| bookkeeping | (noun) the activity of recording business transactions | Synonyms: clerking |
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| bookmaker | (noun) a gambler who accepts and pays off bets (especially on horse races) | Synonyms: bookie |
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| (noun) a maker of books; someone who edits or publishes or binds books | - |
| bookmarker | (noun) a marker (a piece of paper or ribbon) placed between the pages of a book to mark the reader's place | Synonyms: bookmark |
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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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| bootmaker | (noun) a maker of boots | Synonyms: boot maker |
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| boxlike | (adjective) resembling a box in rectangularity | Synonyms: box-shaped, boxy |
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| boylike | (adjective) befitting or characteristic of a young boy | Synonyms: boyish, schoolboyish |
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| (adverb) like a boy | Synonyms: boyishly |
| 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 | - |
| (verb) classify or group | - |
| (verb) place into brackets | Synonyms: bracket out |
| (verb) support with brackets | - |
| brainworker | (noun) someone whose profession involves using his head to solve problems | Synonyms: brain-worker |
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| brake | (noun) a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle | - |
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| (noun) anything that slows or hinders a process | - |
| (noun) an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant | - |
| (noun) large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan | Synonyms: bracken, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum |
| (noun) any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants | - |
| (verb) cause to stop by applying the brakes | - |
| (verb) stop travelling by applying a brake | - |
| brakeman | (noun) a railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes | - |
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| brakes | (noun) a braking device consisting of a combination of interacting parts that work to slow a motor vehicle | Synonyms: brake system |
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| brasslike | (adjective) resembling the sound of a brass instrument | Synonyms: brassy |
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| breadbasket | (noun) a basket for serving bread | - |
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| (noun) an enlarged and muscular saclike organ of the alimentary canal; the principal organ of digestion | Synonyms: stomach, tum, tummy |
| (noun) a geographic region serving as the principal source of grain | - |
| breaker | (noun) a device that trips like a switch and opens the circuit when overloaded | Synonyms: circuit breaker |
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| (noun) waves breaking on the shore | Synonyms: breakers, surf |
| (noun) a quarry worker who splits off blocks of stone | Synonyms: ledgeman |
| breakers | (noun) waves breaking on the shore | Synonyms: breaker, surf |
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| breaststroke | (noun) a swimming stroke; the arms are extended together in front of the head and swept back on either side accompanied by a frog kick | - |
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| (verb) swim with the face down and extend the arms forward and outward while kicking with the leg | - |
| breaststroker | (noun) someone who swims the breaststroke | - |
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| bridecake | (noun) a rich cake with two or more tiers and covered with frosting and decorations; served at a wedding reception | Synonyms: wedding cake |
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| brisken | (verb) become brisk | Synonyms: brisk, brisk up |
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| brisket | (noun) a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest especially of beef | - |
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| bristlelike | (adjective) resembling a bristle | - |
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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 | - |
| broke | (adjective) lacking funds | Synonyms: bust, skint, stone-broke, stony-broke |
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| broken | (adjective) physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split | - |
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| (adjective) not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly | - |
| (adjective) (especially of promises or contracts) having been violated or disregarded | Synonyms: unkept |
| (adjective) out of working order (`busted' is an informal substitute for `broken') | Synonyms: busted |
| (adjective) destroyed financially | Synonyms: impoverished, wiped out |
| (adjective) thrown into a state of disarray or confusion | Synonyms: confused, disordered, upset |
| (adjective) discontinuous | - |
| (adjective) subdued or brought low in condition or status | Synonyms: crushed, humbled, humiliated, low |
| (adjective) weakened and infirm | - |
| (adjective) imperfectly spoken or written | - |
| (adjective) lacking a part or parts | - |
| (adjective) topographically very uneven | Synonyms: rugged |
| (adjective) tamed or trained to obey | Synonyms: broken in |
| brokenhearted | (adjective) full of sorrow | Synonyms: heartbroken, heartsick |
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| brokenheartedness | (noun) intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death) | Synonyms: grief, heartache, heartbreak |
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| broker | (noun) a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission | Synonyms: agent, factor |
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| (verb) act as a broker | - |
| brokerage | (noun) place where a broker conducts his business | Synonyms: brokerage house |
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| (noun) a stock broker's business; charges a fee to act as intermediary between buyer and seller | Synonyms: brokerage firm, securities firm |
| (noun) the business of a broker; charges a fee to arrange a contract between two parties | - |
| brotherlike | (adjective) like or characteristic of or befitting a brother | Synonyms: brotherly, fraternal |
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| brushlike | (adjective) resembling a brush | - |
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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 |
| (verb) carry in a bucket | - |
| (verb) put into a bucket | - |
| 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 |
| bulblike | (adjective) shaped like a bulb | Synonyms: bulb-shaped, bulbous |
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| bullnecked | (adjective) having a thick short powerful neck | - |
