Emily Dickinson Lexicon

babble, n. [see babble, v.]

1. Chatter; idle speech; ineffective discourse; linguistic confusion; confounding of tongues; [word play] babel; like the Tower of Babel (see Genesis 11:9).
2. Murmur; burble; gurgle; attempt to speak underwater.

babble (-s), v. [onomatopoetic, perhaps from baby's speech.]

1. Murmur; burble; gurgle; ramble.
2. Buzz; drone; make continuous noise; [fig.] prattle; speak idly.

babbler (-s), n. [see babble, v.] (webplay: secrets, tell).

1. Chatterer; gossiper; busybody; talkative person; indiscrete prattler; someone who cannot keep a secret (see Ecclesiastes 10:11).
2. Whiner; complainer; one who murmurs; person who talks about their troubles; (see Isaiah 53:7 “yet he opened not his mouth”).

babbling, adj. [see babble, v.] (webplay: sounds, thoughtlessly).

Burbling; baby-talking; inarticulate; unaccustomed to speaking.

baby, n. [diminutive of babe, infant.] (webplay: boy, little, name).

Toddler; young child (see Exodus 2:6).

baccalaureate, n. [L. bachelor, laurel berry.]

Farewell discourse; closing speech; commencement address at a college graduation; ceremony held for completion of a Bachelors degree; [fig.] finale; conclusion; culmination; transition; end of season; change from summer to autumn.

back, adv. [see back, n.] (webplay: action, actor, advancing, affairs, again, anchor, arms, backward, behind, beings, best, better, body, book, bringing, came, care, “come back”, concave, contempt, convex, dark, dealers, deals, disappointed, “driven or turned backward”, end, face, fall, forgive, former, “former ages”, forward, give, “give back”, hand, hill, home, house, human, inner, keep, keep toward, lay, large, learner, leave, man, manner, mind, motion, natural, nearest, “opposite to the face”, “out of sight”, past, peace, place, public, put, quick, recede, refuses, remote, return, sails, seamanship, season, secret, side, slow, small, speaker, spring, thick, thickest, things, throw, times, toward, turn, “turn the back”, wiser, weighing, whole, wood).

1. In a direction behind.
2. Returning; so as to return; in reverse.
3. Away; in a direction away from.
4. Folded down upon itself.
5. In response.
6. Before; returning in time.
7. In remembrance; in retrospect.
8. Delayed in time.
9. Previously.
10. In the past.
11. Phrase. “Take back”: withdraw; renounce; disavow.

back (-s), n. [OE] (webplay: “come back”, face, fall, forget, natural, thickest, “turn the back”).

1. Upper posterior side; shoulder and spinal cord area; dorsal part of the human body.
2. [Fig.] boundary; far side; outer form.
3. Phrase. “Turn one's back”: reject; withdraw from.

backward, adj. [OE on bæc, in the rear.] (webplay: back, book, came, hill, leave, look, reluctant).

1. Retrospective; longing; nostalgic; reminiscent; remembering.
2. Upcoming; endmost; [fig.] yet unread.

backward, adv. [see backward, adj.] (webplay: absent, forward, look, mind, past, place, retreat).

1. To a place of origin; toward the starting place.
2. Away; with the face toward the starting point.
3. In the opposite direction.