| bacteriostat | (noun) a chemical or biological material that inhibits bacterial growth | - |
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| bafflement | (noun) confusion resulting from failure to understand | Synonyms: befuddlement, bemusement, bewilderment, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlement |
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| baguet | (noun) narrow French stick loaf | Synonyms: baguette |
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| baht | (noun) the basic unit of money in Thailand | Synonyms: tical |
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| bailment | (noun) the delivery of personal property in trust by the bailor to the bailee | - |
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| bait | (noun) something used to lure fish or other animals into danger so they can be trapped or killed | Synonyms: decoy, lure |
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| (noun) anything that serves as an enticement | Synonyms: come-on, hook, lure, sweetener |
| (verb) harass with persistent criticism or carping | Synonyms: cod, rag, rally, razz, ride, tantalise, tantalize, taunt, tease, twit |
| (verb) attack with dogs or set dogs upon | - |
| (verb) lure, entice, or entrap with bait | - |
| ballast | (noun) any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship | - |
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| (noun) an electrical device for starting and regulating fluorescent and discharge lamps | Synonyms: light ballast |
| (noun) a resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations) | Synonyms: ballast resistor, barretter |
| (noun) an attribute that tends to give stability in character and morals; something that steadies the mind or feelings | - |
| (noun) coarse gravel laid to form a bed for streets and railroads | - |
| (verb) make steady with a ballast | - |
| ballet | (noun) a theatrical representation of a story that is performed to music by trained dancers | Synonyms: concert dance |
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| (noun) music written for a ballet | - |
| balloonist | (noun) someone who flies a balloon | - |
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| ballot | (noun) a choice that is made by counting the number of people in favor of each alternative | Synonyms: balloting, vote, voting |
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| (noun) a document listing the alternatives that is used in voting | - |
| (verb) vote by ballot | - |
| ballottement | (noun) a palpatory technique for feeling a floating object in the body (especially for determining the position of a fetus by feeling the rebound of the fetus after a quick digital tap on the wall of the uterus) | - |
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| ballpoint | (noun) a pen that has a small metal ball as the point of transfer of ink to paper | Synonyms: ballpen, ballpoint pen, Biro |
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| balsamroot | (noun) a plant of the genus Balsamorhiza having downy leaves in a basal rosette and yellow flowers and long balsam-scented taproots | - |
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| bandelet | (noun) molding in the form of a ring; at top of a column | Synonyms: annulet, bandelette, bandlet, square and rabbet |
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| bandicoot | (noun) any of various agile ratlike terrestrial marsupials of Australia and adjacent islands; insectivorous and herbivorous | - |
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| bandit | (noun) an armed thief who is (usually) a member of a band | Synonyms: brigand |
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| bandlet | (noun) molding in the form of a ring; at top of a column | Synonyms: annulet, bandelet, bandelette, square and rabbet |
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| banishment | (noun) rejection by means of an act of banishing or proscribing someone | Synonyms: proscription |
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| (noun) the state of being banished or ostracized (excluded from society by general consent) | Synonyms: Coventry, ostracism |
| bankrupt | (adjective) financially ruined | Synonyms: belly-up |
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| (noun) someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts | Synonyms: insolvent |
| (verb) reduce to bankruptcy | Synonyms: break, ruin, smash |
| banneret | (noun) a knight honored for valor; entitled to display a square banner and to hold higher command | Synonyms: knight banneret, knight of the square flag |
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| banquet | (noun) a meal that is well prepared and greatly enjoyed | Synonyms: feast, spread |
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| (noun) a ceremonial dinner party for many people | Synonyms: feast |
| (verb) partake in a feast or banquet | Synonyms: feast, junket |
| (verb) provide a feast or banquet for | Synonyms: feast, junket |
| bantamweight | (noun) A weight class division in combat sports, for fighters heavier than those in the flyweight division and lighter than those in the featherweight division. | - |
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| (noun) an amateur boxer who weighs no more than 119 pounds | - |
| (noun) weighs 115-126 pounds | - |
| barbet | (noun) small brightly colored stout-billed tropical bird having short weak wings | - |
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| bareboat | (noun) a vessel (such as a yacht) that can be chartered without a captain or crew or provisions | - |
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| barefoot | (adjective) without shoes | Synonyms: barefooted, shoeless |
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| (adverb) without shoes on | Synonyms: barefooted |
| baronet | (noun) a member of the British order of honor; ranks below a baron but above a knight | Synonyms: Bart |
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| barrenwort | (noun) slow-growing creeping plant with semi-evergreen leaves on erect wiry stems; used as ground cover | Synonyms: bishop's hat, Epimedium grandiflorum |
