Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BILK'ED, pp.

Disappointed; deceived; defrauded.

BILK'ING, ppr.

Frustrating; defrauding.

BILL, n.¹ [Sax. bile, a beak, that is, a shoot.]

1. The beak of a fowl.
2. An instrument used by plumbers, basket-makers, and gardeners, made in the form of a crescent, and fitted with a handle. When short, it is called a hand-bill; when long, a hedge-bill. It is used for pruning trees, &c.

BILL, n.² [Sax. bil; G. beil, an ax or hatchet; D. byl; Dan. bile; W. bwyell; Pers. بِيل bil, a mattock, or pick-ax, and a shovel.]

A pick-ax, or mattock; a battle-ax; an ax or hatchet with a crooked point.

BILL, n.³ [Norm. bille, a label or note; Fr. billet, bil; Arm. bilked; Sp. billete; It. biglietto, bulletta, bollettino. The primary sense probably is a roll or folded paper, Sp. boleta, a billet, a ticket, and a paper of tobacco, coinciding with bola, a ball; or it is from cutting off, and signifies a piece.]

1. In law, a declaration in writing, expressing some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law. It contains the fact complained of, the damage sustained, and a petition or process against the defendant for redress. It is used both in civil and criminal cases. In Scots law, every summary application in writing, by way of petition to the court of session, is called a bill. – Encyc.
2. In law and in commerce, in England, an obligation or security given for money under the hand, and sometimes the seal of the debtor, without a condition or forfeiture for non-payment. In the latter circumstance, it differs from a bond. In the United States, this species of security is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note.
3. A form or draft of a law, presented to a legislature, but not enacted. In some cases, statutes are called bills; but usually they are qualified by some description, as a bill of attainder.
4. A paper written or printed, and posted in some public place, advertising the proposed sale of goods, or particular things; an advertisement posted.
5. An account of goods sold or delivered, services rendered or work done, with the price or value annexed to each article.
6. Any written paper, containing a statement of particulars; as, a bill of charges or expenditures; a physician's bill of prescriptions; a bill of fare or provisions, &c.
7. A bill of exchange is an order drawn on a person, in a distant place, requesting or directing him to pay money to some person assigned by the drawer, or to his order, in consideration of the same sum received by the drawer. Bills of exchange are either foreign or inland: foreign, when drawn by a person in one country upon one residing in another; inland, when both the drawer and drawee reside in the same country. The person who draws the bill is called the drawer; the person on whom the request or demand is made, is called the drawee; and the person to whom the money is directed to be paid, is called the payee.
8. A bill of entry is a written account of goods entered at the custom-house, whether imported or intended for exportation.
9. A bill of lading is a written account of goods shipped by any person, on board of a vessel, signed by the master of the vessel, who acknowledges the receipt of the goods, and promises to deliver them safe at the place directed, dangers of the sea excepted. It is usual for the master to sign two, three or four copies of the bill; one of which he keeps in possession, one is kept by the shipper, and one is sent to the consignee of the goods.
10. A bill of parcels is an account given by the seller to the buyer, of the several articles purchased, with the price of each.
11. A bill of sale is when a person borrows money and delivers goods to the lender as security, and at the same time, gives him a bill, empowering him to sell the goods, if the money is not repaid at the appointed time with interest. – Encyc. In the United States, a bill of sale is a writing given by the seller of personal property, to the purchaser, answering to a deed of real estate, but without seal.
12. A bill of mortality is an account of the number of deaths in a place, in a given time. In these bills it is not unusual to insert registers of births and christenings, as in London.
13. Bank-bill. [See Bank.]
14. A bill of rights is a summary of rights and privileges, claimed by a people. Such was the declaration presented by the lords and commons of England to the prince and princess of Orange in 1688. In America, a bill or declaration of rights is prefixed to most of the constitutions of the several states.
15. A bill of divorce, in the Jewish law, was a writing given by the husband to the wife, by which the marriage relation was dissolved.
16. [See Indictment.]

BILL, v.i. [from bill, a beak.]

To join bills, as doves; to caress in fondness. – Dryden.

BILL, v.t. [from bill, a writing.]

To advertise by a bill or public notice; a cant word. – L'Estrange.

BILL'ARD, n.

A bastard or imperfect capon; also a fish of the cod kind. – Ash.

BILL'ET, n. [Fr. billot.]

A small stick of wood.

BILL'ET, n. [dim. of bill; Fr. billet; It. bulletta.]

A small paper or note in writing, used for various purposes; sometimes it is a short letter, addressed to some person; sometimes a ticket, directing soldiers at what house to lodge. In heraldry, billet is a hearing in the form of a long square. – Encyc.

BILL'ET, v.t. [from billet, a ticket.]

To direct a soldier by a ticket or note where to lodge: hence, to quarter, or place in lodgings, as soldiers in private houses.

BIL'LET-DOUX, n. [bil'le-doo; Fr.]

A love note or letter.

BILL'ET-ING, ppr.

Quartering, as soldiers in private houses.

BILL'IARD, a. [bil'yard.]

Pertaining to the game of billiards.

BILL'IARDS, n. [plur. bil'yards; Fr. billard, a mace or billiard table; It. bigliardo; Sp. villar. According to the ancient orthography, balyard, this word is composed of ball and yard, a ball-stick.]

A game played on a rectangular table, covered with a green cloth, with small ivory balls, which the players aim to drive into hazard-nets or pockets at the sides and corners of the tables, by impelling one ball against another, with maces, or cues, according to certain rules of the game.

BILL'ION, n. [bil'yun; bis and million.]

A million of millions; as many millions as there are units in a million.

BIL'LOW, n. [Dan. bölge; Sw. bölja, a swell, or rolling swell, allied to bilge, bulge.]

A great wave or surge of the sea, occasioned usually by violent wind. It can hardly be applied to the waves of a river, unless in poetry, or when the river is very large.

BIL'LOW, v.i.

To swell; to rise and roll in large waves, or surges. – Prior.

BIL'LOW-BEAT-EN, a.

Tossed by billows.

BIL'LOW-ED, a.

Swelled, like a billow.

BIL'LOW-ING, ppr.

Swelled into large waves or surges.

BIL'LOW-Y, a.

Swelling, or swelled into large waves; wavy; full of billows, or surges.

BI-LO'BED, or BI-LO'BATE, a. [L. bis, twice, and Gr. λοβος. See Lobe.]

Divided into two lobes; as, a bilobate leaf. – Martyn.

BI-LOC'U-LAR, a. [L. bis, twice, and loculus, from locus, a place.]

Divided into two cells, or containing two cells internally; as, a bilocular pericarp. – Martyn.

BIL'VA, n.

The Hindu name of a plant, the Cratæva Marmelos of Linnæus. – As. Res. iii. 256.