*bert*

. A soft ornamental terra-cotta pottery, sold in the biscuit state for decorating. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ From the name of the inventor, Albert, of Munich. ] A picture printed from a kind of gelatine plate produced by means of a photographic negative. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus of plants comprising the hoary alyssum.
Syn. -- genus Berteroa. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ From the root of bear to produce, like birth nativity. See Birth. ] [ Also written birth. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Naut.) (a) Convenient sea room. (b) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's company mess and reside. (c) The place where a ship lies when she is at anchor, or at a wharf. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An allotted place; an appointment; situation or employment. “He has a good berth.” Totten. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A place in a ship to sleep in; a long box or shelf on the side of a cabin or stateroom, or of a railway car, for sleeping in. [ 1913 Webster ]

Berth deck, the deck next below the lower gun deck. Ham. Nav. Encyc. --
To give (the land or any object)
a wide berth, to keep at a distance from it. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Berthed p. pr. & vb. n. Berthing. ] 1. To give an anchorage to, or a place to lie at; to place in a berth; as, she was berthed stem to stern with the Adelaide. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To allot or furnish berths to, on shipboard; as, to berth a ship's company. Totten. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. berthe, fr. Berthe, a woman's name. ] A kind of collar or cape worn by ladies. [ 1913 Webster ]

Big Bertha n. a large cannon used by the German army during World War I. [ PJC ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A place for mooring vessels in a dock or harbor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Berthier, a French naturalist. ] (Min.) A double sulphide of antimony and iron, of a dark steel-gray color. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Naut.) The planking outside of a vessel, above the sheer strake. Smyth. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ After Alphonse Bertillon, French anthropologist. ] A system for the identification of persons by a physical description based upon anthropometric measurements, notes of markings, deformities, color, impression of thumb lines, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Corrupted fr. L. pyrethrum, Gr. &unr_; a hot spicy plant, fr. &unr_; fire. ] (Bot.) Pellitory of Spain (Anacyclus pyrethrum). [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n., or . A kind of rich, soft, unpressed cream cheese made in the vicinity of Camembert, near Argentan, France; also, any cheese of the same type, wherever made. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. A red wine from Chambertin near Dijon, in Burgundy. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. having or showing active concern for protection of civil liberties protected by law. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a person having or showing active concern for protection of civil liberties protected by law. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ From Jean Baptiste Colbert, a minister of Louis XIV., who encouraged the lace manufacture in France. ] A kind of lace. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Pinners edged with colbertine. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

Difference rose between
Mechlin, the queen of lace, and colbertine. Young. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F., Pg. encorberto, encuberto, lit., covered. ] (Zoöl.) One of several species of armadillos of the genera Dasypus and Euphractus, having five toes both on the fore and hind feet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Perh. fr. fill + bread, as filling the bread or husk; cf. G. bartnuss (lit., bread nut) filbert; or perh. named from a St.Philibert, whose day, Aug. 22, fell in the nutting season. ] 1. (Bot.) The fruit of the Corylus Avellana or Corylus maxima, also called the hazel; the hazelnut. It is an oval nut, containing a kernel that has a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to the palate. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In England filberts are usually large hazelnuts, especially the nuts from selected and cultivated trees. The American hazelnuts are of two other species, Corylus Americana and Corylus cornuta, and are also sometimes called filberts. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. (Bot.) The tree bearing the filbert; the hazelnut tree. [ PJC ]

Filbert gall (Zool.), a gall resembling a filbert in form, growing in clusters on grapevines. It is produced by the larva of a gallfly (Cecidomyia). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An imp. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Gun.) A small cartridge designed for target shooting; -- sometimes called ball cap. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flobert rifle, a rifle adapted to the use of floberts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf.F.gabare, Arm. kobar, gobar. ] A lighter, or vessel for inland navigation. [ Scot. ] Jamieson. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. William Schwenk Gilbert, an English dramatist born at London Nov. 18, 1836. He is most famous for his collaborations with Sir Arthur Sullivan on a number of humorous light operas which are known as “Gilbert and Sullivan Operas”. His first play was “Dulcamara” (1866). He also wrote “The Palace of Truth” (1870), “Pygmalion and Galatea” (1871), “Sweethearts” (1874), “Engaged” (1877), “The Mountebanks” (1891), and in collaboration with Sir A. Sullivan (who wrote the music), he wrote “The Sorcerer” (1877), “H. M. S. Pinafore” (1878), “The Pirates of Penzance” (1879), “Patience” (1881), “Iolanthe” (1883), “The Mikado” (1885), “Ruddygore” (1887), “The Yeomen of the Guard” (1888), “The Gondoliers” (1889), and “Utopia, limited” (1893). The light operas proved very popular and continue to be performed over one hundred years later. He also published other works. [ Century Dict. 1906 +PJC ]

William Schwenk Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated on a number of light operas. See Gilbert. [ PJC ]

prop. a. 1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the style of William S. Gilbert; as, Gilbertian libretti. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Wildly comic and improbable, as in Gilbert and Sullivan operas; as, Gilbertian coincidences. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a Gilbertian world people with foundlings and changelings. T. C. Worsley [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A genus of evergreen heathlike or scandent shrubs of Madagascar, Australasia, and Polynesia.
Syn. -- genus Hibbertia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The condition of not having reached puberty, or the age of ability to reproduce one's species; lack of age at which the marriage contract can be legally entered into. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A small genus of Australian shrubs.
Syn. -- genus Lambertia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

pos>n. [ So called from Lambert, an English botanist. ] (Bot.) The gigantic sugar pine of California and Oregon (Pinus Lambertiana). It has the leaves in fives, and cones a foot long. The timber is soft, and like that of the white pine of the Eastern States. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See Liberty. ] Pertaining to liberty, or to the doctrine of free will, as opposed to the doctrine of necessity. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who holds to the doctrine of free will. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Libertarian principles or doctrines. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. libertas liberty + caedere to kill: cf. (for sense 2) F. liberticide. ] 1. The destruction of civil liberty. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A destroyer of civil liberty. B. F. Wade. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. libertinage. See Libertine. ] Libertinism; license. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. libertinus freedman, from libertus one made free, fr. liber free: cf. F. libertin. See Liberal. ] 1. (Rom. Antiq.) A manumitted slave; a freedman; also, the son of a freedman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of Anabaptists, in the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, who rejected many of the customs and decencies of life, and advocated a community of goods and of women. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A defamatory name for a freethinker. [ Obsolescent ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. libertinus of a freedman: cf. F. libertin. See Libertine, n. ] 1. Free from restraint; uncontrolled. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

You are too much libertine. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Dissolute; licentious; profligate; loose in morals; as, libertine principles or manners. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The state of a libertine or freedman. [ R. ] Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Licentious conduct; debauchery; lewdness. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Licentiousness of principle or opinion. [ 1913 Webster ]

That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished all at once, and a spirit of liberty and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness, started up in the room of it. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Liberties [ OE. liberte, F. liberté, fr. L. libertas, fr. liber free. See Liberal. ] 1. The state of a free person; exemption from subjection to the will of another claiming ownership of the person or services; freedom; -- opposed to slavery, serfdom, bondage, or subjection. [ 1913 Webster ]

But ye . . . caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection. Jer. xxxiv. 16. [ 1913 Webster ]

Delivered fro the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Bible, 1551. Rom. viii. 21. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Freedom from imprisonment, bonds, or other restraint upon locomotion. [ 1913 Webster ]

Being pent from liberty, as I am now. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A privilege conferred by a superior power; permission granted; leave; as, liberty given to a child to play, or to a witness to leave a court, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Privilege; exemption; franchise; immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; as, the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe. [ 1913 Webster ]

His majesty gave not an entire county to any; much less did he grant . . . any extraordinary liberties. Sir J. Davies. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The place within which certain immunities are enjoyed, or jurisdiction is exercised. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Brought forth into some public or open place within the liberty of the city, and there . . . burned. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A certain amount of freedom; permission to go freely within certain limits; also, the place or limits within which such freedom is exercised; as, the liberties of a prison. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A privilege or license in violation of the laws of etiquette or propriety; as, to permit, or take, a liberty. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was repeatedly provoked into striking those who had taken liberties with him. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. The power of choice; freedom from necessity; freedom from compulsion or constraint in willing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The idea of liberty is the idea of a power in any agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the other. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

This liberty of judgment did not of necessity lead to lawlessness. J. A. Symonds. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Manege) A curve or arch in a bit to afford room for the tongue of the horse. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (Naut.) Leave of absence; permission to go on shore. [ 1913 Webster ]

At liberty. (a) Unconfined; free. (b) At leisure. --
Civil liberty, exemption from arbitrary interference with person, opinion, or property, on the part of the government under which one lives, and freedom to take part in modifying that government or its laws. --
Liberty bell. See under Bell. --
Liberty cap. (a) The Roman pileus which was given to a slave at his manumission. (b) A limp, close-fitting cap with which the head of representations of the goddess of liberty is often decked. It is sometimes represented on a spear or a liberty pole. --
Liberty of the press, freedom to print and publish without official supervision.
Liberty party, the party, in the American Revolution, which favored independence of England; in more recent usage, a party which favored the emancipation of the slaves. --
Liberty pole, a tall flagstaff planted in the ground, often surmounted by a liberty cap. [ U. S. ] --
Moral liberty, that liberty of choice which is essential to moral responsibility. --
Religious liberty, freedom of religious opinion and worship. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Leave; permission; license. -- Liberty, Freedom. These words, though often interchanged, are distinct in some of their applications. Liberty has reference to previous restraint; freedom, to the simple, unrepressed exercise of our powers. A slave is set at liberty; his master had always been in a state of freedom. A prisoner under trial may ask liberty (exemption from restraint) to speak his sentiments with freedom (the spontaneous and bold utterance of his feelings). The liberty of the press is our great security for freedom of thought. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ After F. A. Nobert, German manufacturer in Pomerania. ] Fine lines ruled on glass in a series of groups of different closeness of line, and used to test the power of a microscope. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. See Premonstrant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. pubertas, fr. puber, pubes, adult: cf. F. puberté. ] 1. The earliest age at which persons are capable of begetting or bearing children, usually considered, in temperate climates, to be about fourteen years in males and twelve in females. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) The period when a plant first bears flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) See Herb Robert, under Herb. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n.; pl. -men. /plu> (Old Statutes of Eng.) A bold, stout robber, or night thief; -- said to be so called from Robin Hood. [ 1913 Webster ]