‖n. pl. [ L. (usually in pl.); pref. ambi-, amb- + agere to drive: cf. F. ambage. ] A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. [ 1913 Webster ]

After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Ambagious. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. ambagiosus. ] Circumlocutory; circuitous. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Ambagious. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ n., or }. [ Hind. ambārā, ambārī. ] A valuable East Indian fiber plant (Hibiscus cannabinus), or its fiber, which is used throughout India for making ropes, cordage, and a coarse canvas and sackcloth; -- called also brown Indian hemp. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Of or pertaining to an ambassador. H. Walpole. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state, office, or functions of an ambassador. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female ambassador; also, the wife of an ambassador. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Embassage. [ Obs. or R. ] Luke xiv. 32. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Embassy, the usual spelling. Helps. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a band worn around arm as identification or to indicate mourning. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. a band worn around the upper arm. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a natural family of tropical trees with large dry or fleshy fruit containing usually woolly seeds.
Syn. -- family Bombacaceae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OF. ] Cotton; padding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombarde, LL. bombarda, fr. L. bombus + -ard. Cf. Bumper, and see Bomb. ] 1. (Gun.) A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon. [ 1913 Webster ]

They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses. Knolles. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A bombardment. [ Poetic & R. ] J. Barlow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A large drinking vessel or can, or a leather bottle, for carrying liquor or beer. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. Padded breeches. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombard phrase, inflated language; bombast. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bombarde, fr. F. bombarde. ] (Mus.) See Bombardo. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bombarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Bombarding. ] To attack with bombards or with artillery; especially, to throw shells, hot shot, etc., at or into. [ 1913 Webster ]

Next, she means to bombard Naples. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

His fleet bombarded and burnt down Dieppe. Wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombardier. ] (Mil.) (a) One who used or managed a bombard; an artilleryman; a gunner. [ Archaic ] (b) A noncommissioned officer in the British artillery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombardier beetle (Zool.), a kind of beetle (Brachinus crepitans), so called because, when disturbed, it makes an explosive discharge of a pungent and acrid vapor from its anal glands. The name is applied to other related species, as the Brachinus displosor, which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The common American species is Brachinus fumans. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who carried liquor or beer in a can or bombard. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They . . . made room for a bombardman that brought bouge for a country lady. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombardement. ] An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ ‖ } n. [ It. bombardo. ] (Mus.) Originally, a deep-toned instrument of the oboe or bassoon family; thence, a bass reed stop on the organ. The name bombardon is now given to a brass instrument, the lowest of the saxhorns, in tone resembling the ophicleide. Grove. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Bombazine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine. ] 1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A candle with a wick of bombast. Lupton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ He ] evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated. -- Bom*bas"tic*al*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

A theatrical, bombastic, windy phraseology. Burke. [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Turgid; tumid; pompous; grandiloquent. [1913 Webster]

n. Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ LL., cotton. See Bombast, n. ] (Bot.) A genus of trees, called also the silkcotton tree; also, a tree of the genus Bombax. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. Bombazine. ] A sort of thin woolen cloth. It is of various colors, and may be plain or twilled. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombasin, LL. bombacinium, bambacinium, L. bombycinus silken, bombycinum a silk or cotton texture, fr. bombyx silk, silkworm, Gr. &unr_;. Cf. Bombast, Bombycinous. ] A twilled fabric for dresses, of which the warp is silk, and the weft worsted. Black bombazine has been much used for mourning garments. [ Sometimes spelt bombasin, and bombasine. ] Tomlinson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ A corruption of bound bailiff. ] [ Low, Eng. ] See Bound bailiff, under Bound, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

See Bombard. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Bumboat. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

See Bombast. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A subfamily of plants, in some classifications considered as an independent family of water lilies; it comprises the genera Cabomba and Brasenia.
Syn. -- subfamily Cabombaceae, water-shield family. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ F. calambac, calambour, from Malay Kalambaq a king of fragrant wood. ] (Bot.) A fragrant wood; agalloch. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ from kalumb, its native name in Mozambique. ] (Med.) The root of a plant (Jateorrhiza Calumba, and probably Cocculus palmatus), indigenous in Mozambique. It has an unpleasantly bitter taste, and is used as a tonic and antiseptic. [ Written also colombo, columbo, and calombo. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

American calumba, the Frasera Carolinensis, also called American gentian. Its root has been used in medicine as bitter tonic in place of calumba. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ It. See Cymbal. ] (Mus.) An old name for the harpsichord. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. ciambella. ] A kind of confectionery or cake. [ Obs. ] Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. circum- + ambage, obs. sing. of ambages. ] A roundabout or indirect course; indirectness. [ Obs. ] S. Richardson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The backing or steaming of clams on heated stones, between layers of seaweed; hence, a picnic party, gathered on such an occasion. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being climbed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Med.) See Calumba. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl.; [ L. columba pigeon. ] (Zool.) An order of birds, including the pigeons. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. L. Columbaria /plu> [ L. See Columbary. ] (Rom. Antiq.) (a) A dovecote or pigeon house. (b) A sepulchral chamber with niches for holding cinerary urns. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Columbaries [ L. columbarium, fr. columba a dove. ] A dovecote; a pigeon house. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. colombate. See Columbium. ] (Chem.) A salt of columbic acid; a niobate. See Columbium. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ From Kolumbatz, a mountain in Germany. ] (Zool.) See Buffalo fly, under Buffalo. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Combated; p. pr. & vb. n. Combating. ] [ F. combattre; pref. com- + battre to beat, fr. L. battuere to strike. See Batter. ] To struggle or contend, as with an opposing force; to fight. [ 1913 Webster ]

To combat with a blind man I disdain. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

After the fall of the republic, the Romans combated only for the choice of masters. Gibbon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To fight with; to oppose by force, argument, etc.; to contend against; to resist. [ 1913 Webster ]

When he the ambitious Norway combated. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

And combated in silence all these reasons. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled. Goldsmith.

Syn. -- To fight against; resist; oppose; withstand; oppugn; antagonize; repel; resent. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. combat. ] 1. A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy. [ 1913 Webster ]

My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mil.) An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies. [ 1913 Webster ]

Single combat, one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also, a duel.

Syn. -- A battle; engagement; conflict; contest; contention; struggle; fight, strife. See Battle, Contest. [ 1913 Webster ]