bacillicide

[Mod. Lat.bacillus, and-cido, combining form = to kill.] A substance used to destroy poisonous germs; a disinfectant. bạ-çil-lus (plur. ba-çil'-11), s. [Lat. bacillus = a little staff; dim in. of baculum = a staff.] 1. Anat.: Any minute rod-like body. 2. Biology: (1) A so-called genus or division of microscopic rod-like organisms. Several species are distinguished; some a ociated with, and believed to be the causes of certain diseases; others are the active agents in fermentation and putrefaction. (2) Any individual of this genus or division. 3. Entom.: A genus of Phasmidæ (q.v.). bắck (1), * băcke, * băk, s ., a., & adv . [S. bæc , bac ; Sw. & O. Icel. bak ; Dan, bag , bagen ; O. Fr. & O. L. Ger. bac , bak ; O. H. Ger. bacho .] A. As substantive: I. Literally : The upper part of the body in most animals, extending from the neek to the loins. II. Figuratively: 1. Of man: (a) The whole hinder part, upon which a burden is naturally carried. (Opposed to the front or any part of it.) "Those who, by their ancestors, have been set free from a constant drudgery to their backs and the r bellies, should bestow some time on their heads."-Locke. (b) The entire body, as in the expre ion, "he has not clothes on his back ." (c) Whatever, in any portion of the human frame, occupies a relative situation analogous to that of the back in the body itself. Thus the back of the head is the hinder part of the head; the back of the hand is the convex part of it-that on the other side of the palm. (d) A body of followers; persons to back one. [BACKING.] "So Mr. Pym and his back were rescued."-Baillis: Letters, 1. 217. (Jamie son.) A thin back : A small party. (Jamie son.) (e) In football : Those players who are stationed at the rear of their own side, and nearest their own goal. [HALF-BACK.] 2. Of things: (a) Of knives , axes, and similar implements: The thick blunt portion; that on the other side from the cutting edge. (b) The portion of anything most remote from its face or from the place which the speaker at the moment occupies. "Trees set upon the backs of chimnies do ripen fruit Booner."- Bacon : Natural History. "The source of waves which I shall choose for these experiments is a plate of copper, against the back of which a steady sheet of flame is permitted to play."Tyndall: Frag. of Science (3rd ed.), viii. 4, p. 181. III. The word back is used in the following special phrases: 1. Behind the back : (a) Lit .: To or at any spot so situated. pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, pòt, (b) Fig .: The time when one is absent. [See No. 10.] 2. The back of my hand to you: I will have nothing more to do with you. (Jamie son.) 3. To be up ( used of the back ): To become irritated against a person. The metaphor is derived from the procedure of a cat or similar animal, which raises its spine and bristles up its hair before attacking an adversary. (Jamie son.) "Well, Nelly, since my back is up, ye sall tak down the picture" -Scott : St. Ronan's Well , ch. iii. 4. To bow down the back : To humiliate. IMG:content-0976.png:[blocks in formation] 14 he would not thus lightly have given us the back"-Bunyan: P. P., pt. 1. 7. To have the back at the wall : To be in an unfortunate state. (Jamie son.) ( Scotch .) 8. To plough upon the back : To inflict upon one gro oppre ion, injury, and insult. "The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. "-Ps. cxxix. 3. 9. To see the back , used of soldiers in a battle, means that they have turned to flee. fifty you sand fighting men, whose backs no enemy had ever seen." - Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. i. 10. To turn the back : (a) To turn in battle with the intention of fleeing, or in an enterprise with the design of abandoning it. "O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!"-Josh. vii. 8. (b) To go away, as, "Scarcely had the teacher turned his back when the scholars gro ly misbehaved." (In this sense it may be followed by on or upon .) (c) Actually to turn the back upon one in the street, either undisguisedly or under the pretence of not seeing lum. B. As adjective : 1. Pertaining to or supporting the back, as the " back -bone." "... it shall he take off hard by the back -bone..." -Lev. iii. 9. 2. Behind anything in situation, as a " back yard;" hence remote from the acce ible parts of the country; up a country inland, as "the back settlements of North America." Back and bottom nails: Nails made with flat shanks that they may hold fast, and yet not open the grain of the wood. ( Glo og . Nov. ) C. As adverb: L. Of a person or place: 1. To the quarter behind a person or thing; backward. "And when Judah looked back , behold, the battle was before and behind."-2 Chron . xiii. 14. 2. To the direction opposite to that in which motion has been made; to the place whence one has departed or been taken away. "... and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, " -Exod . xiv. 21. "Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house?"-2 Sam . xix. 11. To give back in battle : To recede from a position before occupied. "This made Christian give a little back ; A polly on, therefore, followed his work amain-Bunyan, P. P. , pt. i. 3. To a person or public body whence anything has been obtained; to one's self again; again; in return. "The labourers po e nothing but what he thinks fit to give them, and until he thinks fit to take it back."-J. S. Mill : Pol . Econ ., vol. i., bk. ii., ch. v., § 1. 4. So as to remain behind; with no progre ion in any direction ( lit. & fig .); retained instead of being paid over. "... but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour."- Numb . xxiv. 11. IMG:content-0977.png:[blocks in formation] II. Of time : back 1. To or at a time gone by. "I had always a curiosity to look back unto the sources of things, and to view in my mind the beginning and progre of a rising world."-Burnet. 2. A second time, anew, afresh again. "The epistles being written from ladies forsaken by their lovers, many thoughts came back upon us in divers letters."-Dryden. III. Of state or condition: To a former state or condition; again. "For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer..." Hosea iv. 16. Crabb thus distinguishes (a) between the adverb back and backward : Back denotes the situation of being and the direction of going; backward simply the manner of going. A person stands back who would not be in the way; he goes backward when he would not turn his back to an object. (b) Between back and behind Back marks the situation of a place behind , the situation of one object with another. A person stands back who stands in the back part of a place; he stands behind who has any one in front of him; the back is opposed to the front, behind to before. ( Crabb : Eng . Synon.) D. In composition : Back is generally an adjective, as back -bone, back -yard, though in some rare instances it is adverbial, as in the case of back -filling, . * back-band, s. [BACK-BOND.]