| bubble | (noun) a dome-shaped covering made of transparent glass or plastic | - |
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| (noun) an impracticable and illusory idea | - |
| (noun) a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control | Synonyms: house of cards |
| (noun) a hollow globule of gas (e.g., air or carbon dioxide) | - |
| bubblejet | (noun) a kind of ink-jet printer | Synonyms: bubble-jet printer, bubble jet printer |
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| bubbler | (noun) a public fountain to provide a jet of drinking water | Synonyms: drinking fountain, water fountain |
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| (noun) any of various devices in which air or some other gas is bubbled through a liquid | - |
| bubbliness | (noun) the property of giving off bubbles | Synonyms: effervescence, frothiness |
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| bubbly | (noun) a white sparkling wine either produced in Champagne or resembling that produced there | Synonyms: champagne |
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| bubo | (noun) a lymph node that is inflamed and swollen because of plague or gonorrhea or tuberculosis | - |
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| buccaneer | (noun) someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation | Synonyms: pirate, sea robber, sea rover |
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| buccaneering | (noun) hijacking on the high seas or in similar contexts; taking a ship or plane away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it | Synonyms: piracy |
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| buccula | (noun) a fold of fatty tissue under the chin | Synonyms: double chin |
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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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| bucolic | (noun) a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life | Synonyms: eclogue, idyl, idyll |
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| (noun) a country person | Synonyms: peasant, provincial |
| bud | (noun) a swelling on a plant stem consisting of overlapping immature leaves or petals | - |
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| (noun) a partially opened flower | - |
| budding | (noun) reproduction of some unicellular organisms (such as yeasts) by growth and specialization followed by the separation by constriction of a part of the parent | - |
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| buddleia | (noun) tropical shrub having clusters of white or violet or yellow flowers | Synonyms: butterfly bush |
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| buddy | (noun) a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities | Synonyms: brother, chum, crony, pal, sidekick |
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| budgereegah | (noun) small Australian parakeet usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors | Synonyms: budgerigar, budgerygah, budgie, grass parakeet, lovebird, Melopsittacus undulatus, shell parakeet |
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| budgerigar | (noun) small Australian parakeet usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors | Synonyms: budgereegah, budgerygah, budgie, grass parakeet, lovebird, Melopsittacus undulatus, shell parakeet |
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| budgerygah | (noun) small Australian parakeet usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors | Synonyms: budgereegah, budgerigar, budgie, grass parakeet, lovebird, Melopsittacus undulatus, shell parakeet |
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| budget | (noun) a sum of money allocated for a particular purpose | - |
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| (noun) a summary of intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them | - |
| budgie | (noun) small Australian parakeet usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors | Synonyms: budgereegah, budgerigar, budgerygah, grass parakeet, lovebird, Melopsittacus undulatus, shell parakeet |
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| buff | (noun) an implement consisting of soft material mounted on a block; used for polishing (as in manicuring) | Synonyms: buffer |
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| (noun) a medium to dark tan color | Synonyms: caramel, caramel brown, raw sienna, yellowish brown |
| (noun) bare skin | - |
| (noun) an ardent follower and admirer | Synonyms: devotee, fan, lover |
| (noun) a soft thick undyed leather from the skins of e.g. buffalo or oxen | - |
| buffalo | (noun) any of several Old World animals resembling oxen including, e.g., water buffalo, Cape buffalo | Synonyms: Old World buffalo |
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| (noun) large shaggy-haired brown bison of North American plains | Synonyms: American bison, American buffalo, Bison bison |
| (noun) meat from an American bison | - |
| buffalofish | (noun) any of several large suckers of the Mississippi valley | Synonyms: buffalo fish |
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| (noun) large carp-like North American fish | - |
| buffer | (noun) a cushion-like device that reduces shock due to an impact | Synonyms: fender |
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| (noun) a power tool used to buff surfaces | Synonyms: polisher |
| (noun) an inclined metal frame at the front of a locomotive to clear the track | Synonyms: cowcatcher, fender, pilot |
| (noun) (computer science) a part of RAM used for temporary storage of data that is waiting to be sent to a device; used to compensate for differences in the rate of flow of data between components of a computer system | Synonyms: buffer storage, buffer store |
| (noun) an implement consisting of soft material mounted on a block; used for polishing (as in manicuring) | Synonyms: buff |
| (noun) a neutral zone between two rival powers that is created in order to diminish the danger of conflict | Synonyms: buffer zone |
| (noun) (chemistry) an ionic compound that resists changes in its pH | - |
| buffet | (noun) a piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers | Synonyms: counter, sideboard |
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| (noun) usually inexpensive bar | Synonyms: snack bar, snack counter |
| (noun) a meal set out on a buffet at which guests help themselves | - |
| buffeting | (noun) repeated heavy blows | Synonyms: pounding |
