Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUILD, or BILD, v.t. [bild; pret. built; pp. built, pronounced bilt. The regular pret. and pp. builded, is sometimes used. Sax. byldan, to confirm; byld, bylde, byldo, constancy, firmness; bilith, a model, an image; Sw. bilda; D. afbeelden, verbeelden; Ger. bilden, abbilden; Dan. bilder; afbilder, to shape, form, design, delineate, represent, counterfeit; Sw. and Ger. bild; D. beeld, image, statue, figure, repesentation. The primary sense is to set, fix or make, and the true orthography is bild.]

1. To frame, construct, and raise, as an edifice or fabric of almost any kind, as a house, barn, shop, ship or vessel, a wall, or other structure of art; to unite materials into a regular structure for use or convenience.
2. To raise by art; to frame or shape into a particular form; as, to build up a head-dress in a cone. – Spectator.
3. To raise any thing on a support or foundation; as, to build our hopes on air.
4. In Scripture, to increase and strengthen; to cement and knit together; to settle or establish and preserve. – Acts xx. 32. Eph. ii. 22. 1 Sam. ii. 35.