Bas"tard (?), n. [OF. bastard, bastart, F. btard, prob. fr. OF. bast, F. bt, a packsaddle used as a bed by the muleteers (fr. LL. bastum) + -ard. OF. fils de bast son of the packsaddle; as the muleteers were accustomed to use their saddles for beds in the inns. See Cervantes, "Don Quixote," chap. 16; and cf.G. bankert, fr. bank bench.]
1.
A "natural" child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child; one born of an illicit union.
⇒ By the civil and canon laws, and by the laws of many of the United States, a bastard becomes a legitimate child by the intermarriage of the parents at any subsequent time. But by those of England, and of some states of the United States, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage.
Kent. Blackstone.
2. Sugar Refining (a)
An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from the sirups that already had several boilings.
(b)
A large size of mold, in which sugar is drained.
3.
A sweet Spanish wine like muscadel in flavor.
Brown bastard is your only drink.
Shak.
4.
A writing paper of a particular size. See Paper.
© Webster 1913.
Bas"tard (?), a.
1.
Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note.
2.
Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so.
That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices.
Barrow.
3.
Of an unusual make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin.
[Obs.]
4. Print.
Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.
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 mam malia; the alula.
© Webster 1913.
Bas"tard, v. t.
To bastardize.
[Obs.]
Bacon.
© Webster 1913.