| baptistery | (noun) bowl for baptismal water | Synonyms: baptismal font, baptistry, font |
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| barometer | (noun) an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure | - |
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| barrater | (noun) someone guilty of barratry | Synonyms: barrator |
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| barretter | (noun) a resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations) | Synonyms: ballast, ballast resistor |
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| barrister | (noun) a British or Canadian lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law on behalf of either the defense or prosecution | - |
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| barter | (noun) an equal exchange | Synonyms: swap, swop, trade |
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| (verb) exchange goods without involving money | - |
| barterer | (noun) a trader who exchanges goods and not money | - |
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| barycenter | (noun) (astronomy) the common center of mass around which two or more bodies revolve | - |
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| baster | (noun) a tube with a rubber bulb used to take up and release melted fat or gravy in order to moisten roasting meat | - |
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| (noun) a sewer who fastens a garment with long loose stitches | Synonyms: tacker |
| (noun) a cook who bastes roasting meat with melted fat or gravy | - |
| bathometer | (noun) an instrument that measures the depth of water | Synonyms: bathymeter |
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| bathymeter | (noun) an instrument that measures the depth of water | Synonyms: bathometer |
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| batter | (noun) a liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, eggs, and milk, used in cooking | - |
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| (noun) (baseball) a ballplayer who is batting | Synonyms: batsman, hitter, slugger |
| (verb) make a dent or impression in | Synonyms: dinge |
| (verb) strike violently and repeatedly | Synonyms: baste, clobber |
| (verb) strike against forcefully | Synonyms: buffet, knock about |
| 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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| battered | (adjective) exhibiting symptoms resulting from repeated physical and emotional injury | - |
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| (adjective) damaged by blows or hard usage | Synonyms: beat-up, beaten-up |
| (adjective) damaged especially by hard usage | - |
| battering | (noun) the act of subjecting to strong attack | Synonyms: banging |
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| battery | (noun) an assault in which the assailant makes physical contact | Synonyms: assault and battery |
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| (noun) the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target | Synonyms: barrage, barrage fire, bombardment, shelling |
| (noun) a device that produces electricity; may have several primary or secondary cells arranged in parallel or series | Synonyms: electric battery |
| (noun) a series of stamps operated in one mortar for crushing ores | Synonyms: stamp battery |
| (noun) a collection of related things intended for use together | - |
| (noun) group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place | - |
| (noun) a unit composed of the pitcher and catcher | - |
| beater | (noun) an implement for beating | - |
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| (noun) a worker who rouses wild game from under cover for a hunter | - |
| bedsitter | (noun) a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing) | Synonyms: bedsit, bedsitting room |
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| bedwetter | (noun) someone suffering from enuresis; someone who urinates while asleep in bed | Synonyms: bed wetter, wetter |
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| beefeater | (noun) officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch | Synonyms: yeoman, yeoman of the guard |
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| begetter | (noun) a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father) | Synonyms: father, male parent |
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| beplaster | (verb) cover conspicuously or thickly, as by pasting something on | Synonyms: plaster |
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| bespatter | (verb) spot, splash, or soil | Synonyms: spatter |
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| better | (adjective) (comparative of `good') superior to another (of the same class or set or kind) in excellence or quality or desirability or suitability; more highly skilled than another | - |
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| (adjective) (comparative of `good') changed for the better in health or fitness | - |
| (adjective) (comparative and superlative of `well') wiser or more advantageous and hence advisable | Synonyms: best |
| (adjective) more than half | - |
| (noun) something superior in quality or condition or effect | - |
| (noun) the superior one of two alternatives | - |
| (noun) someone who bets | Synonyms: bettor, punter, wagerer |
| (noun) a superior person having claim to precedence | - |
| (adverb) comparative of `well'; in a better or more excellent manner or more advantageously or attractively or to a greater degree etc. | - |
| (adverb) from a position of superiority or authority | Synonyms: best |
| (verb) get better | Synonyms: ameliorate, improve, meliorate |
| (verb) to make better | Synonyms: ameliorate, amend, improve, meliorate |
| (verb) surpass in excellence | Synonyms: break |
| bettering | (adjective) changing for the better | - |
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| betterment | (noun) the act of relieving ills and changing for the better | Synonyms: amelioration, melioration |
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| (noun) a change for the better; progress in development | Synonyms: advance, improvement |
