The Thirty-Nine Steps (20 page)

battalia
NOUN
the order of battle
till I saw part of his army in battalia
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

battery
NOUN
a Battery is a fort or a place where guns are positioned
You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

battledore and shuttlecock
NOUN
The game battledore and shuttlecock was an early version of the game now known as
badminton. The aim of the early game was simply to keep the shuttlecock from hitting
the ground.
Battledore and shuttlecock’s a wery good game vhen you an’t the shuttlecock and two
lawyers the battledores, in which case it gets too excitin’ to be pleasant
(
Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens)

beadle
NOUN
a beadle was a local official who had power over the poor
But these impertinences were speedily checked by the evidence of the surgeon, and
the testimony of the beadle
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

bearings
NOUN
the bearings of a place are the measurements or directions that are used to find
or locate it
the bearings of the island
(
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson)

beaufet
NOUN
a beaufet was a sideboard
and sweet-cake from the beaufet
(
Emma
by Jane Austen)

beck
NOUN
a beck is a small stream
a beck which follows the bend of the glen
(
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë)

bedight
VERB
decorated
and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top
. (
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens)

Bedlam
NOUN
Bedlam was a lunatic asylum in London which had statues carved by Caius Gabriel Cibber
at its entrance
Bedlam, and those carved maniacs at the gates
(
The Prelude
by William Wordsworth)

beeves
NOUN
oxen or castrated bulls which are animals used for pulling vehicles or carrying things
to deliver in every morning six beeves
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

begot
VERB
created or caused
Begot in thee
(
On His Mistress
by John Donne)

behoof
NOUN
behoof means benefit
“Yes, young man,” said he, releasing the handle of the article in question, retiring
a step or two from my table, and speaking for the behoof of the landlord and waiter
at the door
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)