BURLER — BUTTERY
BURLER, n. A dresser of cloth.
BURLESQUE, BURLESK, a. [The termination esque answers to Eng.] Jocular; tending to excite laughter by ludicrous images, or by a contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it, as when a trifling subject is treated with gravity.
BURLESQUE, BURLESK, n. Ludicrous representation; a contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it, which tends to excite laughter or ridicule.
1. A composition in which a trifling subject or low incident is treated with great gravity, as a subject of great dignity or importance; or a composition in which the contrast between the subject and the manner of considering it renders it ludicrous or ridiculous; as in Virgil Travestie, the Lutrin of Boileau, Butler’s Hudibras and Trumbull’s McFingal.NWAD BURLESQUE.3
BURLESQUE, BURLESK, v.t. To turn into ridicule; or to make ludicrous by representation; as by treating a low or trifling subject with great gravity.
BURLESQUER, BURLESKER, n. One who burlesques, or turns to ridicule.
BURLETTA, n. A comic opera; a musical entertainment.
BURLINESS, n. [See Burly.] Bulk; bluster.
BURLY, a. [The sense probably is swelled.] Great in size; bulky; timid; falsely great; boisterous. This word is obsolete or nearly so in America; but hurly-burly is common in vulgar use, for noise, confusion, uproar.
BURN, v.t. pret. and pp. burned or burnt. [L. pruna, and perhaps, furnus, fornaz, a furnace. The primary sense is, to rage, to act with violent excitement.]
1. To consume with fire; to reduce to ashes by the action of heat or fire; frequently with up; as, to burn up wood.NWAD BURN.2
2. To expel the volatile parts and reduce to charcoal by fire; as, to burn wood into coal. Hence, in popular language, to burn a kiln of wood, is to char the wood.NWAD BURN.3
3. To cleanse of soot by burning; to inflame; as, to burn a chimney; an extensive use of the word.NWAD BURN.4
4. To harden in the fire; to bake or harden by heat; as, to burn bricks or a brick kiln.NWAD BURN.5
5. To scorch; to affect by heat; as, to burn the clothes or the legs by the fire; to burn meat or bread in cookery.NWAD BURN.6
6. To injure by fire; to affect the flesh by heat.NWAD BURN.7
7. To dry up or dissipate; with up; as, to burn up tears.NWAD BURN.8
8. To dry excessively; to cause to wither by heat; as, the sun burns the grass or plants.NWAD BURN.9
9. To heat or inflame; to affect with excessive stimulus; as, ardent spirits burn the stomach.NWAD BURN.10
10. To affect with heat in cookery, so as to give the food a disagreeable taste. Hence the phrase burnt to.NWAD BURN.11
11. To calcine with heat or fire; to expel the volatile matter from substances, so that they are easily pulverized; as, to burn oyster shells, or lime-stone.NWAD BURN.12
12. To affect with excess of heat; as, the fever burns a patient.NWAD BURN.13
13. To subject to the action of fire; to heat or dry; as, to burn colors.NWAD BURN.14
To burn up, to consume entirely by fire.NWAD BURN.15
To burn out, to burn till the fuel is all consumed.NWAD BURN.16
BURN, v.i. To be on fire; to flame; as, the mount burned with fire.
1. To shine; to sparkle.NWAD BURN.18
O prince! O wherefore burn your eyes?NWAD BURN.19
2. To be inflamed with passion or desire; as, to burn with anger or love.NWAD BURN.20
3. To act with destructive violence, as fire.NWAD BURN.21
Shall thy wrath burn like fire?NWAD BURN.22
4. To be in commotion; to rage with destructive violence.NWAD BURN.23
The groan still deepens and the combat burns.NWAD BURN.24
5. To be heated; to be in a glow; as, the face burns.NWAD BURN.25
6. To be affected with a sensation of heat, pain or acidity; as, the heart burns.NWAD BURN.26
7. To feel excess of heat; as, the flesh burns by a fire; a patient burns with a fever.NWAD BURN.27
To burn out, to burn till the fuel is exhausted and the fire ceases.NWAD BURN.28
BURN, n. A hurt or injury of the flesh caused by the action of fire.
1. The operation of burning or baking, as in brickmaking; as, they have a good burn.NWAD BURN.30
BURNABLE, a. That may be burnt. [Little used.]
BURN-COW or BURST-COW, n. A genus of insects, with filiform feelers, of several species; very obnoxious to cattle.
BURNED, BURNT, pp. Consumed with fire; scorched or dried with fire or heat; baked or hardened in the fire.
BURNER, n. A person who burns or sets fire to any thing.
BURNET, n. A plant, Poterium or garden burnet.
BURNING, ppr. Consuming with fire; flaming; scorching; hardening by fire; calcining; charring; raging as fire; glowing.
BURNING, n. Combustion; the act of expelling volatile matter and reducing to ashes, or to a calx; a fire; inflammation; the heat or raging of passion. In surgery, actual cautery; cauterization.
BURNING, a. Powerful; vehement; as a burning shame; a burning scent.
1. Much heated; very hot; scorching.NWAD BURNING.4
The burning plains of India.NWAD BURNING.5
BURNING-GLASS, n. [burn and glass.] A convex glass which, when exposed to the direct rays of the sun, collects them into a small space, called a focus, producing an intense heat. The name is given also to a concave mirror which condenses the sun’s rays.
BURNISH, v.t. To polish by friction; to make smooth, bright and glossy; as, to burnish steel.
BURNISH, v.i. To grow bright or glossy.
BURNISH, n. Gloss; brightness; luster.
BURNISHED, pp. Polished; made glossy.
BURNISHER, n. The person who polishes, or makes glossy.
1. An instrument used in polishing, of different kinds. It may be a piece of round polished steel, a dog’s or wolf’s tooth, a piece of copper, agate or pebble, etc. It is used for giving a gloss or smoothness to metals, to the edges of books, etc.NWAD BURNISHER.2
BURNISHING, ppr. Polishing; making smooth and glossy.
BURNOOSE, BURNOS, n. An upper cloke or garment.
BURNT, pp. of burn. Consumed; scorched; heated; subjected to the action of fire.
BURNT-OFFERING, n. [burnt and offer.] Something offered and burnt on an altar, as an atonement for sin; a sacrifice; called also burnt-sacrifice. The offerings of the Jews were a clean animal, as an ox, a calf, a goat, or sheep; or some species of vegetable substance, as bread and ears of wheat or barley.
BURR, n. The lobe or lap of the ear.
1. The round knob of a horn next a deer’s head.NWAD BURR.2
2. The sweetbread.NWAD BURR.3
Burr-pump, or bilge-pump. A pump, having a staff of 6, 7 or 8 feet long with a bar of wood to which the leather is nailed, which serves instead of a box. This staff is worked by men who pull it up and down, with a rope fastened to the middle of it.NWAD BURR.4
BURRAS-PIPE, n. An instrument or vessel used to keep corroding powders in.
BUR-REED, n. A plant, the Sparganium.
BURREL, n. A sort of pear, called also the red butter pear, from its smooth, delicious, soft pulp.
BURREL-FLY, n. The ox-fly, gad-bee, or breeze.
BURREL-SHOT, n. Small shot, nails, stones, pieces of old iron, etc., put into cases, to be discharged among enemies.
BURROCK, n. A small wier or dam where wheels are laid in a river, for catching fish.
BURROW, n. A different orthography of burgh, borough, which see.
BURROW, n. A hollow place in the earth or in a warren, where small animals lodge, and sometimes deposit their provisions. Some animals excavate the earth, by scratching, and form these lodges.
BURROW, v.i. To lodge in a hole excavated in the earth, as coneys or rabbits. In a more general sense, to lodge in any deep or concealed place. The word seems to include the idea of excavating a hole for a lodge, as well as lodging in it; but the verb is not often used transitively, as to burrow the earth.
BURROWING, ppr. Lodging in a burrow.
BURSAR, n. [See Burse.] A treasurer, or cash-keeper, as the bursar of a college, or of a monastery; a purser.
1. A student to whom a stipend is paid out of a burse or fund appropriated for that purpose, as the exhibitioners sent to the universities in Scotland by each presbytery.NWAD BURSAR.2
BURSAR-SHIP, n. The office of a bursar.
BURSARY, n. The treasury of a college, or monastery.
