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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


bronchitis
Inflammation of the bronchi (air passages) of the lungs, usually caused initially by a viral infection, such as a cold or flu. It is aggravated by environmental pollutants, especially smoking, and results in a persistent cough, irritated mucus-secreting glands, and large amounts of sputum

Bramante
Italian High Renaissance architect and artist. Inspired by classical designs and by the work of Leonardo da Vinci, he was employed by Pope Julius II in rebuilding part of the Vatican and St Peter's in Rome. The circular Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome (commissioned in 1502, built about 1510), is possibly his most important completed w...

Bruce, Robert
King of Scotland; see Robert (I) the Bruce

British East India Company
Commercial company (1600–1873) chartered by Queen Elizabeth I and given a monopoly of trade between England and the Far East. In the 18th century, the company became, in effect, the ruler of a large part of India, and a form of dual control by the company and a committee responsible to Parliament in London was introduced by Pitt's India Ac...

Bruno, Giordano
Italian philosopher. He entered the Dominican order of monks in 1563, but his sceptical attitude to Catholic doctrines forced him to flee Italy in 1577. He was arrested by the Inquisition in 1593 in Venice and burned at the stake for his adoption of Copernican astronomy and his heretical religious views. After visiting Geneva and Paris, he lived in...

Brunel, Marc Isambard
French-born British engineer and inventor, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He constructed the tunnel under the River Thames in London from Wapping to Rotherhithe (1825–43). He was knighted in 1841. Brunel fled to the USA in 1793 to escape the French Revolution. He became Chief Engineer of New York advising on defence. In 1799 he moved t...

Brownshirts
The SA (Sturmabteilung) or Storm Troops, the private army of the German Nazi party, who derived their name from the colour of their uniform

Bruckner,
(Josef) Austrian Romantic composer. He was cathedral organist at Linz 1856–68, and professor at the Vienna Conservatory from 1868. His works include many choral pieces and 11 symphonies, the last unfinished. His compositions were influenced by Richard Wagner and Ludwig van Beethoven

Browning, Robert
English poet. His work is characterized by the accomplished use of dramatic monologue (in which a single imaginary speaker reveals his or her character, thoughts, and situation) and an interest in obscure literary and historical figures. It includes Pippa Passes (1841) (written in dramatic form) and the poems `The Pied Piper...

Browning, Elizabeth
(Moulton) English poet. In 1844 she published Poems (including `The Cry of the Children`), which led to her friendship with and secret marriage to Robert Browning in 1846. She wrote Sonnets from t...

Brown, John
(American) US slavery abolitionist. With 18 men, on the night of 16 October 1859, he seized the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, apparently intending to distribute weapons to runaway slaves who would then defend a mountain stronghold, which Brown hoped would become a repub...

Browne, Thomas
English writer and physician. His works display a richness of style and an enquiring mind. They include Religio medici/The Religion of a Doctor (1643), a justification of his profession; `Vulgar Errors` (1646), an examination of popular legend and superstition; and Urn Burial and ...

Brown, Ford Madox
English painter, associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood through his pupil Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His pictures, which include The Last of England (1855; City Art Gallery, Birmingham) and Work (1852–65; City Art Gallery, Manchester), are characterized by elaborate symbolism and abundance...

Brooklyn
Borough of New York City, USA, occupying the southwestern end of Long Island; area 184 sq km/71 sq mi; population (1999 est) 2,268,300, the most populous of the boroughs. It is linked to Manhattan Island by the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), the Williamsburg Bridge (1903), the Manhattan Bridge (1909), and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (1950...

Brook, Peter Stephen Paul
English theatre director with a particularly innovative avant-garde style. His work with the Royal Shakespeare Company (which he joined in 1962) included a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970), set in a white gymnasium and combining elements of circus and commedia dell'arte. In the same yea...

