Rarely Used Words Starting With B1

Babaco • noun a greenish-yellow egg-shaped fruit

Back Bond • noun an instrument which, in conjunction with another making an absolute disposition,
constitutes a trust.

Backstop • noun 1. Sports a screen or fence used to prevent a ball from being thrown or hit far out of a
playing area, as in baseball. 2. Baseball A catcher. 3. Something that supports or bolsters.

Backwardation • noun (Stock Exchange) the seller's postponement of delivery of stock or shares, with the
consent of the buyer, upon payment of a premium to the latter; - also, the premium so paid.

Backwater • noun 1 a part of a river not reached by the current, where the water is stagnant. 2 a place or
state in which no development is taking place.

Backwoods • plural noun chiefly N. Amer. 1 remote uncleared forest land. 2 a remote or sparsely inhabited
region.

Baleful • adjective 1 menacing. 2 having a harmful effect.

— DERIVATIVES balefully adverb.

— ORIGIN from an Old English word meaning ‘evil’

Bane • noun a cause of great distress or annoyance.

— ORIGIN Old English, thing causing death, poison.

Bantam • noun a chicken of a small breed.

— ORIGIN apparently named after the province of Bantam in Java.

Bard • noun 1 archaic or literary a poet, traditionally one reciting epics. 2 (the Bard) Shakespeare. 3 (Bard)
the winner of a prize for Welsh verse at an Eisteddfod.

— DERIVATIVES bardic adjective.

— ORIGIN Celtic.

Barium • noun a soft, reactive metallic chemical element.

— ORIGIN from BARYTE.

Barnacle • noun a marine crustacean which attaches itself permanently to underwater surfaces.

— DERIVATIVES barnacled adjective.

— ORIGIN Latin bernaca.

Barney • noun (pl. barneys) Brit. informal a noisy quarrel.

— ORIGIN of unknown origin.

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By H.U.
Barratry • noun. (pl. bar·ra·tries) 1. the offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically groundless
ones. 2. an unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's
owner. 3. sale or purchase of positions in church or state.
— ORIGIN Middle English barratrie, the sale of church offices, from Old French baraterie, deception,
malversation, from barater, to cheat

Bassinette • noun a basket in which a baby sleeps.

Baste • verb pour fat or juices over (meat) during cooking.

— DERIVATIVES baster noun

— ORIGIN of unknown origin.

• verb tack with long, loose stitches in preparation for sewing.

— ORIGIN Old French bastir ‘sew lightly’.

Bate • noun Brit. informal, dated an angry mood.

— ORIGIN from BAIT.

Batten • noun a long, flat wooden or metal strip for strengthening or securing something.

• verb strengthen or fasten with battens.

— PHRASES batten down the hatches 1 secure a ship’s tarpaulins. 2 prepare for a difficulty or crisis.

— ORIGIN Old French batant, from batre ‘to beat’.

• verb (batten on) thrive or prosper at the expense of.

— ORIGIN Old Norse, ‘get better’.

Bazooka • noun 1 a short-range rocket launcher used against tanks. 2 a kazoo shaped like a trumpet.

— ORIGIN apparently from US slang bazoo in the sense kazoo.

Beauteous • adjective literary beautiful.

Bedraggle • verb (used with object), -gled, -gling. to make limp and soiled, as with rain or dirt.

— ORIGIN 1720–30; BE- + DRAGGLE

Behindhand • adjective late or slow in doing something.

Behove • verb (it behoves someone to do) formal it is a duty, responsibility, or appropriate response for
someone to do.

— ORIGIN Old English.

Belch • verb 1 noisily emit wind from the stomach through the mouth. 2 forcefully emit (smoke or flames).
 • noun an act of belching.

— ORIGIN Old English, probably imitative.

Belfry • noun (pl. belfries) the place in a bell tower or steeple in which bells are housed.

— ORIGIN Old French belfrei.

Beneficent • adjective doing or resulting in good.

— DERIVATIVES beneficence noun beneficently adverb.

