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An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber.

An instrument to brand with; a branding iron.

A scolding bridle, an instrument formerly used for correcting scolding women. It was an iron frame surrounding the head and having a triangular piece entering the mouth of the scold.

To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments. The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. Prescott.

guitar, etc., serving of raise them and transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument.

, the larvæ of which live in artificial brines and in salt lakes. -- Brine gauge, an instrument for measuring the saltness of a liquid. -- Brine pan, a pit or pan of salt water, where salt is formed by cristallization. -- Brine pit, a salt spring or well, from which water is taken to be boiled or evaporated for maki…

A pointed instrument, as a joiner's awl, a brad awl, a needle, or a small ship stick.

An instrument for cutting into the bronchial tubes.

An instrument for making such tracings, as a recording brontometer.

An instrument for noting or recording phenomena attendant on thunderstorms.

An injury to the flesh of animals, or to plants, fruit, etc., with a blunt or heavy instrument, or by collision with some other body; a contusion; as, a bruise on the head; bruises on fruit. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises. Isa. i. 6.…

An instrument composed of bristles, or other like material, set in a suitable back or handle, as of wood, bone, or ivory, and used for various purposes, as in removing dust from clothes, laying on colors, etc. Brushes have different shapes and names according to their use; as, clothes brush, paint brush, tooth brush, e…

A muscle of the cheek; -- so called from its use in blowing wind instruments.

A copper instrument of the horn quality of tone, shorter and more conical that the trumpet, sometimes keyed; formerly much used in military bands, very rarely in the orchestra; now superseded by the cornet; -- called also the Kent bugle.

decaying flesh, and are useful scavengers. -- To bury the hatchet, to lay aside the instruments of war, and make peace; -- a phrase used in allusion to the custom observed by the North American Indians, of burying a tomahawk when they conclude a peace.

A steel cutting instrument, with a long bent shank set in a handle which rests against the shoulder of the operator. It is operated by a thrust movement, and used in paring the hoofs of horses.

An instrument for determining the amount of fatty matter or butter contained in a sample of milk.

An instrument with a graduated disk by means of which the angles of gems are measured in the process of cutting and polishing.

nd. Burke. Caliber compasses. See Calipers. -- Caliber rule, a gunner's calipers, an instrument having two scales arranged to determine a ball's weight from its diameter, and conversely. -- A ship's caliber, the weight of her armament.

, to determine or rectify the graduation of, as of the various standards or graduated instruments.