33 words starting with B

• badinage noun

  light, playful, teasing conversation

  The friends kept up a cheerful badinage all the way to Bhaktapur on the bus.

  Like banter, repartee, teasing

• baleful adjective

  threatening harm or evil; menacing

  The cat gave the barking dog a baleful stare from the top of the wall.

  Like menacing, sinister, malevolent

• bandy verb

  to mention or pass around ideas, names or words casually (often “bandy about“)

  Different numbers were bandied about, but nobody knew the real price of the ticket.

  Like toss around, exchange

• bane noun

  a cause of constant trouble or annoyance

  Slow internet is the bane of every student trying to submit homework online.

  Like curse, scourge, nuisance

• bathos noun

  a sudden, silly drop from a serious tone to a trivial one

  The speech slid into bathos when the hero’s grand farewell ended with a joke about his socks.

  Like anticlimax, letdown

• beatific adjective

  showing great peace and happiness, almost holy

  The monk sat by the stupa with a beatific smile on his face.

  Like blissful, serene, rapturous

• bedizen verb

  to dress or decorate in a showy, tasteless way

  The actors bedizened themselves with glittering hats and fake jewels for the comedy.

  Like bedeck, festoon, overdress

• beguile verb

  to charm or attract someone, sometimes in order to trick them

  The storyteller beguiled the children with tales of yetis in the high mountains.

  Like charm, enchant, captivate

• behemoth noun

  something enormous and powerful

  The new cargo plane was a behemoth that made the small jets beside it look like toys.

  Like giant, colossus, monster

• belabor verb

  to explain or discuss something far more than needed

  There is no need to belabor the point; we all understand the rules now.

  Like overdo, harp on, dwell on

• beleaguer verb

  to cause constant trouble or difficulty for someone

  The beleaguered referee faced complaints from both teams after every decision.

  Like harass, beset, plague

• bellicose adjective

  eager to fight or argue

  The bellicose goose chased every visitor who came near the pond.

  Like belligerent, aggressive, combative

• benighted adjective

  lacking knowledge or understanding, in an ignorant state

  People in benighted times believed that eclipses were caused by a dragon eating the sun.

  Like ignorant, unenlightened, backward

• bibulous adjective

  fond of drinking alcohol; soaking up liquid easily

  The bibulous paper towel soaked up the spilled ink in seconds.

  Like absorbent, spongy

• bilious adjective

  bad-tempered and irritable; feeling sick in the stomach

  After the long, bumpy bus ride, he felt bilious and grumbled at everyone.

  Like irritable, peevish, nauseous

• bilk verb

  to cheat someone out of money

  A fake travel agent tried to bilk tourists by selling tickets for a bus that did not exist.

  Like swindle, cheat, defraud

• blanch verb

  to turn pale from fear or shock; to dip food briefly in boiling water

  The student blanched when he realized he had left his exam pass at home.

  Like pale, whiten

• blandishment noun

  flattering talk used to persuade someone

  No blandishment from her little brother could make her share the last mango.

  Like flattery, cajolery, coaxing

• blithe adjective

  happy and carefree, sometimes in a careless way

  He walked into the exam with blithe confidence, as if he had nothing to worry about.

  Like carefree, nonchalant, lighthearted

• bloviate verb

  to talk at great length in a pompous, empty way

  Our neighbor bloviated about his garden for an hour without saying anything useful.

  Like pontificate, blather, spout

• bombast noun

  grand, impressive-sounding language with little real meaning

  The candidate’s speech was full of bombast but had no clear plan for the school club.

  Like grandiloquence, pomposity, bluster

• bonhomie noun

  cheerful friendliness and good nature

  The bonhomie at the Dashain gathering made even shy guests feel at home.

  Like geniality, cordiality, warmth

• boor noun

  a rude, ill-mannered person

  Only a boor would talk loudly on the phone during the school concert.

  Like lout, oaf, churl

• boorish adjective

  rude and insensitive in behavior

  His boorish habit of pushing to the front of every line annoyed the other travelers.

  Like rude, coarse, loutish

• bowdlerize verb

  to remove parts of a book or film thought to be improper, often spoiling it

  The school’s bowdlerized version of the play left out all the rude jokes.

  Like censor, expurgate, sanitize

• brackish adjective

  slightly salty, as where river water mixes with seawater

  Few plants can grow in the brackish water near the mouth of the river.

  Like briny, saline, salty

• bromide noun

  a dull, overused remark meant to calm or comfort

  “Everything happens for a reason” is a bromide that did not cheer him up.

  Like cliche, platitude, truism

• brook verb

  to allow or put up with something (usually used with “no” or “not“)

  The strict coach would brook no excuses for arriving late to practice.

  Like tolerate, allow, accept

• brusque adjective

  short and abrupt in speech, in a way that seems rude

  The busy clerk gave a brusque answer and turned to the next customer.

  Like curt, blunt, abrupt

• bucolic adjective

  relating to the pleasant, peaceful life of the countryside

  The painting showed a bucolic scene of goats grazing beside golden rice fields.

  Like rural, pastoral, rustic

• bumptious adjective

  annoyingly full of yourself and pushy

  The bumptious new member kept telling the club’s founders how to run things.

  Like self-important, cocky, presumptuous

• burnish verb

  to polish something until it shines; to improve someone’s reputation

  The craftsman burnished the brass lamp until it glowed like gold.

  Like polish, buff, shine

• byzantine adjective

  extremely complicated and hard to understand, especially rules or systems

  Getting a library card involved a byzantine process of forms and signatures.

  Like convoluted, intricate, labyrinthine