n. The letter h or H. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ For nachebone. For loss of n, cf. Adder. See Natch. ] The bone of the rump; also, the cut of beef surrounding this bone. [ Spelt also edgebone. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Naut.) A detail of one or more men who keep watch on deck at night when a vessel is at anchor. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A game of cards in which the players bid for the privilege of determining or “pitching” the trump suit. R. F. Foster. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Back, adv. + stitch. ] A stitch made by setting the needle back of the end of the last stitch, and bringing it out in front of the end. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To sew with backstitches; as, to backstitch a seam. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Bankruptcies 1. The state of being actually or legally bankrupt. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act or process of becoming a bankrupt. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Complete loss; -- followed by of. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The rank or patent of a baronet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bache, bacche, fr. AS. bacan to bake; cf. G. gebäck and D. baksel. See Bake, v. t. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The quantity of bread baked at one time. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A quantity of anything produced at one operation; a group or collection of persons or things of the same kind; as, a batch of letters; the next batch of business. “A new batch of Lords.” Lady M. W. Montagu. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A small flat curl worn on the temple by women. [ Humorous ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To tear with the nails; to cover with scratches. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bewitched p. pr. & vb. n. Bewitching. ] 1. To gain an ascendency over by charms or incantations; to affect (esp. to injure) by witchcraft or sorcery. [ 1913 Webster ]

See how I am bewitched; behold, mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To charm; to fascinate; to please to such a degree as to take away the power of resistance; to enchant. [ 1913 Webster ]

The charms of poetry our souls bewitch. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To enchant; captivate; charm; entrance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being bewitched. Gauden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who bewitches. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The power of bewitching or fascinating; bewitchment; charm; fascination. [ 1913 Webster ]

There is a certain bewitchery or fascination in words. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having power to bewitch or fascinate; enchanting; captivating; charming. -- Be*witch"ing*ly, adv. -- Be*witch"ing*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of bewitching, or the state of being bewitched. Tylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The power of bewitching or charming. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or or . A fuse used in blasting, consisting of a long cylinder of explosive material inclosed in a varnished wrapping of rope or hose. It burns from 2 to 4 feet a minute. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One whose employment it is to catch birds; a fowler. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The art, act, or occupation or catching birds or wild fowls. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. to watch birds, especially in their natural habitats, for enjoyment or as a hobby; to bird{ 3 }. [ PJC ]

n. one who enjoys watching birds, especially to find and identify a variety of birds in their natural habitats; a birder{ 2 }. [ PJC ]

n. [ OE. biche, bicche, AS. bicce; cf. Icel. bikkja, G. betze, peize. ] 1. The female of the canine kind, as of the dog, wolf, and fox. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An opprobrious name for a woman, especially a lewd woman. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. an unpleasant, malicious, or offensive person. [ PJC ]

4. something difficult or unpleasant. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

5. a complaint. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

v. i. to complain in a whining or grumbling manner; to gripe. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

adj. an informal intensifier; as, we had a bitching good time. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

n. complaining; griping. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

adj. marked by or arising from malice. [ slang ]
Syn. -- catty, cattish. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. A buttonhole stitch worked wide apart on the edge of material, as blankets, too thick to hem. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Cf. OE. blacche in blacchepot blacking pot, akin to black, as bleach is akin to bleak. See Black, a., or cf. Blot a spot. ] 1. A blot or spot, as of color or of ink; especially a large or irregular spot. Also Fig.; as, a moral blotch. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spots and blotches . . . some red, others yellow. Harvey. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) A large pustule, or a coarse eruption. [ 1913 Webster ]

Foul scurf and blotches him defile. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Marked or covered with blotches. [ 1913 Webster ]

To give their blotched and blistered bodies ease. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having blotches. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Botches [ Same as Boss a stud. For senses 2 & 3 cf. D. botsen to beat, akin to E. beat. ] 1. A swelling on the skin; a large ulcerous affection; a boil; an eruptive disease. [ Obs. or Dial. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A patch put on, or a part of a garment patched or mended in a clumsy manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Work done in a bungling manner; a clumsy performance; a piece of work, or a place in work, marred in the doing, or not properly finished; a bungle. [ 1913 Webster ]

