| bivouacking | (noun) the act of encamping and living in tents in a camp | Synonyms: camping, encampment, tenting |
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| black | (noun) black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning) | - |
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| (noun) (board games) the darker pieces | - |
| (noun) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) | Synonyms: blackness, inkiness |
| (noun) total absence of light | Synonyms: blackness, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness |
| blackamoor | (noun) a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa) | Synonyms: Black person |
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| blackball | (noun) the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto | Synonyms: barring |
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| blackbeetle | (noun) dark brown cockroach originally from orient now nearly cosmopolitan in distribution | Synonyms: Asiatic cockroach, Blatta orientalis, oriental cockroach, oriental roach |
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| blackberry | (noun) large sweet black or very dark purple edible aggregate fruit of any of various bushes of the genus Rubus | - |
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| (noun) bramble with sweet edible black or dark purple berries that usually do not separate from the receptacle | Synonyms: blackberry bush |
| blackbird | (noun) any bird of the family Icteridae whose male is black or predominantly black | Synonyms: New World blackbird |
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| (noun) common black European thrush | Synonyms: European blackbird, merl, merle, ousel, ouzel, Turdus merula |
| blackboard | (noun) sheet of slate; for writing with chalk | Synonyms: chalkboard |
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| blackbody | (noun) a hypothetical object capable of absorbing all the electromagnetic radiation falling on it | Synonyms: black body, full radiator |
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| blackbuck | (noun) common Indian antelope with a dark back and spiral horns | Synonyms: Antilope cervicapra, black buck |
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| blackcap | (noun) small brownish-grey warbler with a black crown | Synonyms: Silvia atricapilla |
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| (noun) chickadee having a dark crown | Synonyms: black-capped chickadee, Parus atricapillus |
| (noun) small black-headed European gull | Synonyms: Larus ridibundus, laughing gull, pewit, pewit gull |
| (noun) raspberry native to eastern North America having black thimble-shaped fruit | Synonyms: black raspberry, blackcap raspberry, Rubus occidentalis, thimbleberry |
| blackcock | (noun) male black grouse | Synonyms: black cock |
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| blackdamp | (noun) the atmosphere in a mine following an explosion; high in carbon dioxide and incapable of supporting life | Synonyms: chokedamp |
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| blackening | (noun) changing to a darker color | Synonyms: darkening |
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| blackface | (noun) the makeup (usually burnt cork) used by a performer in order to imitate a Negro | - |
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| blackfish | (noun) female salmon that has recently spawned | - |
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| (noun) small dark-colored whale of the Atlantic coast of the United States; the largest male acts as pilot or leader for the school | Synonyms: black whale, common blackfish, Globicephala melaena, pilot whale |
| (noun) large dark-colored food fish of the Atlantic coast of North America | Synonyms: tautog, Tautoga onitis |
| blackfly | (noun) small blackish stout-bodied biting fly having aquatic larvae; sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals | Synonyms: black fly, buffalo gnat |
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| (noun) blackish aphid that infests e.g. beans and sugar beets | Synonyms: Aphis fabae, bean aphid |
| blackguard | (noun) someone who is morally reprehensible | Synonyms: bounder, cad, dog, heel, hound |
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| blackhead | (noun) a black-tipped plug clogging a pore of the skin | Synonyms: comedo |
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| blackheart | (noun) heart cherry with dark flesh and skin | Synonyms: blackheart cherry |
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| (noun) any of various diseases in which the central tissues blacken | - |
| blacking | (noun) a substance used to produce a shiny protective surface on footwear | Synonyms: shoe polish |
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| blackjack | (noun) a gambling game using cards; the object is to hold cards having a higher count than those dealt to the banker up to but not exceeding 21 | Synonyms: twenty-one, vingt-et-un |
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| (noun) a piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people | Synonyms: cosh, sap |
| (noun) a flag usually bearing a white skull and crossbones on a black background; indicates a pirate ship | Synonyms: black flag, Jolly Roger, pirate flag |
| (noun) a common scrubby deciduous tree of central and southeastern United States having dark bark and broad three-lobed (club-shaped) leaves; tends to form dense thickets | Synonyms: blackjack oak, jack oak, Quercus marilandica |
| blackleg | (noun) someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike | Synonyms: rat, scab, strikebreaker |
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| blacklist | (noun) a list of people who are out of favor | Synonyms: black book, shitlist |
