%erb%

v. t. [ L. acerbatus, p. p. of acerbare, fr. acerbus. ] To sour; to imbitter; to irritate. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sour or severe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. acerbitudo, fr. acerbus. ] Sourness and harshness. [ Obs. ] Bailey. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. acerbité, L. acerbitas, fr. acerbus. See Acerb. ] 1. Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Harshness, bitterness, or severity; as, acerbity of temper, of language, of pain. Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. adverbium; ad + verbum word, verb: cf. F. adverbe. ] (Gram.) A word used to modify the sense of a verb, participle, adjective, or other adverb, and usually placed near it; as, he writes well; paper extremely white. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. adverbialis: cf. F. adverbial. ] Of or pertaining to an adverb; of the nature of an adverb; as, an adverbial phrase or form. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being adverbial. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To give the force or form of an adverb to. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In the manner of an adverb. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Med.) The placenta and membranes with which the fetus is connected, when they are expelled from the womb after delivery. [ 1913 Webster + AS ]

n. 1. 1 a genus of herbs of Mediterranean to Central Asia cultivated for their flowers.
Syn. -- genus Amberboa. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a country in the Caucuses, formerly an Asian Soviet. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a native or inhabitant of Azerbaijan. [ PJC ]

‖n. [ Turk. beglerbeg, fr. beg, pl. begler. See Beg, n. ] The governor of a province of the Ottoman empire, next in dignity to the grand vizier. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Cf. Berber, Barb a Barbary horse. ] (Zool.) An African genet (Genetta pardina). See Genet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Barbary. ] A member of a race somewhat resembling the Arabs, but often classed as Hamitic, who were formerly the inhabitants of the whole of North Africa from the Mediterranean southward into the Sahara, and who still occupy a large part of that region; -- called also Kabyles. Also, the language spoken by this people. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Chem.) An alkaloid obtained, as a bitter, yellow substance, from the root of the barberry, gold thread, and other plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Barberry. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Bier, and Balk, n. ] A church road (e. g., a path across fields) for funerals. [ Obs. ] Homilies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) the butterbump or bittern. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Either fr. blunder + D. bus tube, box, akin to G. büchse box, gun, E. box; or corrupted fr. D. donderbus (literally) thunder box, gun, musket. ] 1. A short gun or firearm, with a large bore, capable of holding a number of balls, and intended to do execution without exact aim. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A stupid, blundering fellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) any species of shrike of the genus Lanius, so called because they impale their prey on thorns. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Zool.) large carnivorous Australian bird with the shrikelike habit of impaling prey on thorns. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

☞ The Lanius excubitor is the common butcher bird of Europe. In England, the bearded tit is sometimes called the lesser butcher bird. The American species are Lanius borealis, or northern butcher bird, and Lanius Ludovicianus or loggerhead shrike. The name butcher bird is derived from its habit of suspending its prey impaled upon thorns, after killing it. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) 1. The buffel duck. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. a fat person or animal. [ informal ] [ PJC ]

3. a lump of butter rounded into a ball. [ PJC ]

4. [ Trademark ] a plump chicken or turkey prepared for cooking. [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) The rice bunting or bobolink; -- so called in the island of Jamaica. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. buttur the bittern + 5th bump. ] (Zool.) The European bittern. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A broad-leaved plant (Petasites vulgaris) of the Composite family, said to have been used in England for wrapping up pats of butter. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. 1. A city in England, giving its name various articles. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury (primate of all England), and contains the shrine of Thomas à Becket, to which pilgrimages were formerly made. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A stand with divisions in it for holding music, loose papers, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Canterbury ball (Bot.), a species of Campanula of several varieties, cultivated for its handsome bell-shaped flowers. --
Canterbury gallop, a gentle gallop such as was used by pilgrims riding to Canterbury; a canter. --
Canterbury tale, one of the tales which Chaucer puts into the mouths of certain pilgrims to Canterbury. Hence, any tale told by travelers to pass away the time. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The small olive-shaped berry of the European and Oriental caper, said to be used in pickles and as a condiment. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The currantlike fruit of the African and Arabian caper (Capparis sodado). [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. An instrument turning on a center, for boring holes. See Bit, n., 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Naut.) A retractable or sliding keel used on sailboats, formed of a broad board or slab of wood or metal which may be raised into a water-tight case amidships, when in shallow water, or may be lowered to increase the area of lateral resistance and prevent drifting to leeward when the vessel is beating to windward. It is used in vessels of all sizes along the coast of the United States
Syn. -- centreboard, drop keel, sliding keel. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to, or resembling, Cerberus. [ Written also Cerberian. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