To leave no rubs nor botches in the work. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Botched p. pr. & vb. n. Botching. ] [ See Botch, n. ] 1. To mark with, or as with, botches. [ 1913 Webster ]

Young Hylas, botched with stains. Garth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To repair; to mend; esp. to patch in a clumsy or imperfect manner, as a garment; -- sometimes with up. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sick bodies . . . to be kept and botched up for a time. Robynson (More's Utopia). [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To put together unsuitably or unskillfully; to express or perform in a bungling manner; to bungle; to spoil or mar, as by unskillful work. [ 1913 Webster ]

For treason botched in rhyme will be thy bane. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a clumsy manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who mends or patches, esp. a tailor or cobbler. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A clumsy or careless workman; a bungler. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A young salmon; a grilse. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Bungling; awkward. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A botching, or that which is done by botching; clumsy or careless workmanship. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Marked with botches; full of botches; poorly done. “This botchy business.” Bp. Watson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Sc. also bratchart; fr. ME. brachet, fr. OF. brachet; ML. brachetus, dim. of brache a hound. See brach. ] a kind of hound; a brach; -- applied contemptuously to a child. See also brach. [ Also spelled brachet. ] [ Century Dict. 1906 ]

The bratchet's bay
From the dark covert drove the prey. Scott, (Marmion, ii. int.). [ Century Dict. 1906 ]

To be plagued with a bratchet whelp -- Whence came ye, my fair-favoured little gossip? . Scott, (Kenilworth, II. xxi). [ Century Dict. 1906 ]

n.; pl. Brevetcies (Mil.) The rank or condition of a brevet officer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. markedly masculine in appearance or manner; -- used of men.
Syn. -- macho. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. same as lesbian. [ pejorative ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a lesbian who is noticeably masculine.
Syn. -- dyke. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. bochere, bochier, OF. bochier, F. boucher, orig., slaughterer of buck goats, fr. OF. boc, F. bouc, a buck goat; of German or Celtic origin. See Buck the animal. ] 1. One who slaughters animals, or dresses their flesh for market; one whose occupation it is to kill animals for food. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A slaughterer; one who kills in large numbers, or with unusual cruelty; one who causes needless loss of life, as in battle. “Butcher of an innocent child.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Butcher's meat, such flesh of animals slaughtered for food as is sold for that purpose by butchers, as beef, mutton, lamb, and pork. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Butchered p. pr. & vb. n. Butchering. ] 1. To kill or slaughter (animals) for food, or for market; as, to butcher hogs. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To murder, or kill, especially in an unusually bloody or barbarous manner. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Ithocles ] was murdered, rather butchered. Ford. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. to bungle badly; to botch; -- used also when an object is damaged (literally or figuratively) in an activity; as, the new choir butchered the hymn.
Syn. -- mangle. [ PJC ]

n. 1. (Zool.) any species of shrike of the genus Lanius, so called because they impale their prey on thorns. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Zool.) large carnivorous Australian bird with the shrikelike habit of impaling prey on thorns. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

☞ The Lanius excubitor is the common butcher bird of Europe. In England, the bearded tit is sometimes called the lesser butcher bird. The American species are Lanius borealis, or northern butcher bird, and Lanius Ludovicianus or loggerhead shrike. The name butcher bird is derived from its habit of suspending its prey impaled upon thorns, after killing it. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The business of a butcher. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and needlessly. [ 1913 Webster ]

That dreadful butchering of one another. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Butchery quality. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a butcher; without compunction; savage; bloody; inhuman; fell. “The victim of a butcherly murder.” D. Webster. [ 1913 Webster ]

What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly,
This deadly quarrel daily doth beget! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Bot.) A genus of plants (Ruscus); esp. Ruscus aculeatus, which has large red berries and leaflike branches. See Cladophyll. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bocherie shambles, fr. F. boucherie. See Butcher, n. ] 1. The business of a butcher. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual barbarity; great or cruel slaughter. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The perpetration of human butchery. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A slaughterhouse; the shambles; a place where blood is shed. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Like as an ox is hanged in the butchery. Fabyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Murder; slaughter; carnage. See Massacre. [ 1913 Webster ]