Benighted • adjective 1 ignorant or unenlightened. 2 archaic unable to travel further because darkness has
fallen.

Betide • verb literary happen; befall.

Bevel • noun 1 (in carpentry) a surface or edge which slopes away from a horizontal or vertical surface. 2
(also bevel square) a tool for marking angles in carpentry and stonework.

• verb (bevelled, bevelling; US beveled, beveling) cut a bevel on.

— ORIGIN Old French, from baif ‘open-mouthed’, from baer ‘gape’.

Bicameral • adjective (of a legislative body) having two chambers.

— DERIVATIVES bicameralism noun.

— ORIGIN from Latin camera ‘chamber’.

Biddy • noun (pl. biddies) informal a woman, especially an old one.

— ORIGIN originally denoting a chicken: of unknown origin.

Bight • noun 1 a curve or recess in a coastline or other geographical feature. 2 a loop of rope.

— ORIGIN Old English.

Bilious • adjective 1 relating to bile. 2 affected by nausea or vomiting. 3 spiteful; bad-tempered.

— DERIVATIVES biliously adverb biliousness noun.

Billet • noun a civilian house where soldiers are lodged temporarily.

• verb (billeted, billeting) lodge (soldiers) in a civilian house.

— ORIGIN originally denoting a short written document, later a written order requiring a householder to
lodge the bearer: from Old French billette ‘little bill’; related to BILL1.

• noun 1 a thick piece of wood. 2 a small bar of metal for further processing.

— ORIGIN Old French billette and billot ‘little tree trunk’, from Latin billa, billus ‘branch, trunk’.

Billow • noun 1 a large undulating mass of cloud, smoke, or steam. 2 archaic a large sea wave.
 • verb 1 (of fabric) fill with air and swell outwards. 2 (of smoke, cloud, or steam) move or flow outward
with an undulating motion.

— DERIVATIVES billowy adjective.

— ORIGIN Old Norse.

Billposter • noun a person who pastes up advertisements or other notices on hoardings.

Bimensal • adjective & adverb appearing or taking place twice a month or every two months.

Biorhythm • noun a recurring cycle in the physiology or functioning of an organism, such as the daily cycle
of sleeping and waking.

— DERIVATIVES biorhythmic adjective.

Bison • noun (pl. same) a humpbacked shaggy-haired wild ox.

— ORIGIN Latin.

Bivalve • noun an aquatic mollusc which has a compressed body enclosed within two hinged shells, such as
an oyster, mussel, or scallop.

• adjective 1 (also bivalved) having a hinged double shell. 2 Botany having two valves.

Bivouac • noun A temporary encampment often in an unsheltered area.

Black ban • noun a refusal by an interest group to supply or purchase goods or services.

Blackguard • noun dated a man who behaves in a dishonourable or contemptible way.

— DERIVATIVES blackguardly adjective.

— ORIGIN originally denoting a body of servants, especially the menials in charge of kitchen utensils; the
exact significance of black is uncertain.

Blackleg • noun Brit. derogatory a person who continues working when fellow workers are on strike.

Black light • noun is the common name for a lamp emitting electromagnetic radiation that is almost
exclusively in the soft near ultraviolet range, and very little visible light. In many areas this type of lighting
is more commonly referred to as simply "UV light".

Black maria • noun Colloquial a closed vehicle for transporting prisoners to and from jail.

Blandish • verb (used with object) to coax or influence by gentle flattery; cajole: They blandished the
guard into letting them through the gate. • verb (used without object) to use flattery or cajolery.
— ORIGIN 1350–1400; ME blandisshen < AF, MF blandiss-, long s. of blandir < L blandīrī to soothe,
flatter. See BLAND, -ISH 2

Blinker • noun chiefly Brit. 1 (blinkers) a pair of small screens attached to a horse’s bridle to prevent the
horse seeing sideways. 2 (blinkers) a thing that prevents someone from understanding a situation fully. 3 a
vehicle indicator light that flashes on and off.

• verb 1 put blinkers on (a horse). 2 cause to have a narrow outlook.