With wide Cerberean mouth. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. Cerberus (in sense 1), gr. &unr_;. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Class. Myth.) A monster, in the shape of a three-headed dog, guarding the entrance into the infernal regions, Hence: Any vigilant custodian or guardian, esp. if surly. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A genus of East Indian serpents, allied to the pythons; the bokadam. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Checkerberries (Bot.) A spicy plant and its bright red berry; the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Also incorrectly applied to the partridge berry (Mitchella repens). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a perennial purple-flowered wild mallow of West North America (Sidalcea malviflora) that is also cultivated.
Syn. -- wild hollyhock, Sidalcea malviflora. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A board with sixty-four squares of alternate color, used for playing checkers, chess, or draughts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a device which synchronizes sound and picture while making a motion picture, consisting of boards held in front of a movie camera, which are are banged together. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. to provide with a copper bottom.
Syn. -- copperbottom. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. to bind with a cord, tie with a cord.
Syn. -- cord up. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Counterbalanced p. pr. & vb. n. Counterbalancing. ] To oppose with an equal weight or power; to counteract the power or effect of; to countervail; to equiponderate; to balance. [ 1913 Webster ]

The remaining air was not able to counterbalance the mercurial cylinder. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

The study of mind is necessary to counterbalance and correct the influence of the study of nature. Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A weight, power, or agency, acting against or balancing another; as: (a) A mass of metal in one side of a driving wheel or fly wheel, to balance the weight of a crank pin, etc., on the opposite side of the wheel. (b) A counterpoise to balance the weight of anything, as of a drawbridge or a scale beam. [ 1913 Webster ]

Money is the counterbalance to all other things purchasable by it. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. brought into equipoise by means of a weight or force that offsets another.
Syn. -- counterpoised. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a vigorous and unrestrained verbal response; as, her tirade provoked a counterblast from her husband. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A flat-bottomed cylindrical enlargement of the mouth of a hole, usually of slight depth, as for receiving a cylindrical screw head. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of pin drill with the cutting edge or edges normal to the axis; -- used for enlarging a hole, or for forming a flat-bottomed recess at its mouth. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To form a counterbore in, by boring, turning, or drilling; to enlarge, as a hole, by means of a counterbore. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. (Naut.) To brace in opposite directions; as, to counterbrace the yards, i. e., to brace the head yards one way and the after yards another. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Engin.) To brace in such a way that opposite strains are resisted; to apply counter braces to. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To strike or drive back or in an opposite direction; to stop by a blow or impulse in front. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A blow in an opposite direction; a stroke that stops motion or cause a recoil. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a European annual with pale rose-colored flowers; cultivated flower or self-sown grainfield weed; introduced in North America; sometimes classified as a soapwort; -- also called the cow-cockle.
Syn. -- cow cockle, cow-cockle, Vaccaria hispanica, Vaccaria pyramidata, Saponaria vaccaria. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a creeping red-berried perenial herb (Cornus canadensis) distinguished by clustered leaf whorls at tips of shoots; Greenland to Alaska.
Syn. -- bunchberry, dwarf cornel, pudding berry, Cornus canadensis. [ WordNet 1.5 ]