WORDCRAFT DICTIONARY, B
Note:
clickable items link to Wordcraft Archives, which may have further notes
Babbitt eponym: a business or professional man who conforms
unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards
Babylonish toponym: Babel-like, confused in
language (among other meanings)
bacchanal (accent on either first or last
syllable) 1. a bacchanalia (oft. cap.) 2. a participant in one
bacchanalia eponym: a riotous, boisterous, or drunken
festivity; an orgy (adjective form is bacchanalian)
back-formation a word that is formed from what appears
to be its derivative
backlist publisher's list of
older titles kept in print
baculum penis bone (which many animals have)
badinage playful repartee; banter
Baedeker eponym: a
guidebook to countries or a country; more generally, a guidebook to places
bafflegab gobbledygook
bahuvrihi a compound word,
ending with a noun, that does not function as a noun of that sort
bakeapple a low plant growing in bogs and producing an amber berry in
late summer; cloudberry
bakelite eponym: tradename of an early, successful plastic
balaclava toponym: a close-fitting woolen hat
covering the head and encircling the neck
baldachin toponym: a ceremonial canopy over an
altar, throne, or doorway.
balkanized; Balkanized fragmented into small and mutually hostile units
ballade a poem of three stanzas plus an envoy (brief concluding stanza),
each ending with the same refrain
ballcock the floating ball that controls the water level inside your toilet
tank
ballistophobia fear of bullets, ammunition and guns
ballpark adj: approximate (used of
quantity; you would never say, for example, "That is a ballpark copy of Da
Vinci's painting.") noun: the approximate range of.
ballpark
figure an approximation; typically an
initial or early approximation)
bamboozle confuse, cheat, hoodwink, mislead
bandicoot a certain Australian marsupial
bandy-legged with legs that curve outward at the knees
[Bandy was a 17c. Irish game]
banger Brit: a sausage (in the literal sense)
banns an announcement in church for an intended marriage
banoffi pie a flan filled with bananas, toffee, and
cream
bant
eponym: to diet, esp. a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet
banty a small breed of chicken
banzai attack; banzai charge an all-out usually
desperate attack
Baphomet sometimes used as a synonym for
"Satan" or "the Devil"
Barbie doll eponym: a blandly attractive but vacuous young woman
barefaced shameless: a barefaced lie
barm
froth on beer; sometimes called fob
barmecide eponym: one
who tantalizes as at a Barmecide feast. Think of it as a
"cock-tease", but not limited to sex.
Barmecide feast eponym: illusory
benefits held out to tantalize and torment, or to manipulate, the victim
barmy odd, eccentric,
daft, extremely foolish [also, the adjective form of barm the
froth on beer, or on a fermenting malt liquor]
barnumize eponym: to advertise or promote by exaggerated claims and
hyperbole
barratry the offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically
groundless ones
barrow a cart for carrying small loads;
also, a mound over a burial site; also, a pig castrated before
sexual maturity [interesting combination here!]
basal plate see geophyte
basilisk a monster of myth, having the
power to kill by its glance
bastille a jail
bathemetric regarding
measurement of the depths of an ocean or other body of water
bathos 1. triteness,
commonplaceness 2. anticlimax; sudden shift from elevated matter to
commonplace
bathyal of ocean depths
below neritic (200 meters), to 4,000 meters
bathypelagic relating to a depth of about 600 to 3,000
meters (say some sources)
bawcock a fine fellow (term of
endearment)
baxter a baker; originally a female baker. [Old Eng. & Scotch]
Bayesian
filter a technique typically used to
distinguish spam from non-spam
bdelloid like a leech
beadle a minor parish official formerly
used to usher and keep order during services
beatific angelic; showing or producing exalted joy or blessedness
beatitude 1. supreme
blessedness or happiness 2. Heaven (in the sense of a place)
beau
brummell eponym: a dandy; a fop
beau ideal the perfect type
or model
beau monde the world of high society and
fashion
beck a small brook
bedabble (trans. v, from
'dabble') to dabble upon; to sprinkle or wet
beddable (informal, from
'bed') sexually attractive or available
bedlam a scene of noisy
disorder and confusion. (root sense: a madhouse)
bee a meeting for communal work or competition: a
spelling bee, a quilting bee
beelzebub the Devil, or an evil spirit, a demon (literally means "Lord of Dung" or "Lord of the Flies")
beer pong a certain popular
collegiate drinking-game
beer-engine the pump used to raise the beer from the cellar to the
bar. Typically operated by a truncheon-shaped handle on the bar counter
beestings the first milk given by a cow after calving
begging the question
argument by taking, as a premise, the very conclusion to be proved [term is
often misused]
behindhand 1. late; behind schedule;
particularly, in arrears on a debt. 2. backward, in respect to
what is seasonable or appropriate. (Wordcrafter note: in other words, out of
style). 3. being in an inferior position
belcher eponym: a small blue scarf with white dots
beldam a elderly woman, esp.