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| blackmail | (noun) extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting information | - |
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| blackmailer | (noun) a criminal who extorts money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing information about them | Synonyms: extortioner, extortionist |
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| blackness | (noun) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) | Synonyms: black, inkiness |
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| (noun) total absence of light | Synonyms: black, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness |
| blackout | (noun) a momentary loss of consciousness | - |
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| (noun) partial or total loss of memory | Synonyms: amnesia, memory loss |
| (noun) the failure of electric power for a general region | - |
| (noun) darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft) | Synonyms: brownout, dimout |
| (noun) a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting | - |
| blackpoll | (noun) North American warbler having a black-and-white head | Synonyms: Dendroica striate |
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| blackseed | (noun) grass native to West Indies but common in southern United States having tufted wiry stems often infested with a dark fungus | Synonyms: carpet grass, smut grass, Sporobolus poiretii |
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| blacksmith | (noun) a smith who forges and shapes iron with a hammer and anvil | - |
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| blacksnake | (noun) blackish racer of the eastern United States that grows to six feet | Synonyms: black racer, Coluber constrictor |
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| (noun) large harmless shiny black North American snake | Synonyms: black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta, mountain blacksnake, pilot blacksnake |
| blacktail | (noun) mule deer of western Rocky Mountains | Synonyms: black-tailed deer, blacktail deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus |
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| blackthorn | (noun) erect and almost thornless American hawthorn with somewhat pear-shaped berries | Synonyms: Crataegus calpodendron, Crataegus tomentosa, pear haw, pear hawthorn |
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| (noun) a thorny Eurasian bush with plumlike fruits | Synonyms: Prunus spinosa, sloe |
| blacktop | (noun) a black bituminous material used for paving roads or other areas; usually spread over crushed rock | Synonyms: blacktopping |
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| blacktopping | (noun) a black bituminous material used for paving roads or other areas; usually spread over crushed rock | Synonyms: blacktop |
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| blackwash | (noun) a wash that colors a surface black | - |
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| (noun) a mixture of calomel and limewater that is used on syphilitic sores | Synonyms: black lotion |
| (noun) an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation | Synonyms: assassination, character assassination |
| blackwater | (noun) any of several human or animal diseases characterized by dark urine resulting from rapid breakdown of red blood cells | - |
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| blackwood | (noun) any of several hardwood trees yielding very dark-colored wood | Synonyms: blackwood tree |
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| (noun) very dark wood of any of several blackwood trees | - |
| bladderwrack | (noun) a common rockweed used in preparing kelp and as manure | Synonyms: black rockweed, bladder fucus, Fucus vesiculosus, tang |
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| (noun) similar to and found with black rockweed | Synonyms: Ascophyllum nodosum |
| block | (noun) the act of obstructing or deflecting someone's movements | Synonyms: blocking |
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| (noun) a solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides) | - |
| (noun) an obstruction in a pipe or tube | Synonyms: blockage, closure, occlusion, stop, stoppage |
| (noun) a simple machine consisting of a wheel with a groove in which a rope can run to change the direction or point of application of a force applied to the rope | Synonyms: pulley-block, pulley, pulley block |
| (noun) a metal casting containing the cylinders and cooling ducts of an engine | Synonyms: cylinder block, engine block |
| (noun) a platform from which an auctioneer sells | Synonyms: auction block |
| (noun) housing in a large building that is divided into separate units | - |
| (noun) an inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension | Synonyms: mental block |
| (noun) a number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit | - |
| (noun) a rectangular area in a city surrounded by streets and usually containing several buildings | Synonyms: city block |
| (noun) (computer science) a sector or group of sectors that function as the smallest data unit permitted | - |
| (noun) a three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides | Synonyms: cube |
| blockade | (noun) a war measure that isolates some area of importance to the enemy | Synonyms: encirclement |
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| (noun) prevents access or progress | - |
| blockage | (noun) the act of blocking | Synonyms: closure, occlusion |
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| (noun) an obstruction in a pipe or tube | Synonyms: block, closure, occlusion, stop, stoppage |
| (noun) the physical condition of blocking or filling a passage with an obstruction | Synonyms: obstruction |
