n. 1. A ball game, usually played indoors in an area called the basketball court, in which two opposing teams of five players each contest with each other to toss a large inflated ball (the basketball) into opposite goals (baskets) resembling baskets, each typically a cylindrical mesh suspended from a circular rim which is held ten feet above the court. A goal scored by passing the basketball through the basket may count from one to three points, depending on the situation in which it was thrown.
Syn. -- basketball game. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

2. The inflatable ball used in the game of basketball. [ PJC ]

n. A band for the breast. Specifically: (Naut.) A band of canvas, or a rope, fastened at both ends to the rigging, to support the man who heaves the lead in sounding. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A portable bag for travelers; -- so called because originally made of carpet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An adventurer; -- a term of contempt for a Northern man seeking private gain or political advancement in the southern part of the United States after the Civil War (1865). [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a reduction in quantity or rate; a reduction in the amount of an activity or the funding for an activity; as, cutbacks in government research funding increased unemployment among scientists; the recession caused a cutback in auto production. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

2. a return to an earlier scene or story line in a novel, movie, etc. [ PJC ]

3. (Sports) a sudden switching of directions of a running football player, a surfboarder, etc. [ PJC ]

n. (Baseball) a baseball thrown with maximum velocity.
Syn. -- heater, smoke, hummer, bullet. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) The menhaden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An inflated ball to be kicked in sport, usually made in India rubber, or a bladder incased in Leather. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

The American football is an oblate spheroid, with pointed ends. In other countries, the football is the same as a soccer ball. The games played with the two different balls are different. In the United States, the game played with a soccer ball is called soccer. [ PJC ]

2. The game played with a football{ 1 }, by two opposing teams of players moving the ball between goals at opposite ends of a rectangular playing field. Outside the United States football refers to soccer, and in England, also to rugby, but in the United States the shape of the ball and the rules of the game are different. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

3. Soccer or rugby. [ Brit. ] [ PJC ]

4. [ fig. ] Something which is treated in a rough manner, usually as part of a dispute; as, a political football. [ PJC ]

n. an athlete who plays football.
Syn. -- football player. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A band of foot soldiers. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bath for the feet; also, a vessel used in bathing the feet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A band round the crown of a hat; sometimes, a band of black cloth, crape, etc., worn as a badge of mourning. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Ar. ] An address or public prayer read from the steps of the pulpit in Muslim mosques, offering glory to God, praising Mohammed and his descendants, and the ruling princes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a knapsack (usually for a soldier).
Syn. -- kit bag. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Bot.) The plant comfrey; -- so called from its use as a restorative. Dr. Prier.

n. A team game that resembles basketball; a soccer ball is to be thrown so that it passes through a ring on the top of a post. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. To utter foolishly or excessively; to surpass in babbling. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The remote bush country of Australia; as, they hunted kangaroo in the outback. [ Australian ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. same as out-of-the-way. [ prenominal ]
Syn. -- backwoods(prenominal), out-of-the-way, remote. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. To outweight; to exceed in weight or effect. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let dull Ajax bear away my right
When all his days outbalance this one night. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To bar out. [ R. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. plate-bande; plat, plate, flat, level + bande a band. ] 1. A border of flowers in a garden, along a wall or a parterre; hence, a border. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Arch.) (a) A flat molding, or group of moldings, the width of which much exceeds its projection, as the face of an architrave. (b) A list or fillet between the flutings of a column. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Arch.) Offset, n., 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A backset; a countercurrent; an eddy. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A reversal of progress in an endeavor; a reverse; a backset; a check; a repulse; a relapse. [ Colloq. U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Paper chewed, and rolled into a ball, to be thrown as a missile; -- a childish prank. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Baseball) A pitched ball in throwing which the pitcher grips the ball between two, or three, fingers on one side (which is made slippery, as by saliva) and the thumb on the other side, and delivers it so that it slips off the fingers with the least possible friction; -- also called spitter. When pitched directly overhand a spit ball darts downward, when pitched with the arm extended sidewise it darts down and out. The use of such a pitch is against the rules of professional baseball. [ Cant ] -- Spit baller. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

n. (Zool.) The black-backed gull (Larus marinus); -- called also swarbie. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Throatlatch. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The band which encompasses the waist; esp., one on the upper part of breeches, trousers, pantaloons, skirts, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A sash worn by women around the waist. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A Mexican who enters the United States illegally, by wading across the Rio Grande; -- disparaging and offensive. [ PJC ]

2. Hence: An offensive term for a person of Mexican descent, usually intended and considered as an ethnic slur. [ wns=1 ]
Syn. -- greaser, taco. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The band of the sleeve of a shirt, or other garment, which covers the wrist. [ 1913 Webster ]