2. (Bot.) Any similar plant or its fruit; esp., in America, the species Vaccinium myrtilloides, V. cæspitosum
and V. uliginosum.
Bilbo
(Bil"bo) n.; pl. Bilboes
1. A rapier; a sword; so named from Bilbao, in Spain. Shak.
2. pl. A long bar or bolt of iron with sliding shackles, and a lock at the end, to confine the feet of prisoners
or offenders, esp. on board of ships.
Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.
Shak.
Bilboquet
(||Bil"bo*quet) n. [F.] The toy called cup and ball.
Bilcock
(Bil"cock) n. (Zoöl.) The European water rail.
Bildstein
(||Bild"stein) n. [G., fr. bild image, likeness + stein stone.] Same as Agalmatolite.
Bile
(Bile) n. [L. bilis: cf. F. bile.]
1. (Physiol.) A yellow, or greenish, viscid fluid, usually alkaline in reaction, secreted by the liver. It
passes into the intestines, where it aids in the digestive process. Its characteristic constituents are the
bile salts, and coloring matters.
2. Bitterness of feeling; choler; anger; ill humor; as, to stir one's bile. Prescott.
The ancients considered the bile to be the "humor" which caused irascibility.
Bile
(Bile), n. [OE. byle, bule, bele, AS. ble, bl; skin to D. buil, G. beule, and Goth. ufbauljan to
puff up. Cf. Boil a tumor, Bulge.] A boil. [Obs. or Archaic]
Bilection
(Bi*lec"tion) n. (Arch.) That portion of a group of moldings which projects beyond the general
surface of a panel; a bolection.
Bilestone
(Bile"stone`) n. [Bile + stone.] A gallstone, or biliary calculus. See Biliary. E. Darwin.
Bilge
(Bilge) n. [A different orthography of bulge, of same origin as belly. Cf. Belly, Bulge.]
1. The protuberant part of a cask, which is usually in the middle.
2. (Naut.) That part of a ship's hull or bottom which is broadest and most nearly flat, and on which she
would rest if aground.
3. Bilge water.
Bilge free (Naut.), stowed in such a way that the bilge is clear of everything; — said of a cask. —
Bilge pump, a pump to draw the bilge water from the gold of a ship. — Bilge water (Naut.), water
which collects in the bilge or bottom of a ship or other vessel. It is often allowed to remain till it becomes
very offensive. — Bilge ways, the timbers which support the cradle of a ship upon the ways, and
which slide upon the launching ways in launching the vessel.
Bilge
(Bilge) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Bilged (biljd); p. pr. & vb. n. Bilging.]
1. (Naut.) To suffer a fracture in the bilge; to spring a leak by a fracture in the bilge.
2. To bulge.
