Could the fair forms of good and truth discern; Bats they became who eagles were before; And this they got by their desire to learn. Davies. Some animals are placed in the middle betwixt two kinds, as bats, which have something Locke. of birds and beasts. Where swallows in the winter season keep, And how the drowsy bat and dormouse sleep. Gay. BAT-FOWLING. n. s. [from bat and fowl.] A particular manner of birdcatching in the nighttime, while they are at roost upon perches, trees, or hedges. They light torches or straw, and then beat the bushes; upon which the birds flying to the flames are caught either with nets, or otherwise.

You would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing. We should so, and then go a batfouling. Shakspeare. Bodies lighted at night by fire, must have a brighter lustre than by day; as sacking of cities, bat-fowling. Peacham. BALABLE. adj. [from bate.] Disputable, Batable ground seems to be the ground heretofore in question, whether it belonged to England or Scotland, lying between both kingdoms. Corvell. BATCH. n. s. [from bake.]

1. The quantity of bread baked at a time. The joiner puts the boards into ovens after the batch is drawn, or lays them in a warm Mortimer's Husbandry. stable. 2. Any quantity of any thing made at once, so as to have the same qualities.

Except he were of the same meal and batch. Ben Jonson. BATCHELOR. See BACHELOR. BATE n. s. perhaps contracted from debate.] Strife; contention; as, a makebate.

To BATE. v. a. [contracted from abate.] 1. To lessen any thing; to retrench.

Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, With bated breath, and whisp'ring humbleness, Say this? Shakspeare's Merch. of Venice. Nor, envious at the sight, will I forbear My plenteous bowl, nor bate my plenteous cheer. Dryden.

2. To sink the price.

When the landholder's rent falls, he must either bate the labourer's wages, or not employ, Locke. or not pay him.

3. To lessen a demand.

Bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. Shak. 4. To cut off; to take away.

Bate but the last, and 't is what I would say.
Dryden's Spanish Friar.

To BATE. v. n. 1. To grow less.

Bardolph, am not I fallen away vilely since this last election? Do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown. Shakspeare's Henry IV. 2. To remit: with of before the thing. Abate thy speed, and I will bate of mine. Dryden. BATE seems to have been once the preterit of bite, as Shakspeare uses biting

He knew her haunt, and haunted in the same, And taught his sheep her sheep in food to thwart; Which soon as it did bateful question frame, He might on knees confess his guilty part. Sidney. BATEMENT. n. s. [from abatement.] Diminution: a term only used among artificers.

To abate, is to waste a piece of stuff; instead of asking how much was cut off, carpenters ask what batement that piece of stuff had. Moxon. BATH. n. s. [bad, Saxon.]

1. A bath is either hot or cold, either of art or nature. Artificial baths have been in great esteem with the ancients, especially in complaints to be relieved by revulsion, as inveterate headaches, by opening the pores of the feet, and also in cutaneous cases. But the modern practice has greatest recourse to the natural baths; most of which abound with a mineral sulphur, as appears from their turning silver and copper blackish. The cold baths are the most convenient springs, or reservatories, of cold water to wash in, which the ancients had in great esteem; and the present age can produce abundance of noble cures performed by them. Quincy.

Why may not the cold bath, into which they plunged themselves, have had some share in their cure? Addison's Spectator. 2. A state in which great outward heat is applied to the body, for the mitigation of pain, or any other purpose.

In the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames. Shakspeare.

Sleep, the birth of each day's life, sore labour's bath,

Balm of hurt minds.

Shakspeare's Macbeth. 3. In chymistry, it generally signifies a vessel of water, in which another is placed that requires a softer heat than the naked fire. Balneum Maria is a mistake for balneum maris, a sea or water bath. A sand heat is sometimes called balneum siccum, or cinereum. Quincy.

We see that the water of things distilled in water, which they call the bath, differeth not much from the water of things distilled by fire. Bacon's Natural History.

4. A sort of Hebrew measure, containing the tenth part of an homer, or seven gallons and four pints, as a measure for things liquid; and three pecks and three pints, as a measure for things dry. Calmet.

Ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. Isaiah.

To BATHE. v. a. [badian, Saxon.]
1. To wash, as in a bath.

Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd
Their downy breast. Milton's Paradise Lost,
Chancing to bathe himself in the river Cydnus,

But batbe, and, in imperial robes array'd, Pay due devotions. Pope's Odyssey. BATING, OF ABATING. prep. [from bate, or abate. This word, though a participle in itself, seems often used as a preposition.] Except,

The king, your brother, could not choose an advocate,

Whom I would sooner hear on any subject, Bating that only one, his love, than you. Rowe.

If we consider children, we have little reason to think that they bring many ideas with them, bating, perhaps, some faint ideas of hunger and thirst, Locke. BA'TLET. n. s. [from bat.] A square piece of wood, with a handle, used in beating linen when taken out of the buck.

I remember the kissing of her batlet, and the cow's dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milked.

BATTAʼLION. n. s. [bataillon, Fr.] 1. A division of an army; a troop; a body of forces. It is now confined to the infantry, and the number is uncertain, but generally from five to eight hundred men. Some regiments consist of one battalion, and others are divided into two, three, or more.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions.

Shakspeare's Hamlet. In this battalion there were two officers, called Thersites and Pandarus. Tatler.

BATO'ON. n, s. [baston, or bâton, Fr, formerly spelt baston.]

1. A staff or club.

We came close to the shore, and offered to land; but straightways we saw divers of the people with bastons in their hands, as it were, forbidding us to land. Bacon.

That does not make a man the worse, Although his shoulders with batoon

Be claw'd and cudgell'd to some tune. Hudibras. 2. A truncheon or marshal's staff; a badge of military honour.

BATTAILOUS. adj. [from battaille, Fr.] Having the appearance of a battle; warlike; with a military appearance.

He started up, and did himself prepare In sun-bright arms and battailous array. Fairfax. The French came foremost, battailous and bold, Fairfax,

A fiery region, stretch'd

In battailous aspect, and nearer view Bristled with upright beams innumerable Of rigid spears and helmets throng'd. Milton, BATTA'LIA. n. s. [battaglia, Ital.] 1. The order of battle.

Next morning the king put his army into battalia. Clarendon.

2. The main body of an army in array, distinguished from the wings,

Garth.

Prior

While paddling ducks the standing lake desire, Or batt'ning hogs roll in the sinking mire. Gay. BATTEN. . . [a word used only by workmen.] A scantling of wood, two, three, or four inches broad, seldom above one thick, and the length unlimited. Moxon.

To BATTER. v. a. [battre, to beat, French.]

1. To beat; to beat down; to shatter: frequently used of walls thrown down by artillery, or of the violence of engines of war.

To appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. Ezekiel These haughty words of hers Have batter'd me like roaring cannon shot, And made me almost yield upon my knees.

Britannia there, the fort in vain Had batter'd been with golden rain: Thunder itself had fail'd to pass.

Shakspeare.

Waller

Be then the naval stores the nation's care, New ships to build, and batter'd to repair.

2. To wear with beating.

Dryden.

Crowds to the castle mounted up the street, Batt'ring the pavementwith their coursers feet.

Dayden,

If you have a silver saucepan for the kitchen use, let me advise you to batter it well; this will shew constant good housekeeping. Swift. 3. Applied to persons, to wear out with service.

The batter'd veteran strumpets here Pretend at least to bring a modest ear. Southern. I am a poor old battered fellow, and I would willingly end my days in peace. Arbuthnot. As the same dame, experienc'd in her trade, By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade. Pope. To BATTER. v. n. [a word used only by workmen] The side of a wall or any timber, that bulges from its bottom or foundation, is said to batter. Moxon. BATTER. n. s. [from To batter.] A mixture of several ingredients beaten together, with some liquor; so called from its being so much beaten.

One would have all things little, hence has try'd

Turkey poults fresh from th' egg in batter fry'd.

King. BATTERER. N. s. [from batter.] He that batters.

BATTERY. 2. S. [from batter; or batterie, French.]

1. The act of battering.

Strong wars they make, and cruel battery bend 'Gainst fort of reason, it to overflow. Fairy Q. Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries. Locke.

2. The instruments with which a town is battered, placed in order for action; a line of cannon.

Where is best place to make our
next?---

I think, at the north gate.

att'ry Shakspeare.

