Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BOUN'TI-FUL-NESS, n.

The quality of being bountiful; liberality in the bestowment of gifts and favors.

BOUN'TI-HEDE, or BOUN'TI-HEAD, n. [or BOUN'TI-HOOD.]

Goodness. [Obs.]

BOUN'TY, n. [Fr. bonté, goodness, excellence, favor; It. bontà; L. bonitas, from bonus, good.]

1. Liberality in bestowing gifts and favors; generosity; munificence. The word includes the gift or favor, and the kindness of disposition with which it is bestowed; or a favor bestowed with a benevolent disposition. This distinguishes it from a mere gift. It is also observed by Johnson, that it differs from charity, as a present from an alms, in not being bestowed upon persons absolutely necessitous. This is often the case; but bounty includes charity, as the genus comprehends the species; charity however does not necessarily include bounty, for charity or an alms may be given with reluctance. The word may be used also for a free gift; 2 Cor. ix. 5; or a disposition to give, without the gift; goodness in general. – Spenser.
2. A premium offered or given, to induce men to enlist into the public service; or to encourage any branch of industry, as husbandry, manufactures or commerce.

BOU-QUET', n. [booka'y; Fr. a plume, a nosegay; Arm. boged; It. boschetto. See Bush.]

A nosegay; a bunch of flowers.

BOURD, n.

A jest. [Obs.] – Spenser.

BOURD'ER, n.

A jester. [Obs.]

BOUR-GEOIS', n. [burjois'; It appears to be a French word, but I know not the reason of its application to types; see also BURGEOIS, n.²]

A small kind of printing types, in size between long primer and brevier.

BOUR'GEON, v.i. [bur'jun; Fr. bourgeon, a bud; Arm. bourgeon, a button, or a bud.]

To sprout; to put forth buds; to shoot forth as a branch. – Goldsmith.

BOURN, n. [rather BORNE. Fr. borne, a limit; borner, to bound. In the sense of a stream, Sax. burn; Sw. brunn; D. bron; G. brunnen; Dan. brönd.]

1. A bound; a limit. That undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns. – Shak.
2. A brook; a torrent; a rivulet. [In this sense obsolete; but retained in many names of towns, seated on the banks of streams. In Scotland, it is still used in the sense of a brook, but they write it burn.]

BOUR'NON-ITE, n.

Antimonial sulphuret of lead. – Ure.

BOUSE, or BOOZE, v.i. [booz; Arm. beuzi, to overflow, to drown; W. bozi; Old D. buysen. In Russ. busa is a drink brewed from millet. Tooke.]

To drink freely; to tope; to guzzle. [A vulgar word.] – Spenser.

BOU-STRO'PHE-DON, n. [Gr. βους, an ox, and στρεφω, to turn.]

This word is used to express the ancient mode of writing in Greece in alternate lines, one from right to left, and the next from left to right, as fields are plowed.

BOUS'Y, a. [booz'y.]

Drunken; intoxicated. [Vulgar.] – Dryden.

BOUT, n. [It. beuita, or bevuta, a drinking, from bere, or bevere, to drink; L. bibo; Fr. boire; Sp. beber.]

We use this word tautologically in the phrase, a drinking-bout; or the word is the same as the preceding.

BOUT, n. [Fr. bout, end, or It. botta, a stroke.]

A turn; as much of an action as is performed at one time; a single part of an action carried on at successive intervals; essay; attempt. – Sidney. Dryden.

BOU-TADE', n. [Fr. from bouter, Sp. botar, It. buttare, to thrust; Eng. put; allied to bud.]

Properly, a start; hence, a whim. [Not English.] – Swift.

BOUTE-FEU', n. [Fr. from bouter, to throw and feu, fire; or according to Thomson, from boute, a match. Qu. from the root of Eng. bate or better.]

An incendiary; a make bate. [Not English.] Bacon.

BOU'TI-SALE, n. [Qu. sale of booty, or from boute, a match. Thomson.]

A cheap sale; or according to others, a sale by a lighted match, during the burning of which a man may bid. [Not used.] – Hayward.

BO'VATE, n. [In Law L. bovata, from bos, bovis, an ox.]

An ox-gate, or as much land as an ox can plow in a year; Cowel says 28 acres.

BO'VEY-COAL, n.

Brown lignite, an inflammable fossil, resembling, in many of its properties, bituminous wood. Its structure is a little slaty; its cross fracture, even or conchoidal, with a resinous luster, somewhat shining. It is brittle, burns with a weak flame, and exhales an odor, which is generally disagreeable. – Cleaveland.

BOV'ID, a. [L. bos.]

Relating to that tribe of ruminant mammals, of which the genus Bos is the type. It comprehends the genera Catoblepas, Ovibos and Bos.

BO'VINE, a. [Low L. bovinus, from bos, bovis, an ox; W. bu, buw, buç, buwç, and the verb buçiaw, to bellow.]

Pertaining to oxen and cows, or the quadrupeds of the genus Bos. This animal is the strongest and fiercest of the bovine genus. – Barrow's Trav. The ox-born souls mean nothing more than the eight living souls, who issued from their allegorical mother, the bovine ark. – Faber.

BOW, n.¹

An inclination of the head, or a bending of the body, in token of reverence, respect, civility, or submission. Bow of a ship, is the rounding part of her side forward, beginning where the planks arch inward, and terminating where they close, at the stem or prow. A narrow bow is called a lean bow; a broad one, a bold or bluff bow. On the bow, in navigation, is an arch of the horizon, not exceeding 45 degrees, comprehended between some distant object, and that point of the compass which is right ahead. – Mar. Dict.

BOW, n.² [See Bow, to bend.]

1. An instrument of war and hunting, made of wood, or other elastic matter, with a string fastened to each end. The bow being bent by drawing the string, and suddenly returning to its natural state by its elastic force, throws an arrow to a great distance, and with force sufficient to kill an animal. It is of two kinds, the long-bow, and the cross-bow, arbalet or arbalest. The use of the bow is called archery.
2. Any thing bent, or in form of a curve; the rainbow; the doubling of a string in a knot; the part of a yoke which embraces the neck; &c.
3. A small machine, formed with a stick and hairs, which being drawn over the strings of an instrument of music, causes it to sound.
4. A beam of wood or brass, with three long screws that direct a lathe of wood or steel to any arch; used in forming drafts of ships, and projections of the sphere, or wherever it is necessary to draw large arches. – Harris.
5. An instrument for taking the sun's altitude at sea, consisting of a large arch of ninety degrees graduated, a shank or staff, a side-vane, a sight-vane, and a horizon-vane: now disused. – Encyc.
6. An instrument in use among smiths for turning a drill; with turners, for turning wood; with hatters, for breaking fur and wool.
7. Bows of a saddle, are the two pieces of wood laid archwise to receive the upper part of a horse's back, to give the saddle its due form, and to keep it tight. – Farrier's Dict.

BOW, v.i.

1. To bend; to curve; to be inflected; to bend, in token of reverence, respect or civility; often with down. This is the idol to which the world bows.
2. To stoop; to fall upon the knees. The people bowed upon their knees. – Judges.
3. To sink under pressure. They stoop; they bow down together. – Isaiah.