Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAL'LAST-ING, n.

Ballast; that which is used for ballast. – Shak.

BAL'LAST-ING, ppr.

Furnishing with ballast; keeping steady.

BAL'LA-TED, a.

Sung in a ballad. [Little used.]

BAL-LA-TOON', n.

A heavy luggage boat employed on the rivers about the Caspian Lake. – Encyc.

BAL'LA-TRY, n.

A song; a jig. – Milton.

BAL'LET, n. [Fr. ballet; It. balletto; See Ball, a dance.]

1. A kind of dance; an interlude; a comic dance, consisting of a series of several airs, with different movements, representing some subject or action.
2. A kind of dramatic poem, representing some fabulous action or subject, in which several persons appear and recite things, under the name of some deity or personage. – Encyc. In heraldry, ballets or balls, a bearing in coats of arms, denominated according to their color, bezants, plates, hurts, &c. – Encyc.

BAL'LI-AGE, n. [Or more correctly Báilage, n. Ir. baile, a town.]

A small duty paid to the city of London by aliens, and even by denizens, for certain commodities exported by them. – Encyc.

BAL-LIS'TA, n. [L.]

A machine or engine used by the ancients in war, for throwing darts, stones, &c.

BAL-LIS'TIC, a. [L. ballista, an engine to throw stones, or shoot darts, from Gr. βαλλω, to throw or shoot.]

Pertaining to the ballista, or to the art of shooting darts, and other missive weapons, by means of an engine.

BAL-LIS'TICS, n.

The science or art of throwing missive weapons by the use of an engine. The ballista was a machine resembling a cross-bow. – Encyc. Math. Dict. Ash.

BAL-LOON', n. [Fr. ballon, a foot-ball; Sp. balon; It. pallone; W. pelhen, from pêl, a ball. See Ball.]

1. In general, any spherical hollow body. – Encyc.
2. In chimistry, a round vessel with a short neck, to receive whatever is distilled; a glass receiver of a spherical form.
3. In architecture, a hall or globe on the top of a pillar.
4. In fireworks, a ball of pasteboard, or kind of bomb, stuffed with combustibles, to be played off, when fired, either in the air, or in water, which bursting like a bomb, exhibits sparks of fire like stars. – Johnson. Encyc.
5. A game somewhat resembling tennis, played in an open field, with a large ball of leather, inflated with wind. – Encyc.
6. A bag or hollow vessel, made of silk or other light material, and filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, so as to rise and float in the atmosphere; called for distinction, an air-balloon.
7. In France, a quantity of paper, containing 24 reams. [See Bale.]
8. In France, balloon, ballon or ballot, a quantity of glass plates; of white glass, 25 bundles of six plates each; of colored glass, 12 ½ bundles of three plates each. – Encyc.

BAL-LOON', or BAL'LOEN, n.

A state barge of Siam, made of a single piece of timber, very long, and managed with oars. – Encyc.

BAL-LOON'IST, n.

One who makes or ascends in a balloon.

BAL-LOON'RY, n.

The art or practice of ascending in a balloon. – Quart. Rev.

BAL'LOT, n. [Fr. ballote; Sp. balota, a little ball. See Ball.]

1. A ball used in voting. Ballots are of different colors; those of one color give an affirmative; those of another, a negative. They are privately put into a box or urn.
2. A ticket or written vote, being given in lieu of a is ballot, now called by the same name.
3. The act of voting by balls or tickets.

BAL'LOT, v.i.

1. To vote by ballot, that is, by putting little balls of different colors into a box, the greater number of one color or the other determining the result.
2. To vote by written papers or tickets.

BAL-LOT-A'TION, n.

A voting by ballot. [Little used.] – Wotton.

BAL'LOT-BOX, n.

A box for receiving ballots.

BAL'LOT-ING, n.

The act of voting by ballot.

BAL'LOT-ING, ppr.

Voting by ballot.

BALM, n. [l mute; Fr. baume, a contraction of balsam, which see.]

1. The sap or juice of trees or shrubs remarkably odoriferous or aromatic. – Dryden.
2. Any fragrant or valuable ointment. – Shak.
3. Any thing which heals, or which soothes or mitigates pain. – Shak. Young.
4. In botany, the name of several plants, particularly of the genus Melissa. They are aromatic, and used as corroborants. Balm of Gilead. A plant of the genus Amyris. Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and from this plant is obtained the balm of Gilead of the shops, or balsam of Mecca or of Syria. It has a yellowish or greenish color, a warm bitterish aromatic taste, and an acidulous fragrant smell. It is valued as an odoriferous unguent, and cosmetic, by the Turks, who possess the country of its growth, and hence it is adulterated for market. – Encyc.

BALM, v.t.

1. To anoint with balm, or with any thing medicinal.
2. To soothe; to mitigate; to assuage. – Shak.

BALM'I-LY, adv.

In a balmy manner. – Coleridge.

BALM'Y, a.

1. Having the qualities of balm; aromatic. – Milton.
2. Producing balm; as, the balmy tree. – Pope.
3. Soothing; soft; mild; as, balmy slumbers. – Dryden.
4. Fragrant; odoriferous; as, balmy wings. – Dryden.
5. Mitigating; easing; assuaging; as, balmy breath. – Shak.

BAL'NE-AL, a. [L. balneum.]

Pertaining to a bath. – Howell.