book-post 
conveyed at reduced rates of postage, when the 
wrappers are left open at the ends. 
book-rack (buk'rak), . A rack or frame for 
supporting an open book, or for holding a num- 
ber of books. 
book-scorpion (buk'sk6r"pi-on), . A small 
araclmidan of the genus CheUfcr; a little false 
scorpion, found in old books and dark musty 
places. Cheli/cr cancroids, scarcely a twelfth of an 
inch Ions, and dark-reddish in appearance, is an example. 
bookseller (buk'sel"er), . A person who car- 
ries on the business of selling books. 
bookselling (buk'ser'ing), . The business of 
selling books. 
book-shop (buk'shop), K. A book-store. 
book-slide (buk'slid), w. Same as book-tray. 
book-stall (buk'stal), w. A stand or stall on 
which books, generally second-hand, are dis- 
played for sale. 
book-stand (buk'stand), n. 1. A stand or sup- 
port to hold books for reading or reference. 
2. A stand or frame for containing books of- 
fered for sale on the streets, etc. 3. A set of 
shelves for books. 
book-stone (buk'ston), . Same as bibliolite. 
book-store (buk'stor), n. A store or shop where 
books are sold. [U. S.] 
book-trade (buk'trad), n. 1. The buying and 
selling of books ; the business of printing and 
publishing books. 2. Those, collectively, who 
are engaged in this business. 
book-tray (buk'tra), M. A board for holding 
books, made generally of some cabinet-wood, 
with sliding ends, often richly ornamented. 
Also called book-slide. 
book-trimmer (buk'trim"er), n. A machine 
for squaring the edges of unbound books. 
book-work (buk'werk), . 1. The study of 
text-books, as distinguished from experimental 
studies, or from instruction imparted by lec- 
tures. 2. In printing, work on books and 
pamphlets, as distinguished from newspaper- 
work and job-work. 
book-worm (buk'werm), . 1. A name given 
to the larvae of various insects, which gnaw and 
injure books, but particularly to those of two 
species of small beetles, Anobium (Sitodrepa) 
paniceum and Ptinus brunneus, belonging to the 
family Ptinidce. They infest old, unused books, work- 
a, Sitodrepa panicea; b, enlarged antenna of same ; c, Ptinus 
brunntiis. (Vertical lines show natural sizes. } 
ing chiefly in the leather binding, but also riddling the 
leaves with small holes. The larv of both species are 
closely similar, being cylindrical and curved like those of 
snout-beetles, but furnished with well-developed legs, and 
with rather long, sparse pubescence. In the imago state, 
however, the species are readily distinguished, P. brun- 
neus being much more slender in every respect than A. 
rnteeum. 
A person closely addicted to study ; one de- 
voted to the reading of or to research in books : 
as, "these poring book-worms," Toiler, No. 278. 
[In this sense more commonly as one word.] 
Though I be no book-worm, nor one that deals by art, to 
give you rhetoric. B. Jomson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 2. 
Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. 
Emerson, Misc., p. 77. 
bookwright (buk'rit), . A writer of books; 
an author : a term expressive of slight dispar- 
agement. 
In London, at this moment, any young man of real 
power will nud friends enough and too many among his 
fellow bookicrights. Kingtley, Two Years Ago, xi. 
bool 1 (bol), n. [Sc. form of bowl 2 .'] 1. A bowl 
used in bowling. 2. A marble used by boys 
in play. 3. pi. The game of bowls. 
booP, M. See boul. 
Boole's canon. See canon. 
booleyt, n. See booly. 
Boolian (bo'li-an), a. and re. I. a. Relating to 
the mathematician George Boole (1815-64), the 
author of a system of algebraic notation for 
626 
the solution of logical problems Boolian alge- 
bra. See algebra. 
II. . An expression of logical algebra, sub- 
jwct to the rules of Boole's system, with modi- 
fied addition, and stating a relation between 
certain individual objects, without indicating 
how those objects are to be chosen. 
boolyt, n. [Also written boley, boly, < Ir. buaile 
= Gael, buaile, a fold, place for milking cows. 
Cf. Ir. buailidh = Gael, bualaidh, a cow-house, 
ox-stall (cf. equiv. L. bovile), < Ir. Gael, bo = 
E. cow 1 .] Formerly, in Ireland : ()Aplaceof 
shelter for cattle. (6) A company of people 
and their cattle that wandered from place to 
place in search of pasture. 
