Word origins

• bright-eyedeager and alert
• brimfireSulfurous fire such as is associated with Hell; hellfire.
• brimstonyContaining or resembling brimstone; sulphurous.
• brindedEspecially of the fur or skin of animals: having a patchy or streaky pattern, usually brown or grey in colour; brindled.
• bring to groundTo cast down, overthrow, overcome, subdue.
• bring upUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bring, up: To bring from a lower to a higher position.
• brinieA coat of mail.
• broad arrowa metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point; used traditionally in heraldry, and later by the British government to mark government property and convict uniforms.
• broad arrowheadSynonym of broad arrow (“type of arrowhead”).
• brockleBroken pieces of a structure; rubble, ruins.
• broomyCovered in the shrub broom.
• broonThe colour brown.
• brother-germanA full brother: a brother born to the same mother and father, as distinguished from half brothers (uterine brothers), step-brothers, or 'brothers' established through relationships such as wardship.
• brother-in-lawThe brother of one's spouse.
• brotherlessWithout a brother.
• brotherredBrotherhood; fraternity.
• brother-slayerOne who kills or murders one's brother; a fratricide
• brotherwortPennyroyal (Mentha pulegium).
• brusleTo cause (something) to bristle or stand erect.
• brustleTo crackle; to rustle.
• bucksomeMarked by bucking or bucking up; (by extension) lively; brisk; jocund.
• bulchinA little bull; a bull calf.
• bullaceA small European plum (Prunus interstitia, syn. Prunus domestica subsp. insititia).
• bullimongA mixture of oats, barley, etc. sown to provide cattle feed.
• bunchinessThe quality or condition of being bunchy.
• bunchyHaving, or growing in bunches.
• burblyburbling, bubbling
• burelA coarse woolen cloth.
• burgageA medieval tenure in socage under which property in England and Scotland was held under the king or a lord of a town and was maintained for a yearly rent or for rendering an inferior service (not knight's service) such as watching and warding.
• burgessyCitizenship.
• burghboteA tax paid toward the building or repairing of castles or walls for the defense of a city or town.
• burierOne who buries
• burnt offeringA slaughtered animal offered and burnt on an altar as an atonement for sin.
• burstenBurst; broken; ruptured.
• BuscotA small village and civil parish in Vale of White Horse district, Oxfordshire, England, historically in Berkshire (OS grid ref SP2397).
• butlershipThe rank, office, or position of a butler.
• butleryA butler's pantry; a serving pantry.
• buxomlyIn a buxom way.
• buxomnessVoluptuousness, shapeliness.
• by-Town or city.
• by and byAfter a short time.
• by footwalking, jogging or running but not in a vehicle or on the back of an animal
• BygottA surname.
• by heartFrom unaided memory and in full detail.
• by hook or by crookBy any means possible; one way or another.
• byhoveTo suit; to befit.
• bypathAn unfrequented path; an indirect route; a byway.
• byrnieA short chain mail shirt, covering from the upper arms to the upper thighs.
• byspelAn example.
• by virtue of(originally) By the authority or power of; (now) because of; on the grounds of; by reason of.
• cacklerA person or creature that cackles.
• cadgeTo tie, fasten.
• calcineTo heat (a substance) to remove its impurities and refine it.
• calculeA reckoning; computation.
• calendererOne who operates a calender; a person who calenders, who smooths.
• calendsOften with initial capital: the first day of a month.
• calffleshThe meat or flesh of a calf; veal.
• calflessHaving no or extremely reduced calves.
• callosityA callus.
• callownessThe condition of being callow; immaturity.
• caltropA metal object, usually small, with spikes arranged so that, when thrown onto the ground, one always faces up as a threat to pedestrians, horses, and vehicles (also used as a heraldic charge).
• cambucaA 12th-century English game somewhat similar to golf in that it was played with a wooden ball similar to a golf ball.
• CameliardThe kingdom of the young Princess Guinevere, ruled by her father, King Leodegrance.
• camelineOf or pertaining to camels.
• camletA fine fabric made from wool (originally camel, but later goat) and silk.
• cammockA common restharrow (Ononis spinosa subsp. maritima, syn. Ononis spinosa), a plant with long, hard, crooked roots.
• camousflat; depressed; crooked
• cankGossip, chatter.
• cankeredInfected with a canker or having a cankerous part.
• capitularAn act passed in a chapter.
• captainessfemale captain
• captainryPower or command over a district; chieftainship.
• captainshipcaptaincy
• captiousThat captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.
• cardoonAny member of the species Cynara cardunculus of prickly perennial plants which has leaf stalks eaten as a vegetable, related to the artichoke.
• carfulAs much as a car will hold. (Usually with reference to an automobile; sometimes with reference to a railroad car, especially in 19th-century texts.)
• CarrigtohillA small town in County Cork, Ireland (Irish grid ref W 8273).
• carry outTo hold while moving it out.
• carthorseA large, strong horse used for pulling heavy loads.
• cartloadThe amount that a cart can carry.
• cartularyA medieval manuscript register containing full or excerpted transcriptions of important documents, especially of originally loose, single-sheet charters.
• cartwainA wagon using for hauling loads.
• cartwayA way or road for carts.
• cast downTo make (a person) discouraged or dejected.
• castlelikeResembling a castle
• castletA small castle.
• catamountainA leopard, a panther (Panthera pardus); also, an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis).
• caterwaulTo cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.
• catholiconA supposed universal remedy.
• catstailTimothy grass (Phleum pratense)
• catwortSynonym of catnip (the plant).
• 'causeApheretic form of because.
• cavelA gag.
• cavillationThe act of cavilling.
• ceduleA scroll, written document, or schedule.
• cellar doorA door leading to a cellar.
• centenierSynonym of centurion: An officer overseeing 100 men, especially (historical) in the Roman army.
• cerateAn unctuous preparation for external application — mainly wax (or resin or spermaceti) mixed with oil, lard, and various medicinal ingredients — of a consistency between ointment and plaster, so that it can be spread upon cloth without the use of heat, but does not melt when applied to the skin.
• Chadwell HeathA suburb in the borough of Barking and Dagenham and borough of Redbridge, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ4887).
• chairmakerA manufacturer of chairs.