📖 B — The English dictionary · page 5

balancing — Everyday, meaning 1: Balancing means keeping something steady so it does not fall, like balancing on one foot.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Balancing means making two sides weigh or be worth the same, like a scale with equal weights.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Balancing money means making sure what comes in and goes out match.↗ Example: The scale is balancing: 3 apples on one side and 600 g on the other.↗ · She is balancing 4 books on her head.↗ · Balancing the scale needs 2 more weights.↗ · What number keeps the two sides balancing?↗ · The gymnast is balancing on the beam.↗ · He was balancing on one leg for 30 seconds.↗ · Seals can learn balancing a ball on their nose.↗ · Balancing an equation means both sides have the same value.↗ · Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?↗ (Writings JOB.37.16, JPS 1917)↗

balcony — Everyday, meaning 1: A balcony is a small floor with a railing on the outside of a building, where you can stand or sit above the ground.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In a theatre or cinema, the balcony is the upper level of seats.↗ Example: There are 6 flower pots on the balcony.↗ · The balcony is 4 meters long and 2 meters wide.↗ · Each flat has one balcony.↗ · 3 birds sat on the balcony.↗ · We ate breakfast on the balcony.↗ · Never climb on the balcony railing.↗ · Our hotel room had a balcony with a view of the sea.↗ · We sat in the balcony at the theatre.↗ · One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony.↗

bald — Everyday, meaning 1: Bald means having little or no hair on the head.↗ e.g. "my grandad is bald".↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Bald can mean without the usual covering.↗ e.g. "bald tyres" have their grooves worn down and are dangerous.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A bald statement or fact is plain and simple, with no extra detail.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: Balding means losing hair.↗ Example: My grandpa is bald and wears a cap in the sun.↗ · Dad has a bald patch on top of his head.↗ · The bald eagle is the bird of the United States.↗ · Bald tyres are dangerous on wet roads.↗ · He started going bald in his twenties.↗ · The bald fact is that we lost.↗ · A BALD KNIGHT, who wore a wig, went out to hunt.↗ · And if a man's hair be fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.↗ (Torah LEV.13.40, JPS 1917)↗ · And if his hair be fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead-bald; yet is he clean.↗ (Torah LEV.13.41, JPS 1917)↗ · But if there be in the bald head, or the bald forehead, a reddish-white plague, it is leprosy breaking out in his bald head, or his bald forehead.↗ (Torah LEV.13.42, JPS 1917)↗ · For every head is bald, and every beard clipped; upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.↗ (Prophets JER.48.37, JPS 1917)↗ · Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delight; enlarge thy baldness as the vulture; for they are gone into captivity from thee.↗ (Prophets MIC.1.16, JPS 1917)↗ · And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter lamentation.↗ (Prophets EZK.27.31, JPS 1917)↗

baldhead — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: A person who has no hair on the top of the head.↗

baldness — Everyday, meaning 1: Having little or no hair on the head.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The state of a surface being bare, without its usual covering (the baldness of a worn tyre).↗ Example: Baldness often runs in families.↗ · Grandpa jokes about his baldness.↗ · Some medicines can cause baldness for a while.↗ · His baldness made him easy to spot in the crowd.↗ · Many men start going bald as they get older.↗ · The bald eagle is not really bald; it has white feathers on its head.↗ · Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.↗ (Torah DEU.14.1, JPS 1917)↗ · They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.↗ (Torah LEV.21.5, JPS 1917)↗ · Baldness is come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is brought to nought, the remnant of their valley; how long wilt thou cut thyself?↗ (Prophets JER.47.5, JPS 1917)↗ · And in that day did the Lord, the GOD of hosts, call to weeping, and to lamentation, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; (Prophets ISA.22.12, JPS 1917)↗ · They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.↗ (Prophets EZK.7.18, JPS 1917)↗