This keeping of cowes is of it selfe a verye idle life, and 
a fltt nurserye for a theefe. For which cause ye remem- 
ber that I disliked the Irish manner of keeping Bolyes 
in Sommer upon the mountaynes and living after that 
savadge sorte. Spenxer, State of Ireland. 
boom 1 (bom), r. i. [An imitative word, a re- 
vival of ME. bummen, mod. E. bum 1 , in its orig. 
sound (ME. u usually represented the sound 
now indicated by oo long or short) : see bum 1 , 
bomb 1 , bomb 2 , bump 1 , bumble, etc., and cf. 
boom 3 . ] To make a deep, hollow, continued 
sound, (a) To buzz, hum, or drone, as a bee or beetle. 
At eve the beetle boometh 
Athwart the thicket lone. 
Tennyson, Claribel. 
(6) To drum or cry, as a bittern. 
And the bittern sound his drum, 
Booming from the sedgy shallow. 
Scott, L. of the L., i. 31. 
(c) To roar, rumble, or reverberate, as distant guns. 
The sound of the musket-volleying booing into the far 
dining rooms of the Chauss^e d'Antin. 
Carlyle, French Rev., I. iv. 3. 
(d) To roar, as waves when they rush with violence upon 
the shore, or as a river during a freshet, or as a ship when 
rushing along before a fair wind under a press of sail. 
She comes booming down before the wind. Totten. 
boom 1 (bom), n. [<6oom 1 , .] A deep, hollow, 
continued sound, (a) A buzzing, humming, or dron- 
ing, as of a bee or beetle. (&) The cry of the bittern, (c) 
A roaring, rumbling, or reverberation, as of distant guns. 
Meantime came up the boom of cannon, slowly receding 
in the same direction. J. K. Hosmer, The Color Guard, vi. 
(d) A roaring, implying also a rushing with violence, as of 
waves. 
There is one in the chamber, as in the grave, for whom 
the boom of the wave has no sound, and the march of the 
deep no tide. Bulwer. 
boom 2 (bom), n. [A naut. word of D. origin, 
< D. boom = LG. boom, a tree, beam, bar, pole, 
= Sw. Dan. bom, a bar, rail, perch, boom, = 
Norw. bomm, bumm, bumb (according to Aasen 
from LG. or D.), a bar, boom, = G. baum, a 
tree, beam, bar, boom, =E. beam, q. v.] 1. 
A long pole or spar used to extend the foot of 
certain sails of a ship: as, the main-ioow, jib- 
boom, studdingsail-feoowi. 2. A strong barrier, 
as of beams, or an iron chain or cable fastened 
to spars, extended across a river or the mouth 
of a harbor, to prevent an enemy's ships from 
passing. 3. A chain of floating logs fastened 
together at the ends and stretched across a 
river, etc., to stop floating timber. [U. S.] 
4. A pole set up as a mark to direct seamen 
how to keep the channel in shallow water. 5. 
pi. A space in a vessel's waist used for stowing 
boats and spare spars Bentlnck boom. See ben- 
tinck. Fore-boom, an old name for the jib-boom ; the 
boom of a fore-and-aft foresail. Guess- warp boom. See 
guess-warp. Ringtail boom. See ringtail. 
boom 2 (bom), v. t. [= D. boomen, push with a 
pole, < boom, a pole, boom : see boom 2 , n. Cl. 
beam, t'.] 1. To shove with a boom or spar. 
2. To drive or guide (logs) down a stream with 
a boom or pole. 3. To pen or confine (logs) 
with a boom. To boom off, to shove (a vessel or boat) 
away with spars. 
boom 3 (bom), v. [A recent American use, ori- 
ginating in the West, and first made familiar in 
1878 ; a particular application of boom 1 , v. i., 
(d) (with ref. also to boom 1 , n., (d)), from the 
thought of sudden and rapid motion with a 
roaring and increasing sound. In later use 
some assume also an allusion to boom 2 , n., 3. 
When a boom of logs breaks, the logs rush 
with violence down the stream, and are then 
said to be "booming"; but this appears to be 
the ordinary ppr. adj. booming, roaring, rush- 
ing with violence, and to have no connection 
with boom 2 , n. or v."] I. intrans. To go on with 
a rush; become suddenly active; be "lively," 
as business ; be prosperous or flourishing. [The 
earliest instance of the word in this sense appears to be in 
the following passage : 
" The Republicans of every other State are of the same 
way of thinking. The fact is, the Grant movement [for a 
third term of the presidency] is booming." 
J, B. McCullayh, in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 18, 1878. 
booming 
Mr. McCullagh, in a letter to one of the editors of this 
Dictionary, says : "I cannot explain how I came to use it, 
except that, while on the gunboats on the Mississippi river 
during the war, I used to hear the pilots say of the river, 
when rising rapidly and overflowing its banks, that it (the 
river) was 'booming.' The idea I wished to convey was 
that the Grant movement was rising swelling, etc. The 
word seemed to be a good one to the ear, and I kept it np. 