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| bartlett | (noun) juicy yellow pear | Synonyms: bartlett pear |
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| basalt | (noun) the commonest type of solidified lava; a dense dark grey fine-grained igneous rock that is composed chiefly of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene | - |
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| basement | (noun) the lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level; often used for storage | Synonyms: cellar |
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| (noun) the ground floor facade or interior in Renaissance architecture | - |
| basinet | (noun) a medieval steel helmet | - |
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| basket | (noun) a score in basketball made by throwing the ball through the hoop | Synonyms: field goal |
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| (noun) a container that is usually woven and has handles | Synonyms: handbasket |
| (noun) horizontal circular metal hoop supporting a net through which players try to throw the basketball | Synonyms: basketball hoop, hoop |
| (noun) the quantity contained in a basket | Synonyms: basketful |
| basset | (noun) smooth-haired breed of hound with short legs and long ears | Synonyms: basset hound |
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| (verb) appear at the surface | Synonyms: crop out |
| bassinet | (noun) a basket (usually hooded) used as a baby's bed | - |
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| (noun) a perambulator that resembles a bassinet | - |
| bassist | (noun) a musician who play the bass viol | - |
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| bassoonist | (noun) a musician who plays the bassoon | - |
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| bast | (noun) (botany) tissue that conducts synthesized food substances (e.g., from leaves) to parts where needed; consists primarily of sieve tubes | Synonyms: phloem |
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| (noun) strong woody fibers obtained especially from the phloem of from various plants | Synonyms: bast fiber |
| bat | (noun) (baseball) a turn trying to get a hit | Synonyms: at-bat |
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| (noun) nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate | Synonyms: chiropteran |
| (noun) a club used for hitting a ball in various games | - |
| (noun) the club used in playing cricket | Synonyms: cricket bat |
| (noun) a small racket with a long handle used for playing squash | Synonyms: squash racket, squash racquet |
| (verb) wink briefly | Synonyms: flutter |
| (verb) beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight | Synonyms: clobber, cream, drub, lick, thrash |
| (verb) strike with, or as if with a baseball bat | - |
| (verb) use a bat | - |
| (verb) have a turn at bat | - |
| battlefront | (noun) the line along which opposing armies face each other | Synonyms: front, front line |
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| battlement | (noun) a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns | Synonyms: crenelation, crenellation |
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| battlesight | (noun) an arrangement of sights that makes possible the rapid aiming of a firearm at short ranges | Synonyms: battle sight |
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| bayat | (noun) an oath of allegiance to an emir | - |
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| bayonet | (noun) a knife that can be fixed to the end of a rifle and used as a weapon | - |
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| (verb) stab or kill someone with a bayonet | - |
| beachfront | (noun) a strip of land running along a beach | - |
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| beanfeast | (noun) an annual dinner party given by an employer for the employees | - |
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| bearcat | (noun) arboreal civet of Asia having a long prehensile tail and shaggy black hair | Synonyms: Arctictis bintourong, binturong |
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| beast | (noun) a living organism characterized by voluntary movement | Synonyms: animal, animate being, brute, creature, fauna |
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| (noun) a cruelly rapacious person | Synonyms: brute, savage, wildcat, wolf |
| beat | (adjective) very tired | Synonyms: all in, bushed, dead |
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| (noun) the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing | - |
| (noun) a stroke or blow | - |
| (noun) a regular rate of repetition | - |
| (noun) the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music | Synonyms: musical rhythm, rhythm |
| (noun) (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse | Synonyms: cadence, measure, meter, metre |
| (noun) the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart | Synonyms: heartbeat, pulsation, pulse |
| (noun) the sound of stroke or blow | - |
| (noun) a regular route for a sentry or policeman | Synonyms: round |
| (noun) a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior | Synonyms: beatnik |
| (noun) a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations | - |
| (verb) wear out completely | Synonyms: exhaust, tucker, tucker out, wash up |
| (verb) be a mystery or bewildering to | Synonyms: amaze, baffle, bewilder, dumbfound, flummox, get, gravel, mystify, nonplus, perplex, pose, puzzle, stick, stupefy, vex |
| (verb) come out better in a competition, race, or conflict | Synonyms: beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish |
| (verb) beat through cleverness and wit | Synonyms: circumvent, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach |
| (verb) hit repeatedly | - |
| (verb) give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression | Synonyms: beat up, work over |
| (verb) stir vigorously | Synonyms: scramble |
| (verb) strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music | - |
| (verb) strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting | - |
| (verb) shape by beating | - |
| (verb) make by pounding or trampling | - |
| (verb) produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly | - |
| (verb) move rhythmically | Synonyms: pound, thump |
| (verb) sail with much tacking or with difficulty | - |
| (verb) move with a flapping motion | Synonyms: flap |
| (verb) indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks | - |
| (verb) move with a thrashing motion | Synonyms: flap |
| (verb) move with or as if with a regular alternating motion | Synonyms: pulsate, quiver |
| (verb) make a rhythmic sound | Synonyms: drum, thrum |
| (verb) make a sound like a clock or a timer | Synonyms: tick, ticktack, ticktock |
| (verb) glare or strike with great intensity | - |
| (verb) avoid paying | Synonyms: bunk |
| (verb) be superior | - |
| beaut | (noun) an outstanding example of its kind | Synonyms: beauty |
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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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| bedevilment | (noun) the act of harassing someone | Synonyms: badgering, torment, worrying |
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| bedfast | (adjective) confined to bed (by illness) | Synonyms: bedrid, bedridden, sick-abed |
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| bedight | (verb) decorate | Synonyms: bedeck, deck |
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| bedpost | (noun) any of 4 vertical supports at the corners of a bedstead | - |
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| bedrest | (noun) confinement to bed continuously (as in the case of some sick or injured persons) | Synonyms: bed rest |
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| bedsit | (noun) a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing) | Synonyms: bedsitter, bedsitting room |
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| beechnut | (noun) small sweet triangular nut of any of various beech trees | - |
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| beet | (noun) round red root vegetable | Synonyms: beetroot |
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| (noun) biennial Eurasian plant usually having a swollen edible root; widely cultivated as a food crop | Synonyms: Beta vulgaris, common beet |
| beetroot | (noun) round red root vegetable | Synonyms: beet |
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| (noun) beet having a massively swollen red root; widely grown for human consumption | Synonyms: Beta vulgaris rubra |
| befit | (verb) accord or comport with | Synonyms: beseem, suit |
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| befoulment | (noun) the state of being polluted | Synonyms: defilement, pollution |
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| befuddlement | (noun) confusion resulting from failure to understand | Synonyms: bafflement, bemusement, bewilderment, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlement |
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| beget | (verb) make (offspring) by reproduction | Synonyms: bring forth, engender, father, generate, get, mother, sire |
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| beguilement | (noun) an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations | Synonyms: distraction |
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| (noun) magnetic personal charm | Synonyms: animal magnetism, bewitchery |
| behaviorist | (adjective) of or relating to behaviorism | Synonyms: behavioristic, behaviourist, behaviouristic |
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| (noun) a psychologist who subscribes to behaviorism | Synonyms: behaviourist |
| behaviourist | (adjective) of or relating to behaviorism | Synonyms: behaviorist, behavioristic, behaviouristic |
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| (noun) a psychologist who subscribes to behaviorism | Synonyms: behaviorist |
| behest | (noun) an authoritative command or request | - |
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| beignet | (noun) a deep-fried, yeast-raised doughnut dusted with confectioners' sugar | Synonyms: French fritter |
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| belittlement | (noun) the act of making a person or a thing seem little or unimportant. | - |
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| belligerent | (adjective) characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight | Synonyms: aggressive |
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| (adjective) engaged in war | Synonyms: militant, war-ridden, warring |
| (noun) someone who fights (or is fighting) | Synonyms: battler, combatant, fighter, scrapper |
| bellwort | (noun) any of various plants of the genus Uvularia having yellowish drooping bell-shaped flowers | Synonyms: merry bells, wild oats |
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| belt | (noun) the act of hitting vigorously | Synonyms: knock, rap, whack, whang |
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| (noun) a band to tie or buckle around the body (usually at the waist) | - |
| (noun) endless loop of flexible material between two rotating shafts or pulleys | - |
| (noun) ammunition (usually of small caliber) loaded in flexible linked strips for use in a machine gun | Synonyms: belt ammunition, belted ammunition |
| (noun) a vigorous blow | Synonyms: bang, bash, knock, smash |
| (noun) an elongated region where a specific condition or characteristic is found | - |
| (noun) a path or strip (as cut by one course of mowing) | Synonyms: swath |
| (verb) deliver a blow to | - |
| (verb) fasten with a belt | - |
| (verb) sing loudly and forcefully | Synonyms: belt out |
| bemusement | (noun) confusion resulting from failure to understand | Synonyms: bafflement, befuddlement, bewilderment, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlement |
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| benedict | (noun) a newly married man (especially one who has long been a bachelor) | Synonyms: benedick |
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| benefact | (verb) help as a benefactor | - |