1. In Scotland, an exhibition.NWAD BURSARY.2
1. A public edifice in certain cities, for the meeting of merchants to consult on matters of trade and money, and to negotiate bills of exchange. This is the name used in many cities in Europe, but in England and America, such building is called an exchange. The new Burse in Paris is one of the most elegant buildings in the city.NWAD BURSE.2
2. In France, a fund or foundation for the maintenance of poor scholars in their studies. In the middle ages, it signified a little college, or a ball in a university.NWAD BURSE.3
BURST, v.i. pret. and pp. burst. The old participle bursten is nearly obsolete.
1. To fly or break open with force, or with sudden violence; to suffer a violent disruption. The peculiar force of this word is, in expressing a sudden rupture, with violence, or expansion, or both. Hence it is generally used to signify the sudden rupture of a thing by internal force, and a liberation from confinement; as, to burst from a prison; the heart bursts with grief.NWAD BURST.2
2. To break away; to spring from; as, to burst from the arms.NWAD BURST.3
3. To come or fall upon suddenly or with violence; to rush upon unexpectedly; as, a sound bursts upon our ears.NWAD BURST.4
4. To issue suddenly, or to come from a hidden or retired place into more open view; as, a river bursts from a valley; a spring bursts from the earth.NWAD BURST.5
5. To break forth into action suddenly; as, to burst into tears.NWAD BURST.6
6. To break or rush in with violence; as, to burst into a house or a room.NWAD BURST.7
It is often followed by an intensive particle; as, out, forth, away, from, or asunder.NWAD BURST.8
BURST, v.t. To break or rend by force or violence; to open suddenly; as, to burst a chain or a door; to burst a cannon.
BURST, n. A sudden disruption; a violent rending; more appropriately, a sudden explosion or shooting forth; as a burst of thunder; a burst of applause, a burst of passion.
1. A rupture, a hernia, or the unnatural protrusion of the contents of the abdomen.NWAD BURST.11
BURST, BURSTEN, pp. or a. Affected with a rupture or hernia.
BURST, pp. Opened or rent asunder by violence.
BURSTENNESS, n. The state of having a rupture; the hernia.
BURSTER, n. One that bursts.
BURSTING, ppr. Rending or parting by violence; exploding.
BURST-WORT, n. The Herniaria, a plant said to be good against hernia or ruptures.
BURT, n. A flat fish of the turbot kind.
BURTHEN. [See Burden.]
BURTON, n. A small tackle formed by two blocks or pulleys, used to set up or tighten the topmost shrouds, and for various other purposes; called also top-burton-tackle.
BURY, n. ber’ry. This word is a different orthography of burg, burh, borough. It signifies a house, habitation or castle, and is retained in many names of places, as in Shrewsbury, Danbury, Aldermanbury. The word is used by Grew, for burrow.
BURY, v.t. ber’ry.
1. To deposit a deceased person in the grave; to inter a corpse; to entomb.NWAD BURY.3
2. To cover with earth, as seed sown.NWAD BURY.4
3. To hide; to conceal; to overwhelm; to cover with any thing; as, to bury any one in the ruins of a city.NWAD BURY.5
4. To withdraw or conceal in retirement; as, to bury one’s self in a monastery or in solitude.NWAD BURY.6
5. To commit to the water; to deposit in the ocean; as dead bodies buried in the deep.NWAD BURY.7
6. To place one thing within another.NWAD BURY.8
Thy name so buried in her.NWAD BURY.9
7. To forget and forgive; to hide in oblivion; as, to bury an injury.NWAD BURY.10
To bury the hatchet, in the striking metaphorical language of American Indians, is to lay aside the instruments of war, forget injuries, and make peace.NWAD BURY.11
BURYING, ppr. Interring; hiding; covering with earth; overwhelming.
BURYING, n. The act of interring the dead; sepulture. John 12:7.
BURYING-PLACE, n. A grave-yard; a place appropriated to the sepulture of the dead; a church-yard.
BUSH, n. [L. pasco, originally, to feed on sprouts.]
1. A shrub with branches; a thick shrub; also, a cluster of shrubs. With hunters, a fox tail.NWAD BUSH.2
2. An assemblage of branches interwoven.NWAD BUSH.3
3. A branch of a tree fixed or hung out as a tavern sign. Hence, since the branch has been discontinued, a coronated frame of wood hung out as a tavern sign, is so called. Hence the English proverb, “Good wine needs no bush.”NWAD BUSH.4
[I know not that this word is thus used in the U. States.]NWAD BUSH.5
4. A circle of metal let into the sheaves of such blocks as have iron pins, to prevent their wearing.NWAD BUSH.6
This word when applied to sheaves is called bush, but when applied to the circular iron of a cart wheel is, in America, called a box.NWAD BUSH.7
BUSH, v.i. To grow thick or bushy.
