Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 285 results in 285 entries
1. ahoy, int. and v. View full entry 1748
...A shout or exclamation used to hail, greet, or attract attention to someone or something, esp. from a distance (originally at sea). Also ahoy there! Cf. hoy...
2. autocide, n.2 View full entry 1923
...Death caused by or involving a motor vehicle, esp. a car; spec. suicide committed by deliberately crashing one's car; an instance of this....
3. back-, comb. form View full entry ?c1225
...General senses in combination....
4. ball, n.1 View full entry 1166
...A rounded hill, a knoll. Now Eng. regional (south-west.)....
5. beak, n.1 View full entry c1220
...The horny termination of the jaws of a bird, consisting of two pointed mandibles adapted for piercing and for taking firm hold: a bird's bill....
6. bear, n.1 View full entry c1000
...A heavily-built, thick-furred plantigrade quadruped, of the genus Ursus; belonging to the Carnivora, but having teeth partly adapted to a vegetable diet. ...
7. beating, n. View full entry ?c1225
...The infliction of repeated blows; spec. the action of inflicting blows in punishment; the dashing of waves against the shore; the whipping up of a fluid; the flapping of wings;...
8. bird, n. View full entry a800
...orig. The general name for the young of the feathered tribes; a young bird; a chicken, eaglet, etc.; a nestling. The only sense in Old English; found in literature down to...
9. black, adj. and n. View full entry eOE
...Designating the darkest colour possible, that of soot, coal, the sky on a moonless night in open country, and a small hole in a hollow object; of or having this colour; (also)...
10. blood, n. (and int.) View full entry eOE
...The red fluid flowing in the arteries, capillaries, and veins of humans and other vertebrates, carrying oxygen and nutrients to, and carbon dioxide and waste metabolites away from, the organs and tissues...
11. bone, n. View full entry a700
...The general name for each of the distinct parts which unitedly make up the skeleton or hard framework of the body of vertebrate animals....
12. boot, n.3 View full entry c1325
...A covering for the foot and lower part of the leg, usually of leather. (Distinguished from a shoe by extending above the ankle. In earlier times used only by riders:...
13. bottle, n.2 View full entry c1375
...A vessel with a narrow neck for holding liquids, now usually made of glass; originally of leather....
14. bowsprit, n. View full entry c1330
...A large spar or boom running out from the stem of a vessel, to which (and the jib-boom and flying jib-boom, which extend beyond it) the foremast stays are fastened....
15. branch, n. View full entry 1297
...A portion or limb of a tree or other plant growing out of the stem or trunk, or out of one of the boughs; in a more specific sense, a branch...
16. break, v. View full entry 851
...trans. generally....
17. button, n. View full entry c1320
...A knob or stud of metal or other material sewn by a shank or neck to articles of dress, usually for the purpose of fastening one part of the dress to another...
18. cast, v. View full entry c1200
...trans. To project (anything) with a force of the nature of a jerk, from the hand, the arms, a vessel, or the like; to throw (which is now the...
19. cat-o'-ˈnine-tails, n. View full entry 1695
...A whip with nine knotted lashes; till 1881 an authorized instrument of punishment in the British navy and army....
20. Charon, n. View full entry a1522
...In Greek and Latin mythology the name of the ferryman who conveyed the shades of the departed across the Styx; often used allusively....