| bad | Wanting good qualities, whether physical or moral; injurious, hurtful, inconvenient, offensive, painful, unfavorable, or defective, either physically or morally; evil; vicious; wicked; the opposite of good; as a bad man; bad conduct; bad habits; bad soil; bad health; bad crop; bad news. Sometimes used substantively. "The strong antipathy of good to bad." (Pope) Synonym: Pernicious, deleterious, noxious, baneful, injurious, hurtful, evil, vile, wretched, corrupt, wicked, vicious, imperfect. Origin: Probably fr. AS. Baeddel hermaphrodite; cf. Baedling effeminate fellow. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| bad lands | Barren regions, especially in the western United States, where horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by canons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badderlocks | <botany> A large black seaweed (Alaria esculenta) sometimes eaten in Europe; also called murlins, honeyware, and henware. Origin: Perh. For Balderlocks, fr. Balder the Scandinavian deity. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badger | An itinerant licensed dealer in commodities used for food; a hawker; a huckster; formerly applied especially to one who bought grain in one place and sold it in another. Origin: Of uncertain origin; perh. Fr. An old verb badge to lay up provisions to sell again. 1. A carnivorous quadruped of the genus Meles or of an allied genus. It is a burrowing animal, with short, thick legs, and long claws on the fore feet. One species (M. Vulgaris), called also brock, inhabits the north of Europe and Asia; another species (Taxidea Americana or Labradorica) inhabits the northern parts of North America. See Teledu. 2. A brush made of badgers' hair, used by artists. Badger dog. <zoology> See Dachshund. Origin: OE. Bageard, prob. Fr. Badge + -ard, in reference to the white mark on its forehead. See Badge. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badiaga | <zoology> Common in the north of Europe, the powder of which is used to take away the livid marks of bruises. Origin: Russ. Badiaga. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badian | <botany> An evergreen Chinese shrub of the Magnolia family (Illicium anisatum), and its aromatic seeds; Chinese anise; star anise. Origin: F.badiane, fr. Per. Badian anise. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badigeon | A cement or paste (as of plaster and freestone, or of sawdust and glue or lime) used by sculptors, builders, and workers in wood or stone, to fill holes, cover defects, or finish a surface. Origin: F. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| badnavirus | A genus of DNA plant viruses with bacilliform morphology. Transmission in clonally-propagated plants is by vegetative propagation of infected plant materials. Transmission in nature is by mealybugs, seeds, pollen, and leafhoppers (rice tungro bacilliform). The type species is commelina yellow mottle virus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cholesterol, bad | Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. (12 Dec 1998) |
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