It plants this reasoning and that argument, this consequence and that distinction, like so many intellectual batteries, till at length it forces a way and passage into the obstinaté inclosed truth. South. See, and revere th' artillery of heav'it, Drawn by the gale, or by the tempest driv❜n: A dreadful fire the floating batt'ries make, O'erturn the mountain, and the forest shake. Blackmore.

3. The frame, or raised work, upon which cannons are mounted.

4. [In law. A violent striking of any man.

In an action against a striker, one may be found guilty of the assault, yet acquitted of the battery. There may therefore be assault without battery; but battery always implies an asChambers.

sault.

Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action and battery? Shakspeare. Sir, quoth the lawyer, not to flatter ye, You have as good and fair a battery As heart can wish, and need not shame The proudest man alive to claim. BATTISH. adj. [from bat.] Resembling a

bat.

To be out late in a battish humour.

Hudibras.

Gentleman Instructed.

BATTLE. n. s. [battaille, Fr.] 1. A fight; an encounter between opposite armies. We generally say a battle of many, and a combat of two. The English army, that divided was Into two parts, is now conjoin'd in one; And means to give you battle presently, Shak

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Ecclesiastes

So they joined battle, and the heathen beingdiscomfited fied into the plain. 1 Maccabees. 2. A body of forces, or division of an army. The king divided his army into three battles; whereof the van-guard only, with wings, came to fight. Bacon.

3.

The main body, as distinct from the van and rear.

Angus led the avant-guard, himself followed with the battle a good distance behind, and after came the arrier. Hayward.

4. We say to join battle; to give battle. To BATTLE. .. [batailler, Fr.] To join battle; to contend in fight.

"T is ours by craft and by surprize to gain: "T is yours to meet in arms, and battle in the plain. Prior.

We receive accounts of ladies battling it on both sides. Addison.

I own, he hates an action base, His virtues battling with his place. Swift. BATTLE-ARRA'Y. n. s. [See BATTLE and ARRAY.] Array, or order, of battle. Two parties of fine women, placed in the opposite side boxes, seemed drawn up in battle-array one against another.. Addison. BATTLE-AXE. n. s. A weapon used anciently, probably the same with a bill.

Certain tinners, as they were working, found spear-heads, battle-axes, and swords of copper, Carer. wrapped in linen clouts BATTLEDOOR. n. s. [so called from door, taken for a flat board, and battle, or striking. An instrument with a handle and a flat board, used in play to strike a ball or shuttlecock.

Play-things which are above their skill, as tops, gigs, battledoors, and the like, which are to be used with labour, should indeed be procured them.. Locke. BATTLEMENT. n. s. [generally supposed to be formed from battle, as the parts from whence a building is defended against assailants; perhaps only corrupted from batiment, Fr. A wall raised round the top of a building, with embrasures, or interstices, to look through, to annoy an enemy.

And fix'd his head upon our battlements, Shak. Thou shalt make a battlement for thyroof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fail. Deuteronomy.

Through this we pass
Up to the highest battlement, from whence
The Trojans threw their darts.

Denham.

Their standard, planted on the battlement,

Despair and death among the soldiers sent. Dryd. No, I shan't envy him, whoe'er he be,

That stands upon the battlements of state;

I'd rather be secure than great.

营 Norris.

The weighty mallet deals resounding blows, Till the proud battlements her tow'rs inclose. Gay. BATTY. adj. [from bat.] Belonging to

a bat. Tillo'er their brows death, counterfeiting sleep, With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep. Shakspeare. BA'VAROY, n. s. A kind of cloak or surtout.

Let the loop'd bavaroy the fop embrace, Or his deep cloak, bespatter'd o'er with lace.

Gay. BAUBEE'. n. s. A word used in Scotland, and the northern counties, for a halfpenny.

Tho' in the draw'rs of my japan bureau,
To lady Gripeall I the Caesars show,
"T is equal to her ladyship or me
A copper Otho, or a Scotch baubee.

Bramst. Man of Taste."
BA'VIN. n. s. [of uncertain derivation.]
A stick like those bound up in faggots;
a piece of waste wood.

He rambled up and down

With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled, and soon burnt.

Shakspeare.

For, moulded to the life in clout's Th' have pick'd from dunghills thereabouts, He's mounted on a hazel bavin, A cropp'd malignant baker gave him. Hudibras. The truncheons make billet, bavin, and coals. Mortimer.

