Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAB-Y-LO'NI-AN, n.

An inhabitant of Babylonia. In ancient writers, an astrologer, as the Chaldeans were remarkable for the study of astrology.

BAB-Y-LON'IC, or BAB-Y-LON'IC-AL, a.

1. Pertaining to Babylon, or made there; as, Babylonic garments, carpets, or hangings. – Encyc.
2. Tumultuous; disorderly. – Harrington.

BAB-Y-LON'ICS, n. [plur.]

The title of a fragment of the history of the world, ending 267 years before Christ, composed by Berosus, a priest of Babylon. – Encyc.

BAB-Y-ROUS'SA, n.

In zoology, the Indian hog, a native of Celebes and of Buero, but not found on the continent of Asia, or of Africa. This quadruped belongs to the genus Sus, in the class Mammalia, and order Bellua. From the outside of the upper jaw, spring two teeth twelve inches long, bending like horns, and almost touching the forehead. Along the back are some weak bristles, and on the rest of the body only a sort of wool. These animals live in herds, feed on herbage, are sometimes tamed, and their flesh is well tasted. When pursued hard, they rush into the sea, swim or dive, and pass from isle to isle. In the forest they rest their heads by hooking their upper tusks on a bough. – Encyc.

BAC, or BACK, n. [D. bak, a bowl or cistern.]

1. In navigation, a ferry-boat or praam.
2. In brewing, a large flat tub, or vessel, in which wort is cooled before boiling; hence called a cooler.
3. In distilleries, a vessel into which the liquor to be fermented is pumped from the cooler, in order to be worked with the yeast.

BAC'CA, n. [L.]

In botany, a berry; a fruit which consists of a pulpy pericarp, without valves, inclosing several naked seeds. – Milne.

BAC-CA-LAU'RE-ATE, n. [The first part of this word is from the same root as bachelor; or as Bailey supposes, from bacca, berry; and the latter part from laurea, a laurel, from the practice of wearing a garland of bay berries.]

The degree of bachelor of arts.

BAC'CATE, a.

In botany, consisting of a berry.

BAC'CA-TED, a. [L. baccatus, garnished with pearls, from bacca, a berry.]

Set or adorned with pearls; having many berries.

BAC'CHA-NAL, or BAC-CHA-NA'LI-AN, a.

Reveling in intemperate drinking; riotous; noisy.

BAC'CHA-NAL, or BAC-CHA-NA'LI-AN, n. [from Bacchus, Gr. Βακχος, the deity of wine and reveling. Qu. Ir. back, drunk; or D. bak, bowl, L. poculum; Gyp. bechari, a cup; or from raging, reveling.]

One who indulges in drunken revels; a drunkard; one who is noisy and riotous when intoxicated.

BAC-CHA-NA'LI-AN, a.

Pertaining to reveling and drunkenness. Even bacchanalian madness has its charms. – Cowper.

BAC-CHA-NA'LI-AN-LY, adv.

In the manner of bacchanals.

BAC'CHA-NALS, n. [plur.]

Drunken feasts; the revels of bacchanalians. In antiquity, feasts in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. These were celebrated in spring and autumn, with games and shows. – Encyc.

BAC'CHIC, a.

1. Jovial; drunken; mad with intoxication.
2. Relating to Bacchus, the god of wine; as, a bacchic feast, or song; bacchic mysteries. – Faber. Encyc.

BAC'CHI-US, n.

In ancient poetry, a foot composed of a short syllable and two long ones; as in ăvārī. – Encyc.

BAC'CHUS, n.

The god of wine, and son of Jupiter and Semele, daughter of Cadmus.

BAC-CIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. baccifer, of bacca, a berry, and fero, to bear.]

That produces berries. [See Bacca.] Bacciferous plants formerly included all such plants as have a pulpy fruit, whether of the apple, berry, or cherry kind; but the modern systems of botany comprehend under this description such plants only as bear the pulpy pericarp, called bacca, or berry. – Milne.

BAC-CIV'OR-OUS, a. [L. bacca, berry, and voro, to eat.]

Eating or subsisting on berries; as, baccivorous birds.

