The Devil’s Dictionary994 terms |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | # |
B1
- Baal
- n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names. As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he had the honor to be served by the priest Berosus, who wrote the famous account of the Deluge; as Babel he had a tower partly erected to his glory on the Plain of Shinar. From Babel comes our English word “babble.” Under whatever name worshiped, Baal is the Sun-god. As Beelzebub he is the god of flies, which are begotten of the sun’s rays on the stagnant water. In Physicia Baal is still worshiped as Bolus, and as Belly he is adored and served with abundant sacrifice by the priests of Guttledom.
- Babe or Baby
- n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex, or
condition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies and
antipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion.
There have been famous babes; for example, little Moses, from whose
adventure in the bulrushes the Egyptian hierophants of seven centuries
before doubtless derived their idle tale of the child Osiris being
preserved on a floating lotus leaf.
Ere babes were invented
Ro Amil
The girls were contended.
Now man is tormented
Until to buy babes he has squandered
His money. And so I have pondered
This thing, and thought may be
’T were better that Baby
The First had been eagled or condored. - Bacchus
- n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse
for getting drunk.
Is public worship, then, a sin,
Jorace
That for devotions paid to Bacchus
The lictors dare to run us in,
And resolutely thump and whack us? - Back
- n. That part of your friend which it is your privilege to contemplate in your adversity.
- Backbite
- v.t. To speak of a man as you find him when he can’t find you.
- Bait
- n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. The best kind is beauty.
- Baptism
- n. A sacred rite of such efficacy that he who finds himself
in heaven without having undergone it will be unhappy forever. It is
performed with water in two ways — by immersion, or plunging, and by
aspersion, or sprinkling.
But whether the plan of immersion
G.J.
Is better than simple aspersion
Let those immersed
And those aspersed
Decide by the Authorized Version,
And by matching their agues tertian. - Barometer
- n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.
- Barrack
- n. A house in which soldiers enjoy a portion of that of which it is their business to deprive others.