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| beneficent | (adjective) doing or producing good | - |
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| (adjective) generous in assistance to the poor | Synonyms: benevolent, eleemosynary, philanthropic |
| benefit | (noun) something that aids or promotes well-being | Synonyms: welfare |
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| (noun) a performance to raise money for a charitable cause | - |
| (noun) financial assistance in time of need | - |
| (verb) derive a benefit from | Synonyms: gain, profit |
| (verb) be beneficial for | Synonyms: do good |
| benevolent | (adjective) intending or showing kindness | - |
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| (adjective) generous in assistance to the poor | Synonyms: beneficent, eleemosynary, philanthropic |
| (adjective) generous in providing aid to others | Synonyms: freehearted |
| (adjective) showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding and generosity | Synonyms: charitable, good-hearted, kindly, large-hearted, openhearted, sympathetic |
| benight | (verb) make darker and difficult to perceive by sight | Synonyms: bedim |
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| (verb) envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness | - |
| (verb) overtake with darkness or night | - |
| benignant | (adjective) pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence | Synonyms: benign |
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| (adjective) characterized by kindness and warm courtesy especially of a king to his subjects | Synonyms: gracious |
| bennet | (noun) North American white-flowered avens | Synonyms: Geum canadense, white avens |
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| (noun) avens of Virginia having pale or greenish yellow flowers | Synonyms: Geum virginianum, white avens |
| bent | (adjective) of metal e.g. | Synonyms: crumpled, dented |
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| (adjective) fixed in your purpose | Synonyms: bent on, dead set, out to |
| (adjective) used of the back and knees; stooped | Synonyms: bended |
| (noun) a special way of doing something | Synonyms: hang, knack |
| (noun) a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way | Synonyms: set |
| (noun) an area of grassland unbounded by fences or hedges | - |
| (noun) grass for pastures and lawns especially bowling and putting greens | Synonyms: bent-grass, bent grass |
| bequest | (noun) (law) a gift of personal property by will | Synonyms: legacy |
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| bereavement | (noun) state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one | Synonyms: mourning |
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| bereft | (adjective) sorrowful through loss or deprivation | Synonyms: bereaved, grief-stricken, grieving, mourning, sorrowing |
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| (adjective) unhappy in love; suffering from unrequited love | Synonyms: lovelorn, unbeloved |
| beret | (noun) a cap with no brim or bill; made of soft cloth | - |
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| bergamot | (noun) small tree with pear-shaped fruit whose oil is used in perfumery; Italy | Synonyms: bergamot orange, Citrus bergamia |
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| beset | (verb) assail or attack on all sides: | Synonyms: set upon |
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| (verb) decorate or cover lavishly (as with gems) | Synonyms: encrust, incrust |
| (verb) annoy continually or chronically | Synonyms: chevvy, chevy, chivvy, chivy, harass, harry, hassle, molest, plague, provoke |
| besot | (verb) make dull or stupid or muddle with drunkenness or infatuation | Synonyms: stupefy |
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| bespot | (verb) mark with, or as if with, spots | - |
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| besprent | (adjective) sprinkled over | - |
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| best | (adjective) (superlative of `good') having the most positive qualities | - |
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| (adjective) (comparative and superlative of `well') wiser or more advantageous and hence advisable | Synonyms: better |
| (noun) the supreme effort one can make | - |
| (noun) the person who is most outstanding or excellent; someone who tops all others | Synonyms: topper |
| (adverb) it would be sensible | - |
| (adverb) in a most excellent way or manner | - |
| (adverb) from a position of superiority or authority | Synonyms: better |
| (verb) get the better of | Synonyms: outdo, outflank, scoop, trump |
| bestowment | (noun) the act of conferring an honor or presenting a gift | Synonyms: bestowal, conferment, conferral |
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| (noun) a gift that is bestowed or conferred | Synonyms: bestowal |
| bet | (noun) the act of gambling | Synonyms: wager |
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| (noun) the money risked on a gamble | Synonyms: stake, stakes, wager |
| (verb) have faith or confidence in | Synonyms: bank, calculate, count, depend, look, reckon, rely, swear |
| (verb) maintain with or as if with a bet | Synonyms: wager |
| (verb) stake on the outcome of an issue | Synonyms: play, wager |
| 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 | - |
| betwixt | (adverb) in the interval | Synonyms: between |
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| bewilderment | (noun) confusion resulting from failure to understand | Synonyms: bafflement, befuddlement, bemusement, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlement |
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| bewitchment | (noun) a magical spell | Synonyms: enchantment |
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| bezant | (noun) a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages | Synonyms: bezzant, byzant, solidus |
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| bezzant | (noun) a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages | Synonyms: bezant, byzant, solidus |
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