Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUNT, n.

The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail. – Mar. Dict.

BUNT, v.i.

1. To swell out; as, the sail bunts.
2. in popular language, to push with the horns; to butt. [See Point.]

BUNT'ER, n.

A cant word for a woman who picks up rags in the streets; hence, a low vulgar woman. – Johnson.

BUNT'ING, n.

A bird of the genus Emberiza. The name is applied to different species, as the English bunting and the Rice bunting.

BUNT'ING, or BUNT'INE, n. [Ger. bunt, D. bont, streaked, or of different colors.]

A thin woolen stuff, of which the colors or flags and signals of ships are made. – Mar. Dict.

BUNT'LINES, n.

Ropes fastened to cringles on the bottoms of square sails, to draw them up to their yards. – Mar. Dict.

BUOY, n. [Fr. bouée, a buoy; D. boei, a buoy, a lodge or hut, a fetter, or shackle, a handcuff; boeijen, to fetter, to buoy; Ger. boy; Dan. boy; Russ. bui; Sp. boya, a buoy; probably from the root of Sax. byan, to dwell, that is, to set, be fixed, or stationary. Dan. boe, boende.]

A close empty cask, or a block of wood or cork, fastened by a rope to an anchor, and floating on the water, to show where the anchor is situated. Buoys are of various kinds, as can-buoys, in the form of a cone; nun-buoys, which are large in the middle, and tapering nearly to a point at each end; cable-buoys, empty casks, employed to buoy up the cable, in rocky anchorage. Buoys are used also as marks, to point out the situation of rocks, shoals, or a channel. To stream the buoy, is to let it fall by the ship's side into the water, before letting go the anchor. – Mar. Dict.

BUOY, v.i.

To float; to rise by specific lightness. – Pope.

BUOY, v.t.

1. To keep afloat in a fluid; to bear up, or keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; with up. – Woodward.
2. To support, or sustain; to keep from sinking into ruin or despondency. – King Charles.
3. To fix buoys, as a direction to mariners.

BUOY'AN-CY, n.

The quality of floating on the surface of water, or in the atmosphere; specific lightness.

BUOY'ANT, a.

1. Floating; light; that will not sink; having the quality of rising or floating in a fluid. – Thomson.
2. Bearing up, as a fluid; sustaining another body. [Unusual.] – Dryden.

BUOY'ANT-LY, adv.

In a buoyant manner. – Coleridge.

BUOY'ED, pp.

Kept afloat on water; supported.

BUOY'ING, ppr.

Keeping afloat; sustaining.

BUOY'ROPE, n. [buoy and rope.]

The rope which fastens a buoy to an anchor.

BU-PRES'TI-DANS, n. [plur.]

A tribe of coleopterous insects, of brilliant metallic colors. – Kirby.

BUR, or BOUR, n. [or BOR. Sax. bur,]

signifies a chamber or a cottage.

BUR, n. [Sax. burre, burdock; W. bar, a bushy head or bunch; Ir. borr, a bunch or knob; Fr. bourrée, bush.]

1. A rough prickly covering of the seeds of certain plants, as of the chestnut and burdock.
2. A broad ring of iron behind the place for the hand on a spear used in tilting. – Encyc.

BUR'BOT, n. [from L. barbatus, so named from its beard.]

A fish of the genus Gadus, shaped like an eel, but shorter, with a flat head, and on the nose it has two small beards, and another on the chin. It is disgusting in appearance, but delicate food. It is called also eel-pout. – Encyc.

BURD'E-LAIS, n.

A sort of grape. – Johnson.

BURD'EN, n. [burd'n.; written also burthen. Sax. byrden, byrthen; Sw. börda; Dan. byrde; G. bürde; Ir. beart or beirt; Gr. φορτος; Fr. fardeau; Arm. fard; from bear; L. fero or porto; Pers. بُرْدَنْ burdan, to carry. See Bear.]

1. That which is borne or carried; a load. Hence,
2. That which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome or oppressive. – Milton.
3. A birth. – Shak.
4. [Fr. bourdon, a drone.] The verse repeated in a song, or the return of the theme at the end of each verse; the chorus; so called from the application of this word to the drone or base, and the pipe or string which plays it, in an instrument. A chord which is to be divided, to perform the intervals of music, when open and undivided, is also called the burden. – Encyc.
5. In common language, that which is often repeated; a subject on which one dwells.
6. A fixed quantity of certain commodities; as, a burden of gad steel, 120 pounds.
7. The contents of a ship; the quantity or number of tuns a vessel will carry; as, a ship of a hundred tuns burden.
8. A club. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

BURD'EN, v.t. [burd'n.]

1. To load; to lay on a heavy load; to incumber with weight. Hence,
2. To oppress with any thing grievous; as, to burden a nation with taxes.
3. To surcharge; as, to burden the memory.

BURD'EN-ED, pp.

Loaded with weight; incumbered; oppressed.

BURD'EN-ER, n.

One who loads; an oppressor.

BURD'EN-OUS, a.

1. Grievous; heavy to be borne; oppressive. – Sidney.
2. Cumbersome; useless. – Milton.