| bassarisk | (noun) raccoon-like omnivorous mammal of Mexico and the southwestern United States having a long bushy tail with black and white rings | Synonyms: Bassariscus astutus, cacomistle, cacomixle, civet cat, coon cat, miner's cat, raccoon fox, ring-tailed cat, ringtail |
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| batik | (noun) a dyed fabric; a removable wax is used where the dye is not wanted | - |
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| battercake | (noun) a flat cake of thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle | Synonyms: flannel-cake, flannel cake, flapcake, flapjack, griddlecake, hot cake, hotcake, pancake |
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| baulk | (noun) one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof | Synonyms: balk, rafter |
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| (noun) something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress | Synonyms: balk, check, deterrent, handicap, hinderance, hindrance, impediment |
| (noun) the area on a billiard table behind the balkline | Synonyms: balk |
| baulker | (noun) a person who refuses to comply | Synonyms: balker, noncompliant |
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| bazooka | (noun) a portable rocket launcher used by infantrymen as an antitank weapon | - |
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| beadwork | (noun) a beaded molding for edging or decorating furniture | Synonyms: astragal, bead, beading |
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| (noun) ornamentation with beads | Synonyms: beading |
| beak | (noun) horny projecting mouth of a bird | Synonyms: bill, neb, nib, pecker |
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| (noun) beaklike mouth of animals other than birds (e.g., turtles) | - |
| (noun) informal terms for the nose | Synonyms: honker, hooter, nozzle, schnoz, schnozzle, snoot, snout |
| (noun) a beaklike, tapering tip on certain plant structures | - |
| beaker | (noun) a cup (usually without a handle) | - |
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| (noun) a flatbottomed jar made of glass or plastic; used for chemistry | - |
| beanstalk | (noun) stem of a bean plant | - |
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| bearskin | (noun) tall hat; worn by some British soldiers on ceremonial occasions | Synonyms: busby, shako |
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| (noun) the pelt of a bear | - |
| beatnik | (noun) a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior | Synonyms: beat |
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| beatniks | (noun) a United States youth subculture of the 1950s; rejected possessions or regular work or traditional dress; for communal living and psychedelic drugs and anarchism; favored modern forms of jazz (e.g., bebop) | Synonyms: beat generation, beats |
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| beck | (noun) a beckoning gesture | - |
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| becket | (noun) (nautical) a short line with an eye at one end and a knot at the other; used to secure loose items on a ship | - |
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| bedrock | (noun) principles from which other truths can be derived | Synonyms: basic principle, basics, fundamental principle, fundamentals |
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| (noun) solid unweathered rock lying beneath surface deposits of soil | - |
| beefcake | (noun) a photograph of a muscular man in minimal attire | - |
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| beefsteak | (noun) a beef steak usually cooked by broiling | - |
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| beekeeper | (noun) a farmer who keeps bees for their honey | Synonyms: apiarist, apiculturist |
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| beekeeping | (noun) the cultivation of bees on a commercial scale for the production of honey | Synonyms: apiculture |
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| benchmark | (noun) a standard by which something can be measured or judged | - |
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| (noun) a surveyor's mark on a permanent object of predetermined position and elevation used as a reference point | Synonyms: bench mark |
| benedick | (noun) a newly married man (especially one who has long been a bachelor) | Synonyms: benedict |
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| berk | (noun) a stupid person who is easy to take advantage of | - |
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| berkelium | (noun) a radioactive transuranic element; discovered by bombarding americium with helium | Synonyms: atomic number 97, Bk |
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| berserk | (noun) one of the ancient Norse warriors legendary for working themselves into a frenzy before a battle and fighting with reckless savagery and insane fury | Synonyms: berserker |
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| berserker | (noun) one of the ancient Norse warriors legendary for working themselves into a frenzy before a battle and fighting with reckless savagery and insane fury | Synonyms: berserk |
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| bhakti | (noun) (Hinduism) loving devotion to a deity leading to salvation and nirvana; open to all persons independent of caste or sex | - |
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| bialystoker | (noun) flat crusty-bottomed onion roll | Synonyms: bialy |
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| bicker | (noun) a quarrel about petty points | Synonyms: bickering, fuss, pettifoggery, spat, squabble, tiff |