| blockbuster | (noun) an unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel) | Synonyms: megahit, smash hit |
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| (noun) a large bomb used to demolish extensive areas (as a city block) | - |
| blocker | (noun) a class of drugs that inhibit (block) some biological process | Synonyms: blocking agent |
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| (noun) a football player whose responsibility is to block players attempting to stop an offensive play | - |
| blockhead | (noun) a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence | Synonyms: bonehead, dumbass, dunce, dunderhead, fuckhead, hammerhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, lunkhead, muttonhead, numskull, shithead |
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| blockhouse | (noun) a stronghold that is reinforced for protection from enemy fire; with apertures for defensive fire | - |
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| blocking | (noun) the act of obstructing or deflecting someone's movements | Synonyms: block |
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| bloodstock | (noun) thoroughbred horses (collectively) | - |
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| bloodsucker | (noun) carnivorous or bloodsucking aquatic or terrestrial worms typically having a sucker at each end | Synonyms: hirudinean, leech |
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| blowback | (noun) Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gases created by the ignition of the propellant charge. | - |
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| (noun) misinformation resulting from the recirculation into the source country of disinformation previously planted abroad by that country's intelligence service | - |
| (noun) the backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a gun is fired | Synonyms: backfire |
| bluejacket | (noun) a serviceman in the navy | Synonyms: navy man, sailor, sailor boy |
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| bluestocking | (noun) a woman having literary or intellectual interests | Synonyms: bas bleu |
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| bluetick | (noun) a very fast American hound; white mottled with bluish grey | - |
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| bobbysock | (noun) a sock that reaches just above the ankle | Synonyms: anklet, anklets, bobbysocks |
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| bobbysocks | (noun) a sock that reaches just above the ankle | Synonyms: anklet, anklets, bobbysock |
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| bock | (noun) a very strong lager traditionally brewed in the fall and aged through the winter for consumption in the spring | Synonyms: bock beer |
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| bollock | (noun) a pulley-block at the head of a topmast | Synonyms: bullock block |
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| (noun) one of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens | Synonyms: ball, ballock, egg, nut, orchis, testicle, testis |
| boondocks | (noun) a remote and undeveloped area | Synonyms: back country, backwoods, hinterland |
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| bootblack | (noun) a person who polishes shoes and boots | Synonyms: shoeblack |
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| bootjack | (noun) has V-shaped notch for pulling off boots | - |
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| bootlicker | (noun) someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he had no self-respect | Synonyms: apple polisher, fawner, groveler, groveller, truckler |
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| bottleneck | (noun) the narrow part of a bottle near the top | - |
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| (noun) a narrowing that reduces the flow through a channel | Synonyms: chokepoint, constriction |
| bracken | (noun) large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan | Synonyms: brake, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum |
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| (noun) fern of southeastern Asia; not hardy in cold temperate regions | Synonyms: Pteridium esculentum |
| bracket | (noun) a support projecting from a wall (as to hold a shelf) | Synonyms: wall bracket |
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| (noun) either of two punctuation marks ([ or ]) used to enclose textual material | Synonyms: square bracket |
| (noun) either of two punctuation marks (`<' or `>') used in computer programming and sometimes used to enclose textual material | Synonyms: angle bracket |
| (noun) a category falling within certain defined limits | - |
| brackishness | (noun) the quality of being salty, as the saltiness of water | - |
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| breadstick | (noun) a crisp stick-shaped roll; often served with soup | Synonyms: bread-stick |
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| breechblock | (noun) a metal block in breech-loading firearms that is withdrawn to insert a cartridge and replaced to close the breech before firing | Synonyms: breech closer |
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| brick | (noun) rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln; used as a building or paving material | - |
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| (noun) a good fellow; helpful and trustworthy | - |
| brickbat | (noun) blunt criticism | - |
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| (noun) a fragment of brick used as a weapon | - |
| brickfield | (noun) a place where bricks are made and sold | Synonyms: brickyard |
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| brickkiln | (noun) a kiln for making bricks | - |
