Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BALD'A-CHIN, n. [It. baldacchino; Sp. baldaquino, a rich silk or canopy, carried over the host. Du Cange. Lunier deduces it from the name of a city in Babylonia.]

In architecture, a building in form of a canopy, supported by columns, and often used as a covering to insulated altars; sometimes used for a shell over a door. Encyc. Johnson.

BALD'ER-DASH, n. [Qu. Sp. balda, a trifle, or baldonar, to insult with abusive language; W. baldorz, to prattle; D. bulderen.]

Mean, senseless prate; a jargon of words; ribaldry; any thing jumbled together without judgment.

BALD'ER-DASH, v.t.

To mix or adulterate liquors. Johnson.

BALD'HEAD, n.

A man bald on the head. 2 Kings ii. 23.

BALD'LY, adv.

Nakedly; meanly; inelegantly; openly.

BALD'NESS, n.

Want of hair on the top and back of the head; loss of hair; meanness or inelegance of writing; want of ornament.

BALD'PATE, n.

A pate without hair. Shak.

BALD'PA-TED, a.

Destitute of hair; shorn of hair. Shak.

BALD'RICK, n. [from Sw. balt, Ir. balta, L. balteus, a belt, and rick, rich. See these words.]

1. A girdle, or richly ornamented belt; a war girdle. A radiant baldrick o'er his shoulders tied. Pope.
2. The zodiac. Spenser.

BALE, n. [Sax. beal, bealo. Qu. Heb. Ch. Syr. and Ar. אבל, to grieve or mourn, to be desolate, or חבל, to destroy. In Ir. beala is to die, and abail, death.]

Misery; calamity. [Obs.]

BALE, n. [Fr. balle; Ger. ballen; D. baal; It. balla, a bale; Ch. Ar. Heb. הבל, to hind, to pledge, and its derivative, in Ar. and Eth., a rope.]

1. A bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for carriage or transportation.
2. Formerly, a pair of dice.

BALE, v.t.

To make up in a bale.

BA-LE-AR'IC, a. [from Balearis, the denomination given to Majorca and Minorca. Qu. from Gr. βαλλω, to throw, because the inhabitants were good slingers.]

Pertaining to the isles of Majorca and Minorca, in the Mediterranean Sea.

BALE'-FIRE, n.

A signal fire; an alarm fire. Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide / The gloomy bale-fires blaze no more. Scott.

BALE'FUL, a. [See Bale.]

1. Mischievous; destructive; pernicious; calamitous; deadly; as, baleful enemies; baleful war.
2. Sorrowful; woeful; sad. Spenser. Milton.

BALE'FUL-LY, adv.

Sorrowfully; perniciously; in a calamitous manner.

BALE'FUL-NESS, n.

Destructiveness.

BAL-IS'TER, n. [L. balista, from Gr. βαλλω, to throw.]

A cross-bow. Blount.

BA-LIZE', n. [Fr. balise; Sp. valiza, a beacon.]

A sea-mark; a pole raised on a bank.

BALK, n. [bauk; Sax. balc; W. balc, a ridge between furrows; balc, prominent, swelling, proud; said to be from bal, a prominence; bala, eruption; balau, to shoot, spring or drive out.]

1. A ridge of land, left unplowed, between furrows, or at the end of a field.
2. A great beam, or rafter. [G. balken; D. balk.]
3. Any thing left untouched, like a ridge in plowing. Spenser.
4. A frustration; disappointment. South.

BALK, v.t. [bauk.]

1. To disappoint; to frustrate. Locke.
2. To leave untouched; to miss or omit. Drayton.
3. To pile, as in a heap or ridge. Shak.
4. To turn aside; to talk beside one's meaning. [Obs.] Spenser.
5. To plow, leaving balks.

BALK'ED, pp.

1. Plowed in ridges between furrows, as in American husbandry.
2. Frustrated; disappointed.

BALK'ER, n.

One who balks. In fishery, balkers are persons who stand on rocks and eminences to espy the sholes of herring, and to give notice to the men in boats, which way they pass. Encyc. Cowel.

BALK'ING, ppr.

Plowing in ridges; frustrating.

BALK'ING-LY, adv.

In a manner to balk or frustrate.