ir linen.
BATTS. A north-country term for flat grounds adjoining islands in
rivers, sometimes used for the islands themselves.
BAT-WARD. An old term for a boat-keeper.
BAUN. _See_ BORE.
BAVIER. The beaver of a helmet.
BAVIN. Brushwood bound up with only one withe: a faggot is tied with
two. It is often spelled _baven_, but Shakspeare has
"Rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burned."
This underwood is sometimes procurable by ships where none other can be
got. Bavin in war applies to fascines.
BAW-BURD. An old expression of larboard.
BAWDRICK. Corrupted from _baldrick_. A girdle or sword-belt.
BAWE. A species of worm, formerly used as a bait for fishing.
BAWGIE. One of the names given to the great black and white gull (_Larus
marinus_) in the Shetlands.
BAWKIE. A northern term for the auk, or razor-bill.
BAXIOS. [Sp.] Rocks or sand-banks covered with water. Scopuli.
BAY. The fore-part of a ship between decks, before the bitts (_see_
SICK-BAY). Foremost messing-places between decks in ships of war.
BAY. An inlet of the sea formed by the curvature of the land between two
capes or headlands, often used synonymously with gulf; though, in strict
accuracy, the term should be applied only to those large recesses which
are wider from cape to cape than they are deep. Exposed to sea-winds, a
bay is mostly insecure. A bay is distinguished from a bend, as that a
vessel may not be able to fetch out on either tack, and is embayed. A
bay has proportionably a wider entrance than either a gulf or haven; a
creek has usually a small inlet, and is always much less than a bay.
BAY. Laurel; hence crowned with bays.
BAYAMOS. Violent blasts of wind blowing from the land, on the south side
of Cuba, and especially from the Bight of Bayamo, by which some of our
cruisers have been damaged. They are accompanied by vivid lightning, and
generally terminate in rain.
BAY-GULF. A branch of the sea, of which the entrance is the widest part,
as contradistinguished from the strait-gulf. The Bay of Biscay is a
well-known example of the semicircular gulf.
BAY-ICE. Ice newly formed on the surface of the sea, and having the
colour of the water; it is then in the first stage of consolidation. The
epithet is, however, also applied to ice a foot or two in thickness in
bays.
BAYLE. An old term for bucket.
BAYONET [Sp. _bayoneta_]. A pike-dagger to fit on the muzzle of a
musket, so as not to inter
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