Part 75

Blind reader. A post-office clerk whose duty is to decipher obscure addresses.

Block, n. 1. In Australia, one of the large lots into which public land, when opened to settlers, is divided by the government surveyors.

2. (Cricket) (a) The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket. (b) A block hole. (c) The popping crease. [R.]

Back blocks, Australian pastoral country which is remote from the seacoast or from a river.

Block chain. (Mach.) A chain in which the alternate links are broad blocks connected by thin side links pivoted to the ends of the blocks, used with sprocket wheels to transmit power, as in a bicycle.

Block signal. (Railroads) One of the danger signals or safety signals which guide the movement of trains in a block system. The signal is often so coupled with a switch that act of opening or closing the switch operates the signal also.

Block system. (Railroads) A system by which the track is divided into short sections, as of three or four miles, and trains are so run by the guidance of electric, or combined electric and pneumatic, signals that no train enters a section or block until the preceding train has left it, as in absolute blocking, or that a train may be allowed to follow another into a block as long as it proceeds with excessive caution, as in permissive blocking.

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Blol"ly (?), n. (Bot.) (a) A shrub or small tree of southern Florida and the West Indies (Pisonia obtusata) with smooth oval leaves and a hard, 10-ribbed fruit. (b) The rubiaceous shrub Chicocca racemosa, of the same region.

Blue-grass State. The Sate of Kentucky; -- a nickname alluding to the blue-grass region, where fine horses are bred.

Blue Hen State. The State of Delaware; -- a popular sobriquet. It is said, though the story lacks proof, to have taken its origin from the insistence of a Delaware Revolutionary captain, named Caldwell, that no cock could be truly game unless the mother was a blue hen, whence Blue Hen's Chickens came to be a nickname for the people of Delaware.

Blue"nose` (?), n. A Nova Scotian; also, a Nova Scotian ship (called also Blue"nos`er (&?;)); a Nova Scotian potato, etc.

Blue"-sky"law`. A law enacted to provide for the regulation and supervision of investment companies in order to protect the public against companies that do not intend to do a fair and honest business and that offer investments that do not promise a fair return; -- so called because the promises made by some investment companies are as boundless or alluring as the blue sky, or, perhaps, because designed to clear away the clouds and fogs from the simple investor's horizon. [Colloq.]

Blue"y (?), n. [From Blue, a.] [Australasia] 1. A bushman's blanket; -- named from its color.

We had to wring our blueys.

Lawson.

2. A bushman's bundle; a swag; -- so called because a blanket is sometimes used as the outside covering.

Bod veal. Veal too immature to be suitable for food.

{ Bo"dhi*sat (?), ||Bo`dhi*satt"va, ||Bo`dhi*satt"wa (?) }, n. [Skr. bdhisattva (perh. through Pali bdhisatt); fr. bdhi knowledge, enlightenment + sattva being, essence.] (Buddhism) One who has reached the highest degree of saintship, so that in his next incarnation he will be a Buddha, or savior of the world. -- Bo"dhi*sat`ship, n.

Bod"y, n. (Aëronautics) The central, longitudinal framework of a flying machine, to which are attached the planes or aërocurves, passenger accommodations, controlling and propelling apparatus, fuel tanks, etc.

Bo"gey (?), n.; pl. Bogeys (#). [Also bogie.] 1. A goblin; a bugbear.

I have become a sort of bogey -- a kill- joy.

Wm. Black.

2. (Golf) A given score or number of strokes, for each hole, against which players compete; -- said to be so called because assumed to be the score of an imaginary first-rate player called Colonel Bogey.

Bo"gie en"gine. (Railroads) A switching engine the running gear and driving gear of which are on a bogie, or truck.

Boil"er, n. A sunken reef; esp., a coral reef on which the sea breaks heavily.

||Bo*le"ro (?), n. A kind of small outer jacket, with or without sleeves, worn by women.

||Bo"lo (?), n. [Sp.] A kind of large knife resembling a machete. [Phil. Islands]