Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAND'Y-LEG, n. [bandy and leg. See Bend.]

A crooked leg; a leg bending inward or outward. – Encyc.

BAND'Y-LEG-GED, a.

Having crooked legs.

BANE, n. [Qu. the affinities. In Sax. bana, is a murderer; in Gr. φενω, is to kill; in L. venenum is poison; Fr. venin; Arm. benym or vinym.]

Poison of a deadly quality; hence, any fatal cause of mischief, injury or destruction; as, vice is the bane of society.

BANE, v.t.

To poison. – Shak.

BANE'-BER-RY, n.

A name of the herb Christopher or Actæa.

BANE'FUL, a.

Poisonous; pernicious; destructive.

BANE'FUL-LY, adv.

Perniciously; destructively.

BANE'FUL-NESS, n.

Poisonousness; destructiveness.

BANE'-WORT, n. [See Wort.]

A plant, called also Deadly nightshade. – Johnson.

BANG, n.

A blow with a club; a heavy blow. – Shak.

BANG, v.t. [Dan. banker, to beat; G. bängel, a club, and the clapper of a bell; D. bengel, a bell; Ir. beanaim, to beat.]

1. To beat, as with a club or cudgel; to thump; to cudgel. [A low word.]
2. To beat or handle roughly; to treat with violence. – Shak.

BAN'GLE, n.

An ornament worn upon the arms and ankles in India and Africa.

BAN'GLE, v.t.

To waste by little and little; to squander carelessly. – Johnson.

BAN'GUE, a.

The leaf of a sort of hemp or Cannabis, growing in the Levant, and used as a narcotic.

BAN-IAN', n. [banyan'; See Banyan.]

1. A man's undress or morning gown, as worn by the Banians in the East Indies. – Johnson.
2. A Gentoo servant, employed as an agent in commerce. – Herbert.
3. A tree in India. – Milton. Banian days, in seaman's language, are three days in a week, in which the sailors have no flesh meat served out to them. This use of the term seems to be borrowed from the Banians in Asia, who, believing in a metempsychosis, will eat no flesh, nor even kill noxious animals.

BAN'ISH, v.t. [Fr. bannir, bannissant; whence bannissement, banishment; Arm. embanna, to publish; forbana and forbaniza, to banish; It. bandire; D. bannen; G. verbannen, ausbannen. See Ban.]

1. To condemn to exile, or compel to leave one's country, by authority of the prince or government, either for life or for a limited time. It is common for Russians to be banished to Siberia.
2. To drive away; to compel to depart; as, to banish sorrow.
3. To quit one's country voluntarily, and with a view to reside abroad; as, he banished himself.

BAN'ISH-ED, pp.

Compelled to leave one's country; driven away.

BAN'ISH-ER, n.

One who compels another to quit his country.

BAN'ISH-ING, ppr.

Compelling to quit one's country; driving away.

BAN'ISH-MENT, n.

1. The act of a prince or government, compelling a citizen to leave his country, either for a limited time or forever, as for some crime.
2. A voluntary forsaking of one's country upon oath, called abjuration. [This practice has now ceased in Great Britain.]
3. The state of being banished; exile.
4. The act of driving away or dispelling; as, the banishment of care from the mind.

BANK, n. [Sax. banc; D. and G. bank; Sw. banck; Dan. banke; It. banco; Sp. and Port. banca, banco; Fr. banc, banque; W. banc; Arm. bancq; Ar. بنق bank, a bench. Bank and bench are radically the same word. The sense is, that which is set, laid or extended. Applied to a mass of earth, it is a collection, that which is thrown or laid together.]

1. A mound, pile or ridge of earth, raised above the surrounding plain, either as a defense or for other purposes. – 2 Sam. xx. 15.
2. Any steep acclivity, whether rising from a river, a lake, or the sea, or forming the side of a ravine, or the steep side of a hillock on a plain. When we speak of the earth in general adjoining a lake or the sea, we use the word shore; but a particular steep acclivity on the side of a lake, river, or the sea, is called a bank.
3. A bench, or a bench of rowers, in a galley; so called from their seat. Placed on their banks, the lusty Trojans sweep. – Waller.
4. By analogy, a collection or stock of money, deposited, by a number of persons, for a particular use; that is, an aggregate of particulars, or a fund; as, to establish a bank, that is a joint fund.
5. The place where a collection of money is deposited; a common repository of the money of individuals or of companies; also, a house used for a bank.
6. A company of persons concerned in a bank, whether a private association, or an incorporated company; the stockholders of a bank, or their representatives, the directors, acting in their corporate capacity.
7. An elevation, or rising ground, in the sea; called also flats, shoals, shelves or shallows. These may rise to the surface of the water or near to it; but the word bank signifies also elevated ground at the bottom of the sea, when many fathoms below the surface; as, the banks of Newfoundland.

BANK, v.t.

1. To raise a mound or dyke; to inclose, defend or fortify with a bank; as, to bank a house.
2. To pass by the banks of. As I have bank'd their towns. – Shak. [Not in use.]
3. To lay up or deposit money in a bank. [Little used.] – Johnson.

BANK'A-BLE, a.

Receivable at a bank, as bills; or discountable, as notes.

BANK'-BILL, or BANK'-NOTE, n.

A promissory note, issued by a banking company, signed by their president and countersigned by the cashier, payable to the bearer in gold or silver at the bank, on demand. If payable to order the note is called a post-note.

BANK'ED, pp.

Raised in a ridge or mound of earth; inclosed, or fortified with a bank.