Blithe • adjective 1 cheerfully or thoughtlessly indifferent. 2 literary happy or joyous.

— DERIVATIVES blithely adverb blitheness noun.

— ORIGIN Old English, related to BLISS.

Bluster • verb 1 talk in a loud or aggressive way with little effect. 2 (of wind or rain) blow or beat fiercely
and noisily.

• noun blustering talk.

— DERIVATIVES blusterer noun blustery adjective.

— ORIGIN imitative.

Boater • noun 1 a flat-topped straw hat with a brim. originally worn while boating. 2 a person who travels
in a boat.

Boggle • verb informal 1 be astonished or baffled. 2 (boggle at) hesitate to do.

— ORIGIN probably related to BOGEY.

Bombardier • noun 1 a rank of non-commissioned officer in certain artillery regiments, equivalent to

corporal. 2 a member of a bomber crew in the US air force responsible for sighting and releasing bombs.

— ORIGIN French.

Bonzer • adjective Austral./NZ informal excellent.

— ORIGIN perhaps an alteration of BONANZA.

Boor • noun a rough and bad-mannered person.

— DERIVATIVES boorish adjective boorishly adverb boorishness noun.

— ORIGIN Low German bur or Dutch boer ‘farmer’.

Bootleg • adjective (of alcoholic drink or a recording) made or distributed illegally.

• noun an illegal musical recording.

— DERIVATIVES bootlegger noun bootlegging noun.

— ORIGIN from a practice among smugglers of hiding bottles in their boots.

Bootscoot • noun to dance in a linedance.

Bootstrap • noun is a mobile truck designed for rapidly assessing the blood alcohol concentration of motor
vehicle drivers in large numbers. Operated by police services, they allow main arterial roads such as
freeways to be blocked, with all or most drivers sampled for compliance with drunk driving laws. They are
commonly used outside popular nightspots to trap drivers who might illegally drive home drunk. The
vehicle itself is not used to test all drivers. Multiple test points are set up on the highway and drivers are
breath tested in their own vehicles though the wound down window. Drivers failing this test will be taken to
the bus for processing.
Bot • intransitive/transitive verb to cadge.

Bovver • noun Brit. informal hooliganism or trouble-making.

— ORIGIN cockney pronunciation of BOTHER.

Bowdlerise • transitive verb to expurgate prudishly.

Bracken • noun a tall fern with coarse lobed fronds.

— ORIGIN Scandinavian.

Brackish • adjective 1 slightly salt; having a salty or briny flavor. 2 distasteful; unpleasant.
— ORIGIN 1530–40; < D brak salty + -ISH 1

Bract • noun Botany a modified leaf with a flower or flower cluster in its axil.

— ORIGIN Latin bractea ‘thin metal plate’.

Brawn • noun 1 physical strength as opposed to intelligence. 2 Brit. cooked meat from a pig’s or calf’s
head, pressed with jelly.

— DERIVATIVES brawny adjective.

— ORIGIN Old French braon ‘fleshy part of the leg’.

Bray • noun the loud, harsh cry of a donkey.

• verb make such a sound.

— ORIGIN from Old French braire ‘to cry’.

Brazier • noun 1 a portable heater holding lighted coals. 2 N. Amer. a barbecue.

— ORIGIN French brasier, from braise ‘hot coals’.

• noun a worker in brass.

Breakpoint • noun in software development, is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in
place for debugging purposes. More generally, a breakpoint is a means of acquiring knowledge about a
program during its execution. During the interruption, the programmer inspects the test environment (logs,
memory, files, etc.) to find out whether the program functions as expected.

In practice, a breakpoint consists of one or more conditions that determine when a program's execution
should be interrupted.

Brigand • noun a member of a gang of bandits, especially in forested and mountainous areas.

— DERIVATIVES brigandage noun.

— ORIGIN Italian brigante ‘(person) contending’, related to BRIGADE.

Brindle • adjective (of a domestic animal) brownish or tawny with streaks of other colour.
 — ORIGIN probably Scandinavian.

Brinkmanship • noun the pursuit of a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping.