To BAULK. See BALK. BA'WBLE... [baubellum, in barbarous Latin, signified a jewel, or any thing valuable, but not necessary. Omnia baubella sua dedit Othoni. Hoveden. Probably from beau, Fr.] A gewgaw; a trifling piece of finery; a thing of more show than use; a trifle. It is in general, whether applied to persons or things, a term of contempt.

She haunts me in every place. I was on the sea bank with some Venetians, and thither comes 1. the bawble, and falls me thus about my neck. Shakspeare's Othello. It is a paltry cap, A custard coffin, a barble, a silken pie. Shaksp. If, in our contest, we do not interchange useful notions, we shall traffick toys and bawbles. Government of the Tongue. This shall be writ to fright the fry away, Who draw their little barbles, when they play. Dryden.

Alady'swatch needs neither figures nor wheels; 'Tis enough that 't is loaded with barbles and seals. Prior.

Our author then, to please you in your way, Presents you now a barble of a play, In gingling rhyme.

Granville.

A prince, the moment he is crown'd, Inherits ev'ry virtue round,

Swift.

As emblems of the sov'reign pow'r, Like other bawbles of the Tow'r. BA'WBLING. adj. [from bawble.] Trifling; contemptible: a word not now in use, except in conversation.

A bawbling vessel was he captain of, For shallow draught and bulk unprizeable; With which such scathful grapple did he make, With the most noble bottom of our fleet. Shaksp. BA'WCOCK. n. s. [perhaps from beau, or baude, and cock.] A familiar word, which seems to signify the same as fine fellow.

Why how now, my bawcock? how dost thou, chuck? Shakspeare's Twelfth Night. BAWD. n. s. [baude, old Fr.] A procurer, or procuress; one that introduces men and women to each other, for the promotion of debauchery.

If your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bards. Shakspeare.

This commodity,

This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid. Shakspeare.

Our author calls colouring lena sororis, the bard of her sister design; she dresses her up, she paints her, she procures for the design, and makes lovers for her. Dryden.

To BAWD. v. n. [from the noun.] To procure; to provide gallants with strumpets.

Leucippe is agent for the king's lust, and baruds at the same time for the whole court. Addison.

And in four months a batter'd harridan; Now nothing's left, but wither'd, pale, and shrunk,

-To bawd for others, and go shares with punk. Swift. BA'WDILY. adv. [from bawdy.] Obscenely.

BA'WDINESS. n. s. [from bawdy.] Ob.

sceneness.

BA'WDRICK..s.[See BALDRICK.JA belt. Fresh garlands too the virgins temples crown'd; The youths gilt swords wore at their thighs, with

silver bawdricks bound.. Chapman's Iliad. BAWDRY. n. s. [contracted from bawders, the practice of a bawd.]

1. A wicked practice of procuring and bringing whores and rogues together.

Ayliffe Cheating and batedry go together in the world. L'Estrange

2. Obscenity; unchaste language.

Pr'ythee say on; he 's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Shakspeare's Hamlet. I have no salt: no bawdry he doth mean; For witty, in his language, is obscene. Ben Jonson. It is most certain, that barefaced bawdry is the poorest pretence to wit imaginable. Dryden. BA'WDY. adj. [from bawd.] Obscene; unchaste: generally applied tolanguage. The bardy wind, that kisses all it meets, Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth, And will not hear 't. Shakspeare's Othello.

Only they,

That come to hear a merry bawdy play, Will be deceiv'd.

Shakspeare.

Not one poor barudy jest shall dare appear; For now the batter'd veteran strumpets here •"Prétend at least to bring a modest ear. Southern, BADY-HOUSE. n... A house where traffick is made by wickedness and debauchery.

Has the pope lately shut up the bawdy-houtes, or does he continue to lay a tax upon sin? Dennis. To BAWL. v. n. [balo, Lat.]

1. To hoot; to cry with great vehemence, whether for joy or pain: a word always used in contempt.

They bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, And still revolt, when truth would set them free.

Milton.

30 on the tuneful Margarita's tongue The list ning nymphs and ravish'd heroes hung; But cits and fops the heav'n-born musick blame, And bawl, and hiss, and damn her into fame.