| (noun) an improvement that adds to the value of a property or facility | - |
| bilateral | (adjective) having two sides or parts | Synonyms: two-sided |
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| (adjective) affecting or undertaken by two parties | - |
| (adjective) having identical parts on each side of an axis | Synonyms: bilaterally symmetric, bilaterally symmetrical, isobilateral |
| bilateralism | (noun) the property of being symmetrical about a vertical plane | Synonyms: bilateral symmetry, bilaterality |
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| bilaterality | (noun) the property of being symmetrical about a vertical plane | Synonyms: bilateral symmetry, bilateralism |
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| bilaterally | (adverb) with the involvement of two parties or governments | - |
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| (adverb) so as to involve two sides or parts | - |
| bilgewater | (noun) pretentious or silly talk or writing | Synonyms: baloney, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle |
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| bimester | (noun) a period of 2 months | - |
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| bioterrorism | (noun) terrorism using the weapons of biological warfare | Synonyms: biological terrorism |
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| bister | (noun) a water-soluble brownish-yellow pigment made by boiling wood soot | Synonyms: bistre |
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| bistered | (adjective) colored with or as if with bister | Synonyms: bistred |
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| biter | (noun) someone who bites | - |
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| bitter | (adjective) proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity | - |
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| (adjective) very difficult to accept or bear | - |
| (adjective) causing a sharply painful or stinging sensation; used especially of cold | Synonyms: biting |
| (adjective) marked by strong resentment or cynicism | Synonyms: acrimonious |
| (adjective) expressive of severe grief or regret | - |
| (adjective) causing a sharp and acrid taste experience | - |
| (adjective) harsh or corrosive in tone | Synonyms: acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, virulent, vitriolic |
| (noun) the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste | Synonyms: bitterness |
| (noun) the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth | Synonyms: bitterness |
| (noun) English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft) | - |
| (adverb) extremely and sharply | Synonyms: bitingly, bitterly, piercingly |
| (verb) make bitter | - |
| bittercress | (noun) any of various herbs of the genus Cardamine, having usually pinnate leaves and racemes of white, pink or purple flowers; cosmopolitan except Antarctic | Synonyms: bitter cress |
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| bitterish | (adjective) somewhat bitter | Synonyms: sharp-tasting |
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| bitterly | (adverb) with bitterness; in a resentful manner | - |
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| (adverb) indicating something hard to accept | - |
| (adverb) extremely and sharply | Synonyms: bitingly, bitter, piercingly |
| bittern | (noun) relatively small compact tawny-brown heron with nocturnal habits and a booming cry; found in marshes | - |
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| bitterness | (noun) the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste | Synonyms: bitter |
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| (noun) a rough and bitter manner | Synonyms: acerbity, acrimony, jaundice, tartness, thorniness |
| (noun) the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth | Synonyms: bitter |
| (noun) a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will | Synonyms: gall, rancor, rancour, resentment |
| bitternut | (noun) hickory of the eastern United States having a leaves with 7 or 9 leaflets and thin-shelled very bitter nuts | Synonyms: bitter hickory, bitter pignut, bitternut hickory, Carya cordiformis, swamp hickory |
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| bitterroot | (noun) showy succulent ground-hugging plant of Rocky Mountains regions having deep to pale pink flowers and fleshy farinaceous roots; the Montana state flower | Synonyms: Lewisia rediviva |
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| bitters | (noun) alcoholic liquor flavored with bitter herbs and roots | - |
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| bittersweet | (adjective) tinged with sadness | - |
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| (adjective) having a taste that is a mixture of bitterness and sweetness | Synonyms: semisweet |
| (noun) twining shrub of North America having yellow capsules enclosing scarlet seeds | Synonyms: American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens, climbing bittersweet, false bittersweet, shrubby bittersweet, staff vine, waxwork |
| (noun) poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America | Synonyms: bittersweet nightshade, climbing nightshade, deadly nightshade, poisonous nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, woody nightshade |
| bitterweed | (noun) any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma | Synonyms: ambrosia, ragweed |
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| (noun) widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers; naturalized in United States | Synonyms: bristly oxtongue, bugloss, oxtongue, Picris echioides |
| bitterwood | (noun) handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark | Synonyms: quassia, Quassia amara |
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| (noun) West Indian tree yielding the drug Jamaica quassia | Synonyms: Jamaica quassia, Picrasma excelsa, Picrasma excelsum |
| (noun) medium to large tree of tropical North and South America having odd-pinnate leaves and long panicles of small pale yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruits | Synonyms: paradise tree, Simarouba glauca |