BUSH, v.t. To furnish a block with a bush.
BUSHEL, n. A dry measure, containing eight gallons, or four pecks. The standard English bushel, by Stat. 12. Henry VII., contains eight gallons of wheat, each gallon eight pounds of wheat, troy weight, the pound, twelve ounces troy, the ounce, twenty sterlings, and the sterling, thirty two grains of wheat growing in the middle of the ear. The contents are 2145.6 solid inches, equivalent to 1131 ounces and 14 pennyweights troy.
The English bushel is used also in the U. States.NWAD BUSHEL.2
Bushel signifies both the quantity or capacity, and the vessel which will contain the quantity.NWAD BUSHEL.3
1. In popular language, a large quantity indefinitely.NWAD BUSHEL.4
2. The circle of iron in the nave of a wheel; in America, called a box. [See Bush.]NWAD BUSHEL.5
BUSHELAGE, n. A duty payable on commodities by the bushel. [Not used in the U. States.]
BUSHINESS, n. [from bush, bushy.] The quality of being bushy, thick or intermixed, like the branches of a bush.
BUSH-MAN, n. A woodsman; a name which the Dutch give to the wild and ferocious inhabitants of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope.
BUSHMENT, n. [from bush.] A thicket; a cluster of bushes. [Not used.]
BUSHY, a. [from bush.] Full of branches; thick and spreading, like a bush; as a bushy beard or brier.
1. Full of bushes; overgrown with shrubs.NWAD BUSHY.2
BUSIED, pp. of busy; pron. biz’zied.
BUSILESS, a. biz’ziless. [See Busy.] Without business; at leisure; unemployed.
BUSILY, adv. biz’zily. With constant occupation; actively; earnestly; as, to be busily employed.
1. With an air of hurry or importance; with too much curiosity; importunately; officiously.NWAD BUSILY.2
BUSINESS, n. biz’ness. [See Busy.] Employment; that which occupies the time, attention and labor of men, for the purpose of profit or improvement--a word of extensive use and indefinite signification. Business is a particular occupation, as agriculture, trade, mechanic art, or profession, and when used of a particular employment, the word admits of the plural number, businesses. Business is also any temporary employment.
1. Affairs; concerns; as, a man leaves his business in an unsettled state.NWAD BUSINESS.2
2. The subject of employment; that which engages the care and attention.NWAD BUSINESS.3
You are so much the business of our souls.NWAD BUSINESS.4
3. Serious engagement; important occupation, in distinction from trivial affairs.NWAD BUSINESS.5
It should be the main business of life to serve God, and obey his commands.NWAD BUSINESS.6
4. Concern; right of action or interposing.NWAD BUSINESS.7
“What business has a man with the disputes of others?”NWAD BUSINESS.8
5. A point; a matter of question; something to be examined or considered.NWAD BUSINESS.9
Fitness to govern is a perplexed business.NWAD BUSINESS.10
6. Something to be done; employment of importance to one’s interest, opposed to amusement; as, we have no business in town.NWAD BUSINESS.11
They were far from the Zidonians and had no business with any one.NWAD BUSINESS.12
7. Duty, or employment that duty enjoins. A lawyer’s business is to do justice to his clients.NWAD BUSINESS.13
To do the business for a man, is to kill, destroy or ruin him.NWAD BUSINESS.14
BUSK, n. A piece of steel or whale bone, worn by women to strengthen their stays; a word dependent on fashion.
BUSK, n. A bush. [Not used.]
BUSK, v.i. To be active or busy.
BUSKET, n. A small bush, or a compartment of shrubs in a garden.
BUSKIN, n. A kind of half boot, or high shoe, covering the foot and leg to the middle and tied underneath the knee, worn by actors in tragedy on the state. The buskins of the ancients had very thick soles, to raise the actors and actresses to the stature of the persons they represented.
1. In classic authors, the word is used for tragedy.NWAD BUSKIN.2
BUSKINED, a. Dressed in buskins.