BACH'E-LOR, n. [Fr. bachelier; Sp. bachiller, a bachelor of arts and a babbler; Port. bacharel, id. and bacello, a shoot or twig of the vine; It. baccelliere, a bachelor of arts; bacchio, a staff; bacchetta, a rod; L. baculus, a stick, that is, a shoot; Fr. bachelette, a damsel, or young woman; Scot. baich, a child; W. bacgen, a boy, a child; bacgenes, a young girl; from bac, small. This word has its origin in the name of a child, or young person of either sex, whence the sense of babbling in the Spanish. Or both senses are rather from shooting, protruding.]

1. A young man who has not been married.
2. A man of any age, who has not been married; often with the word old.
3. A person who has taken the first degree in the liberal arts and sciences, at a college or university. This degree or honor, is called the baccalaureate. This title is given also to such as take the first degree in divinity, law, or physic, in certain European universities.
4. A knight of the lowest order, or more correctly, a young knight, styled a knight bachelor. The Germans anciently constituted their young men knights or soldiers, by presenting to them a shield and a lance, in a great council. This ceremony answered to that of the toga virilis of the Romans. In the livery companies of London, those persons not yet admitted to the livery are called bachelors.

BACH'E-LOR-SHIP, n.

1. The state of being a bachelor.
2. The state of one who has taken his first degree in a college or university.

BACK, adv.

1. To the place from which one came; as, to go back, is to return.
2. In a figurative sense, to a former state, condition or station; as, he can not go back from his engagements.
3. Behind; not advancing; not coming or bringing forward; as, to keep back a part; to keep one's self back.
4. Toward times or things past; as, to look back on former ages.
5. Again; in return; as, to give back the money.
6. To go or come back, is to return, either to a former place, or state.
7. To go or give back, is to retreat, to recede.

BACK, n. [Sax. bac, bæc; Dan. bag; Sw. bak; and Sw. backe, bakke, a hill, a clod or lump. The sense probably is a ridge, like the Ger. rücken, D. rug, applied to the shoulders, or to the back of a beast.]

1. The upper part of an animal, particularly of a quadruped, whose back is a ridge. In human beings, the hinder part of the body.
2. The outward or convex part of the hand, opposed to the inner, concave part, or palm.
3. As the back of a man is the part on the side opposite to the face; hence the part opposed to the front; as, the back of a book, and of a chimney, or the back of a house.
4. The part opposite to or most remote from that which fronts the speaker or actor, or the part out of sight; as, the back of an isle, of a wood, of a village.
5. As the back is the strongest part of an animal, and as the back is behind in motion; hence the thick and strong part of a cutting tool; as, the back of a knife, or of a saw.
6. The place behind or nearest the back; as, on the back of a hill, or of a village.
7. The outer part of the body, or the whole body; a part for the whole; as, he has not clothes to his back.
8. To turn the back on one, is to forsake, or neglect him. – South.
9. To turn the back to one, to acknowledge to be superior.
10. To turn the back, is to depart, or to leave the care or cognizance of; to remove or be absent. – Davies.
11. Behind the back, is in secret, or when one is absent.
12. To cast behind the back, in Scripture, is to forget and forgive. Is. xxxviii. 17; or to treat with contempt. Ezek. xxiii. 35. Neh. ix. 26.
13. To plow the back, is to oppress and persecute. – Ps. cxxix.
14. To bow the back, is to submit to oppression. – Rom. xi. 10.

BACK, v.i.

To move or go back; as, the horse refuses to back. – Encyc.

BACK, v.t.

1. To mount; to get upon the back; sometimes, perhaps, to place upon the back; as, to back a horse. – Shak.
2. To support; to maintain; to second or strengthen by aid; as, the Court was backed by the House of Commons. – Dryden.
3. To put backward; to cause to retreat or recede; as, to back oxen.
4. To back a warrant, is for a justice of the peace in the county where the warrant is to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender. – Blackstone.
5. In seamanship, to back an anchor, is to lay down a small anchor ahead of a large one, the cable of the small one being fastened to the crown of the large one, to prevent its coming home.
6. To back astern, in rowing, is to manage the oars in a direction contrary to the usual method, to move a boat stern foremost.
7. To back the sails, is to arrange them so as to cause the ship to move astern. – Mar. Dict.