bombace 
2. Cotton-wool, or wadding. 3. Padding; 
stuHing. l-'ullrr. 
Bombaceae (bom-ba'se-e), n. pi. [NL., < HIIM- 
lin.i- + -acca-,] An arboreous tribe or suborder 
of Mali'acca:, by some eoiiHiili-ri'd ;i distinct or- 
der, distinguished chiefly by the five- to eight- 
cleft stamineal column. There are ulxmt 20 small 
ircnem, principally tropical, including the baobab (Allan- 
*"ii<), tlie cotton-tree (f: l i>il<'iKl/-"/t anil llinnhax), the 
lltiri:tll (/>"//')>, rtc. 
boinbaceous (bom-ba'shius), . In Imt., relat- 
ing or pertaining to plants of the natural order 
Itnillhilri if. 
bombard (l)oni'- or bum'biird), n. [Early mod. 
10. also bum/Mini, < MK. biiinbarde, hoiubardc 
(in sense 4), < OF. bninburdi; a cannon, a mu- 
sical instrument, F. bombarde (= Sp. Pg. It. 
liiiiitbnrda, a cannon, It. bomhanlu, a musical 
instrument), < ML. bnmbiiriln, orig. an engine 
for throwing largo stones, prob. (with suffix 
-until, E. -ard) < L. bombus, a loud noise, in ML. 
a fireball, a bomb: see bomb^, .] 1. The name 
generally given in Europe to the cannon dur- 
ing the first century of its use. The earliest bom- 
bar, Is wen- more like mortars than modern cannon, throw- 
ins their shot (originally stone halls) at a great elevation ; 
many wen- npi-n at lioth ends, the shot heing introduced 
at the breech, which was afterward stopped by a piece 
wedded or bolted into place. 
Which with onr bombard*' shot, and basilisk, 
We rent in sunder. Marlum, Jew of Malta, v. 3. 
2. See bomhardelle. 3. A small vessel with 
two masts, like the English ketch, used in the 
Mediterranean; a bomb-ketch. 4. A large 
leathern jug or bottle for holding liquor. See 
black-jack, 1. 
That swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of 
sack. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., U. 4. 
Yond' same black cloud . . . looks like a foul bombard 
that would shed his liquor. N/..U-.. Tempest, ii. 2. 
They'd ha' beat out 
His brains with bombards. 
Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque. 
8f. Figuratively, a toper. Of. A medieval mu- 
sical instrument of the oboe family, having a 
reed mouthpiece and a wooden tube. The name 
was properly applied to a lame and low-pitched Instru- 
ment (whence the name bnmtiardon for a heavy reed-stop 
In organ-building) ; but it was also used for small instru- 
ments of the name class, which were known as basset-bom- 
bards and bombard! piccoli. 
7. pi. A style of breeches worn in the seven- 
teenth century, before the introduction of 
tight-fitting knee-breeches. They reached to the 
knee, and were probably so named because they hung 
loose and resembled the leathern drinking-vessels called 
bombards. 
8. [From the verb.] An attack with bombs; 
a bombardment. [Rare.] 
bombard (bora- or bum-bard'), v. [< F. bom- 
bunlor, batter with a bombard or cannon, < 
bombards, > E. bombard, a cannon: see bom- 
bard, n. The relation to bomb% is thus only 
indirect.] I. intrans. To fire off bombards or 
cannon. 
II. trans. 1. To cannonade; attack with 
bombs ; fire shot and shell at or into ; batter 
with shot and shell. 
Next she [France] intends to bombard Naples. 
Burke, Present State of Affairs. 
2. To attack with missiles of any kind; figura- 
tively, assail vigorously: as, to bombard one 
with questions. 
bombardellet (bom -bar-del'), [Dim. of F. 
//iimliiirili'.] A portable bombard, or hand-bom- 
bard ; the primitive portable firearm of Europe, 
consisting simply of a hollow cylinder with a 
touch-hole for firing with a match, and attach- 
ed to a long staff for handling. 
