Noah Webster

Texts

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“AL’LEY, n. al’ly [Fr. allée, a passage, from aller to go; Ir. alladh. Literally, a passing or going.]

“1. A walk in a garden; a narrow passage.

“2. A narrow passage or way in a city, as distinct from a public street.

“3. A place in London where stocks are bought and sold. Ash.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARBOR, n. [The French express the sense by berceau, a cradle, an arbor, or bower; Sp. emparrade, from parra, a vine raised on stakes, and nailed to a wall. Qu. L. arbor, a tree, and the primary sense.]

“1. A frame of lattice work, covered with vines, branches of trees or other plants, for shade; a bower.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARCA’DE, n. [Fr. from arcus; Sp. arcada.] A long or continued arch; a walk arched above. Johnson.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARCH, n. [See Arc.] A segment or part of a circle. A concave or hollow structure of stone or brick, supported by its own curve. It may be constructed of wood, and supported by the mechanism of the work. This species of structure is much used in bridges.

“A vault is properly a broad arch. Encyc.

“2. The space between two piers of a bridge, when arched; or any place covered with an arch.

“3. Any curvature, in form of an arch.

“4. The vault of heaven, or sky. Shak.

“Triumphal arches are magnificent structures at the entrance of cities, erected to adorn a triumph and perpetuate the memory of the event.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“AV’ENUE, n. [Fr. from venir, to come or go; L. venio.]

“1. A passage; a way or opening for entrance into a place; any opening or passage by which a thing is or may be introduced.

“2. An alley, or walk in a garden, planted with trees, and leading to a house, gate, wood, &c., and generally terminated by some distant object. The trees may be in rows on the sides, or, according to the more modern practice, in clumps at some distance from each other. Encyc.

“3. A wide street, as in Washington, Columbia.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“A’VIARY, n. [L. aviarium, from avis, a fowl.]

“A bird cage; an inclosure for keeping birds confined. Wotton.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BAS’IN, n. básn. [Fr. bassin; Ir. baisin; Arm. baçzin; It. bacino, or bacile; Port. bacia. . . .]

“1. A hollow vessel or dish, to hold water for washing, and for various other uses.

“2. In hydraulics, any reservoir of water.

“3. That which resembles a basin in containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a hollow place for liquids, or an inclosed part of water, forming a broad space within a strait or narrow entrance; a little bay.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“B`ATH, n. [Sax. baeth, batho, a bath; bathian, to bathe; W. badh, or baz; D. G. Sw. Dan. bad, a bath; Ir. bath, the sea; Old Phrygian bedu, water. Qu. W. bozi, to immerse.]

“1. A place for bathing; a convenient vat or receptacle of water for persons to plunge or wash their bodies in. Baths are warm or tepid, hot or cold, more generally called warm and cold. They are also natural or artificial. Natural baths are those which consist of spring water, either hot or cold, which is often impregnated with iron, and called chalybeate, or with sulphur, carbonic acid, and other mineral qualities. These waters are often very efficacious in scorbutic, bilious, dyspeptic and other complaints.

“2. A place in which heat is applied to a body immersed in some substance. Thus,

“A dry bath is made of hot sand, ashes, salt, or other matter, for the purpose of applying heat to a body immersed in them.

“A vapor bath is formed by filling an apartment with hot steam or vapor, in which the body sweats copiously, as in Russia; or the term is used, for the application of hot steam to a diseased part of the body. Encyc. Tooke.

“A metalline bath is water impregnated with iron or other metallic substance, and applied to a diseased part. Encyc. . . .

“3. A house for bathing. In some eastern countries, baths are very magnificent edifices.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BED, n. [Sax. bed; D. bed; G. bett or beet; Goth. badi. The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.] . . .

“4. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. Bacon.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BEE’-GARDEN, n. [bee and garden.] A garden, or inclosure to set bee-hives in. Johnson. . . .

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BEL’VIDERE, n. [L. bellus, fine, and video, to see.] . . .

“2. In Italian architecture, a pavilion on the top of an edifice; an artificial eminence in a garden. Encyc.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BORD’ER, n. [Fr. bord; Arm. id; Sp. bordo; Port. borda; It. bordo. See Board.]

“the exterior part of a garden, and hence a bank raised at the side of a garden, for the cultivation of flowers, and a row of plants.”

• 1848, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 32)

"AL'COVE, AL-COVE, n. [Sp. alcoba, composed of al, with the Ar. . . . kabba, to arch, to construct with an arch, and its derivatives, an arch, a rounded house; Eng. cubby.] . . .

"3. A covered building, or recess, in a garden.

"4. A recess in a grove."

• 1848, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 65)

“ARBORETUM, n. A place in a park, nursery, &C, in which a collection of trees, consisting of one of each kind, is cultivated. Brande.”