adv. [ Prefix a- + cock + bill: with bills cocked up. ] (Naut.) (a) Hanging at the cathead, ready to let go, as an anchor. (b) Topped up; having one yardarm higher than the other. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 2nd back, n. + band. ] (Saddlery) The band which passes over the back of a horse and holds up the shafts of a carriage. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. any of the seats occupied by backbenchers in the House of Commons of Great Britain. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a member of the House of Commons of Great Britain who is not a party leader. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. an acrobatic feat in which the trunk is bent backward from a standing position until the hands touch the floor. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ 2d back, n. + bite. ] To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (an absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent). Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To censure or revile the absent. [ 1913 Webster ]

They are arrant knaves, and will backbite. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who backbites; a secret calumniator or detractor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Secret slander; detraction. [ 1913 Webster ]

Backbiting, and bearing of false witness. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 2d back, n. + board. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A board which supports the back when one is sitting; specifically, the board athwart the after part of a boat. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A board serving as the back part of anything, as of a wagon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A thin stuff used for the backs of framed pictures, mirrors, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A board attached to the rim of a water wheel to prevent the water from running off the floats or paddles into the interior of the wheel. W. Nicholson. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A board worn across the back to give erectness to the figure. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Back, adv. + bond. ] (Scots Law) An instrument which, in conjunction with another making an absolute disposition, constitutes a trust. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 2d back, n. + bone. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The column of bones in the back which sustains and gives firmness to the frame; the spine; the vertebral or spinal column. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything like , or serving the purpose of, a backbone. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lofty mountains on the north side compose the granitic axis, or backbone of the country. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

We have now come to the backbone of our subject. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Firmness; moral principle; steadfastness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shelley's thought never had any backbone. Shairp. [ 1913 Webster ]

To the backbone, through and through; thoroughly; entirely. “Staunch to the backbone.” Lord Lytton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Vertebrate. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A battle in which the Scots under Robert the Bruce defeated the English and assured the independence of Scotland. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Prevented from growing, by having the bark too firm or close. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A composition for blacking shoes, boots, etc.; also, one for taking impressions of engraved work. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A ball of black color, esp. one used as a negative in voting; -- in this sense usually two words. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Blackballed p. pr. & vb. n. Blackballing. ] 1. To vote against, by putting a black ball into a ballot box; to reject or exclude, as by voting against with black balls; to ostracize. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was blackballed at two clubs in succession. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To blacken (leather, shoes, etc.) with blacking. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Min.) An earthy carbonate of iron containing considerable carbonaceous matter; -- valuable as an iron ore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. blakberye, AS. blæcberie; blæc black + berie berry. ] The fruit of several species of bramble (Rubus); also, the plant itself. Rubus fruticosus is the blackberry of England; Rubus villosus and Rubus Canadensis are the high blackberry and low blackberry of the United States. There are also other kinds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. garden plant whose capsule discloses when ripe a mass of seeds resembling a blackberry.
Syn. -- leopard lily, Belamcanda chinensis. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) In England, a species of thrush (Turdus merula), a singing bird with a fin note; the merle. In America the name is given to several birds, as the Quiscalus versicolor, or crow blackbird; the Agelæus phœniceus, or red-winged blackbird; the cowbird; the rusty grackle, etc. See Redwing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Among slavers and pirates, a negro or Polynesian. [ Cant, pejorative ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. A native of any of the islands near Queensland; -- called also Kanaka. [ Australia, pejorative ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. to engage in the slave trade. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

n. A slave ship; a slaver. [ Colloq. ] F. T. Bullen. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. 1. The kidnaping of negroes or Polynesians to be sold as slaves. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. The act or practice of collecting natives of the islands near Queensland for service on the Queensland sugar plantations. [ Australia ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A broad board painted black, or any black surface on which writing, drawing, or the working of mathematical problems can be done with chalk or crayons. It is much used in schools. In late 20th century similar boards of a green slate as well as some colored white became common; wrioting on the slate bioards may be done with chalk, but writing on the white boards is done with colored pens, such as grease pens, which leaves a trace that can be easily erased. The newer boards, usualy called chalkboards are nevertheless still sometimes referred to as blackboards. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Named from Mrs. Blackburn, an English lady. ] (Zool.) A beautiful warbler of the United States (Dendroica Blackburniæ). The male is strongly marked with orange, yellow, and black on the head and neck, and has an orange-yellow breast. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One whose occupation is to bind books. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bookbinder's shop; a place or establishment for binding books. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The art, process, or business of binding books. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Med.) See Dengue. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A piece or fragment of a brick. See 1st Bat, n. 4. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Bot.) A perennial plant (Menyanthes trifoliata) of Europe and America which grows in moist and boggy places, having racemes of white, reddish, or purplish flowers and intensely bitter trifoliate leaves, sometimes used in medicine; marsh trefoil; -- called also bog bean. It often roots at the water margin and spreads across the surface.
Syn. -- water shamrock, bogbean, bog myrtle, marsh trefoil, Menyanthes trifoliata. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A four-wheeled vehicle, having a long elastic board or frame resting on the bolsters or axletrees, and a seat or seats placed transversely upon it; -- called also buck wagon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A type of multiple bed in which the individual beds are arranged one above the other. It is used to save space in crowded quarters. [ PJC ]

n. a dark sheet of slate used as a surface for writing on, with chalk.
Syn. -- blackboard. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. the arch of bone beneath the eye that forms the prominence of the cheek.
Syn. -- zygomatic bone, malar bone, jugal bone, os zygomaticum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ See Cock to set erect. ] (Naut.) To tilt up one end of so as to make almost vertical; as, to cockbill the yards as a sign of mourning. [ 1913 Webster ]

To cockbill the anchor, to suspend it from the cathead preparatory to letting it go. See Acockbill. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Cock a boat. ] A small boat, esp. one used on rivers or near the shore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A book of directions and receipts for cooking; a cookery book. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

“Just How”: a key to the cookbooks. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having an impaired intellect; whimsical; extremely foolish; crazy; as, crackbrained notions. Pope.
Syn. -- idiotic. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. (Zool.) A small European woodpecker (Picus minor). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A crooked back; one who has a crooked or deformed back; a hunchback. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Hunched. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool) A New Zealand plover (Anarhynchus frontalis), remarkable for having the end of the beak abruptly bent to the right. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) See Duck mole, under Duck, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) (a) A European fish (Raniceps raninus), having a large flat head; -- also called tadpole fish, and lesser forked beard. (b) The European forked hake or hake's-dame (Phycis blennoides); -- also called great forked beard. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A genus of trees (Celtis) related to the elm, but bearing drupes with scanty, but often edible, pulp. Celtis occidentalis is common in the Eastern United States. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The greater shearwater or hagdon. See Hagdon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Hagbut. [ 1913 Webster ]