The head; -- used contemptuously. [ 1913 Webster ]

Try whether your costard or my bat be the harder. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A costermonger. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prob. the same word as OE. crustade, crustate, a pie made with a crust, fr. L. crustatus covered with a crust, p. p. of crustare, fr. crusta crust; cf. OF. croustade pasty, It. crostata, or F. coutarde. See Crust, and cf. Crustated. ] A mixture of milk and eggs, sweetened, and baked or boiled. [ 1913 Webster ]

Custard apple (Bot.), a low tree or shrub of tropical America, including several species of Anona (Anona squamosa, Anona reticulata, etc.), having a roundish or ovate fruit the size of a small orange, containing a soft, yellowish, edible pulp. --
Custard coffin, pastry, or crust, which covers or coffins a custard [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prob. from Icel. dæstr exhausted. breathless, p. p. of dæsa to groan, lose one's breath; cf. dasask to become exhausted, and E. daze. ] One who meanly shrinks from danger; an arrant coward; a poltroon. [ 1913 Webster ]

You are all recreants and dashtards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Meanly shrinking from danger; cowardly; dastardly. “Their dastard souls.” Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To dastardize. [ R. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Dastardized p. pr. & vb. n. Dastardizing. ] To make cowardly; to intimidate; to dispirit; as, to dastardize my courage. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being dastardly; cowardice; base fear. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Meanly timid; cowardly; base; as, a dastardly outrage. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Dastardliness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Base timidity; cowardliness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Dote, v. i. ] One whose mind is impaired by age; one in second childhood. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sickly dotard wants a wife. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Foolish; weak. Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ For Dotard? ] An old, decayed tree. [ R. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A political dynamiter. [ A form found in some newspapers. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. em- + bastardize. ] To bastardize. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a substance applied or added to materials or objects, so as to reduce combustibility or slow the spread of fire.
PJC ]

adj. able to reduce combustibility or slow the spread of fire; -- of substances that are added to combustible materials to make them less combustible.
PJC ]

n. (Zool.) The great bustard. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To bastardize; to debase. [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. moustarde, F. moutarde, fr. L. mustum must, -- mustard was prepared for use by being mixed with must. See Must, n. ] 1. (Bot.) The name of several cruciferous plants of the genus Brassica (formerly Sinapis), as white mustard (Brassica alba), black mustard (Brassica Nigra), wild mustard or charlock (Brassica Sinapistrum). [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ There are also many herbs of the same family which are called mustard, and have more or less of the flavor of the true mustard; as, bowyer's mustard (Lepidium ruderale); hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale); Mithridate mustard (Thlaspi arvense); tower mustard (Arabis perfoliata); treacle mustard (Erysimum cheiranthoides). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A powder or a paste made from the seeds of black or white mustard, used as a condiment and a rubefacient. Taken internally it is stimulant and diuretic, and in large doses is emetic. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mustard oil (Chem.), a substance obtained from mustard, as a transparent, volatile and intensely pungent oil. The name is also extended to a number of analogous compounds produced either naturally or artificially. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. pétard, fr. péter to break wind, to crack, to explode, L. pedere, peditum. ] (Mil.) A case containing powder to be exploded, esp. a conical or cylindrical case of metal filled with powder and attached to a plank, to be exploded against and break down gates, barricades, drawbridges, etc. It has been superseded. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ F. pétardier. ] (Mil.) One who managed a petard. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Retardation; delay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A mentally retarded person. [ Colloq. and disparaging ] [ PJC ]

3. a person who is stupid or inept, especially in social situations. [ Colloq. and disparaging ] [ PJC ]

Retard of the tide, or
Age of the tide, the interval between the transit of the moon at which a tide originates and the appearance of the tide itself. It is found, in general, that any particular tide is not principally due to the moon's transit immediately proceeding, but to a transit which has occured some time before, and which is said to correspond to it. The retard of the tide is thus distinguished from the lunitidal interval. See under Retardation. Ham. Nav. Encyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Retarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Retarding. ] [ L. retardare, retardatum; pref. re- re- + tardare to make slow, to delay, fr. tardus slow: cf. F. retarder. See Tardy. ] 1. To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to accelerate. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To put off; to postpone; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to retard a rupture between nations. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To impede; hinder; obstruct; detain; delay; procrastinate; postpone; defer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To stay back. [ Obs. ] Sir. T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. retardatio: cf. F. retardation. ] 1. The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to acceleration. [ 1913 Webster ]

The retardations of our fluent motion. De Quinsey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which retards; an obstacle; an obstruction. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hills, sloughs, and other terrestrial retardations. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mus.) The keeping back of an approaching consonant chord by prolonging one or more tones of a previous chord into the intermediate chord which follows; -- differing from suspension by resolving upwards instead of downwards. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The extent to which anything is retarded; the amount of retarding or delay. [ 1913 Webster ]

Retardation of the tide. (a) The lunitidal interval, or the hour angle of the moon at the time of high tide any port; the interval between the transit of the moon and the time of high tide next following. (b) The age of the tide; the retard of the tide. See under Retard, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. retardatif. ] Tending, or serving, to retard. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. having a limited or below normal mental ability; same as
mentally retarded; -- used especially in relation to performance in academic tasks. [ PJC ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, retards. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Steam Boiler) Any of various devices, as a helix of flat metal strip, introduced into a boiler tube to increase the heating effect of the fire. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

3. (Photog.) A substance, as potassium bromide, added to a developer to retard its action. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Cf. F. retardement. ] The act of retarding; retardation. Cowley. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖a. [ It. ] (Mus.) Retarding; -- a direction for slower time; rallentado. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. tardatio, fr. tardare, tardatum, to retard, delay, fr. tardus slow. ] The act of retarding, or delaying; retardation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Tardigrade, a. ] 1. (Zool.) A tribe of edentates comprising the sloths. They are noted for the slowness of their movements when on the ground. See Sloth, 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) An order of minute aquatic arachnids; -- called also bear animalcules, sloth animalcules, and water bears. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) One of the Tardigrada. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. tardigradus; tardus slow + gradi to step: cf. F. tardigrade. ] 1. Moving or stepping slowly; slow-paced. [ R. ] G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Of or pertaining to the Tardigrada. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Moving slowly; slow-paced. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]