BUSKY, a. Busky; wooded; shaded or overgrown with trees or shrubs; generally written bosky. [See Bush.]
BUSS, n. [L. basio.] A kiss; a salute with the lips.
1. A small vessel, from 50 to 70 tons burthen, carrying two masts, and two sheds or cabins, one at each end; used in the herring fishery.NWAD BUSS.2
BUSS, v.t. To kiss; to salute with the lips.
BUST, n. [L. bustum.] In sculpture, the figure of a person in relief, showing only the head, shoulders and stomach; ordinarily placed on a pedestal or console. In speaking of an antique, we say the head is marble and the bust porphyry or bronze; that is, the shoulders and stomach. The Italians use the word for the trunk of the body from the neck to the hips.
BUSTARD, n. The tarda, a species of fowl of the grallic order, and genus Otis. The fowl grows to the weight of 25 or 27 pounds, with a breadth of wing of six or seven feet. It inhabits England, feeding on green corn and other vegetables, and on earth-worms. It runs fast and takes flight with difficulty.
BUSTLE, v.i. bus’l. [This word may be allied to busy, or to L. festino.]
To stir quick; to be very active; to be very quick in motion, often or usually with the sense of noise or agitation.NWAD BUSTLE.2
And leave the world for me to bustle in.NWAD BUSTLE.3
BUSTLE, n. bus’l. Hurry; great stir; rapid motion with noise and agitation; tumult from stirring or agitation; combustion.
All would have been well without this bustle.NWAD BUSTLE.5
BUSTLER, n. bus’ler. An active stirring person.
BUSTLING, ppr. bus’ling. Stirring; moving actively with noise or agitation.
BUSTO, n. A bust; sometimes perhaps used for a statue.
BUSY, a. biz’zy.
1. Employed with constant attention; engaged about something that renders interruption inconvenient; as, a man is busy in posting his books.NWAD BUSY.2
My mistress is busy and cannot come.NWAD BUSY.3
2. Actively employed; occupied without cessation; constantly in motion; as a busy bee.NWAD BUSY.4
3. Active in that which does not concern the person; meddling with or prying into the affairs of others; officious; importunate; hence, troublesome; vexatious.NWAD BUSY.5
4. Much occupied with employment; as a busy day.NWAD BUSY.6
BUSY, v.t. biz’zy. To employ with constant attention; to keep engaged; to make or keep busy; as, to busy one’s self with books.
To be busied with genue and species.NWAD BUSY.8
BUSY-BODY, n. biz’zy-body. [busy and body.]
A meddling person; one who officiously concerns himself with the affairs of others.NWAD BUSY-BODY.2
BUT, part. for butan.
1. Except; besides; unless.NWAD BUT.2
Who can it be, but perjured Lycon?NWAD BUT.3
That is, removed, separated, excepted.NWAD BUT.4
Lycon being separated, or excepted, who can it be?NWAD BUT.5
And but infirmity,NWAD BUT.6
Which waits upon worn times, hath something seizedNWAD BUT.7
His wish’d ability, he had himselfNWAD BUT.8
The lands and waters measured.NWAD BUT.9
That is, except, unless, separate this fact, that infirmity had seized his ability, he had measured the lands and waters.NWAD BUT.10
In this use but, butan, is a participle equivalent to excepting, and may be referred to the person speaking, or more naturally, it is equivalent to excepted, and with the following words, or clause, forming the case absolute.NWAD BUT.11
Who can it be, Lycon being excepted?NWAD BUT.12
And but my noble Moor is true of mind, it were enough to put him to ill thinking.NWAD BUT.13
It cannot be but nature hath some director, of infinite power, to guide her in all her ways.NWAD BUT.14
There is no question but the King of Spain will reform most of the abuses.NWAD BUT.15
It is not impossible but I may alter the complexion of my play.NWAD BUT.16
In the last three examples, that is omitted after but.NWAD BUT.17
It is not impossible but that I may alter the complexion of my play.NWAD BUT.18
In these and all similar phrases, but denotes separation, exception.NWAD BUT.19
2. Only.NWAD BUT.20
A formidable man, but to his friends.NWAD BUT.21
There is but one man present. Our use of but is a modern innovation; but perhaps too firmly established to be corrected. In all such phrases, a negative, not, nothing, or other word, is omitted. He is not a formidable man, but to his enemies, that is, except. There is not but one man present, that is, there is not except or besides one present. So also, “Our light affliction is but for a moment.” 2 Corinthians 4:17. Our affliction is not, except for a moment.NWAD BUT.22
If they kill us, we shall but die. 2 Kings 7:4.NWAD BUT.23
The common people in America retain the original and correct phrase, usually employing a negative. They do not say, I have but one. On the other hand, they say, I have not but one, that is, I have not except one; except one, and I have none. This word but for butan is not a conjunction, nor has it the least affinity to that part of speech.NWAD BUT.24
BUT, cong. [Eng. over.]
