from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Bastard \Bas"tard\, a.
1. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate.
See {Bastard}, n., note.
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2. Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; --
applied to things which resemble those which are genuine,
but are really not so.
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That bastard self-love which is so vicious in
itself, and productive of so many vices. --Barrow.
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3. Of an unusual or irregular make or proportion; as, a
bastard musket; a bastard culverin. [Obs.]
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4. (Print.) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page
preceding the full title page of a book.
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{Bastard ashlar} (Arch.), stones for ashlar work, roughly
squared at the quarry.
{Bastard file}, a file intermediate between the coarsest and
the second cut.
{Bastard type} (Print.), type having the face of a larger or
a smaller size than the body; e. g., a nonpareil face on a
brevier body.
{Bastard wing} (Zool.), three to five quill feathers on a
small joint corresponding to the thumb in some mammalia;
the alula.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
File \File\ (f[imac]l), n. [AS. fe['o]l; akin to D. viji, OHG.
f[imac]la, f[imac]hala, G. feile, Sw. fil, Dan. fiil, cf.
Icel. [thorn][=e]l, Russ. pila, and Skr. pi[,c] to cut out,
adorn; perh. akin to E. paint.]
1. A steel instrument, having cutting ridges or teeth, made
by indentation with a chisel, used for abrading or
smoothing other substances, as metals, wood, etc.
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Note: A file differs from a rasp in having the furrows made
by straight cuts of a chisel, either single or crossed,
while the rasp has coarse, single teeth, raised by the
pyramidal end of a triangular punch.
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2. Anything employed to smooth, polish, or rasp, literally or
figuratively.
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Mock the nice touches of the critic's file.
--Akenside.
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3. A shrewd or artful person. [Slang] --Fielding.
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Will is an old file in spite of his smooth face.
--Thackeray.
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{Bastard file}, {Cross file}, etc. See under {Bastard},
{Cross}, etc.
{Cross-cut file}, a file having two sets of teeth crossing
obliquely.
{File blank}, a steel blank shaped and ground ready for
cutting to form a file.
{File cutter}, a maker of files.
{Second-cut file}, a file having teeth of a grade next finer
than bastard.
{Single-cut file}, a file having only one set of parallel
teeth; a float.
{Smooth file}, a file having teeth so fine as to make an
almost smooth surface.
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