Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAST'ARD-ISM, n.

The state of a bastard.

BAST'ARD-IZE, v.t.

1. To make or prove to be a bastard; to convict of being a bastard; to declare legally, or decide a person to be illegitimate. The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock. Blackstone.
2. To beget a bastard. Shak.

BAST'ARD-LY, adv.

In the manner of a bastard; spuriously. Donne.

BAS'TARD-ROCK-ET, n.

Dyer's-weed, or wild woad, a species of Reseda.

BAST'ARDS,

An appellation given to a faction or troop of bandits, who ravaged Guienne in France in the 14th century; supposed to have been headed by the illegitimate sons of noblemen, who were excluded from the rights of inheritance. Mezeray.

BAS'TARD-SCAR-LET, a.

A red color dyed with bale-madder.

BAS'TARD-STAR-OF-BETH-LE-HEM, n.

A plant, a species of Albuca.

BAST'ARD-Y, n.

A state of being a bastard, or begotten and born out of lawful wedlock, which condition disables the person from inheriting an estate. Blackstone.

BAS-TARN'IC, a.

Pertaining to the Bastarnæ, ancient inhabitants of the Carpathian mountains. D'Anville. Bastarnic Alps, the Carpathian mountains, between Poland, Hungary and Transylvania; so called from the ancient inhabitants, the Bastarnæ. D'Anville.

BASTE, v.t. [Arm. baz; Fr. bâton, for baston; Sp. baston; It. bastone, a stick or club.]

1. To beat with a stick.
2. To drip butter or fat upon meat, as it turns upon the spit, in roasting; to moisten with fat or other liquid. Swift.

BASTE, v.t. [Sp. bastear; It. imbastire, to baste; It. basta, a long stitch.]

To sew with long stitches; to sew slightly.

BAST'ED, pp.

Beat with a stick; moistened with fat or other matter in roasting; sewed together with long stitches, or slightly.

BAS'TILE, n. [Fr. from bâtir, bastir, to build.]

An old castle in Paris, built between 1369 and 1383, used as a state prison, and converted to the purpose of confining men for life, who happened to incur the resentment or jealousy of the French monarchs. It was demolished by the enraged populace in 1789.

BAS-TI-NADE', or BAS-TI-NA'DO, n. [Fr. bastonnade; Sp. bastonada; It. bastonata, from bastone, a stick or staff. See Baste.]

A sound beating with a stick or cudgel; the blows given with a stick or staff. This name is given to a punishment in use among the Turks, of beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

BAS-TI-NADE', or BAS-TI-NA'DO, v.t.

To beat with a stick or cudgel.

BAST'ING, n.

A beating with a stick; a moistening with dripping; a sewing together slightly with long stitches.

BAST'ING, ppr.

Beating with a stick; moistening with dripping; sewing together with long stitches.

BAS'TION, n. [bas'chun; Fr. and Sp. bastion; It. bastione; probably from bastir, bâtir, to build, to set or found.]

A huge mass of earth, usually faced with sods, sometimes with brick, or stones, standing out from a rampart, of which it is a principal part; formerly called a bulwark. Bastions are solid or hollow. A flat bastion is made in the middle of the curtain, when it is too long to be defended by the bastions in its extremes. A cut bastion has its point cut off, and instead of it, a reentering angle, or an angle inward, with two points outward. A composed bastion has two sides of the interior polygon unequal, which makes the gorges unequal. A demibastion is composed of one face only, with one flank and a demigorge. A double bastion is one raised on the plane of another. Encyc.

BAS'TO, n.

The ace of clubs at quadrille.

BAS'TON, or BA-TOON', n. [Sp. See Baste.]

In architecture, a round molding in the base of a column; called also a tore: [torus.] Encyc.

BAT, n.¹ [Sax. bat; Ir. bat, bata; Russ. bot; allied to beat.]

1. A heavy stick or club; a piece of wood with one end thicker or broader than the other.
2. Bat or bate, a small copper coin of Germany, with a small mixture of silver, worth four crutzers. Also a coin of Switzerland, worth five livres. Encyc.
3. A term given by miners to shale or bituminous shale. Kirwan.
4. A mass of cotton prepared for filling quilts or comfortables.

BAT, n.² [Rab. and Tal. באות, באתא, or בואת. Buxtorf. I have not found this word in any European language, except in English.]

A race of quadrupeds, technically called Vespertilio, of the order Primates, in Linnæus's system. The fore feet have the toes connected by a membrane, expanded into a kind of wings, by means of which the animals fly. The species are numerous. Of these the vampire or Ternate bat inhabits Africa and the Oriental Isles. These animals fly in flocks from isle to isle, obscuring the sun by their numbers. Their wings when extended measure five or six feet. They live on fruits; but are said sometimes to draw blood from persons when asleep. The bats of the northern latitudes are small; they are viviparous and suckle their young. Their skin resembles that of a mouse. They enter houses in pleasant summer evenings, feed upon moths, flies, flesh, and oily substances, and are torpid during the winter. Encyc.

BAT, v.i.

To manage a bat, or play with one. Mason.

BAT'A-BLE, a. [See Bate and bate.]

Disputable. The land between England and Scotland, which, when the kingdoms were distinct, was a subject of contention, was called batable ground. Cowel. Encyc.

BA-TA'TAS, n.

A species of tick or mite, found on the potatoes of Surinam. Also the Peruvian name of the sweet potatoe. Encyc.