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| bufflehead | (noun) small North American diving duck; males have bushy head plumage | Synonyms: Bucephela albeola, butterball, dipper |
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| buffoon | (noun) a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior | Synonyms: clown, goof, goofball, merry andrew |
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| (noun) a rude or vulgar fool | Synonyms: clown |
| buffoonery | (noun) acting like a clown or buffoon | Synonyms: clowning, frivolity, harlequinade, japery, prank |
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| bufo | (noun) any toad of the genus Bufo | - |
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| bug | (noun) insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis | Synonyms: hemipteran, hemipteron, hemipterous insect |
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| (noun) general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate | - |
| (noun) a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use | Synonyms: germ, microbe |
| (noun) a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly | - |
| (noun) a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine | Synonyms: glitch |
| bugaboo | (noun) a source of concern | - |
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| (noun) an imaginary monster used to frighten children | Synonyms: bogeyman, booger, boogeyman, bugbear |
| bugbane | (noun) a plant of the genus Cimicifuga having flowers in long racemes or panicles reported to be distasteful to insects | - |
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| (noun) North American plant having large leaves and yellowish green flowers growing in racemes; yields a toxic alkaloid used medicinally | Synonyms: American hellebore, Indian poke, Veratrum viride, white hellebore |
| bugbear | (noun) an object of dread or apprehension | Synonyms: hobgoblin |
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| (noun) an imaginary monster used to frighten children | Synonyms: bogeyman, booger, boogeyman, bugaboo |
| bugger | (noun) someone who engages in anal copulation (especially a male who engages in anal copulation with another male) | Synonyms: sod, sodomist, sodomite |
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| buggery | (noun) intercourse via the anus, committed by a man with a man or woman | Synonyms: anal intercourse, anal sex, sodomy |
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| bugginess | (noun) the state of having bugs | - |
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| buggy | (noun) a small lightweight carriage; drawn by a single horse | Synonyms: roadster |
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| bugle | (noun) a brass instrument without valves; used for military calls and fanfares | - |
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| (noun) a tubular glass or plastic bead sewn onto clothing for decoration | - |
| (noun) any of various low-growing annual or perennial evergreen herbs native to Eurasia; used for ground cover | Synonyms: bugleweed |
| bugler | (noun) someone who plays a bugle | - |
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| bugleweed | (noun) any of various low-growing annual or perennial evergreen herbs native to Eurasia; used for ground cover | Synonyms: bugle |
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| (noun) a mildly narcotic and astringent aromatic herb having small whitish flowers; eastern United States | Synonyms: Lycopus virginicus |
| bugloss | (noun) perennial or biennial herb cultivated for its delicate usually blue flowers | Synonyms: alkanet, Anchusa officinalis |
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| (noun) widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers; naturalized in United States | Synonyms: bitterweed, bristly oxtongue, oxtongue, Picris echioides |
| bugologist | (noun) a zoologist who studies insects | Synonyms: bug-hunter, entomologist |
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| bugology | (noun) the branch of zoology that studies insects | Synonyms: entomology |
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| buhl | (noun) an inlaid furniture decoration; tortoiseshell and yellow and white metal form scrolls in cabinetwork | Synonyms: boule, boulle |
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| build | (noun) constitution of the human body | Synonyms: body-build, habitus, physique |
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| (noun) alternative names for the body of a human being | Synonyms: anatomy, bod, chassis, figure, flesh, form, frame, human body, material body, physical body, physique, shape, soma |
| builder | (noun) someone who contracts for and supervises construction (as of a building) | Synonyms: constructor |
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| (noun) a person who creates a business or who organizes and develops a country | - |
| (noun) a substance added to soaps or detergents to increase their cleansing action | Synonyms: detergent builder |
| building | (noun) the act of constructing something | Synonyms: construction |
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| (noun) the commercial activity involved in repairing old structures or constructing new ones | Synonyms: construction |
| (noun) a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place | Synonyms: edifice |
| (noun) the occupants of a building | - |
| buildup | (noun) the act of building up an accumulation | - |
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| (noun) highly favorable publicity and praise | - |
| (noun) the result of the process of accumulation | - |
| bulb | (noun) electric lamp consisting of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament (usually tungsten) that emits light when heated by electricity | Synonyms: electric-light bulb, electric light, incandescent lamp, light bulb, lightbulb |
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| (noun) a rounded part of a cylindrical instrument (usually at one end) | - |
| (noun) a rounded dilation or expansion in a canal or vessel or organ | - |
| (noun) lower or hindmost part of the brain; continuous with spinal cord; (`bulb' is an old term for medulla oblongata) | Synonyms: medulla, medulla oblongata |
| (noun) a modified bud consisting of a thickened globular underground stem serving as a reproductive structure | - |
| (noun) anything with a round shape resembling a teardrop | - |
