bait VERB to bait means to stop on a journey to take refreshment So, when they stopped to bait the horse, and ate and drank and enjoyed themselves, I could touch nothing that they touched, but kept my fast unbroken. (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens)

balustrade NOUN a balustrade is a row of vertical columns that form railings but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall, and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

bandbox NOUN a large lightweight box for carrying bonnets or hats I am glad I bought my bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another bandbox (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

barren NOUN a barren here is a stretch or expanse of barren land a line of upright stones, continued the length of the barren (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)

basin NOUN a basin was a cup without a handle who is drinking his tea out of a basin (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)

battalia NOUN the order of battle till I saw part of his army in battalia (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)

battery NOUN a Battery is a fort or a place where guns are positioned You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)

battledore and shuttlecock NOUN The game battledore and shuttlecock was an early version of the game now known as badminton. The aim of the early game was simply to keep the shuttlecock from hitting the ground. Battledore and shuttlecock’s a wery good game vhen you an’t the shuttlecock and two lawyers the battledores, in which case it gets too excitin’ to be pleasant (Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens)

beadle NOUN a beadle was a local official who had power over the poor But these impertinences were speedily checked by the evidence of the surgeon, and the testimony of the beadle (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens)

bearings NOUN the bearings of a place are the measurements or directions that are used to find or locate it the bearings of the island (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson)

beaufet NOUN a beaufet was a sideboard and sweet-cake from the beaufet (Emma by Jane Austen)

beck NOUN a beck is a small stream a beck which follows the bend of the glen (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)

bedight VERB decorated and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

Bedlam NOUN Bedlam was a lunatic asylum in London which had statues carved by Caius Gabriel Cibber at its entrance Bedlam, and those carved maniacs at the gates (The Prelude by William Wordsworth)

beeves NOUN oxen or castrated bulls which are animals used for pulling vehicles or carrying things to deliver in every morning six beeves (Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)