an ugly evil-looking one [Wordcrafter note: I would say, "a hag or
harpy."]
belfry a bell tower. (the bel-
originally had nothing to do with bells. It was either "to protect"
or "high place" (the frij = peace, safety), and hence the word
meant "a protected (or high) place of safety")
belgard a sweet or loving
look
Belial the spirit of evil
personified
belie 1. fail to give a true idea of 2.
show to be untrue or unjustified
bellicose aggressive and ready to fight
belligerati writers and other members of the intelligentsia who
advocate war or imperialism
bellwether a leader of trends,
or a leading indicator of trends
Beltway (toponym; typically in the phrase inside
the Beltway:) the political
establishment of
belvedere a structure
designed to command a view (e.g., gazebo, cupola, tower)
benedict eponym: a newly married man; esp. an
apparently confirmed bachelor who marries
Benedict Arnold
eponym: a traitor (I do not find this in
dictionaries as a word, but easily find it in the press.)
benighted ignorant or
unenlightened
benison a blessing
benthic;
benthonic of or living in the deepest part (however deep it may
be) of an ocean or lake (benthos
the ocean- or lake-bottom) (contrast pelagic)
berdache among certain Native American peoples, a person, usually a male, who
assumes the gender identity and is granted the social status of the opposite
sex
Beretta eponym: a pistol manufactured by the Beretta
company [Though dictionaries do not say so, I think the word is not used solely
as a trade name, but rather can refer to any smallish pistol.] [also: same as biretta]
bergamask toponym (
berk a stupid person that is easily taken advantage of
besom 1. a broom
made of twigs tied round a stick 2. derog.; ch. Scot. & N.Engl.:
a woman or girl
bete noire (or bκte noire) something especially hated or
dreaded; a bugbear
betide to happen to (transitive);
to take place; to befall (intransitive)
between Scylla and Charybdis see Scylla and Charybdis
bezoar a stone from the stomach of a
goat; was believed to be a universal antidote to poisons
bialy toponym: a flat, round baked roll topped
with onion flakes (somewhat like a bagel but, unlike the bagel, it is not
boiled before baking). Named
after the town of
biannual occurring twice a year; semiannual (contrast biennial)
biblophile a lover of books; also,
a book collector
bicorne a two-horned monster that eats
patient or henpecked husbands (compare chichevache)
bidet [etymology] this familiar word
comes from the French for a small horse or pony; that is, one easily straddled
biennial occurring every second year (contrast biannual)
bifucated forked; divided into two branches
Big Bertha eponym: a huge "mobile" long-range Ger gun in WWI.
Now used as a name for a golf club.
big
brother an all-powerful government
monitoring and directing people's actions
Big-endian a party in a long and vehement
dispute over a trifling matter [His opponent is a Little-endian.]
bight [pronounced like bite]
1. a loop in a rope; also, the middle, slack part of an
extended rope 2. a bend or curve in a shoreline (or other); also,
a wide bay formed by such a bend or curve
bikini (etymology) toponym: after Bikini Atoll in the
bikkie Australian slang: biscuit
bilbo 1. an iron bar to which sliding fetters are
attached 2. a sword with a hard, flexible blade
bildungsroman a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the
main character (synonym: entwicklungsroman)
bilge 1. the
rounded low part of a ships hull, curving to meet the vertical sides; also,
the area it encloses. thus: 2. the dirty water that collects
there. thus: 3. nonsense; rubbish. (## 2 and 3 also called 'bilge
water')
bilious of peevish disposition; ill-humored
billetΉ a loop or pocket for securing the end of a buckled
harness strap; also called a keeper
billet² noun lodging for soldiers, or an order for their
lodging; verb to provide housing for soldiers
billet-doux a love letter (literally, sweet letter) (plural billets-doux)
billingsgate foul-mouthed
abuse
billion to USns, a thousand million; to UKers a million millions,
which USns call a 'trillion'. That is, a UK 'billion' means what USns call a
'trillion': ten to the twelfth power.
