| beech tree | The beech. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| beechen | Consisting, or made, of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech. "Plain beechen vessels." Origin: AS. Bcen. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| beechnut | The nut of the beech tree. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| beechwood sugar | D-xylose. See: xylose. (05 Mar 2000) |
| beechwood tar | A thick, oily, dark brown liquid with the odour of creosote; largely used as a source of creosote. Synonym: beech oil. (05 Mar 2000) |
| beef tapeworm | Taenia saginata, the most common of the big tapeworms that parasitises people, contracted from infected raw or rare beef. Can grow to be 12-25 feet (3.6-7.5 m) long in the human intestine. Also known as the African tapeworm. (12 Dec 1998) |
| beefeater | 1. One who eats beef; hence, a large, fleshy person. 2. One of the yeomen of the guard, in England. 3. <zoology> An African bird of the genus Buphaga, which feeds on the larvae of botflies hatched under the skin of oxen, antelopes, etc. Two species are known. Origin: Beef + eater; prob. One who eats another's beef, as his servant. Cf. AS. Hlafta servant, properly a loaf eater. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| beefwood | An Australian tree (Casuarina), and its red wood, used for cabinetwork; also, the trees Stenocarpus salignus of new South Wales, and Banksia compar of Queensland. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| beer | 1. A fermented liquor made from any malted grain, but commonly from barley malt, with hops or some other substance to impart a bitter flavor. Beer has different names, as small beer, ale, porter, brown stout, lager beer, according to its strength, or other qualities. See Ale. 2. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." Origin: OE. Beor, ber, AS. Beor; akin to Fries. Biar, Icel. Bjrr, OHG. Bior, D. & G. Bier, and possibly E. Brew. 93, See Brew. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| beer heart | <cardiology, pathology> A weakness of the cardiac muscle which is seen in some chronic alcoholics, may be related to a thiamin deficiency or occur for unknown reasons. Origin: Gr. Pathos = disease (27 Sep 1997) |
| Beer's knife | A triangular knife with a sharp point and one sharp edge, formerly used for incision for cataract. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Beer's law | The intensity of a colour or of a light ray is inversely proportional to the depth of liquid through which it is transmitted; it is concluded that the absorption is dependent upon the number of molecules in the path of the ray. Compare: Beer-Lambert law. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Beer, August | <person> German physicist, 1825-1863. See: Beer-Lambert law, Beer's law. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Beer, Georg | <person> Austrian ophthalmologist, 1763-1821. See: Beer's knife. (05 Mar 2000) |
| beer-lambert law | The equation A=ECL, where A is the absorbance at a given wavelength of light, E is the molar extinction coefficient, C is the concentration of the molar solution, and L is the length of the light path. In words, the equation means that the concentration of a substance in moles is proportional to the absorption of a given wavelength of light by a solution of the substance. The equation is used in the study of spectroscopy. (09 Oct 1997) |