BAVIN. A fire that is soon extinguished.

BAWCOCK. A fine bird, (from the French beau coque;) a term expressive of admiration.

BAY, v. To howl at; rebuke; check; surround. To stand "at bay" is to confront a foe, when escape is hopeless, and a deadly combat imminent. As a noun, the word signifies the principal beam in a house.

BAY CURTAL. A bay horse with a shortened (or docked) tail. BAYNARD'S CASTLE. An edifice which stood in Thames street, London, near the river Thames.

BEAD. An old Saxon word, signifying "prayer." In Roman Catholic countries beads are perforated and strung together, the better to enable the pious persons who use them to count the number of times in succession they utter a "Pater Noster" or an "Ave Maria."

BEADSMEN. Pious men who prayed for the well-being and eternal beatitude of the person or persons by whom they were succored or entertained. They resembled, in that respect, the fakirs (wandering mendicants) of India. Those who were in good condition were required to keep a bow and arrows of the yew tree in their abodes for the public service on emergencies.

BEADLE. Vide BLUE BOTTLE ROGUE; also, an executioner.
BEAK. The prow or forepart of a ship.

BEAM. The staff of a lance.

BEAR, n. The "burning bear," a name of the Pleiades, or "Charles' Wain." To have a feeling of toleration towards a person. "Bear with me."

BEAR-HEAD. A keeper of bears; a common profession when bear-baiting and bear-dancing were popular entertainments.

BEAR IN HAND. An idiomatic form of intimating control; keep in suspense; keep in good humor; delude with hopes. "Bear a hand" is a nautical phrase for "lend your aid." BEARS. In calling Lord Warwick's family by this name, reference is had to the crest of the Nevilles, which was a bear.

BEARD, v. To defy; n., a stage property for the use of a player. "What beard shall I play it in ?" asks Bottom, the weaver, when cast for the part of Pyramus.

BEARING. Demeanor.

BEARING CLOTH. The mantle with which an infant was generally covered when taken to a church to be baptized. BEAR-A-BRAIN. To resemble another exactly.

BEAT-IN FALCONRY. To flutter; desire; hunt for. BEAVER. A part of the ancient helmet moving on a swivel so that it could be raised in front, exposing the face and assisting the sight, or lowered to cover and protect the features in a combat or tourney. It was generally crossbarred or loopholed, so that it could be seen through by the wearer, and enabled him to breathe. The helmets of the middle ages had longitudinal apertures across the mouth. Walter Scott describes certain warriors as "drinking red wine through their helmets barred." BECK. A salutation. "Nods and becks," &c.-Milton. BECOMED, ad. Modest; prudent.

BEDDED, ad. Matted; flattened; flaked.

BEDFELLOW. Intimate friend; companion; wife.
BEDWARD. Going to bed.

BED OF WARE. A remarkably large bed originally forming an article of household furniture in the Mansion House at Ware, in Hertfordshire. It was moved thence to an inn in Ware, and was at a later period sold by auction, falling ultimately into the possession of Charles Dickens, the author. It was considered large in the 16th century, wherefore Shakespeare puts an allusion to it into the mouth of Sir Toby Belch, (Twelfth Night.) The date of its construction was marked on a part of the wood, "1463," and it was elaborately carved. The posts, of which there were four, represented urns; they were of delicate workmanship; equally so was the tester, which exhibited carved work of red and white roses emblematic of the union of the houses of York and Lancaster. BEDLAM. Corruption of Bethlehem, the name of a hospital for lunatics in London, founded early in the thirteenth century. BEEF-WITTED. This compound occurs twice in Shakespeare, but it was founded on a wrong inference. No nations are more strong-witted (strong-minded) than the English and the American, the greatest eaters of beef among civilized nations.

BEETLE. To overhang, as of a rock or projecting summit of a mountain.

BEETLE-BROWED. Wearing a frowning aspect. The word is

evidently derived from its precursor. (See, also, "Three
man Beetle.")

BEGGAR'S BOOK. A proverbial phrase for learning.
BEGRIME. Blacken-render filthy and offensive.
BEGUILE. Deceive; make time pass agreeably.
BEHESTS. Commands.

BEHOLDING, ad. Under an obligation.
BEHOWL. To howl at.

BEING. Abode.

BELCH UP. To cast up from the sea.