billycan Australian:
any container in which water may be carried and boiled over a campfire, ranging
from a makeshift tin can to a special earthenware kettle
bimester a period of two months
bimestral every two month
bimonthly bimonthly and biweekly mean every two
months/weeks'. For twice a month/week, semimonthly and semiweekly
should be used.
bird-dog (verb) 1.
to pursue with dogged determination; to pester relentlessly 2. to scout
or search for (noun, N. Amer. colloq. a scout, esp. (Sport) a
talent scout)
biretta a hat of the sort
by Roman Catholic clergy: a stiff square cap with three or four ridges across
the crown.
birkie a lively, engaging, intelligent
clean-cut, confident person
birl
1. to cause (a floating log) to spin rapidly by rotating with the feet
2. to spin (noun: a whirring noise; a hum)
biro
eponym; British: a ballpoint pen
birr
1. a whirring sound 2. strong forward momentum; driving force (verb:
to make a whirring sound)
bissextile relating to a leap year, or to its extra day
bivouac a temporary camp
without tents or cover (verb: to stay in such a camp)
biweekly bimonthly and biweekly mean every two
months/weeks'. For twice a month/week, semimonthly and semiweekly
should be used.
bizarre [odd etymology] arguably from a
scandal of incest, infidelity, infanticide and intrigue among the elite of
1790s
black may have originally meant white
Black Friday
black gold
(oxymoron)
crude oil; unrefined petroleum
black
hole astronomy: an
object whose gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, no matter how fast
it moves (not even light). metaphoric: something that continually
consumes and never releases resources or other thing.
black
maria eponym: a patrol wagon to
round up criminals and drunks
black sheep a bad character from an otherwise respectable group
black-bag
job slang: entry and search by federal investigators without a warrant
blackjack
blackmail from "mal," Old English for tribute or rent. Warlords in
ancient Scotland used to force farmers to pay mal as protection.
blackshirt a member of a fascist organization
blackwash to blacken the character of by highlighting the faults of (noun:
something that does so; the act of doing so)
blade informal, dated: a dashing young man; a gallant, a
free-and-easy fellow, a good fellow [among other definitions, of course]
blain a blister; an
inflammatory skin swelling or sore
blatherskite 1. a babbling, foolish person. 2. blather
blindside to catch or take unawares, especially with harmful or detrimental
results. (from US football)
blither to make long and rambling talk,
without sense; to blather (noun: such talk)
Blondinette a
breed of cute, plump show pigeons [French for "little blonde girl". "Blondinette" is also the name for the Blondie comic
strip as it appears in
bloody mary eponym: a cocktail made with vodka and spicy tomato juice
bloomers eponym: women's loose
trousers gathered about the ankles and worn under a short skirt
bloviate to speak or write
verbosely and windily
blower Australian slang: telephone
blow-in an outsider who arrives suddenly (e.g., a carpetbagger)
blow-in
card the card in a magazine, to be
completed and sent in for a subscription, etc.
blowmaunger a person who is fat to the point that his/her cheeks
are puffed out (see fussock)
blucher eponym: a type of high shoe or half boot
blue Australian slang: a fight or argument
blue book
blue dog democrat an open-minded Democrat willing to
support some conservative policies (contrast yellow dog democrat)
blue state or red state
bluebeard eponym: man who repeatedly marries and kills wives
blue-pencil to edit, revise, or correct with or as if with a blue
pencil
bluestocking eponym: a woman having intellectual or literary
interests
blurb coinage: a short promotional description
of a book, film, or other products
blype Scot: a thin skin or
membrane, esp. a small piece of skin
bob British slang: the old shilling (see coins and
currency)
bobby eponym: Brit. policeman
bobo a bourgeois bohemian
bob's
your uncle eponym: Brit. phrase for
something easily achieved
bobtail an animal with a short or
shortened tail; that tail itself; also, something that has been cut
short or abbreviated. rag, tag, and bobtail the rabble
bodach a small, vile beast of fable,
who comes down chimneys to carry off naughty children.
bodhran hand-held goatskin drum used in traditional Irish music.