bale — Everyday, meaning 1: A bale is a large tightly packed bundle of hay, straw, cotton or wool, tied up with string or wire.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb) To bale hay means to press it into bales.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (UK) To bale out means to jump out of a plane with a parachute, or to scoop water out of a boat; in the US usually spelt «bail out».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: Bales can also be large bundles of goods, such as silk or cloth, packed tightly for shipping.↗ Example: The farmer stacked the hay bales in the barn.↗ · Each bale weighs 25 kilograms; how much do 8 bales weigh?↗ · We sat on a bale of straw at the fair.↗ · The machine bales the hay in the field.↗ · The pilot had to bale out over the sea.↗ · Bale the water out of the boat with this bucket!↗ · "So, captain," said I, "the merchant who owned those bales was called Sindbad?"↗

baleen — Everyday, meaning 1: Baleen is a strong, bendy material growing in long plates from the top jaw of some whales, used like a giant sieve or comb to filter food from sea water.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A baleen whale is a whale that has baleen instead of teeth, like the blue whale and the humpback.↗ Example: Blue whales are baleen whales.↗ · Baleen is made of the same material as our fingernails.↗ · The whale strained krill through its baleen.↗ · We touched a strip of baleen at the museum; it felt like a stiff hairbrush.↗ · Toothed whales, like dolphins, have no baleen.↗ · In the past, baleen was used to make corsets.↗ · A humpback has hundreds of baleen plates.↗

baleful — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: Baleful means full of threat or harm: a baleful look shows anger or a wish to hurt.↗ This is an old or literary word.↗ Example: How long shall thy baleful thoughts lodge within thee?↗ (Prophets JER.4.14, JPS 1917)↗ · Many tales show how to take away a vampire's baleful power.↗ · She gave me a baleful stare.↗

balkan — Everyday, meaning 1: To do with the Balkans, a mountainous region in south-east Europe.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The Balkans: the countries of that region, such as Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo.↗ Example: The Balkan countries lie in south-east Europe.↗ · We tasted Balkan food like burek and stuffed peppers.↗ · The Balkan Mountains run across Bulgaria.↗ · Many Balkan towns have old stone bridges.↗ · She went on holiday to the Balkans last summer.↗ · Balkan music often uses fast, lively rhythms.↗ · Our history class learned about the Balkan wars.↗

ball — Everyday, meaning 1: A ball is a round thing used in games, for throwing, kicking, hitting or bouncing.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A ball is anything round, like a ball of wool or a snowball.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A ball is a big formal dance party.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: The ball of the foot is the round part under the toes.↗ Example: He has 12 tennis balls.↗ · Each can holds 3 balls.↗ · She lost 4 balls.↗ · The coach bought 6 balls for 5 dollars each.↗ · Kick the ball to me!↗ · She rolled the clay into a ball.↗ · Cinderella went to the ball.↗ · We had a ball at the party.↗ · A ball is shaped like a sphere.↗ · Don't chase a ball onto the road.↗ · He will violently roll and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the lord's house.↗ (Prophets ISA.22.18, JPS 1917)↗

ballad — Everyday, meaning 1: A ballad is a song or poem that tells a story, often in short verses.↗ Example: The old man sang a ballad about a brave knight.↗ · The story was told in a ballad from long ago.↗ · Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scoffers, the ballad-mongers of this people which is in Jerusalem: (Prophets ISA.28.14, JPS 1917)↗

ballast — Everyday, meaning 1: Heavy material, such as stones, sand or water, put low in a ship or balloon to keep it steady.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The stones laid under railway tracks to hold them in place.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something that gives steadiness or balance to a person or plan.↗ Example: The ship carried rocks as ballast to stop it rolling over.↗ · The submarine filled its ballast tanks with water to dive.↗ · The balloonist threw out a bag of sand ballast and the balloon rose.↗ · Grey ballast stones lie under the railway sleepers.↗ · We added coins to the bottom of our model boat as ballast.↗ · Weight low down acts as ballast and keeps the boat steady.↗

ballerina — Everyday, meaning 1: A female ballet dancer, especially a leading one in a ballet company.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A ballerina shoe or flat: a flat, soft shoe that looks like a ballet slipper.↗ Example: The ballerina spun on the tips of her toes.↗ · My sister wants to be a ballerina when she grows up.↗ · The prima ballerina danced the lead in Swan Lake.↗ · A tiny ballerina turned in the music box.↗ · Ballerinas train for many hours every day.↗ · She wore ballerina flats to the party.↗ · Boys and men who dance ballet are called ballet dancers.↗