It was generally adopted about a year afterward. I used 
it as a noun after a while, and spoke of ' the Grant boom.' "] 
They all say that one railroad spoils a town, two bring 
it to par again, and three make it boom. 
E. Marston, Frank's Ranche, p. 36. 
II. trans. To bring into prominence or public 
notice by calculated means; push with vigor 
or spirit : as, to boom a commercial venture, or 
the candidacy of an aspirant for office. 
boom 3 (bom), n. [< boom 3 , v.] A sudden in- 
crease of activity; a rush. Specifically (a) In 
politics, a movement seeming, or meant to seem, spon- 
taneous in favor of a candidate for office, or in behalf of 
some cause. (6) In com., a sudden and great increase of 
business ; a rapid advance of prices : as, a boom in real 
estate ; a boom in petroleum. [U. S.] 
Capital was enticed thither (to New Mexico] for invest- 
ment, and a great number of enterprises sprang up in al- 
most every direction. The boom, however, fell almost as 
rapidly as it arose. The Nation, Jan. 28, 1886. 
boomage (bo'maj), n. [< boom 2 + -age.] 1. 
Naut., aduty levied as a composition forharbor- 
dues, anchorage, and soundage. 2. Compensa- 
tion or toll for the use of a boom, or for the 
service rendered by the owner of a boom in 
receiving, handling, driving, and assorting logs 
floating in a stream. [U. S.] 
boom-boat (bom'bot), . One of the boats 
stowed in the booms. See boom 2 , n., 5. 
boom-COVer (bom'kuv"er), n. Naut., the large 
tarpaulin used to cover over the space where 
the boom-boats and booms are stowed. 
boomer 1 (bo'mer), n. [Appar. in ref. to the 
sound made by the animal; < boom 1 + -er 1 ,"] 
1. In Australia, a name of the male of a species 
of kangaroo. 2. A name of the showt'l or 
mountain beaver, Haplodon rufus or Aplodontia 
leporina. See cut under Haplodon Mountain 
boomer, the common red squirrel. [Local, U. S.] 
boomer 2 (bo'mer), n. [< boom 3 + -er 1 .] One 
who booms ; one who starts and keeps up an 
agitation in favor of any project or person ; 
one who assists in the organization or further- 
ance of a boom. [U. S.] 
The Federal Government holds them [the reservations 
in the Indian Territory] as a trustee for the Indians; and 
it will be a hundred fold better to let some acres remain 
uncultivated and unoccupied rather than that all shall be 
given over to the rapacity of white boomers. 
The Xation, Jan. 7, 1886. 
boomerang (bo'me-rang), u. [Recently also 
boomering, bomerang, bomarang ; from a native 
name in New South Wales; wo-mur-rang and 
bumarin are 
cited as abo- 
riginal names 
of clubs.] 
1 . A mis- 
sile weapon 
of war and 
the chase, 
Boomerangs. Used ty the 
aborigines of 
Australia, consisting of a rather flat piece of 
hard wood bent or curved in its own plane, and 
from 16 inches to 2 feet long. Generally, but not 
always, it is flatter on one side than on the other. In 
some cases the curve from end to end is nearly an arc of a 
circle, in others it is rather an obtuse angle than a curve, 
and in a few examples there is a slight reverse curve 
toward each end. In the hands of a skilful thrower the 
boomerang can be projected to great distances, and can be 
made to ricochet almost at will ; it can be thrown in a 
curved path, somewhat as a bowl can be "screwed" or 
"twisted," and it can be made to return to the thrower, 
and strike the ground behind him. It is capable of in- 
flicting serious wounds. 
Hence 2. Figuratively, any plan, measure, 
or project the consequences of which recoil 
upon the projector, and are therefore the oppo- 
site of those intended or expected. 
booming 1 (bo'ming), n. [Verbal n. of boom 1 , 
v."] The act of making a deep, hollow, contin- 
ued sound, or the sound itself, (a) A buzzing or 
droniug, as of a bee or beetle. (6) The crying of a bittern. 
The marsh-bittern's weird batjininri, the drumming of 
the capercailzie. P. Robinson, Under the Sun, p. 55. 
(c) A roaring or reverberating, as of distant guns, (rf) A 
roaring, implying also a rushing with violence, as of waves. 
booming 1 (bo'ming), p. a. [Ppr. of boom 1 , v.] 
Making a deep, hollow, continued sound (in 
any of the senses of the verb). 
All night the b<ntiiti*j minute trim 
Had p*aled along the deep. Ilemans, The Wreck. 
Still darker grows the spreading cloud 
From which the f>t>n,nin:f tlHimU-rs sound. 
Bryant, Legend of the Delawares. 