(Interestingly, the name traces to the Old Irish for "deaf;
deafening")
Bodoni eponym: a printing type, based on Boldonis designs
boeotian a dull, obtuse person (think
"dull country bumpkin")
bogart eponym: to hog a thing; take more than one's share
Bohr bug eponym: computer programming
(software): repeatable bug (contrast heisenbug)
boilermaker slang: a
drink of whiskey with a beer chaser
bold-faced impudent; brazen
bole
1. tree trunk 2. a reddish-brown colored clay; the reddish
brown pigment from that clay
bolshevik an extreme radical a
literary Bolshevik
bolson a flat arid valley
surrounded by mountains (can drain into a shallow central lake)
bolus 1. a medicine of round shape for swallowing,
larger than an ordinary pill (also fig.) 2. a small rounded mass
of any substance 3.
a large intravenous dose of medicine
bombast [cotton] see bombastic
bombastic grandiose but with
little meaning [a stuffing made of cotton fiber was called bombast, from
Greek bombux "silkworm"]
bon mot a clever remark; witticism
bon vivant ("bon vee-vahnt') a person indulging in a sociable and luxurious lifestyle,
especially one who enjoys superb food and drink (also here)
boniface eponym: the proprietor of a hotel, nightclub, or restaurant
bonne bouche a delicious morsel, as a treat (also used
figuratively)
bonze an
impolite but not necessarily offensive name for a Japanese clergyman. from the Portuguese
bonzo
bonzer Australian slang: great
boobley Australian slang: a big fight/argument
boobocracy the booboisie,
viewed as a social or political force
booboisie the general public
implies that its members are stupid, uncultured boobs inferior to the speaker
[blend of boob and bourgeoisie]
boohai an out of the way,
remote or non-existent place; often in "up the boohai" to mean lost,
or "up the boohai shooting pukakas" meaning lost, possibly in the
head.
boolean algebra a mathematical system for
algebraic manipulation of logical statements
boolean pertaining to boolean algebra
boomerang baby see boomerang
kid
boomerang kid a young person past high-school age who,
after college or a period of independence, returns to live in the parental home
boomslang a large and
dangerous snake, up to 6 feet long and one of the most venomous snakes in the
world.
boondocks slang: 1. wild and dense brush; jungle 2.
rural country; the backwoods
boot hill a graveyard, esp.
one whose occupants died in a violent fight
Borachio eponym: a drunkard
borborygmi intestinal
rumblings caused by moving gas [singular borborygm; borborygmus; adj. borborygmic]
boreal eponym: of the north; of
or like the north wind
bork (verb) eponym: to systematically attack a public
figure, esp. in the media
borough a town [as distinct from a city]
bosie eponym: Australian slang: a cricket ball, bowled as if to
break one way, that breaks the opposite way
Boston fern a toponym. No definition needed.
Boswell eponym: an
assiduous and devoted recorder of another's life, words and deeds
bot a software program
that imitates the behavior of a human
botanomancy divination by herbs [dictionary at mancy
lists 54 form of divination]
bourse AHD a stock exchange, esp. one in a continental European
city. M-W a place where merchants, bankers, etc., meet for business at
certain hours; esp. the Stock Exchange of Paris
boustrophedon writing in which
the lines run alternately from right to left and from left to right [like an ox plowing successive
furrows; Gk. ox-turning]
bovine like a cow
bowdler a worker in iron
ore (obsolete)
bowdlerize eponym: to expurgate prudishly, by deleting
or editing matter deemed indelicate
Bowie
knife eponym: a heavy hunting,
fighting and throwing knife
bowler eponym: a derby hat
boycott eponym: from Charles C.
Boycott (1832-1897), a landowner in
braggadocio eponym: empty, vain bragging
braille eponym: a system of
writing for the blind [Devised by Louis Braille, who was blind from age
~4]
branks (sometimes brank) a metal cage
for the head, often with a metal bit attached to restrain the tongue, formerly
used to punish scolds (also called scold's bridle)
brattice a partition for ventilation in the shaft of a coal pit [to brattice
up: to line the sides of a shaft, with planking]
bread crumbs a website
navigation technique: links
back to each previous page that the user navigates through in order to get to
the current page. Basically, they provide a trail for the user to follow back.
breaking the fourth wall when a fictional
character "steps out" and shows awareness of the fictional medium and
the audience watching
breve the curved mark indicating the
short pronunciation of a vowel, as in ă (see diacritical mark)
brevet a temporary promotion
without pay increase
brewster a female brewer (later, extended to both sexes: a
brewer)
bric-ΰ-brac miscellaneous objects of little value; typically
ornamental [From old Fr. phrase ΰ bric et ΰ brac at random, any old
way.]
