<B>bottom heat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> heat supplied to plants beneath their roots by fermenting or decomposing substances placed under them, by means of electricity, or by running flues or pipes under them. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomland">
<B>bottom land,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the low land along a river. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomless">
<B>bottomless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>without a bottom. <BR> <I>Ex. The satellite fell into bottomless space.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Figurative.) baseless. <DD><B> 2a. </B>very, very deep; so deep that the bottom cannot be reached. <BR> <I>Ex. sunk in the bottomless depths of the sea, a bottomless lake in the mountains, (Figurative.) bottomless stupidity.</I> (SYN) abysmal. <DD><B> b. </B>(Figurative.) unfathomable. (SYN) immeasurable. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomlesspit">
<B>bottomless pit,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a pit into which Satan is to be cast for a thousand years (in the Bible, Revelation 20:1-3). <DD><B> 2. </B>hell. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomline">
<B>bottom line,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Informal.) practical result; main or essential point. <BR> <I>Ex. The message was guardedly drawn, in spots lawyerly to the point of obscurantism. ... But the bottom line seemed plain: no deal (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<B>bottomonium, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Nuclear Physics.) a hypothetical particle consisting of a bottom quark and its antiparticle. <BR> <I>Ex. It was a fortunate thing in that CESR [a particle accelerator] was designed to operate optimally in just the energy range where bottomonium can be made before anyone knew what the mass of bottomonium would be (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="bottomquark">
<B>bottom quark,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a quark having three times the mass of a charmed quark. <BR> <I>Ex. The upsilon, formed of a bottom quark and a bottom antiquark, is 10 times more massive than the proton (Walter Sullivan).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="bottomround">
<B>bottom round,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a cut of meat from the outside of a round of beef. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomry">
<B>bottomry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a contract by which a shipowner mortgages his ship to get money to make a voyage. If the ship is lost, the lender loses the money. </DL>
<A NAME="bottomyeast">
<B>bottom yeast,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a variety of brewers' yeast which grows at or near the bottom of a brewing vat. </DL>
<B>botulin</B> or <B>botuline, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the toxin formed by botulinus. </DL>
<A NAME="botulinus">
<B>botulinus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the bacterium causing botulism. </DL>
<A NAME="botulism">
<B>botulism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a poisoning caused by eating food that has been spoiled by the action of certain anaerobic bacteria, especially in foods not properly canned or preserved, as sausages, canned meats, and canned vegetables. It affects the nervous system of both men and animals and is frequently fatal. </DL>
<A NAME="botulismus">
<B>botulismus, </B>noun. =botulism.</DL>
<A NAME="boubou">
<B>boubou, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a long, shapeless garment worn by men and women in western Africa. Also, <B>bubu.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boucle">
<B>boucle, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a knitted cloth having a surface with tiny loops and curls. <DD><B> 2. </B>yarn used in making such a surface. <DD><I>adj. </I> (of cloth) having a rough, knotted surface. <BR> <I>Ex. boucle tweed.</I> </DL>
<B>boudoir, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a lady's private dressing room or sitting room. </DL>
<A NAME="bouffant">
<B>bouffant, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> puffed out; billowy. <BR> <I>Ex. a bouffant skirt, a bouffant hairdo.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a woman's puffed-out hairdo. <BR> <I>Ex. ... a lady in the audience who wore a mink jacket and a big bouffant (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="bouffante">
<B>bouffante, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) bouffant (the feminine form). </DL>
<B>bougainvillea</B> or <B>bougainvillaea, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a genus of tropical American climbing shrubs. The decorative "blossoms" of bougainvillea consist of large, bright-colored leaves (bracts) surrounding very small flowers. Bougainvillea belongs to the four-o'clock family. </DL>
<A NAME="bough">
<B>bough, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>one of the branches of a tree. <BR> <I>Ex. The rabbits hid under a pile of boughs cut from the tree.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a branch cut from a tree, especially one laden with blossoms or fruit. <BR> <I>Ex. She held a blossoming bough from the apple tree.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Archaic.) the gallows. </DL>
<B>boughpot, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a pot or other vessel for holding boughs or flowers for ornament. <DD><B> 2. </B>a flowerpot. <DD><B> 3. </B>a bouquet. </DL>
<A NAME="bought">
<B>bought</B> (1), verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> the past tense and past participle of <B>buy.</B> <BR> <I>Ex. We bought apples from the farmer.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="bought">
<B>bought</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a bend or curve. <DD><B> 2. </B>a turn or loop, as in a rope; coil. <BR> <I>Ex. The dragon-boughts ... Began to move, seethe, twine, and curl (Tennyson).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) a fold, as of cloth. </DL>
<A NAME="boughten">
<B>boughten, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Dialect.) bought; not homemade. </DL>
<A NAME="boughy">
<B>boughy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having many boughs. </DL>
<A NAME="bougie">
<B>bougie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a thin, flexible instrument for exploring, dilating, and medicating passages of the body. <DD><B> b. </B><B>=suppository.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>a wax candle. </DL>
<A NAME="bouillabaisse">
<B>bouillabaisse, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a fish chowder often seasoned with white wine, saffron, and herbs. </DL>
<A NAME="bouilli">
<B>bouilli, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) boiled or stewed meat. </DL>
<A NAME="bouillon">
<B>bouillon, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a clear, thin soup or broth. <DD><B> 2. </B>a liquid, nutritive medium used for growing cultures of bacteria. </DL>
<A NAME="bouilloncube">
<B>bouillon cube,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> bouillon dehydrated and made into a cube. </DL>
<A NAME="bouk">
<B>bouk, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Scottish.) the trunk of the body. </DL>
<A NAME="boulangerie">
<B>boulangerie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a bakery. </DL>
<A NAME="boulder">
<B>boulder, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a large rock, rounded or worn by the action of water or weather. Also, <B>bowlder.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="boulderclay">
<B>boulder clay,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> stiff, unlaminated, tenacious clay, especially that of the ice age, often containing boulders. </DL>
<A NAME="bouldery">
<B>bouldery, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>resembling a boulder. <DD><B> 2. </B>full of boulders. </DL>
<A NAME="boule">
<B>boule</B> (1), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a legislative or advisory council in ancient Greece. </DL>
<A NAME="boule">
<B>boule</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a synthetic ruby, sapphire, or the like, made by the fusion of powdered alumina into a bullet-shaped mass. </DL>
<A NAME="boule">
<B>boule</B> (3), noun. =buhl.</DL>
<A NAME="boulevard">
<B>boulevard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a broad street or avenue, often planted with trees; wide thoroughfare. <BR> <I>Ex. We motored around the city on the boulevards. Boulevards of Paris, where walls once stood to defend the city against attack, are crowded with automobiles, buses, and taxis (David F. Schoenbrun).</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> (Abbr:) blvd. <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S. and Canadian Dialect.) a strip of grass between the sidewalk and street. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) <DD><B> a. </B>the flat top of a rampart. <DD><B> b. </B>a street on the site of demolished fortifications. </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="boulevardier">
<B>boulevardier, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a gay and dashing fellow; man-about-town. </DL>