Braine, John
(Gerard) English novelist. His novel Room at the Top (1957) cast Braine as one of the leading Angry Young Men of the period. It created the character of Joe Lampton, one of the first of the northern working-class antiheroes, who reappears in Life at the Top
Brahe, Tycho
Danish astronomer. His accurate observations of the planets enabled German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler to prove that planets orbit the Sun in ellipses. Brahe's discovery and report of the 1572 supernova brought him recognition, and his observations of the comet of 1577 proved that it moved in an orbit among the planets, thus di...

breeding
(physics) In nuclear physics, a process in a reactor in which more fissionable material is produced than is consumed in running the reactor. For example, plutonium-239 can be made from the relatively plentiful (but nonfissile) uranium-238, or uranium-233 can be produced from thoriu...

brake
Click images to enlargeDevice used to slow down or stop the movement of a moving body or vehicle. The mechanically applied calliper brake used on bicycles uses a scissor action to press hard rubber blocks against the wheel rim. The main braking system of a car works hydraulically: when the driver depresses the brake p...

brazing
Method of joining two metals by melting an alloy or metal into the joint. It is similar to soldering (see solder) but takes place at a much higher temperature. Copper and silver alloys are widely used for brazing, at temperatures up to about 900°C/1,650°F. Where high precision is needed, as in space technology, nickel-based filter...

breeder reactor
Alternative name for fast reactor, a type of nuclear reactor

brick
Common block-shaped building material, with all opposite sides parallel. It is made of clay that has been fired in a kiln. Bricks are made by kneading a mixture of crushed clay and other materials into a stiff mud and extruding it into a ribbon. The ribbon is cut into individual bricks, which are fired at a temperature of up to about 1,000°...

Bradford
Industrial city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, 14 km/9 mi west of Leeds. The manufacture of textiles, traditionally the base of Bradford's prosperity, declined in the 1970s but remains important. Other principal industries include printing, precision and construction engineering, and the manufacture of chemicals and el...

Bradlaugh, Charles
British freethinker and radical politician. In 1880 he was elected Liberal member of Parliament for Northampton, but was not allowed to take his seat until 1886 because, as an atheist, he claimed the right (unsuccessfully) to affirm instead of taking the oath. He was associated with the feminist Annie Besant

Bradley, Omar Nelson
US general in World War II. In 1943 he commanded the 2nd US Corps in their victories in Tunisia and Sicily, leading to the surrender of 250,000 Axis troops, and in 1944 led the US troops in the invasion of France. His command, as the 12th Army Group, grew to 1.3 million troops, the largest US force ever assembled

Bracknell
Town and administrative headquarters of Bracknell Forest unitary authority in southern England, 16 km/10 mi southeast of Reading; population (2001) 70,800. It was designated a new town in 1949; before 1998 it was part of the county of Berkshire. The headquarters of the Meteorological Office are here. Bracknell is one of the world's ...

Brenner Pass
Lowest of the Alpine passes, 1,370 m/4,495 ft; it leads from Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, to the Austrian Tirol, and is 19 km/12 mi long. Connecting Innsbruck, Austria, with Bolzano, Italy, it is one of the chief passes through the Central Alps. History It was an important route in Roman times, when it was called Via Claudia...

Brescia
(town) Town in Lombardy, northern Italy, 84 km/52 mi east of Milan; population (2001 est) 187,900. Brescia is the second largest and most industrialized town in Lombardy after Milan. Heavy engineering dominates, developed from the town's medieval armaments industry; products in...

Breslau
German name of Wroclaw, a city in Poland

Brest
(France) Naval base and industrial port in the département of Finistère, situated on two hills separated by the River Penfeld at Rade de Brest (Brest Roads), a large bay whose only entrance is a narrow channel, at the western extremity of Brittany in northwest Fran...

Brest
(city, Belarus) City and river port in Belarus, capital and economic and cultural centre of Brest oblast, at the junction of the Western Bug and Mukhavets rivers and near the Polish frontier; population (1990) 268,800. Situated 346 km/215 mi southwest of Minsk, it is a busy centre of r...

Brétigny, Treaty of
Treaty made between Edward III of England and John II of France in 1360 at the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War, under which Edward received Aquitaine and its dependencies in exchange for renunciation of his claim to the French throne

Bretton Woods
Township in New Hampshire, USA, where the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference was held in 1944 to discuss post-war international payments problems. The agreements reached on financial assistance and measures to stabilize exchange rates led to the creation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and...