The first portable firearm of which we have any repre- 
sentation . . . was called the bombard or bombardelle. 
Am. Cyc., XII. 96. 
The Man on Foot, clad In light armor, held the bom- 
bardelle up. Pop. Set, Mo., XXVIII. 490. 
bombardier (bom- or bum-bar-der'), n. [For- 
merly also bumbarditr, bomlxirdi'cr; < F. botn- 
liiinUi-r (= Sp. bombardero = Pg. bombardeiro 
=. It. liiiiiiliiinlifro), < bombarde, bombard.] 1. 
Properly, a soldier in charge of a bombard or 
cannon; specifically, in the British army, a 
non-commissioned officer of the Royal Artil- 
lery, ranking next below a corporal, whose 
duty it is to load shells, grenades, etc., and to 
fix the fuses, and who is particularly appointed 
to the service of mortars and howitzers. 2. 
A bombardier-beetle. 3. A name of a Euro- 
pean frog, Boaibiiititnr ii/iiriin. 
bombardier-beetle (bom-bar-der'be'tl), . Tbe 
common name of many coleopterous insects, 
family Carabidft and genera Brachinius and Ap- 
Bombardler-bcetle (km- 
Uonibardoii. 
017 
tiini.i. found under stories. Wh.-n irritated, they are 
apt 1" expel violently from the anus a pungent, acrid n m. i 
a< rnmpaiiiril by a slight son ml. 
bombard-mant (bom'- 
biird-imin), . One who 
delivered liquor in bom- 
bards to customers. 
They miule room for a tunn- 
mam that brought bouge 
for a countrey lady. 
If. JOHSOII, Masques, Love 
IKcstonA 
bombardment (bom- or 
bum- bard 'ment), n. [< 
bombanl + -incut; = F. 
bombardi-mCHt.] A con- 
tinuous attack with shot 
and shell upon a town, 
fort, or other position ; the 
act of throwing shot and shell into an enemy's 
town in order to destroy the buildings. 
Oenoa is not yet secure from a Imnbardiiunt, though it 
is not so exposed as formerly. Aildimn, Travels In Italy. 
bombardot, n. Same as bombardon. 
bombardon, bombardone (bom-bar'don, bom- 
bar- do' ne), H. [< It. bombardone," aug. of 
bombardo : see bom- 
bard, n.] 1. A large- 
sized musical instru- 
ment of the trumpet 
kind, in tone not un- 
like the ophicleide. lu 
compass generally is from 
F on the fourth ledger-line 
below the bass staff to the 
lower D of the treble staff. 
It is not capable of rapid 
execution. 
2. The lowest of the 
sax -horns. 3. For- 
merly, a bass reed-stop 
of the organ, 
bombard-phraset 
(bom'bara-fraz), n. A 
boasting, loud-sound- 
ing, bombastic phrase. 
Their bombard-phrase , their foot and half-foot words. 
B. Jonsan, tr. of Horace's Art of Poetry. 
bombaset, H. See bombace. 
bombasin, bombasine, . See bombasine. 
bombast (bom'- or bum'bast, formerly bum- 
bast'), n. and a. [Early mod. E. also bttmbast; 
a var., with excrescent -t, of bombase, bombace : 
see bombace.'] I. n. If. Cotton ; the cotton-plant. 
Clothes mode of cotton or bombstt. 
Hakluyt's Foyapu, I. 93. 
Bombast, the cotton plant growing in Asia. 
B. Phillips, World of Words. 
2f. Cotton or other stuff of soft, loose texture, 
used to stuff garments ; padding. 
Thy body's bolstered out with bombast and with bags. 
Gascoiffne, Challenge to Beautie. 
Hence 3. Figuratively, high-sounding words ; 
inflated or extravagant language ; fustian ; 
speech too big and high-sounding for the oc- 
casion. 