More; further; noting an addition to supply what is wanting to elucidate, or modify the sense of the preceding part of a sentence, or of a discourse, or to continue the discourse, or to exhibit a contrast.NWAD BUT.26
Now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:13.NWAD BUT.27
When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 11:2.NWAD BUT.28
Our wants are many and grievous; but quite of another kind.NWAD BUT.29
The house of representatives were well agreed in passing the bill; but the senate dissented.NWAD BUT.30
This word is in fact a noun equivalent to addition or supply; but in grammatical construction, no inconvenience results from considering it to be a connective.NWAD BUT.31
BUT, n. [L. peto.]
1. An end; a limit; a bound. It is used particularly for the larger end of a thing, as of a piece of timber, or of a fallen tree; that which grows nearest the earth. It is not often applied to the bound or limit of land; yet butted, for bounded, is often used.NWAD BUT.33
2. The end of a plank in a ship’s side or bottom, which unites with another; generally written butt.NWAD BUT.34
BUT, v.i. To be bounded by; to lie contiguous to; a word used in America. [See Abut.]
BUT-END, n. [but and end.] The largest or blunt end of a thing; as the but-end of a musket or of a piece of timber. This word is tautological, but and end signifying the same thing; unless but is considered as equivalent to swelling, protuberant.
1. One who slaughters animals for market; or one whose occupation is to kill animals for the table. The word may and often does include the person who cuts up and sells meat.NWAD BUTCHER.2
2. One who kills men, or commands troops to kill them; one who sheds, or causes to be shed human blood in abundance; applied to princes and conquerors who delight in war, or are remarkable for destroying human life.NWAD BUTCHER.3
BUTCHER, v.t. To kill or slaughter animals for food, or for market.
1. To murder; but emphatically applied to murder committed with unusual cruelty, or circumstances of uncommon barbarity.NWAD BUTCHER.5
BUTCHER-BIRD, n. The shrike; a genus of birds, called Lanius. One species of this genus is called king-bird, from its courage in attacking hawks and crows.
The king-bird is now arranged under the genus Muscicapa.NWAD BUTCHER-BIRD.2
BUTCHERLINESS, n. A cruel, savage, butcherly manner.
BUTCHERLY, a. [from butcher.] Cruel; savage; murderous; grossly and clumsily barbarous.
BUTCHER’S-BROOM, n. Ruscus; a genus of plants, called also knee-holly. It is used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks.
BUTCHERY, n. The business of slaughtering cattle for the table or for market.
1. Murder, especially murder committed with unusual barbarity; great slaughter.NWAD BUTCHERY.2
2. The place where animals are killed for market; a shambles, or slaughter-house; also, a place where blood is shed.NWAD BUTCHERY.3
BUTLER, n. A servant or officer in the houses of princes and great men, whose principal business is to take charge of the liquors, place, etc. Formerly, an officer in the court of France, being the same as the grand echanson or great cup-bearer of the present times.
BUTLERAGE, n. A duty of two shillings on every ton of wine imported into England by foreigners or merchant strangers. It was a composition for the privileges granted to them by king John and Edward I., and originally received by the crown; but is has been granted to certain noblemen. It was called butlerage, because originally paid to the king’s butler for the king.
BUTLERSHIP, n. The office of a butler. Genesis 40:21.
1. A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier.NWAD BUTMENT.2
2. The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained. The mass of stone at the end of a timber bridge, without arches, is called by the same name. It is written also abutment.NWAD BUTMENT.3
BUTSHAFT, n. [but and shaft.] An arrow to shoot at butts with.