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| bricklayer | (noun) a craftsman skilled in building with bricks | - |
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| bricklaying | (noun) the craft of laying bricks | - |
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| brickwork | (noun) masonry done with bricks and mortar | - |
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| brickyard | (noun) a place where bricks are made and sold | Synonyms: brickfield |
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| brocket | (noun) small South American deer with unbranched antlers | - |
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| (noun) male red deer in its second year | - |
| broomstick | (noun) the handle of a broom | Synonyms: broom handle |
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| buck | (noun) mature male of various mammals (especially deer or antelope) | - |
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| (noun) a framework for holding wood that is being sawed | Synonyms: horse, sawbuck, sawhorse |
| (noun) a gymnastic horse without pommels and with one end elongated; used lengthwise for vaulting | Synonyms: long horse, vaulting horse |
| (noun) a piece of paper money worth one dollar | Synonyms: clam, dollar, dollar bill, one dollar bill |
| buckaroo | (noun) local names for a cowboy (`vaquero' is used especially in southwestern and central Texas and `buckaroo' is used especially in California) | Synonyms: buckeroo, vaquero |
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| buckbean | (noun) perennial plant of Europe and America having racemes of white or purplish flowers and intensely bitter trifoliate leaves; often rooting at water margin and spreading across the surface | Synonyms: bog myrtle, bogbean, marsh trefoil, Menyanthes trifoliata, water shamrock |
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| buckboard | (noun) an open horse-drawn carriage with four wheels; has a seat attached to a flexible board between the two axles | - |
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| buckeroo | (noun) local names for a cowboy (`vaquero' is used especially in southwestern and central Texas and `buckaroo' is used especially in California) | Synonyms: buckaroo, vaquero |
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| bucket | (noun) a roughly cylindrical vessel that is open at the top | Synonyms: pail |
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| (noun) the quantity contained in a bucket | Synonyms: bucketful |
| bucketful | (noun) the quantity contained in a bucket | Synonyms: bucket |
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| buckeye | (noun) tree having palmate leaves and large clusters of white to red flowers followed by brown shiny inedible seeds | Synonyms: Aesculus hippocastanum, horse chestnut |
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| (noun) the inedible nutlike seed of the horse chestnut | Synonyms: conker, horse chestnut |
| buckle | (noun) fastener that fastens together two ends of a belt or strap; often has loose prong | - |
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| (noun) a shape distorted by twisting or folding | Synonyms: warp |
| buckler | (noun) armor carried on the arm to intercept blows | Synonyms: shield |
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| buckleya | (noun) parasitic shrub of the eastern United States having opposite leaves and insignificant greenish flowers followed by oily dull green olivelike fruits | Synonyms: Buckleya distichophylla |
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| buckminsterfullerene | (noun) a spheroidal fullerene; the first known example of a fullerene | Synonyms: buckyball |
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| buckram | (noun) a coarse cotton fabric stiffened with glue; used in bookbinding and to stiffen clothing | - |
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| bucksaw | (noun) a saw that is set in a frame in the shape of an H; used with both hands to cut wood that is held in a sawbuck | - |
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| buckshot | (noun) small lead shot for shotgun shells | Synonyms: bird shot, duck shot |
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| buckskin | (noun) horse of a light yellowish dun color with dark mane and tail | - |
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| (noun) a soft yellowish suede leather originally from deerskin but now usually from sheepskin | - |
| buckskins | (noun) (used in the plural) breeches made of buckskin | - |
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| buckthorn | (noun) any shrub or small tree of the genus Bumelia | - |
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| (noun) a shrub or shrubby tree of the genus Rhamnus; fruits are source of yellow dyes or pigments | - |
| (noun) an Old World plantain with long narrow ribbed leaves widely established in temperate regions | Synonyms: English plantain, narrow-leaved plantain, Plantago lanceolata, ribgrass, ribwort, ripple-grass |
| bucktooth | (noun) a large projecting front tooth | - |
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| buckwheat | (noun) grain ground into flour | - |
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| (noun) a member of the genus Fagopyrum; annual Asian plant with clusters of small pinkish white flowers and small edible triangular seeds which are used whole or ground into flour | Synonyms: Fagopyrum esculentum, Polygonum fagopyrum |
| buckyball | (noun) a spheroidal fullerene; the first known example of a fullerene | Synonyms: buckminsterfullerene |
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| bullock | (noun) castrated bull | Synonyms: steer |
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| (noun) young bull | - |