Bombast is commonly the delight of that audience which 
loves poetry, but understands It not 
Dryden, Criticism in Tragedy. 
= Syn. 3. Bombast, Fustian, Bathos. Turgidness, Tumid- 
ness, Rant. " Bombast was originally applied to a stuff 
of soft, loose texture, used to swell the gannent. Fustian 
was also a kind of cloth of stiff, expansive character. 
These terms are applied to a high, swelling style of writing, 
full of extravagant sentiments and expressions. Bathos is 
a word which has the same application, meaning generally 
the mock-heroic that ' depth into which one falls who 
overleaps the sublime : the step which one makes in pass- 
ing from the sublime to the ridiculous." (De Mille, Ele- 
ments of Rhetoric, p. 225.) Bombast is rather stronger than 
.fmtifin. Turaidness and tumidnt** are words drawn 
from the swelling of the body, and express mere infla- 
tion of style without reference to sentiment. Rant is ex- 
travagant or violent language, proceeding from enthusiasm 
or fanaticism, generally in support of extreme opinions or 
against those holding opinions of a milder or different sort. 
The first victory of good taste is over the bombast and 
conceits which deform such times as these. 
Moravlay, Dryden. 
And he, whose fust fan's so sublimely bad, 
It is not poetry, but prose run mad. 
Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 187. 
In his fifth sonnet he [Petrarch] may, I think, be said to 
have sounded the lowest chasm of the Bathos. 
Macautay, Petrarch. 
The critics of that day, the most flattering equally with 
the severest, concurred in objecting to them obscurity, a 
general turgidness of diction, and a profusion of new- 
coined double epithets. Colendye, Biog. Lit, i. 
All rant about the rights of man, all whining and whim- 
pering about the clashing interests of body and soul, are 
treated with haughty scorn, or made the butt of contemp- 
tuous n.li. nli- tfUfftt, Ess. and Rev.. I. 2a 
n.f n. High-sounding; inflated; big with- 
out meaning. 
A tall metaphor in bombast way. Cuicfc.w, Ode, Of Wit 
bombinate 
bombast! (lx>m'- or bum'bAftt), r. (. [< /;///- 
imxt, n.] 1. To pad out; stuff, as a'dotiblt-t 
with cotton; hence, to inflate; swell out with 
high-sounding or bombastic language. 
Let them pretend what zeal they will, counterfeit re- 
ligion, blear the world's eyes, bombajtt themselves. 
;ii. of \I. I., p. 196. 
Then strives he to bnmlia.it his feeble line* 
With far-fetch'd phraae. Bp. Hall, Satires, I. 4. 
2. To beat ; baste. 
I will MI eniiacii an.l iiinbaste thee that thou ihalt not 
be able to sturre thyself. Palace of Pleasure (157U). 
bombastic, bombastical (bom- or bum-bas'tik, 
-ti-kal), . [< bombast, n., + -ic, -toil.] Char- 
acterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflat- 
ed; extravagant. 
A theatrical, bombastic, and windy phraseology. 
Burke, A Kegiclde Puce. 
He Indulges without measure In vague, bombastic dec- 
lamation. Macaulay, Sadler s Law of Population. 
-Syn. Swelling, tumid, stilted, pompons, lofty, grandilo- 
quent, liiu'h-tlown. 
bombastically (bom- orbum-bas'ti-kal-i), adv. 
In a bombastic or inflated manner or style. 
bombastry (bom'- or bum'bas-tri), . [< bom- 
bast + -ry.] Bombastic words ; fustian. 
BnmbastriimA buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar 
highest of all. Sin/f. Tale of a Tub, Int. 
Bombaz (bom'baks), n. [ML., cotton, a corrup- 
tion of L. bombyx: see Bombyx.'] 1. A genus of 
silk-cotton trees, natural order ifalracea;, chief- 
ly natives of tropical America. The seeds are cov- 
ered with a silky Him. but this is too short for textile 
uses. The wood Is soft and light. The fibrous bark of 
some species is used for making ropes. 
