| barba | 1. The beard. 2. A hair of the beard. Origin: L. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| barbadoes | A West Indian island, giving its name to a disease, to a cherry, etc. <botany> Barbados cherry, a species of elephantiasis incident to hot climates. Barbados nuts, the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant growing in South America and elsewhere. The seeds and their acrid oil are used in medicine as a purgative. See Physic nut. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbados | An island in the lesser antilles in the west indies. It is chiefly of coral formation with no good harbors and only small streams. It was probably discovered by the portuguese in the sixteenth century. The name was given by 16th-century spanish explorers from barbados, the plural for "bearded", with reference to the beard-like leaves or trails of moss on the trees that grew there in abundance. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Barbados leg | <medicine> A disease of the skin, in which it become enormously thickened, and is rough, hard, and fissured, like an elephant's hide. Origin: L, fr. Gr, from, an elephant. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbaloin | <chemistry> A bitter purgative principle in aloes. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbarize | 1. To become barbarous. "The Roman empire was barbarizing rapidly from the time of Trajan." (De Quincey) 2. To adopt a foreign or barbarous mode of speech. "The ill habit . . . Of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their untutored Anglicisms." (Milton) Origin: Barbarized; Barbarizing. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbary | The countries on the north coast of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic. Hence: A Barbary horse; a barb. Also, a kind of pigeon. <zoology> Barbary ape, an ape (Macacus innus) of north Africa and Gibraltar Rock, being the only monkey inhabiting Europe. It is very commonly trained by showmen. Origin: Fr. Ar. Barbar the people of Barbary. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbastel | <zoology> A European bat (Barbastellus communis), with hairy lips. Origin: F. Barbastelle. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| barbate | <botany> Bearded; beset with long and weak hairs. Origin: L. Barbatus, fr. Barba beard. See Barb beard. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |