Part 549

Bathe (b), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bathed (bd); p. pr. & vb. n. Bathing.] [OE. baðien, AS. baðian, fr. bæð bath. See 1st Bath, and cf. Bay to bathe.] 1. To wash by immersion, as in a bath; to subject to a bath.

Chancing to bathe himself in the River Cydnus. South.

2. To lave; to wet. "The lake which bathed the foot of the Alban mountain." T. Arnold.

3. To moisten or suffuse with a liquid.

And let us bathe our hands in Cæsar's blood. Shak.

4. To apply water or some liquid medicament to; as, to bathe the eye with warm water or with sea water; to bathe one's forehead with camphor.

5. To surround, or envelop, as water surrounds a person immersed. "The rosy shadows bathe me. " Tennyson. "The bright sunshine bathing all the world." Longfellow.

Bathe (&?;), v. i. 1. To bathe one's self; to take a bath or baths. "They bathe in summer." Waller.

2. To immerse or cover one's self, as in a bath. "To bathe in fiery floods." Shak. "Bathe in the dimples of her cheek." Lloyd.

3. To bask in the sun. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Bathe, n. The immersion of the body in water; as, to take one's usual bathe. Edin. Rev.

Bath"er (b"r), n. One who bathes.

Ba*thet"ic (&?;), a. Having the character of bathos. [R.]

Bath"ing (&?;), n. Act of taking a bath or baths.

Bathing machine, a small room on wheels, to be driven into the water, for the convenience of bathers, who undress and dress therein.

Bath"mism (&?;), n. See Vital force.

Ba*thom"e*ter (&?;), n. [Gr. ba`qos depth + -meter.] An instrument for measuring depths, esp. one for taking soundings without a sounding line.

Bat"horse` (&?;), n. [F. bât packsaddle (cheval de bât packhorse) + E. horse. See Bastard.] A horse which carries an officer's baggage during a campaign.

Ba"thos (b"ths), n. [Gr. ba`qos depth, fr. baqy`s deep.] (Rhet.) A ludicrous descent from the elevated to the low, in writing or speech; anticlimax.

||Ba*thyb"i*us (&?;), n. [NL., fr. Gr. baqy`s deep + bi`os life] (Zoöl.) A name given by Prof. Huxley to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol. He supposed that it was free living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.

{ Bath`y*met"ric (&?;), Bath`y*met"ric*al (&?;), } a. Pertaining to bathymetry; relating to the measurement of depths, especially of depths in the sea.

Ba*thym"e*try (&?;), n. [Gr. ba`qos depth + -metry.] The art or science of sounding, or measuring depths in the sea.

Bat"ing (&?;), prep. [Strictly p. pr. of Bate to abate.] With the exception of; excepting.

We have little reason to think that they bring many ideas with them, bating some faint ideas of hunger and thirst. Locke.

Ba*tiste" (&?;), n. [F. batiste, from the name of the alleged first maker, Baptiste of Cambrai. Littré.] Originally, cambric or lawn of fine linen; now applied also to cloth of similar texture made of cotton.

Bat"let (&?;), n. [Bat stick + - let.] A short bat for beating clothes in washing them; -- called also batler, batling staff, batting staff. Shak.

||Bat"man (bt"mn), n. [Turk. baman.] A weight used in the East, varying according to the locality; in Turkey, the greater batman is about 157 pounds, the lesser only a fourth of this; at Aleppo and Smyrna, the batman is 17 pounds. Simmonds.

Bat"man (b"man or bt"man), n.; pl. Batmen (-men). [F. bât packsaddle + E. man. Cf. Bathorse.] A man who has charge of a bathorse and his load. Macaulay.