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| bunker | (noun) a hazard on a golf course | Synonyms: sand trap, trap |
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| (noun) a fortification of earth; mostly or entirely below ground | Synonyms: dugout |
| (noun) a large container for storing fuel | - |
| (verb) hit a golf ball into a bunker | - |
| (verb) transfer cargo from a ship to a warehouse | - |
| (verb) fill (a ship's bunker) with coal or oil | - |
| burke | (verb) get rid of, silence, or suppress | - |
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| (verb) murder without leaving a trace on the body | - |
| burked | (adjective) suppressed quietly or indirectly | - |
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| burrlike | (adjective) resembling a burr; especially in being prickly | - |
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| bushwhacker | (noun) a disparaging term for an unsophisticated person | Synonyms: hillbilly |
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| (noun) a Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War | - |
| businesslike | (adjective) exhibiting methodical and systematic characteristics that would be useful in business | - |
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| (adjective) not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal | Synonyms: earnest |
| busker | (noun) a person who entertains people for money in public places (as by singing or dancing), usually while asking for money | - |
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| buttonlike | (adjective) small and round and shiny like a shiny bead or button | Synonyms: beadlike, beady, buttony |
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| cabinetmaker | (noun) a woodworker who specializes in making furniture | Synonyms: furniture maker |
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| cackel | (verb) make a cackling sound | - |
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| cake | (noun) a block of solid substance (such as soap or wax) | Synonyms: bar |
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| (noun) baked goods made from or based on a mixture of flour, sugar, eggs, and fat | - |
| (noun) small flat mass of chopped or ground food | Synonyms: patty |
| (verb) form a coat over | Synonyms: coat |
| cakehole | (noun) informal terms for the mouth | Synonyms: gob, hole, maw, trap, yap |
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| cakewalk | (noun) a strutting dance based on a march; was performed in minstrel shows; originated as a competition among Black dancers to win a cake | - |
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| (noun) an easy accomplishment | - |
| (verb) perform the cakewalk dance | - |
| candlemaker | (noun) a person who makes or sells candles | - |
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| candymaker | (noun) someone who makes candies and other sweets | Synonyms: confectioner |
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| canebrake | (noun) a dense growth of cane (especially giant cane) | - |
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| canker | (noun) a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of | Synonyms: pestilence |
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| (noun) an ulceration (especially of the lips or lining of the mouth) | Synonyms: canker sore |
| (noun) a fungal disease of woody plants that causes localized damage to the bark | - |
| (verb) infect with a canker | - |
| (verb) become infected with a canker | - |
| cankerous | (adjective) having an ulcer or canker | Synonyms: ulcerated, ulcerous |
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| cankerweed | (noun) herb of northeastern North America having drooping clusters of yellowish-white flowers; sometimes placed in genus Prenanthes | Synonyms: Nabalus alba, Prenanthes alba, white lettuce |
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| cankerworm | (noun) green caterpillar of a geometrid moth; pest of various fruit and shade trees | - |
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| cantankerous | (adjective) having a difficult and contrary disposition | Synonyms: crotchety, ornery |
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| (adjective) stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate | Synonyms: bloody-minded |
| cantankerously | (adverb) in a bad mood | - |
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| caretaker | (noun) a custodian who is hired to take care of something (property or a person) | - |
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| (noun) an official who performs the duties of an office temporarily | - |
| carmaker | (noun) a business engaged in the manufacture of automobiles | Synonyms: auto maker, auto manufacturer, automaker, car maker, car manufacturer |
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| caseworker | (noun) someone employed to provide social services (especially to the disadvantaged) | Synonyms: social worker, welfare worker |
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| casket | (noun) small and often ornate box for holding jewels or other valuables | Synonyms: jewel casket |
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| (noun) box in which a corpse is buried or cremated | Synonyms: coffin |
| (verb) enclose in a casket | - |
| cassocked | (adjective) dressed in a cassock | - |
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| caulked | (adjective) having cracks and crevices stopped up with a filler | - |
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| chafflike | (adjective) abounding in or covered with or resembling or consisting of chaff | Synonyms: chaffy |
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| chainlike | (adjective) having a chainlike form | Synonyms: catenulate |
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| chantlike | (adjective) uttered in a monotonous cadence or rhythm as in chanting | Synonyms: intoned, singsong |
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| checked | (adjective) patterned with alternating squares of color | Synonyms: checkered, chequered |
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| checker | (noun) one of the flat round pieces used in playing the game of checkers | Synonyms: chequer |
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| (noun) one who checks the correctness of something | - |
| (noun) an attendant who checks coats or baggage | - |
| (verb) variegate with different colors, shades, or patterns | Synonyms: chequer |
| (verb) mark into squares or draw squares on; draw crossed lines on | Synonyms: check, chequer |
| checkerberry | (noun) spicy red berrylike fruit; source of wintergreen oil | Synonyms: boxberry, spiceberry, teaberry, wintergreen |
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| (noun) creeping shrub of eastern North America having white bell-shaped flowers followed by spicy red berrylike fruit and shiny aromatic leaves that yield wintergreen oil | Synonyms: creeping wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, ground-berry, groundberry, mountain tea, teaberry, wintergreen |