Breuer, Josef
Viennese physician, one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis. He applied it successfully to cases of hysteria, and collaborated with Freud on Studien über Hysterie/Studies in Hysteria (1895)

Briand, Aristide
French republican politician, 11 times prime minister 1909–29. A skilful parliamentary tactician and orator, he was seldom out of ministerial office between 1906 and 1932. As foreign minister 1925–32, he was the architect, with the German chancellor Gustav Stresemann, of the 1925 Locarno Pact (settling Germany's western frontier) and ...

Bridges, Robert Seymour
(poet) English poet and critic. He was poet laureate from 1913 to 1930. His topographical poems and lyrics, which he began to publish in 1873, demonstrate a great command of rhythm and melody. He wrote The Testament of Beauty (1929), a long philosophical poem. In 1918 he edi...

Bridgetown
Port, capital, and leading commercial centre of Barbados; population (2000 est) 7,000 (town), 97,500 (urban area). It lies in the southwest of the island on Carlisle Bay, and to the northwest includes a deep-water harbour, through which the products of traditional sugar manufacturing are exported. Tourism is also an important industry, and ...

Bright, John
British Liberal politician. He was a campaigner for free trade, peace, and social reform. A Quaker mill-owner, he was among the founders of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1839, and was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the Reform Bill of 1867. He sat in Gladstone's cabinets as president of the Board of Trade 1868–70 and ...

Brighton
Seaside resort in Brighton and Hove unitary authority, on the south coast of England; population (2001) 134,300. The city was part of the county of East Sussex until 1997. It is an education and service centre with two universities, language schools, and tourist and conference business facilities...

Brisbane
Capital and chief port of the state of Queensland, Australia; population (2001 est) 1,627,500. Brisbane is situated on the east coast of Australia, 14 km/9 mi inland of the mouth of the River Brisbane, about 29 km/18 mi south of Moreton Bay. It is the third-largest city in Australia, and the financial and commercial centre for Queen...

Britain, ancient
Period in the British Isles (excluding Ireland) extending through prehistory to the Roman occupation (1st century AD). Settled agricultural life evolved in Britain during the 3rd millennium BC. A peak was reached in Neolithic society in southern England early in the 2nd millennium BC, with the construction of the great stone circles of Avebury and ...

Britain, Battle of
Click images to enlargeWorld War II air battle between German and British air forces over Britain from 10 July to 31 October 1940. The height of the battle occurred 30–31 August. At the outset the Germans had the advantage because they had seized airfields in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, which were basically...

Bristol
(UK) Industrial port and administrative centre of Bristol City unitary authority, in southwest England, situated at the junction of the rivers Avon and Frome, 48 km/30 mi east of Cardiff; population (2001) 380,600. Industries include engineering, microelectronics, tobacco, printing, me...

British Council
Semi-official organization set up in 1934 (royal charter 1940) to promote a wider knowledge of the UK, excluding politics and commerce, and to develop cultural relations with other countries. In 2005–06 it was represented in 109 countries and 233 towns and cities, running libraries, English-teaching operations, and resource centres

British Empire, Order of the
British order of knighthood (see knighthood, orders of) instituted in 1917 by George V. There are military and civil divisions, and the ranks are GBE, Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross; KBE, Knight Commander; DBE, Dame Commander; CBE, Commander; OBE, Officer; MBE, Member

British Indian Ocean Territory
British colony in the Indian Ocean directly administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, consisting of the Chagos Archipelago some 1,900 km/1,200 mi northeast of Mauritius; area 60 sq km/23 sq mi. Copra, salted fish, and tortoiseshell are produced. There is a US naval and air base on Diego Garcia. In 2000 a number of Ilois, Brit...

British Isles
Archipelago off the northwest coast of Europe, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland), Ireland, the Orkney and Shetland islands, the Isle of Man, and many other islands that are included in various counties, such as the Isle of Wight, Scilly Isles, Lundy Island, and the Inner and Outer Hebrides. The Channel Islands are often inc...