ballet — Everyday, meaning 1: Ballet is a kind of graceful dance that tells a story or shows feelings, with exact steps, jumps and turns, often on the tips of the toes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A ballet is one show or story performed in this dance, like «The Nutcracker» or «Swan Lake».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A ballet is also a company of ballet dancers: «the Royal Ballet».↗ Example: My sister goes to ballet on Saturdays.↗ · Ballet dancers practise for hours every day.↗ · We saw «The Nutcracker» ballet at Christmas.↗ · She wears pink ballet shoes.↗ · A pirouette is a spin in ballet.↗ · Boys and girls can both do ballet.↗ · The ballet told the story of a swan princess.↗ · Ballet makes your legs very strong.↗ · A little opera and a great ballet were performed, and a prologue and an epilogue into the bargain; and that would last till late at night.↗

balloon — Everyday, meaning 1: A balloon is a thin rubber bag that you fill with air or gas; it floats if filled with helium.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A hot-air balloon is a very big balloon with a basket that can carry people through the sky.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To balloon is to grow bigger very fast.↗ Example: There are 4 bags.↗ Each bag has 7 balloons.↗ How many balloons are there?↗ · Sam had 12 balloons and 5 popped.↗ · Mia has 6 red balloons and 3 blue balloons.↗ · We blew up balloons for Dad's party.↗ · The balloon floated up into the sky.↗ · Rub a balloon on your hair and it sticks to the wall.↗ · A hot-air balloon drifted over the fields.↗ · Pop!↗ The balloon burst when it hit the rose bush.↗ · “Well, really,” exclaimed a small Fire-balloon, “why not?↗

ballot — Everyday, meaning 1: A way of voting secretly by writing on a paper or using a machine.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The paper you vote on (a ballot paper).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A vote held in this way.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (UK, Australia) A random draw to decide who gets something, like tickets or places.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (verb) To ask people to vote.↗ Example: We voted for class captain by secret ballot.↗ · Put your ballot paper in the ballot box.↗ · Out of 30 ballots, 18 were for Mia.↗ · The tickets for the final were sold by ballot.↗ · The union balloted its members.↗ · Each ballot must be counted carefully.↗

ballpoint — Everyday, meaning 1: A pen with a tiny metal ball at its tip that rolls and spreads ink as you write; also called a ballpoint pen.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (adjective) Of this kind of pen: «ballpoint ink».↗ Example: Can I borrow a blue ballpoint?↗ · The ballpoint pen ran out of ink in the middle of my test.↗ · Ballpoint ink dries quickly.↗ · Write your answer in ballpoint, not pencil.↗ · The tiny ball in a ballpoint rolls as you write.↗ · My ballpoint leaked in my pencil case.↗

ballroom — Everyday, meaning 1: A ballroom is a large room, often in a grand house or hall, where people dance.↗ Example: I saw her in a splendid ballroom.↗ · When everyone had eaten, they went into the ballroom.↗

balm — Everyday, meaning 1: A balm is a thick, oily cream or ointment that soothes, heals or protects the skin.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A balm is anything that comforts or calms you, as in «Music was a balm to her».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Balm can also be a sweet-smelling herb, such as lemon balm, used to make teas.↗ Example: Put on lip balm so your lips don't crack.↗ · Grandma rubbed balm on my itchy bite.↗ · The cool breeze was a balm after the hot day.↗ · This balm smells of mint.↗ · Lemon balm grows in our herb garden.↗ · His kind words were a balm to her sadness.↗ · And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and ladanum, going to carry it down to Egypt.↗ (Torah GEN.37.25, JPS 1917)↗ · Is there no balm in Gilead?↗ (Prophets JER.8.22, JPS 1917)↗ · Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed, wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.↗ (Prophets JER.51.8, JPS 1917)↗ · Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt; in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no cure for thee.↗ (Prophets JER.46.11, JPS 1917)↗