| bulbil | (noun) small bulb or bulb-shaped growth arising from the leaf axil or in the place of flowers | Synonyms: bulblet |
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| bulblet | (noun) small bulb or bulb-shaped growth arising from the leaf axil or in the place of flowers | Synonyms: bulbil |
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| bulbul | (noun) nightingale spoken of in Persian poetry | - |
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| bulge | (noun) something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings | Synonyms: bump, excrescence, extrusion, gibbosity, gibbousness, hump, jut, prominence, protrusion, protuberance, swelling |
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| bulghur | (noun) parched crushed wheat | Synonyms: bulgur, bulgur wheat |
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| bulginess | (noun) the property possessed by a rounded convexity | Synonyms: roundedness |
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| bulgur | (noun) parched crushed wheat | Synonyms: bulghur, bulgur wheat |
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| bulimarexia | (noun) a disorder of eating in which the person alternates between strong craving for food and aversion to food; characterized by excessive eating followed by periods of fasting or self-induced vomiting | Synonyms: binge-purge syndrome, binge-vomit syndrome, bulimia nervosa |
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| bulimia | (noun) pathologically insatiable hunger (especially when caused by brain lesions) | - |
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| (noun) a disorder of eating seen among young women who go on eating binges and then feel guilt and depression and self-condemnation | Synonyms: binge-eating syndrome |
| bulimic | (noun) a person suffering from bulimia | - |
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| bulk | (noun) the property of something that is great in magnitude | Synonyms: mass, volume |
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| (noun) the property resulting from being or relating to the greater in number of two parts; the main part | Synonyms: majority |
| (noun) the property possessed by a large mass | - |
| bulkhead | (noun) a partition that divides a ship or plane into compartments | - |
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| bulkiness | (noun) an unwieldy largeness | Synonyms: massiveness |
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| bull | (noun) a serious and ludicrous blunder | - |
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| (noun) uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle | - |
| (noun) mature male of various mammals of which the female is called `cow'; e.g. whales or elephants or especially cattle | - |
| (noun) Obscene word for unacceptable behavior | Synonyms: bullshit, crap, dogshit, horseshit, Irish bull, shit |
| (noun) a formal proclamation issued by the pope (usually written in antiquated characters and sealed with a leaden bulla) | Synonyms: papal bull |
| (noun) the center of a target | Synonyms: bull's eye |
| (noun) uncomplimentary terms for a policeman | Synonyms: cop, copper, fuzz, pig |
| (noun) an investor with an optimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to rise and so buys now for resale later | - |
| (noun) a large and strong and heavyset man | Synonyms: bruiser, Samson, strapper |
| bulla | (noun) the round leaden seal affixed to a papal bull | - |
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| (noun) (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid | Synonyms: bleb, blister |
| bullace | (noun) small wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters | Synonyms: Prunus insititia |
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| bullbat | (noun) mainly nocturnal North American goatsucker | Synonyms: mosquito hawk, nighthawk |
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| bullbrier | (noun) a very prickly woody vine of the eastern United States growing in tangled masses having tough round stems with shiny leathery leaves and small greenish flowers followed by clusters of inedible shiny black berries | Synonyms: briar, brier, catbrier, greenbrier, horse-brier, horse brier, Smilax rotundifolia |
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| bulldog | (noun) a sturdy thickset short-haired breed with a large head and strong undershot lower jaw; developed originally in England for bull baiting | Synonyms: English bulldog |
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| bulldozer | (noun) large powerful tractor; a large blade in front flattens areas of ground | Synonyms: dozer |
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| bullet | (noun) (baseball) a pitch thrown with maximum velocity | Synonyms: fastball, heater, hummer, smoke |
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| (noun) a projectile that is fired from a gun | Synonyms: slug |
| (noun) a high-speed passenger train | Synonyms: bullet train |
| bullethead | (noun) a head shaped like a bullet | - |
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| bulletin | (noun) a brief report (especially an official statement issued for immediate publication or broadcast) | - |
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| bullfight | (noun) a Spanish or Portuguese or Latin American spectacle; a matador baits and (usually) kills a bull in an arena before many spectators | Synonyms: corrida |
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| bullfighter | (noun) someone who fights bulls | Synonyms: toreador |
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| bullfighting | (noun) the activity at a bullfight | Synonyms: tauromachy |
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| bullfinch | (noun) common European finch mostly black and white with red throat and breast | Synonyms: Pyrrhula pyrrhula |
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| bullfrog | (noun) largest North American frog; highly aquatic with a deep-pitched voice | Synonyms: Rana catesbeiana |
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| bullhead | (noun) freshwater sculpin with a large flattened bony-plated head with hornlike spines | - |
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| (noun) any of several common freshwater catfishes of the United States | Synonyms: bullhead catfish |
| bullheadedness | (noun) resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires | Synonyms: obstinacy, obstinance, pigheadedness, self-will, stubbornness |
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