Brogue • noun 1 a strong outdoor shoe with ornamental perforated patterns in the leather. 2 a marked
accent, especially Irish or Scottish, when speaking English.

— ORIGIN originally denoting a rough shoe: from Scottish Gaelic and Irish bróg; sense 2 perhaps arose as
an allusion to the rough footwear of Irish peasants.

Brolga • noun a large grey crane with an elaborate courtship display.

— ORIGIN from an Aboriginal word.

Buckley’s • noun (in phrase have Buckley’s chance) Austral./NZ informal have little or no chance.

— ORIGIN perhaps from William Buckley (died 1856), who, despite dire predictions as to his chances of
survival, lived with the Aboriginals for many years.

Bucolic • adjective relating to rural or pastoral life.

— ORIGIN Greek boukolikos, from boukolos ‘herdsman’.

Bugbear • noun a cause of anxiety or irritation.

— ORIGIN probably from the obsolete bug ‘evil spirit’ + BEAR.

Bulla • noun a seal attached to an official document.

Bumble • verb 1 act or speak in an awkward or confused manner. 2 (of an insect) buzz or hum.

— DERIVATIVES bumbler noun.

— ORIGIN from BOOM.

Bumptious • adjective irritatingly self-assertive or conceited.

— DERIVATIVES bumptiously adverb bumptiousness noun.

— ORIGIN from BUMP, on the pattern of fractious.

Bundy • adjective Crudely or loudly assertive; pushy.

Bung • noun a stopper for a hole in a container.

• verb 1 close with a bung. 2 (bung up) block up.

— ORIGIN Dutch bonghe.

Brit. informal

• verb put or throw somewhere casually.

• noun a bribe.
 — ORIGIN symbolic.

• adjective Austral./NZ informal ruined or useless.

— PHRASES go bung fail completely.

— ORIGIN from an extinct Aboriginal language.

Bunion • noun a painful swelling on the big toe.

— ORIGIN Old French buignon, from buigne ‘bump on the head’.

Bunkum • noun informal, dated nonsense.

— ORIGIN named after Buncombe County in North Carolina, mentioned in a speech made by its
congressman solely to please his constituents (c.1820).

Bunting • noun a seed-eating songbird of a large group typically with brown streaked plumage and a boldly
marked head.

— ORIGIN of unknown origin.

• noun flags and streamers used as festive decorations.

— ORIGIN of unknown origin.

Burble • verb 1 make a continuous murmuring noise. 2 speak unintelligibly and at length.

• noun 1 continuous murmuring noise. 2 rambling speech.

— ORIGIN imitative.

Burl • noun 1 a lump in wool or cloth. 2 N. Amer. a rounded knotty growth on a tree.

— ORIGIN Old French bourle ‘tuft of wool’, from Latin burra ‘wool’.

Burr • noun 1 a whirring sound. 2 a rough pronunciation of the letter r, as in some regional accents. 3 (also
bur) a prickly seed case or flower head that clings to clothing and animal fur. 4 (also bur) a rough edge left
on a metal object by the action of a tool. 5 (also bur) a small drill used in woodworking, dentistry, or
surgery.

• verb 1 make a whirring sound. 2 form a rough edge on (metal).

— ORIGIN probably Scandinavian.

Bushwhack • verb 1 N. Amer. & Austral./NZ live or travel in the bush. 2 N. Amer. & Austral./NZ work
clearing scrub and felling trees. 3 N. Amer. ambush.

— DERIVATIVES bushwhacker noun.

Bustard • noun a large swift-running bird of open country.

— ORIGIN perhaps a blend of Old French bistarde and oustarde, from Latin avis tarda ‘slow bird’.

Buzzard • noun 1 a large bird of prey typically seen soaring in wide circles. 2 N. Amer. a vulture.
 — ORIGIN Old French busard, from Latin buteo ‘falcon’.

Byname • noun 1 a secondary name; cognomen; surname. 2 a nickname.

— ORIGIN 1325–75; ME

Reference

Compact Oxford Dictionary

Dictionary.com