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Having the power of perceiving; percipient. [Archaic] Glanvill. I do not mean there is a certain number of ideas glaring and shining to the animadversive faculty. Coleridge.

A species of pier produced by thickening a wall at its termination, treated architecturally as a pilaster, with capital and base.

An ornament of the cymatium of a classic cornice, sometimes pierced for the escape of water.

A service book containing a selection of pieces for the festival services.

A grotesque trick; a piece of buffoonery; a caper. And fraught with antics as the Indian bird That writhes and chatters in her wiry cage. Wordsworth.

In two or more parts; asunder; to piece; as, to take a piece of machinery apart.

A small ornamental piece of embroidery worn on albs and some other ecclesiastical vestments.

A passing tone preceding an essential tone, and borrowing the time it occupies from that; a short auxiliary or grace note one degree above or below the principal note unless it be of the same harmony; -- generally indicated by a note of smaller size, as in the illustration above. It forms no essential part of the harmo…

one's self, in exclusion of all others; application to a special use or purpose, as of a piece of ground for a park, or of money to carry out some object.

A piece of leather, or other material, to be spread before a person riding on an outside seat of a vehicle, to defend him from the rain, snow, or dust; a boot. "The weather being too hot for the apron." Hughes.

and, most often, projecting from the east end. In early churches the Eastern apse was occupied by seats for the bishop and clergy. Hence:

A series of arches with the columns or piers which support them, the spandrels above, and other necessary appurtenances; sometimes open, serving as an entrance or to give light; sometimes closed at the back (as in the cut) and forming a decorative feature.

itecture of grasses, plants, and trees. Tyndall. The formation of the first earth being a piece of divine architecture. Burnet. Military architecture, the art of fortifications. -- Naval architecture, the art of building ships.

chapter, poem. You and love are still my argument. Shak. The abstract or argument of the piece. Jeffrey. [Shields] with boastful argument portrayed. Milton.

wood, overlaid with gold, which supported the mercy seat with its golden cherubs, and occupied the most sacred place in the sanctuary. In it Moses placed the two tables of stone containing the ten commandments. Called also the Ark of the Covenant.

A piece of soft iron used to connect the two poles of a magnet, or electro-magnet, in order to complete the circuit, or to receive and apply the magnetic force. In the ordinary horseshoe magnet, it serves to prevent the dissipation of the magnetic force.

t all points (Blazoning), completely incased in armor, sometimes described as armed cap-à-pie. Cussans. -- Armed en flute. (Naut.) See under Flute. -- Armed magnet, a magnet provided with an armature. -- Armed neutrality. See under Neutrality.

A piece of tallow placed in a cavity at the lower end of a sounding lead, to bring up the sand, shells, etc., of the sea bottom. Totten.

A piece so adapted; a transcription; as, a pianoforte arrangement of Beethoven's symphonies; an orchestral arrangement of a song, an opera, or the like.

d edges which separate the flutings in a Doric column. P. Cyc. Arris fillet, a triangular piece of wood used to raise the slates of a roof against a chimney or wall, to throw off the rain. Gwilt. -- Arris gutter, a gutter of a V form fixed to the eaves of a building. Gwilt.