*Battledore-barley. A flat-eared variety of barley (Aubrey's Wilts MS., p. 304: H.Wr.).
Baulk. (1) Corn-baulk. When a 'land' has been accidentally passed over in sowing, the bare space is a 'baulk,' and is considered as a presage of some misfortune.—N.W. (2) A line of turf dividing a field.—N.W.
'The strips [in a "common field">[ are marked off from one another, not by hedge or wall, but by a simple grass path, a foot or so wide, which they call "balks" or "meres."'—Wilts Arch. Mag. xvii. 294.
Bavin. An untrimmed brushwood faggot (A.B.S.): the long ragged faggot with two withes, used for fencing in the sides of sheds and yards; sometimes also applied to the ordinary faggot with one withe or band.—N. & S.W.
*Bawsy, Borsy, or Bozzy. Coarse, as applied to the fibre of cloth or wool. 'Bozzy-faced cloth bain't good enough vor I.'—S.W. (Trowbridge, &c.)
Bay. (1) n. A dam across a stream or ditch.—N.W. (2) v. 'To bay back water,' to dam it back.—N.W. (3) n. The space between beam and beam in a barn or cows' stalls.—N.W.
*Beads. Sagina procumbens, L., Pearlwort.—N.W. (Lyneham.)
Beak. See Bake and Burn-bake.
Bearsfoot. Hellebore.—N.W. (Huish, &c.)
Beat. 'To beat clots,' to break up the hard dry lumps of old cow-dung lying about in a pasture.—N.W.