| checkerbloom | (noun) perennial purple-flowered wild mallow of western North America that is also cultivated | Synonyms: Sidalcea malviflora, wild hollyhock |
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| checkerboard | (noun) a board having 64 squares of two alternating colors | Synonyms: checker board, chequerboard |
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| checkered | (adjective) marked by changeable fortune | - |
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| (adjective) patterned with alternating squares of color | Synonyms: checked, chequered |
| checkers | (noun) a checkerboard game for two players who each have 12 pieces; the object is to jump over and so capture the opponent's pieces | Synonyms: draughts |
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| cheesecake | (noun) a photograph of an attractive woman in minimal attire | - |
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| (noun) made with sweetened cream cheese and eggs and cream baked in a crumb crust | - |
| cheeselike | (adjective) having the consistency of cheese | - |
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| chicken | (adjective) easily frightened | Synonyms: chickenhearted, lily-livered, white-livered, yellow-bellied, yellow |
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| (noun) a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl | Synonyms: Gallus gallus |
| (noun) a foolhardy competition; a dangerous activity that is continued until one competitor becomes afraid and stops | - |
| (noun) the flesh of a chicken used for food | Synonyms: poulet, volaille |
| (noun) a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy | Synonyms: crybaby, wimp |
| chickenfeed | (noun) a trifling sum of money | Synonyms: chump change, small change |
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| chickenfight | (verb) fight while sitting on somebody's shoulders | Synonyms: chicken-fight |
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| chickenhearted | (adjective) easily frightened | Synonyms: chicken, lily-livered, white-livered, yellow-bellied, yellow |
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| chickenpox | (noun) an acute contagious disease caused by herpes varicella zoster virus; causes a rash of vesicles on the face and body | Synonyms: varicella |
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| chickenshit | (noun) a false statement that is considered to indicate timidity or fear | - |
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| chickeree | (noun) far western United States counterpart of the red squirrel | Synonyms: Douglas squirrel, Tamiasciurus douglasi |
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| childlike | (adjective) exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity | Synonyms: dewy-eyed, round-eyed, simple, wide-eyed |
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| (adjective) befitting a young child | Synonyms: childly |
| chinked | (adjective) having narrow opening filled | Synonyms: stopped-up |
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| choke | (noun) a valve that controls the flow of air into the carburetor of a gasoline engine | - |
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| (noun) a coil of low resistance and high inductance used in electrical circuits to pass direct current and attenuate alternating current | Synonyms: choke coil, choking coil |
| (verb) breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion | - |
| (verb) cause to retch or choke | Synonyms: gag |
| (verb) struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake | Synonyms: gag, strangle, suffocate |
| (verb) constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing | Synonyms: strangle |
| (verb) reduce the air supply | Synonyms: throttle |
| (verb) pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life | Synonyms: buy the farm, cash in one's chips, conk, croak, decease, die, drop dead, exit, expire, give-up the ghost, go, kick the bucket, pass, pass away, perish, pop off, snuff it |
| (verb) suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of | Synonyms: suffocate |
| (verb) become stultified, suppressed, or stifled | Synonyms: suffocate |
| (verb) be too tight; rub or press | Synonyms: fret, gag |
| (verb) become or cause to become obstructed | Synonyms: back up, choke off, clog, clog up, congest, crap up, foul |
| (verb) wring the neck of | Synonyms: scrag |
| (verb) impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of | Synonyms: asphyxiate, stifle, suffocate |
| (verb) check or slow down the action or effect of | - |
| (verb) fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation | - |
| chokecherry | (noun) a common wild cherry of eastern North America having small bitter black berries favored by birds | Synonyms: chokecherry tree, Prunus virginiana |
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| (noun) the fruit of the chokecherry tree | - |
| choked | (adjective) stopped up; clogged up | Synonyms: clogged |
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| chokedamp | (noun) the atmosphere in a mine following an explosion; high in carbon dioxide and incapable of supporting life | Synonyms: blackdamp |
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| chokehold | (noun) a restraining hold; someone loops the arm around the neck of another person in a tight grip, usually from behind | Synonyms: choke hold |
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| (noun) complete power over a person or situation | Synonyms: stranglehold, throttlehold |
| chokepoint | (noun) a point of congestion or blockage | - |
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| (noun) a narrowing that reduces the flow through a channel | Synonyms: bottleneck, constriction |
| choker | (noun) a high tight collar | Synonyms: neck ruff, ruff, ruffle |
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| (noun) necklace that fits tightly around a woman's neck | Synonyms: collar, dog collar, neckband |
| (noun) someone who kills by strangling | Synonyms: garroter, garrotter, strangler, throttler |
| (noun) an unfortunate person who is unable to perform effectively because of nervous tension or agitation | - |
| chokey | (noun) British slang (dated) for a prison | Synonyms: choky |
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| christlike | (adjective) resembling or showing the spirit of Christ | Synonyms: christly |
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| chukker | (noun) (polo) one of six divisions into which a polo match is divided | Synonyms: chukka |
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| clambake | (noun) a cookout at the seashore where clams and fish and other foods are cooked--usually on heated stones covered with seaweed | - |
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| clanker | (noun) something that makes a clanking noise. | - |
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| clawlike | (adjective) resembling a claw | - |
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