British Legion
Organization to promote the welfare of British veterans of war service and their dependants. Established under the leadership of Douglas Haig in 1921 (royal charter 1925) it became the Royal British Legion in 1971; it is nonpolitical

British Museum
Largest museum of the UK. Founded in 1753, it opened in London in 1759, devoted to human cultures. Rapid additions led to the construction of the present buildings (1823–47). In 1881 the Natural History Museum was transferred to South Kensington

British Volunteer Programme
Umbrella name for the various schemes under which volunteers from the UK are sent to work in overseas developing countries since 1966. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) (1958) is the best known of these organizations, which inspired the US Peace Corps

Britten,
(Edward) English composer. He often wrote for individual singers; for example, the role in the opera Peter Grimes (1945), based on verses by George Crabbe, was written for his life companion, the tenor Peter Pears. Among his many works are the Young Person's...

Bronx, the
Northernmost borough of New York City, USA, northeast of the Harlem River; area 109 sq km/42 sq mi; population (2000 est) 1,332,700. The Bronx is bounded on the north by Westchester County, on the east by Long Island Sound, on the south by the East River, and on the west by the Harlem and Hudson rivers; it is largely a residential a...

Bronze Age
Stage of prehistory and early history when copper and bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) became the first metals worked extensively and used for tools and weapons. One of the classifications of the Danish archaeologist Christian Thomsen's Three Age System, it developed out of the Stone Age and generally preceded the Iron Age. It first began in...

British Broadcasting Corporation
The UK state-owned broadcasting network. It operates television and national and local radio stations, as well as a content-based web site, and is financed by the sale of television (originally radio) licences. It is not permitted to carry advertisements but it has an additional source of income through its publishing interests and the sale...

British Columbia
Click images to enlargeMost westerly, and only Pacific, province of Canada, area 947,800 sq km/365,851 sq mi; population (2001 est) 3,907,700. It is bordered on the east by Alberta, with the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains forming its southeastern boundary. To the south, it has a frontier along the 49th ...

British Expeditionary Force
During World War I (1914–18) the term commonly referred to the British army serving in France and Flanders, although strictly speaking it referred only to the forces sent to France in 1914; during World War II it was also the army in Europe, which was evacuated from Dunkirk, France in 1940

British Library
National library of the UK. Created in 1973, it comprises a reference division, lending division, bibliographic services division (incorporating the British National Bibliography), and the National Sound Archive. The main collections, formerly scattered in London and Yorkshire, have been housed since 1997 at Euston Road, London, next to St Pancras ...

Brittain, Vera
(Mary) English socialist writer. During World War I, she was a nurse to troops overseas from 1915 to 1919, as told in her book Testament of Youth (1933); Testament of Friendship (1940) commemorates English novelist Winifred Holtby. Brittain was born in...

Brno
Industrial city (chemicals, arms, textiles, machinery) in the Czech Republic; population (2001) 376,200. Now the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, Brno was formerly the capital of the Austrian crown land of Moravia

Broadmoor
Special hospital (established in 1863) in Crowthorne, England, for those formerly described as `criminally insane`. Patients are admitted if considered by a psychiatrist to be both mentally disordered and potentially dangerous

Broads, Norfolk
Area of navigable lakes and rivers in England; see Norfolk Broads

Broadway
(New York) Major avenue in New York running northwest from the tip of Manhattan and crossing Times Square at 42nd Street, at the heart of the theatre district, where Broadway is known as `the Great White Way`. New York theatres situated outside this area are described as off-Broa...

Braganza
The royal house of Portugal whose members reigned from 1640 until 1910; members of another branch were emperors of Brazil from 1822 to 1889

Brahma
In Hinduism, the creator god. Brahma combines with Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer of evil, to make up the Trimurti, the three aspects of Brahman, the supreme being, acting in the world. Although Brahma is the creator aspect, he is depicted in some stories as being born from a lotus f...

Brahmanism
Earliest stage in the development of Hinduism. Its sacred scriptures are the Vedas, with their accompanying literature of comment and explanation known as Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads

Brahmaputra
River in Asia 2,900 km/1,800 mi long, a tributary of the Ganges, rising in the Himalayas range, and flowing through Tibet, India, and Bangladesh. It rises in the Himalayan glaciers as the Tsangbo (or Zangpo) and runs east through Tibet, to the mountain mass of Namcha Barwa, passing through gorges over 5,000 m/16,000 ft deep. Turning south, ...