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| bickering | (noun) a quarrel about petty points | Synonyms: bicker, fuss, pettifoggery, spat, squabble, tiff |
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| bike | (noun) a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals | Synonyms: bicycle, cycle, wheel |
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| (noun) a motor vehicle with two wheels and a strong frame | Synonyms: motorcycle |
| biker | (noun) a person who rides a bicycle | Synonyms: bicycler, bicyclist, cyclist, wheeler |
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| bikers | (noun) originally a British youth subculture that evolved out of the teddy boys in the 1960s; wore black leather jackets and jeans and boots; had greased hair and rode motorcycles and listened to rock'n'roll; were largely unskilled manual laborers | Synonyms: rockers |
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| bikini | (noun) a woman's very brief bathing suit | Synonyms: two-piece |
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| billhook | (noun) a cutting tool with a sharp edge | Synonyms: bill |
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| billystick | (noun) a short stout club used primarily by policemen | Synonyms: baton, billy, billy club, nightstick, truncheon |
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| bioattack | (noun) the use of bacteria or viruses or toxins to destroy men and animals or food | Synonyms: biologic attack, biological attack, biological warfare, BW |
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| biofeedback | (noun) a training program in which a person is given information about physiological processes (heart rate or blood pressure) that is not normally available with the goal of gaining conscious control of them | - |
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| birchbark | (noun) a canoe made with the bark of a birch tree | Synonyms: birch bark, birchbark canoe |
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| birthmark | (noun) a blemish on the skin that is formed before birth | Synonyms: nevus |
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| bismark | (noun) a raised doughnut filled with jelly or jam | Synonyms: Berlin doughnut, jelly doughnut |
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| bispak | (noun) A sexually promiscuous Indonesian woman | - |
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| bitok | (noun) a Russian dish made with patties of ground meat (mixed with onions and bread and milk) and served with a sauce of sour cream | - |
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| bitstock | (noun) a carpenter's tool having a crank handle for turning and a socket to hold a bit for boring | Synonyms: brace |
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| bivouacking | (noun) the act of encamping and living in tents in a camp | Synonyms: camping, encampment, tenting |
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| biweekly | (noun) a periodical that is published twice a week or every two weeks (either 104 or 26 issues per year) | - |
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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 |
| blank | (noun) a cartridge containing an explosive charge but no bullet | Synonyms: blank shell, dummy |
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| (noun) a piece of material ready to be made into something | - |
| (noun) a blank gap or missing part | Synonyms: lacuna |
| (noun) a blank character used to separate successive words in writing or printing | Synonyms: space |
| blanket | (noun) bedding that keeps a person warm in bed | Synonyms: cover |
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| (noun) a layer of lead surrounding the highly reactive core of a nuclear reactor | - |
| (noun) anything that covers | Synonyms: mantle |
| blankness | (noun) the state of being blank; void; emptiness | - |
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| blatherskite | (noun) foolish gibberish | Synonyms: blather |
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| bleakness | (noun) a bleak and desolate atmosphere | Synonyms: bareness, desolation, nakedness |
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| blink | (noun) a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly | Synonyms: blinking, eye blink, nictation, nictitation, wink, winking |
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| blinker | (noun) a light that flashes on and off; used as a signal or to send messages | Synonyms: flasher |
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| (noun) blind consisting of a leather eyepatch sewn to the side of the halter that prevents a horse from seeing something on either side | Synonyms: blinder, winker |
| (noun) a blinking light on a motor vehicle that indicates the direction in which the vehicle is about to turn | Synonyms: trafficator, turn indicator, turn signal |
| blinking | (noun) a reflex that closes and opens the eyes rapidly | Synonyms: blink, eye blink, nictation, nictitation, wink, winking |
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| blinks | (noun) small Indian lettuce of northern regions | Synonyms: blinking chickweed, Montia lamprosperma, water chickweed |
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| blitzkrieg | (noun) a swift and violent military offensive with intensive aerial bombardment | Synonyms: blitz |
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| 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 | - |