Smith. I have a race of orderly elderly people, who can barol when I am deaf, and tread softly when I am only giddy and would sleep. Swift. 2. To cry as a froward child.

A little child was bawling, and_a_woman chiding it. L'Estrange. If they were never suffered to have what they cried for, they would never, with bawling and peevishness, contend for mastery. Locke.

My husband took him in, a dirty boy; it was the business of the servants to attend him, the rogue did bawl and make such a noise. Arbuth. To BAWL. v. a. To proclaim as a crier.

It grieved me when I saw labours, which had cost so much, bawled about by common hawkers.

BA'WREL. n. s. A kind of hawk.
BA'WSIN. n. A badger.
BAY. adj. [badius, Lat.]

Swift.

Dict. Dict.

A bay horse is what is inclining to a chesnut; and this colour is various, either a light bay or a dark bay, according as it is less or more deep. There are also coloured horses, that are called dappled bays. All bay horses are commonly called brown by the common people. All bay horses have black manes, which distinguish them from the sorrel, that have red or white manes. There are light bays and gilded bays, which are somewhat of a yellowish colour. The chesnut bay is that which comes nearest to the -colour of the chesnut.

Farrier's Dict.

My lord, you gave good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. "T is yours because you liked it. Shakspeare. Poor Tom proud of heart to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch'd bridges. Shaksp. His colour grey,

For beauty dappled, or the brightest bay. Dryd. BAY. n. s. [baye, Dutch.]

1. An opening into the land, where the water is shut in on all sides, except at the entrance.

A reverend Syracusan merchant, Who put unluckily into this bay. Shakspeare.

We have also some works in the midst of the sea, and some bays upon the shore for some works, wherein is required the air and vapour Bacon.

of the sea.

Hail, sacred solitude! from this calm bay Iview the world's tempestuous sea. Roscommon. Here in a royal bed the waters sleep; When tir'd at sea, within this bay they creep. Dryden. Dryden.

Some of you have bay. 2. A pond head raised to keep in store of water for driving a mill. BAY. n. s. [abboi, Fr. signifies the last extremity; as, Innocence est aux abbois. Boileau. Innocence is in the utmost distress. It is taken from abboi, the barking of a dog at hand, and thence signified the condition of a stag when the hounds were almost upon him.] I. The state of any thing surrounded by enemies, and obliged to face them by an impossibility of escape.

This ship, for fifteen hours, sate like a stag among hounds at the bay, and was sieged and fought with, in turn, by fifteen great ships. Bacon's War with Spain.

2. Some writers, perhaps mistaking the meaning, have used bay as referred to the assailant, for distance beyond which no approach could be made.

All, fir'd with noble emulation, strive, And with a storm of darts to distance drive The Trojan chief; who, held at bay, from far On his Vulcanian orb sustain'd the war. Dryden.

We have now, for ten years together, turned the whole force and expence of the war, where the enemy was best able to hold us at a bay. Srift. BAY. n. s. In architecture, a term used to signify the magnitude of a building; as, if a barn consists of a floor and two 'heads, where they lay corn, they call it a barn of two bays. These bays are from fourteen to twenty feet long, and floors from ten to twelve broad, and usually twenty feet long, which is the breadth of the barn. Builder's Dict.

If this law hold in Vienna ten years, I'll rent the fairest house in it after threepence a bay.

Shakspeare.

There may be kept one thousand bushels in each bay; there being sixteenbays, each eighteen feet long, about seventeen wide, or three Mortimer. hundred square feet in each bay. BAY Tree. [laurus, Lat.] The tree, as is generally thought, which is translated laurel, and of which honorary garlands were anciently made.

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Psalms. BAY. n. s. A poetical name for an honorary crown or garland, bestowed as a prize for any kind of victory or excellence.

Beneath his reign shall Eusden wear the bays. Pope. To BAY. v. n. [abboyer, Fr.]

1. To bark as a dog at a thief, or at the game which he pursues.

And all the while she stood upon the ground, The wakeful dogs did never cease to hay.

Fairy Queen.

The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bay'd; The hunter close pursued the visionary maid; She rent the heav'n with loud laments, imploring aid. Dryden's Fables. 2. [from bay, an enclosed place.] To encompass about; to shut in.

We are at the stake,