| 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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| blaster | (noun) a workman employed to blast with explosives | Synonyms: chargeman |
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| blighter | (noun) a persistently annoying person | Synonyms: cuss, gadfly, pest, pesterer |
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| (noun) a boy or man | Synonyms: bloke, chap, cuss, fella, feller, fellow, gent, lad |
| blister | (noun) (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid | Synonyms: bleb, bulla |
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| (noun) (botany) a swelling on a plant similar to that on the skin | - |
| (noun) a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint) | - |
| (verb) get blistered | Synonyms: vesicate |
| (verb) cause blisters to form on | - |
| (verb) subject to harsh criticism | Synonyms: scald, scorch, whip |
| blistering | (adjective) very fast; capable of quick response and great speed | Synonyms: hot, red-hot |
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| (adjective) hot enough to raise (or as if to raise) blisters | Synonyms: blistery |
| (adjective) harsh or corrosive in tone | Synonyms: acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, bitter, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, virulent, vitriolic |
| (noun) the formation of vesicles in or beneath the skin | Synonyms: vesication, vesiculation |
| blistery | (adjective) hot enough to raise (or as if to raise) blisters | Synonyms: blistering |
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| (adjective) covered with small blisters | Synonyms: blebby |
| bloater | (noun) large fatty herring lightly salted and briefly smoked | - |
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| 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) | - |
| blotter | (noun) the daily written record of events (as arrests) in a police station | Synonyms: charge sheet, day book, police blotter, rap sheet |
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| (noun) absorbent paper used to dry ink | Synonyms: blotting paper |
| bluster | (noun) a swaggering show of courage | Synonyms: bravado |
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| (noun) vain and empty boasting | Synonyms: braggadocio, rhodomontade, rodomontade |
| (noun) a violent gusty wind | - |
| (noun) noisy confusion and turbulence | - |
| (verb) act in an arrogant, overly self-assured, or conceited manner | Synonyms: swagger, swash |
| (verb) show off | Synonyms: blow, boast, brag, gas, gasconade, shoot a line, swash, tout, vaunt |
| (verb) blow hard; be gusty, as of wind | - |
| blusterer | (noun) a person who causes trouble by speaking indiscreetly | Synonyms: loudmouth |
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| blustering | (adjective) blowing in violent and abrupt bursts | Synonyms: blusterous, blustery |
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| blusterous | (adjective) blowing in violent and abrupt bursts | Synonyms: blustering, blustery |
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| blustery | (adjective) noisily domineering; tending to browbeat others | Synonyms: bullying |
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| (adjective) blowing in violent and abrupt bursts | Synonyms: blustering, blusterous |
| boaster | (noun) a very boastful and talkative person | Synonyms: blowhard, braggart, bragger, line-shooter, vaunter |
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| boater | (noun) a stiff hat made of straw with a flat crown | Synonyms: leghorn, Panama, Panama hat, sailor, skimmer, straw hat |
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| (noun) someone who drives or rides in a boat | Synonyms: boatman, waterman |
| boisterous | (adjective) noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline | Synonyms: rambunctious, robustious, rumbustious, unruly |
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| (adjective) full of rough and exuberant animal spirits | Synonyms: knockabout |
| (adjective) violently agitated and turbulent | Synonyms: fierce, rough |
| boisterously | (adverb) in a carefree manner | Synonyms: rollickingly |
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| boisterousness | (noun) the property of being noisy and lively and unrestrained | - |
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| (noun) a turbulent and stormy state of the sea | - |
| bolometer | (noun) an instrument that measures heat radiation; extremely sensitive | - |
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| bolster | (noun) a pillow that is often put across a bed underneath the regular pillows | Synonyms: long pillow |
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| (verb) add padding to | Synonyms: pad |
| (verb) support and strengthen | Synonyms: bolster up |
| (verb) prop up with a pillow or bolster | - |
| bonesetter | (noun) someone (not necessarily a licensed physician) who sets broken bones | - |
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| booster | (noun) an additional dose that makes sure the first dose was effective | Synonyms: booster dose, booster shot, recall dose |
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| (noun) the first stage of a multistage rocket | Synonyms: booster rocket, booster unit, takeoff booster, takeoff rocket |
| (noun) an amplifier for restoring the strength of a transmitted signal | Synonyms: booster amplifier, booster station, relay link, relay station, relay transmitter |
| (noun) a thief who steals goods that are in a store | Synonyms: lifter, shoplifter |
| (noun) someone who is an active supporter and advocate | Synonyms: plugger, promoter |
| (noun) a person who backs a politician or a team etc. | Synonyms: admirer, champion, friend, protagonist, supporter |
| brachypterous | (adjective) (especially of certain insects) having very short or rudimentary wings | Synonyms: short-winged |
