er.

BLAST-ENGINE. A ventilating machine to draw off the foul air from the
hold of a ship, and induce a current of fresh air into it.

BLATHER. Thin mud or puddle. Also, idle nonsense.

BLAY. A name of the bleak.

BLAZE, TO. To fire away as briskly as possible. To blaze away is to keep
up a running discharge of fire-arms. Also, to spear salmon. Also, in the
woods, to mark a tree by cutting away a portion of its outer surface,
thus leaving a patch of whiter internal surface exposed, to call
attention or mark a track.

BLAZERS. Applied to mortar or bomb vessels, from the great emission of
flame to throw a 13-inch shell.

BLAZING STARS. The popular name of comets.

BLEAK. The _Leuciscus alburnus_ of naturalists, and the fresh-water
sprat of Isaak Walton. The name of this fish is from the Anglo-Saxon
_blican_, owing to its shining whiteness--its lustrous scales having
long been used in the manufacture of false pearls.

BLEEDING THE MONKEY. The monkey is a tall pyramidal kid or bucket, which
conveys the grog from the grog-tub to the mess--stealing from this _in
transitu_ is so termed.

BLEED THE BUOYS. To let the water out.

BLENNY. A small acanthopterygious fish (_Blennius_).

BLETHER-HEAD. A blockhead.

BLETHERING. Talking idle nonsense; insolent prate.

BLIND. A name on the west coast of Scotland for the pogge, or miller's
thumb (_Cottus cataphractus_).

BLIND. Everything that covers besiegers from the enemy. (_See_ ORILLON.)

BLINDAGE. A temporary wooden shelter faced with earth, both in siege
works and in fortified places, against splinters of shells and the like.

BLIND-BUCKLERS. Those fitted for the hawse-holes, which have no aperture
for the cable, and therefore used at sea to prevent the water coming in.

BLIND-HARBOUR. One, the entrance of which is so shut in as not readily
to be perceived.

BLIND-ROCK. One lying just under the surface of the water, so as not to
be visible in calms.

BLIND-SHELL. One which, from accident or bad fuze, has fallen without
exploding, or one purposely filled with lead, as at the siege of Cadiz.
Also used at night filled with fuze composition, and enlarged fuze-hole,
to indicate the range.

BLIND-STAKES. A sort of river-weir.

BLINK OF THE ICE. A bright appearance or looming (the iceberg reflected
in the atmosphere above it), often assuming an arched form; so called by
the Greenlanders, and by which reflection they always know when they are
approaching ice long