BUTT, n. [See But.] Literally, end, furthest point. Hence, a mark to be shot at; the point where a mark is set or fixed to be shot at.
1. The point to which a purpose or effort is directed.NWAD BUTT.2
2. The object of aim; the thing against which an attack is directed. Hence,NWAD BUTT.3
3. The person at whom ridicule, jests or contempt are directed; as the butt of ridicule.NWAD BUTT.4
4. A push or thrust given by the head of an animal, as the butt of a ram; also, a thrust in fencing.NWAD BUTT.5
5. A cask whose contents are 126 gallons of wine, or two hogsheads; called also a pipe. A butt of beer is 108 gallons, and from 1500 to 2200 weight of currants is a butt.NWAD BUTT.6
6. The end of a plank in a ship’s side or bottom.NWAD BUTT.7
7. A particular kind of hinge for doors, etc.NWAD BUTT.8
BUTT, v.i. [L. peto.] To thrust the head forward; to strike by thrusting the head against, as an ox or a ram.
BUTTER, n. [L. butyrum.] An oily substance obtained from cream or milk by churning. Agitation separates the fat or oily part of milk from the thin or serous part, called butter-milk.
Butter, in the old chimistry, was applied to various preparations; as,NWAD BUTTER.2
Butter of antimony, now called the sublimated muriate of antimony, and made by distilling a mixture of corrosive sublimate and the regulus.NWAD BUTTER.3
Butter of arsenic, sublimated muriate of arsenic, made by a like process.NWAD BUTTER.4
Butter of bismuth, sublimated muriate of bismuth.NWAD BUTTER.5
Butter of tin, sublimated muriate of tin.NWAD BUTTER.6
Butter of zink, sublimated muriate of zink.NWAD BUTTER.7
Butter of cacao, is an oily concrete white matter obtained from the cacao nut, made by bruising the nut and boiling it in water.NWAD BUTTER.8
Butter of wax, the oleaginous part of wax, obtained by distillation, and of a butyraceous consistence.NWAD BUTTER.9
BUTTER, v.t. To smear with butter.
1. To increase the stakes at every throw or every game; a cant term among gamesters.NWAD BUTTER.11
BUTTER-BURR, n. A plant, a species of Tussilago, or Colt’s-foot, called petasites, growing in wet land, with large leaves.
BUTTER-CUPS, n. A name given to a species of Ranunculus or crow-foot, with bright yellow flowers; called also golden-cup.
BUTTERFLY, n. [from the color of a yellow species.]
Papilio, a genus of insects, of the order of lepidopters. They have four wings imbricated with a kind of downy scales; the tongue is convoluted in a spiral form; and the body is hairy. The species are numerous. Butter-flies proceed from the crysalids of caterpillars; caterpillars proceed from eggs deposited by butterflies; they then change into crysalids, which produce butterflies, which again deposit their eggs.NWAD BUTTERFLY.2
BUTTERFLY-SHELL, n. A genus of testaceous`molluscas, with a spiral unilocular shell; called voluta.
BUTTERIS, n. An instrument of steel set in wood, for paring the hoof of a horse.
BUTTER-MILK, n. The milk that remains after the butter is separated from it. Johnson calls this whey; but whey is the thin part of the milk after the curd or cheese is separated. Butter-milk in America is not called whey.
BUTTERNUT, n. [butter and nut.]
The fruit of an American tree, the Juglans cinerea; so called from the oil it contains. The tree bears a resemblance, in its general appearance, to the walnut, or black walnut, so called. It is sometimes called oilnut and white walnut. The tree is called also butternut or butternut-tree. Dr. M. Cutler calls it Juglans Cathartica.NWAD BUTTERNUT.2
BUTTER-PRINT, BUTTER-STAMP, n. A piece of carved wood, used to mark cakes of butter.
BUTTERWORT, n. A species of Pinguicula, a plant growing on bogs or soft grounds. The leaves are covered with soft pellucid prickles, which secrete a glutinous liquor; and milk, in which these are steeped, or washed, acquires, in a day or two, consistency, and is an agreeable food, used in the north of Sweden.
BUTTERY, a. [from butter.] Having the qualities or appearance of butter.
BUTTERY, n. An apartment in a house, where butter, milk, provisions and utensils are kept. In some colleges, a room where liquors, fruit and refreshments are kept for sale to the students.