BELDAME. Derived from a French complimentary term, (belle dame-beautiful lady.) It came to be applied, in its. Anglicized and corrupt form, to hags and witches. (See Macbeth, King John, &c.)

BELEED. Becalmed.

BELIKE. Probably; "it seems that;" perhaps.

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. Implying excommunication. In the Papal ceremony a bell was tolled, some passages read from a holy book, and three candles extinguished. BELONGINGS. Endowments; all that pertains to an individual in property and family.

BEMETE. Bemeasured.

BEMOILED. Covered with mire; disgraced.

BEND. To move in a given direction.
BENDS. Bows; reverential curtesies.

BENEDICITE. (Lat.) Be you blessed!

BENEVOLENCES. Taxes under an agreeable and charitable name; compulsory exactions disguised as voluntary actions. BENUMBED. Rendered insensible; inflexible.

BEN VENUTO. (Ital.) Welcome!

BERGOMASK. A rustic dance in Bergomisco, a Venetian province.

BERMOOTHES. The old appellation for the cluster of islands now called Bermuda. The name is derived from Bermudez, the Spanish navigator, by whom they were discovered.

BESHREW. A phrase implying self-condemnation if the condition of certain assertions be not fulfilled. "Beshrew me but I love her heartily" is equivalent to "May I suffer damage if I do not. "Upon my word,” “ upon my honor," are now in use with the same effect. The vocabulary of such protestations is extensive.

BESMIRCH. To render foul or dirty.

BESORT. Attention; suitableness; companionship.
BEST. Bravest.

BESTEL. Poor condition.

BESTOW. Put away; deposit; hide; treat handsomely.
BESTOWING. Control.

BESTRAUGHT. Distracted.

BESTRIDE. The act of standing across an object. It was a chivalrous custom "once upon a time" to bestride a prostrate foe or friend killed in action. Falstaff expects Prince Hal to bestride him. The Colossus at Rhodes bestrode the channel, and the attitude of apparent sovereignty in that lofty statue has furnished a comparison, in more than one instance, to a despotic dominance. Cassius speaks of Caesar (Julius Caesar) as bestriding "the narrow world like a Colossus."

BETEEM. Allow; permit; give; pour out; suffer.
BETID. Passed away.

BETTERING. Making one thing appear better than another. BEVIS. Traditionally, a knight of Southampton who overcame the giant Ascapart.

BEWITCHED. Supposed to be under a witch's influence; a common interpretation of eccentric conduct. In former days-even less than a century ago-the assumption that a person was bewitched, too often formed an excuse for the maltreatment of an old woman or presumed

sorceress.

BEWRAYED. Betrayed.
BEZONIAN. A poor wretch.

From the Italian bisogna-want, need- or the French besoin, with the same signification. The question propounded by Pistol in Henry IV, second part, is from an old play current in Shakespeare's time.

BIAS. A weight placed on one part of a bowl to incline it in That part of the bowl was called

a given direction.

"the eye." The Chinese use the bias in one of their most popular toys.

BIAS-CHEEK. Swelling out.

BID. To invite.

BID-THE-BASE. To challenge.

BIFOLD. Twofold.

BIGGIN. A corruption of Beguine-a head-band of coarse cloth worn by the nuns of that Order. BILBERRY. The whortleberry.

BILBOA. A town in Spain, on the northern coast, where culprits worked on sea or land in fetters-whence called Bilboes.

BIN, v. "Is." The word occurs in the beautiful song in Cymbeline:

"Hark! hark! the lark at Heaven's gate sings,

*

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

With everything that pretty bin;
My lady sweet, arise."

BIRNAM WOOD. Not many years since there still stood the trunk of an old oak on the site of the wood in Scotland made famous in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Where Shakespeare got the idea of an army moving like a forest, because the soldiers carried boughs and branches of the trees, is not traceable. There is a passage, however, in the Gospel according to St. Mark, which may have suggested the notion: The blind man says, (v. 24, chap. viii,) "I see men as trees walking."

BISSON. Blind.

BIT. "A half-checked bit" -an imperfect article in a horse's gear. In the speech of Biondello, (Taming of the Shrew,) in which the word occurs, a description is given of Petruchio's wedding attire, which corresponds exactly with the words of the old ballad of "Abraham Bradley." BITE. Cut with a sword.

BITE MY THUMB. The lower order of Italians had, and may still have, a practice of indicating their hostility to one another by putting the end of the right thumb between the teeth and jerking it out at their adversary.