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| breakwater | (noun) a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away | Synonyms: bulwark, groin, groyne, jetty, mole, seawall |
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| broadcaster | (noun) a mechanical device for scattering something (seed or fertilizer or sand etc.) in all directions | Synonyms: spreader |
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| (noun) someone who broadcasts on radio or television | - |
| broncobuster | (noun) a person who breaks horses | Synonyms: bronco buster, buster |
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| buckminsterfullerene | (noun) a spheroidal fullerene; the first known example of a fullerene | Synonyms: buckyball |
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| bullfighter | (noun) someone who fights bulls | Synonyms: toreador |
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| bullterrier | (noun) a powerful short-haired terrier originated in England by crossing the bulldog with terriers | Synonyms: bull terrier |
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| bunter | (noun) a batter who bunts | - |
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| burgomaster | (noun) a mayor of a municipality in Germany or Holland or Flanders or Austria | - |
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| burster | (noun) a quantity of explosive to be set off at one time | Synonyms: bursting charge, charge, explosive charge |
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| buster | (noun) a person (or thing) that breaks up or overpowers something | - |
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| (noun) a person who breaks horses | Synonyms: bronco buster, broncobuster |
| (noun) a robust child | - |
| (noun) an informal form of address for a man | Synonyms: dude, fellow |
| (noun) a person born in the generation following the baby boom when the birth rate fell dramatically | Synonyms: baby buster |
| butter | (noun) an edible emulsion of fat globules made by churning milk or cream; for cooking and table use | - |
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| (noun) a fighter who strikes the opponent with his head | - |
| (verb) spread butter on | - |
| butterball | (noun) small North American diving duck; males have bushy head plumage | Synonyms: Bucephela albeola, bufflehead, dipper |
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| (noun) a rotund individual | Synonyms: fat person, fatso, fatty, roly-poly |
| butterbean | (noun) small flat green bean similar to lima beans | Synonyms: butter bean, civet bean, sieva bean |
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| butterbur | (noun) small Eurasian herb having broad leaves and lilac-pink rayless flowers; found in moist areas | Synonyms: bog rhubarb, Petasites hybridus, Petasites vulgaris |
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| buttercrunch | (noun) lettuce with delicate and relatively crunchy leaves | - |
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| buttercup | (noun) any of various plants of the genus Ranunculus | Synonyms: butter-flower, butterflower, crowfoot, goldcup, kingcup |
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| butterfat | (noun) the fatty substance of milk from which butter is made | - |
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| butterfingered | (adjective) lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands | Synonyms: bumbling, bungling, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, left-handed |
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| butterfingers | (noun) someone who drops things (especially one who cannot catch a ball) | - |
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| butterfish | (noun) small marine fish with a short compressed body and feeble spines | Synonyms: stromateid, stromateid fish |
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| (noun) slippery scaleless food fish of the northern Atlantic coastal waters | Synonyms: Pholis gunnellus, rock gunnel |
| (noun) any of numerous small flat Atlantic food fish having smooth skin | - |
| butterflower | (noun) any of various plants of the genus Ranunculus | Synonyms: butter-flower, buttercup, crowfoot, goldcup, kingcup |
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| butterfly | (noun) a swimming stroke in which the arms are thrown forward together out of the water while the feet kick up and down | Synonyms: butterfly stroke |
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| (noun) diurnal insect typically having a slender body with knobbed antennae and broad colorful wings | - |
| (verb) talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions | Synonyms: chat up, coquet, coquette, dally, flirt, mash, philander, romance |
| (verb) cut and spread open, as in preparation for cooking | - |
| (verb) flutter like a butterfly | - |
| butterflyfish | (noun) tropical fish with huge fanlike pectoral fins for underwater gliding; unrelated to searobins | Synonyms: flying gurnard, flying robin |
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| buttermilk | (noun) residue from making butter from sour raw milk; or pasteurized milk curdled by adding a culture | - |
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| butternut | (noun) oily egg-shaped nut of an American tree of the walnut family | - |
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| (noun) North American walnut tree having light-brown wood and edible nuts; source of a light-brown dye | Synonyms: butternut tree, Juglans cinerea, white walnut |
| butterscotch | (noun) a hard brittle candy made with butter and brown sugar | - |
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| butterweed | (noun) any of several yellow-flowered plants of the genus Packera; often placed in genus Senecio | - |
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| (noun) American ragwort with yellow flowers | Synonyms: ragwort, Senecio glabellus |
| butterwort | (noun) any of numerous carnivorous bog plants of the genus Pinguicula having showy purple or yellow or white flowers and a rosette of basal leaves coated with a sticky secretion to trap small insects | - |
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