2f. ft. c. ] Same as bombazine. 
Bombay duck. See bummalo. 
Bombay shell. See shell. 
bombazeen (bom- or bum-ba-zen'), . Same 
as linnih<l~ni< . 
bombazet, bombazette (bom- or bum-ba-zet'), 
ii. [< bomba:(ine) + dim. -et, -ette.~\ A sort 
of thin woolen cloth. 
bombazine, bombasine (bom-or bum-ba-zen'), 
n. [Also bomba:in, bombasin, bombazeen, for- 
merly bitmbazine, bunibaxinc ; < F. bombasin 
(obs.) = Sp. bombast = Pg. bombazina (prob. 
< E.) = It. bambagino, < ML. bombasinum, prop. 
bombi/cinum, a silk texture, neut. of bombasi- 
nus, bombacinus. prop, (as L.) bonibycinus (see 
bombycine), made of silk or cotton, < bombax, 
prop, (as L.) bombyi, silk, cotton : see bombace, 
bombast, Bombax, Bombyx."] If. Raw cotton. 
JV. E. 1). 2. Originally, a stuff woven of silk 
and wool, made in England as early as the reign 
of Elizabeth; afterward, a stuff made of silk 
alone, but apparently always of one color, and 
inexpensive. 3. In modern usage, a stuff of 
which the warp is silk and the weft worsted. An 
imitation of it is made of cotton and worsted. 
Also spelled bombazeen, bombasin. 
bomb-chest (bom'chest), n. Milit., a chest fill- 
ed with bombs or gunpowder, buried to serve 
as an explosible mine. 
bombernickel (bom'b^r-nik'l), n. Same as 
jntmprrnickel. Imp. Diet. 
bombiate (bom'bi-at), n. [< bombi(c) + -ate*.] 
A salt formed by bombic acid and a base. 
bombic (bom'bik), a. [< L. bomb(yx), a silk- 
worm, + -ic.] Of or pertaining to the silkworm. 
Bombic add, acid of the silkworm, obtained from an 
acid liquor contained in a reservoir placed near the anus- 
The Honor is especially abundant In the chrysalis. 
Bombidae (bom'bi-de), . pi. fNL., < Bombiu + 
-wte.] A family of bees, typified by the genus 
Bombus; the bumblebees. [Scarcely used, the 
bumblebees having been merged in Apidte.~] 
bombilate (bom'bi-lat), r . i. ; pret. and pp. boiu- 
bilated, ppr. bnmbilating. [< ML. Itombilare (pp. 
bombilatiut), an erroneous form of LL. bombi- 
tare, freq. of "bombare, ML. also bombire, buzz, 
< L. bombus, a humming, buzzing sound. Cf. 
bomb 1 , 6oi/<2, bum 1 , bumble, etc.] To make a 
buzzing or humming, like a bee, or a top when 
spinning. A". A. Rev. [Rare.] 
bombilation (bom-bi-la'shon), n. [< bombilate : 
see -ation."] A buzzing or droning sound; re- 
port; noise. Also bombulation. [Rare.] 
To abate the vigour thereof or silence Its (powder sj bom- 
bulation. Sir T. Broirnt, Vnlg. Err., ii. s. 
bombilioust, a. See bombylious. 
bombilla (bom-bil'yft), n. [S. Amer. Sp., dim. 
of Sp. bomba, a pump: see pumpl.~\ A tube used 
in Paraguay for drinking mate, it to 8 or ' inches 
long, formed of metal or a reed, with a perforated bulb at 
one end, to prevent the tea-leaves from being drawn up 
into the mouth. 
bombinate (bom'bi-nat), r. i. ; pret. and pp. 
bombinatcd. ppr. bombinatiiig. [< ML. "bombi- 