bridegroom (etymology)
bridgebuilder a peacemaker; an arbitrator; one who seeks to help
opposing sides understand each others positions, and to reconcile their
differences
bright-line rule law: a
legal rule that resolves issues and ambiguities simply and straight-forwardly,
providing certainty but sometimes sacrificing fairness
brirfft see squeans
bris (or brith)
Judaism: the rite of circumcision (male), performed on the eighth day
after birth
Brobdingnagian gigantic; immense; enormous (from
Gulliver's Travels)
brocade a firework star
that burns long, so that it leaves down-drooping trails of light as it falls
brodie eponym: "do a brodie" - take a chance (old U.S.
slang)
bromatology a treatise or essay on food
brontide the sound of distant
thunder, when produced by seismic events [also the sound of thunder
itself?]
Bronx cheer a loud sound, imitating a fart, used to
express contemptuous or derisive scorn. It is produced by vibrating the lips
while exhaling explosively. (can be used figuratively)
Brother
Jonathan eponym: the people of the
United States collectively
brougham eponym: a car, or a closed carriage, with an open driver's
seat
brownie points favor in another's eyes, esp. due
to one's sycophantic behavior
Browning machine gun eponym: a belt-fed machine gun that fired over 500
rounds per minute, used by U.S. troops in World War II and the Korean War.
bruin eponym: a bear
brunneous dark brown (chiefly used is
biology, often in the form of brunneus)
bruschetta an Italian dish, made with grilled garlic bread
brut a taste classification for
champagne, having a crisp, dry taste. "Extra-brut" does not mean a
drier champagne, but a sweeter one.
bruxism habitual,
involuntary gritting or grinding the teeth, esp. when in stress or
during sleep, as from anger, tension, fear, or frustration
bubo (adj. bubonic)
a swollen inflamed lymph node in the armpit or groin
buckaroo a cowboy; a
cattle-driver [an Anglicized version of vaquero, from
buckley's
chance eponym; Australian
slang: remote, scant hope
buckminsterfullerene the first known fullerene molecule; named for R. Buckminster
Fuller because its structure resembles Fuller's geodesic domes
buckyball a short name for buckminsterfullerene
buckytube any tube-shaped
fullerene molecule
BUFO
(knitting) boring
unfinished object (compare UFO unfinished object)
bugaboo 1. a bogeyman to
frighten children. 2a. a recurring or persistent problem; 2b. a
subject of anxious (and typically excessive) concern
bugger-all Australian slang: very little
buggery, go to Australian slang: go to hell!
bugle an ox-word. originally
buglehorn, a horn made from the horn of an ox, from Old French. bugle
wild ox, and Latin buculus heifer, young ox
bulb see geophyte
bumbershoot an umbrella
bumbledom eponym: fussy
official pomposity and stupidity, especially as displayed by a minor official
bumboat a small boat for ferrying goods for sale to a ship at anchor
or at a mooring
bung the plug for a
hole in a barrel, etc. verb to close with a bung
bunghole a hole in a cask, to empty or
fill it
bunny
boiler slang; derogatory: an
obsessive and psychotic vindictive woman, a la Glenn Close in
the film Fatal Attraction)
bunny slope skiing: a gentle slope considered suitable
for beginners (also used figuratively on rare occasion)
bunny-hugger slang; derogatory: a conservationist or animal
lover
Bunsen
burner eponym: a device used in
chemistry, for heating
burgle burglarize; steal from
burke eponym: to murder by
suffocation (or another way that leaves the body intact) to obtain a body to be
sold for dissection; hence, to quietly kill, to suppress or dispose of: to
burke a parliamentary question
burnsides eponym: sideburns
busby eponym: tall ceremonial hat of some Brit soldiers
bustluscious having shapely mammalia, usually of substantial size;
stacked. A pun on "mudluscious" by e.e. cummings. (The Grandiloquent
Dictionary by Russell Rocke [not the
website of the same name])
butcher (etymology) a goat-word, from
Old French bouchier = slaughterer of goats, and from bouc = male
goat
butterfly effect the
phenomenon that in a complex system, a tiny localized change can have large
effects elsewhere
BVDs eponym: mens and boys underwear
(originally, long underwear); a tradename