Brahms, Johannes
German composer, pianist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest composers of symphonic music and songs. His works include four symphonies, lieder (songs), concertos for piano and for violin, chamber music, sonatas, and the choral Ein Deutsches Requiem/A German Requiem (1868). He performed and conducted his own w...

Braithwaite, Edward Ricardo
Guyanese author. His writings explore the problems and dilemmas faced by humans in inhumane situations. His experiences as a teacher in London prompted To Sir With Love (1959). His books Reluctant Neighbours (1972) and Honorary White (1975) deal with black–white relations. Born in Britis...

Brancusi, Constantin
Romanian sculptor. One of the main figures of 20th-century art, he revolutionized modern sculpture. Active in Paris from 1904, he was a pioneer of abstract sculpture, reducing a few basic themes such as birds, fishes, and the human head to simple essential forms appropriate to the special quality of his material, whether stone, bronze, or wood....

Brandenburg
(Land) Administrative region (German Land) of northeast Germany; area 29,476 sq km/11,381 sq mi; population (2003 est) 2,651,200. The capital is Potsdam, and other major towns include Cottbus, Brandenburg, and Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. Drained by the Hav...

brassica
Any of a group of plants, many of which are cultivated as vegetables. The most familiar is the common cabbage (Brassica oleracea), with its varieties broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts. (Genus Brassica, family Cruciferae.) In 1990 US experiments in cross-pollinating the wild cabbage (...

Braun, Eva
German mistress of Adolf Hitler. Secretary to Hitler's photographer and personal friend, Heinrich Hoffmann, she became Hitler's mistress in the 1930s and married him in the air-raid shelter of the Chancellery in Berlin on 29 April 1945. The next day they committed suicide together

Brazzaville
Capital, river port, and largest city of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), on the west bank of the Congo River, opposite Kinshasa; population (2002 est) 1,133,800. It is the leading commercial centre of the Republic and industries include foundries, railway repairs, shipbuilding, beverages, textiles, food processing, shoes, soa...

Breakspear, Nicholas
Original name of Adrian IV, the only English pope

Bremen
(port) Industrial port and capital of the Land (administrative region) of Bremen, Germany, on the River Weser 69 km/43 mi from the open sea; population (2003 est) 527,900, urban agglomeration 1,006,300. Germany's largest port after Hamburg, it is a commercial and...

Braille
System of writing for the blind. Letters are represented by a combination of raised dots on paper or other materials, which are then read by touch. It was invented in 1829 by Louis Braille, who became blind at the age of three. A French system called BrailleNet was being tested in 1997 in schools and universities in the UK to enable Braille users t...

Brasília
Capital of Brazil from 1960, situated on the central plateau 1,150 m/3,773 ft above sea level; population (2000 est) 2,043,200. The main area of employment is in government service; only light industry is allowed within the city. Brasília is also capital of the Federal District, which has an area of 5,794 sq km/2,317 sq mi. The...

Bratislava
City and capital of the Slovak Republic, and a leading port on the River Danube; population (2003 est) 428,800. A well-diversified industrial centre, its manufacturing includes textiles, chemicals, and metal goods. During the Communist period, heavy industry was focused on the production of armaments. The city is surrounded by forests, larg...

Breathalyzer
Trademark for an instrument for on-the-spot checking by police of the amount of alcohol consumed by a suspect driver. The driver breathes into a plastic bag connected to a tube containing a chemical (such as a diluted solution of potassium dichromate in 50% sulphuric acid) that changes colour in the presence of alcohol. Another method i...

Brecht, Bertolt
(Eugen Berthold Friedrich) German dramatist and poet. He was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century theatre. A committed Marxist, he sought to develop an `epic theatre` which aimed to destroy the `suspension of disbelief` usual in the theatre and so encoura...

Brenton, Howard
English dramatist. His political theatre, deliberately provocative, includes The Churchill Play (1974) and The Romans in Britain (1980). Brenton was strongly influenced by German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht. Other plays include Magnificence (1973), Weapons of Happiness...

brain damage
Impairment which can be caused by trauma (for example, accidents) or disease (such as encephalitis), or which may be present at birth. Depending on the area of the brain that is affected, language, movement, sensation, judgement, or other abilities may be impaired

Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich
Soviet leader. A protégé of Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, he came to power (after he and Aleksei Kosygin forced Khrushchev to resign) as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 1964–82 and was president 1977–82. Domestically he was conservative; abroad the USSR was established as a military...

Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of
Bilateral treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies. Under its terms, Russia agreed to recognize the independence of Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States, and to pay heavy compensation. Under the November 1918 armistice that ended World War I, it was annulled, since Russia was one of ...

breadfruit
Fruit of two tropical trees belonging to the mulberry family. It is highly nutritious and when baked is said to taste like bread. It is native to many South Pacific islands. (Artocarpus communis and A. altilis, family Moraceae.)

Bradbury, Malcolm
(Stanley) English novelist and critic. His fiction includes comic and satiric portrayals of provincial British and US campus life: Eating People is Wrong (1959) (his first novel), Stepping Westward (1965), and The History Man (1975)....

Brazil
Largest country in South America (almost half the continent), bounded southwest by Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia; west by Peru and Colombia; north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana; and northeast and southeast by the Atlantic Ocean. Government Under the 1988 constitution, Brazil is a federal republic of 26 sta...

Brunei
Country comprising two enclaves on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo, bounded to the landward side by Sarawak and to the northwest by the South China Sea. Government Brunei has an absolute monarchy. The 1959 constitution gives supreme authority to the sultan, advised by four councils, which...

Bremen
(region) Administrative region (German Land) in northern Germany, formed in 1947, consisting of the cities of Bremen (the administrative capital) and Bremerhaven; area 404 sq km/156 sq mi; population (2003 est) 643,700. It is an enclave within the Land&l...

Brittany
Click images to enlargeModern region of northwest France and former province, on the Breton peninsula between the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel; area 27,208 sq km/10,505 sq mi; population (1999 est) 2,906,200. It includes the départements of Côtes-d'Armor, Finist...

Brundtland, Gro Harlem
Norwegian Labour politician, prime minister 1981, 1986–89 and 1990–96 and director-general (head) of the World Health Organization (WHO) 1998–2003, and special envoy on climate change for the United Nations secretary general from May 2007. She held office as prime minister for seven months in 1981 and returned to office in 1986. ...

brewing
Click images to enlargeMaking of beer, ale, or other alcoholic beverage, from malt and barley by steeping (mashing), boiling, and fermenting. Mashing the barley releases its sugars. Yeast is then added, which contains the enzymes needed to convert the sugars into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide. Hops are added to giv...

bridewealth
Goods or property presented by a man's family to his prospective wife's family as part of the marriage agreement. It is common practice among many societies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, and some American Indian groups. In most European and South Asian countries the alternative custom is dowry. Bridewealth is sometimes regarded as compe...

Bradman, Don(ald George)
Australian cricketer. From 52 Test matches he averaged 99.94 runs per innings, the highest average in Test history. He only needed four runs from his final Test innings to average 100 but was dismissed second ball. In April 2000, he was voted to be the greatest cricketer of the 20th century by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Career highlights ...

bridge
(game) Card game derived from whist, played by two pairs of players using all 52 cards in a standard deck. First played towards the end of the 19th century, it originally took the form of auction bridge, which was later replaced by contract bridge

Branson, Richard
English entrepreneur who created one of Britain's best-known brands, Virgin, and whose wide-ranging business empire (encompassing music, travel, soft drinks, Internet and financial services, mobile phones, bridal wear, clothing, and cosmetics) is reportedly worth £4 billion (in 2006). His businesses include the Virgin Music label (...

brainstem
Region where the top of the spinal cord merges with the undersurface of the brain, consisting largely of the medulla oblongata and midbrain. The oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms, the brainstem is the body's life-support centre, containing regulatory mechanisms for vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressu...

broderie anglaise
Embroidered fabric, usually white cotton, in which holes are cut in patterns and oversewn, often to decorate lingerie, shirts, and skirts

Bruce
One of the chief Scottish noble houses. Robert (I) the Bruce and his son, David II, were both kings of Scotland descended from Robert de Bruis (died 1094), a Norman knight who arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066

bric-à-brac
Odds and ends, usually old, ornamental, and less valuable than antiques